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Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K00143
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 01050:Aesthetics and art studies-related
Research InstitutionKansai University

Principal Investigator

James Kirwan  関西大学, 文学部, 教授 (60275295)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 山口 惠里子  筑波大学, 人文社会系, 教授 (20292493)
大石 和欣  東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 教授 (50348380)
Cheyne Peter  島根大学, 学術研究院人文社会科学系, 准教授 (90542382)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Project Status Granted (Fiscal Year 2020)
Budget Amount *help
¥4,290,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥990,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥910,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥210,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000)
Keywordsimperfection / aesthetics / literature / art / architecture / ethics / Aesthetics / Imperfection
Outline of Research at the Start

This is an interdisciplinary project, involving philosophy, art, architecture, music, literary theory, urban studies, and cultural studies, that will investigate the positive role played by the concept of imperfection in aesthetic experience. It will seek to establish the defining features of imperfectionism as an aesthetic outlook and as a method, and to examine how can it be applied to give aesthetic, cultural, ethical, and environmental benefits.

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

Due to the covid situation it was not possible to hold the planned conference at Durham University. However, during the past year the individual participating members of the project have continued to work on their written contributions and remained in contact with each other through online meetings. Peter Cheyne has drawn up a proposal for an anthology of this work comprising of around twenty papers and entitled "Perfection and Imperfection: Aesthetic and Ethical Studies". This provisional proposal is currently under consideration by the publishing house Routledge. The collaborative research has allowed the project to clarify, as a scientific achievement, the positive and negative roles of both perfection and imperfection in fields including not only musical improvisation, the visual arts, and consumerist economics, but also in urban environments the aesthetics of everyday life, body image, the philosophy of personal character, and comparative literature. Another significant advance on the project is the uncovering and clarifying of the history and evolution of the concept of the aesthetics of imperfection.

Current Status of Research Progress
Current Status of Research Progress

3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.

Reason

Due to the coronavirus situation some planned meetings have not been possible. However, the project group has gone on with what can be achieved in terms of research and the production of finished work in the absence of these meetings. Individual contact between members online has been used as a substitute for face-to-face contact. The production of a finished research outcome will probably not be delayed.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

At present our main concern is to produce as complete and as well-edited a work as possible from a reputable publisher. To this end we are encouraging the project participants to finalize their work, particularly in consultation with the project as a whole. We are also looking into the possibility of having the work professionally edited before submitting the final text to the publisher. If possible we hope to still hold the planned meeting at Tsukuba University in 2022, but this will depend on the pandemic situation. A research task remains as requiring scientific elucidation. Namely, newly arising topics of social relevance have been commenced by some of the project members, covering recent developments in social equality including Black Lives Matter, body image, and women’s rights movements, and the studies of these developments should be examined and discussed in a colloquium to ensure conceptual consistency throughout the project, or at least better to understand any arising inconsistencies. This colloquium would benefit the new, social issues research in the light of the earlier, canonical and more historical themes, and vice versa.

Report

(2 results)
  • 2020 Research-status Report
  • 2019 Research-status Report

Research Products

(13 results)

All 2021 2020

All Journal Article (1 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results,  Peer Reviewed: 1 results) Presentation (12 results) (of which Invited: 12 results)

  • [Journal Article] Aesthetic Contemplation: Between the Swallows and the Shrine2021

    • Author(s)
      Peter Cheyne
    • Journal Title

      Japan Mission Journal

      Volume: 75 Pages: 3-8

    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Imperfectionist Aesthetics and the Ethos of Inclusion2020

    • Author(s)
      Peter Cheyne
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Imperfection and the Politics of Realism2020

    • Author(s)
      Thomas Docherty
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Nathaniel Hawthorne's Aesthetics of Ruins2020

    • Author(s)
      Gregory Dunne
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Participation as Performance: What the Sacred Arts have to Teach Us2020

    • Author(s)
      Gordon Graham
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Imperfection as an Aesthetic Merit2020

    • Author(s)
      Andy Hamilton
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Urban aesthetics: Positive Implementations of Imperfection in Contemporary Architecture2020

    • Author(s)
      Rumiko Handa
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Tsuchigama Project: Renewing Bizen Pottery2020

    • Author(s)
      Hirakawa Tadashi
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] The Aesthetics of Perfection2020

    • Author(s)
      James Kirwan
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] The Aesthetics of Grasses and Weeds2020

    • Author(s)
      Kaz Oishi
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Yeats’s Choice, “Perfection of the life or of the art"2020

    • Author(s)
      Joe O'Leary
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] The Aesthetics and Ethics of Imperfection2020

    • Author(s)
      Yuriko Saito
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] In Between-Places: Richard Long's Walk-Works on Dartmoor and in Japan2020

    • Author(s)
      Eriko Yamaguchi
    • Organizer
      Imperfectionist Aesthetics: Philosophy, Art, Culture
    • Related Report
      2019 Research-status Report
    • Invited

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Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2021-12-27  

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