Madalina Diaconu

“The temple of consumption as a postmodern myth and the materialized utopia of post-history” deals with imaginary motifs connected with the shopping mall, which is currently called in German “temple of consumption.” A mall makes real somewhat the mythical Schlaraffenland (pays de Caucagne) of the late Middle Age. The architecture of the mall is postmodern, while that of the classical department store, is modern. Time manifests itself fourfold: as the subjective duration of shopping, the qualitative calendar of celebrations, the prohibition of history and the folding up of the past, present and future into the present. Finally, the customers’ behaviour expresses an escapist desire to desire and a perverted katharsis.

In an age of rife consumption and increasing need for consideration of sustainable social practices, an exploration of the aesthetics of weather from various angles becomes vital in shedding light on its importance to our experience of the changing world. In response, offering the first in-depth and nuanced examination of the aesthetics of weather, this book underlines the relevance the concept has for scientific communication, for fostering sustainable patterns of behaviour and for rejecting the environmentally-damaging “consumption” of landscapes and fine weather. In addition, it provides examples taken from global, contemporary popular culture whilst calling attention to the socioeconomic and political dimensions of individual experience, demonstrating and analysing our fascination with, and cultural interpretations of, weather phenomena in our everyday lives. Within its three sections, the volume reinvents traditional phenomenological methods to create socially, politically and historically embedded 'phenomenographies' and explore the importance of aesthetic practices in shaping our experience of weather and climate. It also provides a deeper engagement with general topics, such as the relationship between perception, emotion, imagination, and cognition in our aesthetic experience of the weather, combining these with aesthetic analyses of the so-called “fine weather”. With its broad scope of inquiry ranging from Aristotle to eco-phenomenology, from the pioneers of scientific meteorology to contemporary art, and from everyday aesthetics to geoengineering, this book argues that an aesthetics of weather inflected by greater knowledge and the taking of a critical stance towards aestheticism can become a valuable ally to climate ethics in the Anthropocene.

A landscape is commonly conceived as an arrangement of items on solid or liquid surfaces. Despite its entanglement with the landscape, the weather condition tends to be overlooked. The liminal case of a thick fog that suppresses the view of the environment challenges this standard understanding. The paper examines the experience of being lost in fog with respect to perceptual, spatiotemporal and emotional aspects. Fog suspends the everyday scopic regime and the inconspicuous ‘immateriality’ of air as medium of perception, distorting the patterns of perception and temporarily installing an own spatiotemporality. Moreover, fog is an atmospheric phenomenon par excellence, a quasi-thing and a quasi-agent that is usually felt as distressing and maleficent yet may trigger a sense of wonder as well. While it is considered a deficit in epistemic issues, nebulosity has a strong aesthetic expressivity, whose sources range from semantic ambiguity to defamiliarization and the transfiguration of the ordinary.

Despite recent developments in the fields of olfactory aesthetics, phenomenology of liturgy, religious aesthetics, and theological aesthetics, the complex presence of odours in the Christian culture has been scarcely discussed. This study is meant as a contribution to a future systematic exploration of the aesthetic ‘osmology’ of theology, by focusing on the fragrant chrism oil (in the Eastern Church called Holy Myron). Technical-historical explanations regarding the olfactory composition, preparation and use of this sacramental oil are followed by an examination of the semantics of its odour in patristic theology and medieval popular imaginary. This rich symbolism has been lost in the ‘anosmic’ modern Catholic and Orthodox sacramental theology.

This paper interprets migration as an interplay of external and internal movement, of physical locomotion and becoming. The first part calls for completing Migration Studies with an experience-centred philosophy of migration from the insider’s perspective. A critical examination of phenomenological contributions emphasises how phenomenology has usually prioritised dwelling, emplacement and alterity over moving, displacement and the migrant’s reactions to being considered the “other”. The second part examines migration along its several stages, from the detachment from the home country to “arrival” and integration, including the temporary or definitive return to the former “home”. Finally, the recent phenomenon of trans-migration nourishes the hope in the possibility of a non-traumatic dwelling in-between and on the move.

