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Staff profile / Clive Cazeaux

Reader in Aesthetics

Email: ccazeaux@uwic.ac.uk
Clive Cazeaux
I studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London (1984-87), and it was the questions I encountered there concerning the nature of representation in drawing which led me to Philosophy. An MA in Philosophy at Cardiff University allowed me to locate these questions in Kant’s theory of knowledge (1989-90), and prepared the ground for my PhD study – at the Technische Universität, Berlin (1992), and at Cardiff University (1990-95) – on how recent theories of metaphor in art and science can be informed by Kantian philosophy. In 1995 I was appointed Lecturer in Philosophy at Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, part of the University of Central England as it was then. I took up a Senior Lectureship in Aesthetics at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, one year later. From 2003 I was Programme Leader for BA Art and Philosophy, and since 2007 I have been Graduate Studies Coordinator.

My research lies in three areas:

• metaphor in aesthetics and the theory of knowledge
• the relation between art and knowledge, and between art and science
• ecological aesthetics and listening as responses to dualistic subject–object thought.

Underlying all three is an interest in the role which belonging plays in thought. The concept of belonging governs a person’s ontology: their view of the boundaries of things, the lines and points at which one thing becomes something else. It could be said to determine a person’s ecological awareness: their sense of ‘what belongs to me’ and ‘what is beyond or outside of me’. Philosophy conventionally works with binary oppositions, such as subject–object, mind–body, and inner–outer. Recent debates in phenomenology and the realism–anti-realism contest draw attention to the problems created by trying to assign priorities to opposing terms. My interest lies in what happens when one tries to stop thinking in dualisms, and has to address the textures of experience without the comfort of being able to ascribe qualities to one side of an opposition or the other.

Metaphor tests our sense of belonging by combining subjects which do not customarily go together, as in ‘architecture is frozen music’ (Schelling) and ‘the insect voice of the clock’ (Orwell). In recent decades, metaphor has been recognized as a principle that is active in thought and perception. Its significance is explored in various ways within the continental tradition, from Kant to Derrida, on account of its disruption of belonging providing the impetus for rethinking the fundamental distinctions of philosophy. One area I am examining at present is the role played by something appearing as something else in Heidegger’s and Merleau-Ponty’s articulation of the human–world relation.

In my research on art and knowledge, I focus upon how phenomenological accounts of aesthetic experience make available new ways of understanding art as a contribution to knowledge. The question of belonging is again paramount, since phenomenology suspends the question of what belongs to the subject and what belongs to the object, requiring aesthetic experience to be formulated in alternative terms. Imagining what these alternative terms might be is the exciting part, since devising vocabularies for aesthetic experience now becomes part of the process of understanding the human being’s locatedness in the world. I am currently working on the philosophy of art–science collaboration. I consider how such collaboration brings competing theories of being and knowledge to bear upon one another, and identify the implications of these collisions for visualization, posthumanity, and interdisciplinarity.

Recent and forthcoming work

2010

Aesthetics as ecology. Proceedings of the Second Artful Ecologies Conference, University College Falmouth, UK. Fundamental to the promotion of ecological thought is the need to address the way people conceive of what belongs to themselves and what does not belong to themselves. I argue that sensation is something in which we participate, and indicate how this idea affects our understanding of the boundaries of the self. I distinguish this form of ecological aesthetics from the theories of Berleant, Bourriaud and Kester.

2010

The Beauty of the Daleks. In Doctor Who and Philosophy, eds. P. Smithka and C. Lewis. Chicago: Open Court. The idea that the Daleks are beautiful is perplexing because it asserts that something designed to be a monster can nevertheless be found to be visually pleasing. The idea becomes less perplexing once aspects of the Daleks’ aesthetic appeal are considered in the light of the history of aesthetics. Some remarkable correspondences between metaphysics in the philosophy of art and events surrounding the Daleks in Doctor Who also emerge.

2009

Locatedness and the objectivity of interpretation in practice-based research. Working Papers in Art and Design 5. [WWW] <URL: CLick here>. Interpretation, I argue, runs ‘all the way down’ in the making and viewing of works of art. There is never a moment of ‘pure’ or ‘innocent’ looking at a work. Art always occurs in relation to certain concepts and themes from art history and philosophical aesthetics. The objectivity of the interpretation stems from working out how the interpretation occurs in relation to these concepts and themes. I set out this position in detail, and show how it is supported by Kantian aesthetics and recent Deleuzian scholarship. I also provide examples of recent practice-based doctoral study at Cardiff School of Art and Design.

Research group
Clive Cazeaux is a member of the Centre for Fine Art Research (http://www.wirad.ac.uk/research-themes/centre-for-fine-art/), part of the Fine Art & Ceramics theme within WIRAD.

PUBLICATIONS

Authored Books
2007
– Metaphor and Continental Philosophy: From Kant to Derrida. New York: Routledge.

Edited books
2000
– Editor, The Continental Aesthetics Reader. London: Routledge.

1992
– Co-editor, Immanuel Kant: Critical Assessments. London: Routledge.

Book Chapters/Essays

2010

- The Beauty of the Daleks. In Doctor Who and Philosophy, eds. P. Smithka and C. Lewis. Chicago: Open Court.

2005
– Interrupting the artist: Sartre and the topology of theory and practice. In Thinking Through Art, eds. K. Macleod and L. Holdridge. London: Routledge, pp. 40-50.
– Visualizing theory and practice. In Art in the Making, ed. K. Mey. Oxford and Bern: Peter Lang, pp. 16-28.

