From the historical avant-gardes to the present day, the concepts of exaggeration, intensity, and exception have been closely linked to visual art that transcends established social and/or artistic norms. In this book, the author analyses theoretical and philosophical approaches to these concepts and connects them with contemporary visual practices characterised by extremity, excess, radicality, and extravagance — abbreviated as EERE artistic practices.
The book derives from the doctoral dissertation by Sunčica Ostoić, PhD "Modalities of Extreme, Excessive, Radical, and Extravagant Contemporary Visual Art Practices", written under the supervision of Prof. Miodrag Šuvaković, PhD and defended at the Faculty of Media and Communications in Belgrade in 2022.
CONTENTS
Introduction – 10
1. Theoretical Platforms for Thinking Contemporary Art as Exaggeration, Intensity, and Exception – 21
EXAGGERATION – 23
The Concept of Exaggeration in Alexander García Düttmann – 25
INTENSITY – 32
Concepts of Affect and Intensity in Brian Massumi – 34
The Concept of Affective Arrangements in Jan Slaby, Reiner Mühlhoff, Philipp Wüschner – 46
The Concept of Intensive Milieus in Marie-Luise Angerer – 50
EXCEPTION – 53
The Concept of Exception in Giorgio Agamben – 56
2. Artistic Platforms and Their Contexts – 63
NEW MEDIA ART – 65
ART AT THE INTERSECTION OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY – 71
TACTICAL MEDIA – 76
Tactical Feasibility of Processes of Life in Art – 78
Tactical Feasibility of Human Life – bíōs – 85
Tactical Feasibility of Planetary Life – zoē – 86
Tactical Feasibility of Technological Life – tò technetón – 88
ART AT THE INTERSECTION OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE BODY – 89
3. Violent Exaggerations of Extreme, Excessive, Radical, and Extravagant Contemporary Artistic Practices – 95
WHY EXAGGERATION? – 97
The Exaggerating Society – 101
Despectacularisation – 102
Axiology – 103
DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF EXAGGERATION – 109
Point of Departure and Working Definition – 109
Defamiliarisation, Transgression, World-Making, Excess – 112
Indeterminacy, Aggressiveness – 125
Attention-Seeking, Immersiveness – 133
Reality, Catharsis – 137
Conclusive Definition – 147
ARTISTIC STRATEGIES OF EXAGGERATION – 148
4. Visceral Intensities of Extreme, Excessive, Radical, and Extravagant Contemporary Artistic Practices – 153
WHY INTENSITIES? – 155
DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF INTENSITY – 160
Point of Departure and Working Definition – 160
Action, Viscerality – 163
Impact, Singularity, Analogue Nature – 169
Instability, Tension, Prolongation – 181
Vitality, Ecstasy, Demandingness – 192
Conclusive Definition – 200
5. Exceptional Exceptions of Extreme, Excessive, Radical, and Extravagant Contemporary Artistic Practices – 203
WHY EXCEPTION? – 205
Aesthetic Normativisation – 206
Institutional Normativisation – 209
Evaluation – 224
DEFINITION AND CHARACTERISTICS OF EXCEPTION – 228
Point of Departure and Working Definition – 228
Unconventional Novelty – 233
Strangeness – 241
Unpredictability – 246
Unexpectedness and Provocativeness – 249
Passionateness – 260
Conclusive Definition – 267
6. Case Studies – 269
YANN MARUSSICH: Blue Remix – 283
Exaggeration through Presence – 286
Intensities of Secretions – 292
The Exceptionality of Blue – 298
CHARLOTTE JARVIS: In Posse: “Female” Semen and Other Acts of Resistance – 302
Exaggeration through Gender – 304
Sumptuous Intensities – 313
Exceptional Evolutions – 317
BILL VORN: Hysterical Machines – 320
Exaggeration through Robotic Community – 323
Metallic Intensities – 328
Mechanistic Exceptionality – 333
Conclusion – 337
Glossary – 346
Index – 372
Biography – 388