Eight Key Moments of 2022
Hello Aesthetics Advocates!
I hope your end of year holidays and celebrations were full of joy and beauty! 2023 has begun, but here’s a short list of highlights from the previous year. I gave talks, appeared on podcasts, taught courses, and wrote a lot. All in all, it was a productive year, and I thank all of those who supported my endeavors!
Philosopher Alva Noë published his latest book, Learning to Look: Dispatches from the Art World. Sponsored by The Philosopher, I was invited to converse with Alva about the themes and contents of this book. You can watch the recording here.
Architect and artist Suchi Reddy launched her book Form Follows Feeling in March. I contributed a short essay, “Attending to Beauty,” for this monograph. Form Follows Feeling is published on occasion of Suchi Reddy’s Plym Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, School of Architecture in 2019. The book presents a selection of projects by Reddy’s firm Reddymade, student work from the studio co-taught with host and professor Kevin Erickson, and includes contributions by Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Beatrice Galilee, Isolde Brielmaier, LionHeart, Susan Magsamen, and Michael Spicher.
The beauty industry gets a lot of flack for perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards. Instead of shying away from this issue, I jumped in with a series of articles for BeautyMatter on topics like Beauty Standards, Proportion, and Integrity. Are there questions about beauty you think I should address? Send me an email!
The question I received most often last year was what is digital fashion? There’s a lot of discussion about the future, especially pertaining to the metaverse, but the enduring questions of philosophy still permeate these discussions. Digital Fashion Week, in September 2022, invited me to present some philosophical ideas. These talks were not recorded, but I made a recording of the talk afterwards here. Digital Fashion Week NYC (founded by Clare Tattersall) is a lens through which we view the future of fashion.
I organized and moderated two panel discussions for Boston Fashion Week 2022: (1) What is Digital Fashion and (2) Digital Fashion and Sustainability. Boston Fashion Week was founded as a civic initiative in 1995. The force behind the week has been dedicated to creating opportunities that increase the viability and visibility of the local industry. The series of fashion related events throughout Greater Boston and beyond serves as a platform for both established industry professionals and aspiring newcomers to showcase their work as well as network with peers and the public.
Applied Neuroaesthetics hosted a panel discussion on the meaning of fashion with Doris Domoszlai-Lantner and Nancy Etcoff, moderated by Michael Spicher. Applied Neuroaesthetics is a hub for creatives and researchers in the field of neuroaesthetics (and empirical aesthetics in general) to meet and exchange ideas and information. Here you will find an ongoing lineup of discussions, webinars and inspiring dialogue that seeks to define and explore the growing need to see art from a scientific perspective.
Sara Emilia Bernat, Doris Domoszlai-Lantner, and I signed a book contract with Bloomsbury Academic for an edited volume on Digital Fashion, which will be out in Spring 2024.
Aesthetics is as much a practical endeavor as it is theoretical, since these intertwine. In this light, I participated in a panel discussion about art and climate change. This event was sponsored by Mass Culture and SCALE.
To invite me to speak to or write for your group or organization, please email me at michaelrspicher@gmail.com
Upcoming Highlights for 2023
Look for more articles in BeautyMatter. You find my article on my author page.
Digital Fashion Week NYC will take place on February 9-14, 2023. And again in September 2023.
I’ll be speaking at the inaugural Intentional Spaces Summit in Washington DC on November 9-10, 2023. This event is organized by Susan Magsamen, Suchi Reddy, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, and Frederick Marks.
The BeautyMatter Next Summit will occur in Los Angeles on October 26, 2023.
Most popular ARL posts in 2022
Beauty: Objective or Subjective