2001
– Words and things in phenomenology and existentialism. In Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, eds. Christopher Norris and Krista Knellwolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 309-22.

Journal Articles
2009

- Locatedness and the objectivity of interpretation in practice-based research. Working Papers in Art and Design 5. [WWW] <URL: Click here>.

2008

- Inherently interdisciplinary: four perspectives on practice-based research. Journal of Visual Arts Practice 7, pp. 107-32.

2005
– From sensation to categorization: aesthetic metaphor in Locke and Merleau-Ponty. Journal of Visual Art Practice 4, pp. 111-24.
– Phenomenology and radio drama. British Journal of Aesthetics 45, pp. 157-74.

2004
– Kant and metaphor in contemporary aesthetics. Kantian Review 8, pp. 1-37.

2003
– The ethical dimension of aesthetic research. Research Issues in Art, Design and Media 5 [WWW] <URL: http://www.biad.uce.ac.uk/research/rti/riadm/issue5/abstract.htm>. Accessed 4 April 2008.

2002
– Categories in action: Sartre and the theory-practice debate. Journal of Visual Art Practice 2, pp. 44-56.
– Art and knowledge in Kant’s aesthetics. Working Papers in Art and Design, [WWW] <URL: http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol2/cazeaux.html>. Accessed 4 April 2008.
– Metaphor and the categorization of the senses. Metaphor and Symbol 17, pp. 3-26.

2001
– Sound and synaesthesia in Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty. in Proceedings of the Sound Practice Conference, Dartington College of Arts, UK., pp. 35-40.

1999
– Theorizing theory and practice. Point: Art and Design Research Journal, no. 7, pp. 26-31.
– Synaesthesia and epistemology in abstract painting. British Journal of Aesthetics vol. 39, pp. 241-51.

1998
– Bringing the invisible to light. Dark Matter: A Visual Exploration of New Physics, Harris Museum and Gallery, Preston, UK. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 4-5.

1995
– Metaphor and Heidegger’s Kant. Review of Metaphysics, vol. 49, pp. 341-64.

Conference Papers/Presentations

2009

– Style and ontology in Heidegger and Bachelard. Style in Theory Conference, University of Malta, 26-28 November 2009.

– Concepts and metaphors in the aesthetics of visual poetry. Poetry Beyond Text: Vision, Text and Cognition Workshop, University of Kent. Invited speaker.

– The aesthetics of the scientific image. University of Dundee Aesthetics Workshop. Invited speaker.

– The aesthetics of the scientific image. University College Dublin Philosophy Seminar. Invited speaker.

2008
– The aesthetics of the scientific image in The 22nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts (SLSA), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 13-16 November, 2008.
– The politics of not belonging: Nietzsche on the ontological status of ‘relationship’. Society and Forum for European Philosophy Joint Conference, University College Dublin, Ireland.
– Aesthetics as ecology. Artful Ecologies 2 Conference, University College Falmouth, July 2008.
– (invited speaker) Passion and judgment in practice-based research. Knowledge Through Practice Seminar, University of Brighton, January 2008.

2006
– Disclosing worlds: Heidegger and Dufrenne on the aesthetics of the scientific image. Art and Metaphysics, International University Bremen, Germany. Invited speaker.

2004
– Art and science in Heidegger. Changes in Aesthetics: XVI International Congress of Aesthetics, held by the International Association for Aesthetics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and the State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
– Art and science in Heidegger. Conversations: Enacting New Synergies in Art and Science, Society for Literature and Science European Conference, Cité Université, Paris, France.
– Kant and metaphor in Contemporary Aesthetics. The Contemporary Relevance of Kant’s Philosophy, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Invited speaker.

2003
– Aletheia, Embodiment, and Instrumental Perception. Society for European Philosophy Annual Conference, University of Essex, UK
– Metaphor and embodiment in Merleau-Ponty and Lakoff and Johnson. Intersubjectivity and Embodiment: Perspectives from Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, University of Louvain, Belgium.

2002
– The invitational character of radio drama. 2002 Radio Drama Conference, University of London, Goldsmiths College, UK.
– The ethical dimension of aesthetic research. Aesthetics and Morality Conference, University of Central England in Birmingham, UK. Invited speaker.
– Art and knowledge in Kant’s aesthetics. Research into Practice 2 Conference, University of Hertfordshire, UK.

2001
– Creating a world in sound: towards a phenomenology of radio drama. 2001: A Radiodyssey, University of Sussex, UK.
– Categories in action. The Enactment of Thinking: Fine Art Research Conference, University of Plymouth, UK.
– Sound and synaesthesia in Nietzsche and Merleau-Ponty. Sound Practice, UK and Ireland Soundscape Community, Dartington College of Arts, UK.
– Metaphor and the categorization of the senses. On-Site/In-Sight, University of Dundee, UK.

2000
– Metaphor and the boundaries of vision. Image and Identity, University of Hull, UK.
– Metaphor and the categorization of the senses. Uncommon Senses, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada.

Supervision
• aesthetics
• art and design practice-based research
• metaphor theory
• art theory
• modern European philosophy

Membership of professional bodies
• American Society for Aesthetics
• British Society for Aesthetics
• British Society for Phenomenology
• Society for European Philosophy
• Society for Literature, Science and the Arts
• UK Kant Society

Gaynor Kavanagh At Cardiff School of Art & Design, we believe in being at the top of our game and that includes being able to deliver programmes that really make a difference. We give our students every opportunity to explore all kinds of creative and professional possibilities, in an environment that recognises the importance of taking risks and seizing the initiative. We are interested in ideas and how these are examined through practice.