Die erste fachübergreifende Ideengeschichte Rumäniens vermittelt anhand von Denkströmungen, Persönlichkeiten und Kulturpublizistik ein besseres Verständnis auch aktueller gesellschaftlicher Entwicklungen. Madalina Diaconu behandelt für den Zeitraum seit dem Beginn der Moderne bis in die Gegenwart die anhaltende Kontroverse zwischen prowestlicher Modernisierung und Traditionalismus, die Mythen der rumänischen Geschichte, Orthodoxie und Nationalismus, die Kulturpolitik während des Kommunismus, die Selbstsuche nach 1989 und dem EU-Beitritt von 2007. Auch andere in Rumänien lebende Ethnien sind berücksichtigt. Klar geschrieben, informativ und basierend auf Quellen aus erster Hand ist der Band unverzichtbar für alle, die an Rumänien im europäischen Kontext interessiert sind.

Although the common experience of nature and gardens engages all the senses, historical analysis of garden theory shows a clear tendency to reduce green spaces to their imagery and to take the visual arts as the model for garden design. A counter-tendency to this primacy of vision has, however, lately emerged – namely, gardens of the senses or healing gardens, which accentuate also the tactile and olfactory qualities of vegetation and materials. The literature on gardens of the senses provides useful empirical guidelines for garden designers, but on a rather eclectic theoretical basis that applies mainly to private jardins de plaisir. Nevertheless, the accentuation of tactile and olfactory qualities in gardens constitutes a source of well-being, and contributes to a deceleration of life, a positive experience of the natural order and rhythm, and the habitability of a place. Moreover, they are informal laboratories for the education of the senses, and their empirical taxonomies may be integrated into an aesthetic theory of sensory design. AbstraktIm Unterschied zur landläufigen Vorstellung, wonach die Natur synästhetisch erfahren wird, weist die historisch betrachtete Theorie der Naturästhetik und Gartenkunst eine deutliche Tendenz auf, Grünräume als bloß visuelle Gebilde aufzufassen und Gärten nach demVorbild der bildenden Künste auszulegen. Dagegen heben heute die sog. Sinnesgärten oder heilenden Gärten alle sinnlichen, insbesondere die haptischen und olfaktorischen, Qualitäten hervor. Die Theorien der Sinnesgärten liefern dabei zwar wertvolle empirische Gestaltungshinweise, doch erweist sich ihre Begründung als eher eklektisch und bezieht sich hauptsächlich auf private, erlebnisorientierte jardins de plaisir. Nichtsdestoweniger lässt sich in mehrfacher Hinsicht ein positives Potential der Tast- und Duftgärten orten: Sie dienen dem Wohlbefinden, bewirken eine Entschleunigung des Daseins und vermitteln eine affirmative Erfahrung der Lebensordnung und der Naturrhythmen; sie tragen zur Identifikation mit einem Ort und zur Sinneserziehung bei; und nicht zuletzt bahnen ihre Taxonomien von Sinnesqualitäten einer ästhetischen Theorie des Sensory Designs den Weg.

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The paper aims to clarify several key aspects of Alexandru Dragomir: his amazing “technique” of keeping his entire knowledge in perfect working condition, his exceptional precision of references and his continuous disregard concerning writing. The root of all these peculiarities is traced back to Plato’s cognitive and moral arguments against writing, as expressed in Phaedrus and Seventh Letter. Finally, the article brings to light what seems to be the lesson of Dragomir’s life as a thinker: to rely only on the living thought, that which is written “inside the soul”.

Jeder Wahrnehmung liegen Kinästhesen zugrunde, doch tritt die Bewegung am deutlichsten im Tasten hervor. Untersucht wird hier die phänomenologische Auffassung vom Zusammenhang zwischen Tasten und Kinästhesen bei Husserl und Erwin Straus, im Vergleich zu der Tanzwissenschaft. Diese Interpretation wird teilweise durch andere Perspektiven ergänzt, die aus der pränatalen Anthropologie, Psychiatrie und den Ingenieurwissenschaften stammen. Das Vorbild ist bei Husserl die mechanische Bewegung zu Erkenntniszwecken; Straus entdeckt die Tierwelt und ihre appetitiven Bewegungen. Keine von diesen Analysen entspricht völlig dem Phänomen des Tanzes als Ausdruck der propriozeptiv empfundenen Harmonie zwischen dem Leib und seiner Welt.