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Abstraction in photography, revisited
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Costello, Diarmuid (2024) Abstraction in photography, revisited. In: Ambrosio, Chiara and Sánchez-Dorado, Julia, (eds.) Abstraction in Science and Art: Philosophical Perspectives. Routledge Research in Aesthetics . London: Routledge, pp. 51-76. ISBN 9781032462875
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Abstract
This paper revisits and critiques the conclusions of an earlier paper of mine, 'What is Abstraction in Photography?' (BJA, 2018), by considering the implications of scientific uses of abstraction. I focus on two examples, one artistic and the other scientific: Wolfgang Tillmans Freischwimmer series of large gestural abstractions and 3 views of a particular sub-atomic particle interaction induced by a neutrino shower in a bubble chamber. The earlier paper considered only artistic images, and this led me to define various kinds of abstraction in terms of the formal properties of different images. But this approach only serves to obscure what can be seen in the scientific image, for the understanding of which a good deal of technical training and expertise is required— irrespective of whatever formal similarities it may happen to share with the artistic images. These are simply not to the point. Taking scientific uses of abstraction seriously shows that the account of abstraction I previously defended can be neither exhaustive nor correct: one cannot conceive abstraction on purely formal grounds without thereby excluding many kinds of image that are recognisably abstract. Scientific abstraction is just one example of this.
Item Type: | Book Item | ||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BH Aesthetics N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR Q Science > QC Physics T Technology > TR Photography |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy | ||||
Series Name: | Routledge Research in Aesthetics | ||||
Publisher: | Routledge | ||||
Place of Publication: | London | ||||
ISBN: | 9781032462875 | ||||
Book Title: | Abstraction in Science and Art: Philosophical Perspectives | ||||
Editor: | Ambrosio, Chiara and Sánchez-Dorado, Julia | ||||
Official Date: | 30 April 2024 | ||||
Dates: |
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Number of Pages: | 248 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 51-76 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Re-use Statement: | This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Abstraction in Science and Art: Philosophical Perspectives on April 30, 2024, available online: https://www.routledge.com/Abstraction-in-Science-and-Art-Philosophical-Perspectives/Ambrosio-Sanchez-Dorado/p/book/9781032462875 | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 April 2024 | ||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 April 2024 |
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