Some Interdisciplinary, Cross-cultural Considerations on the Interfaces of Ethnological, Art-historical and Aesthetical Research Concerning Korean Tallori

In this paper I will lay the groundwork for general aesthetic considerations, departing from the specific case of the culture of traditional Korean mask dance (tallori, 탈놀이). These considerations require an empirical inquiry into the neurobiological modality that makes one’s bodily experience aesthetic and can thereby be qualified as a prolegomenon for ethnological and art-historical researches. It will first be argued that what we call “aesthetic” designates the modality of ‘affect’ and its introspective interpretation that mobilize bodily and mental resources of emotion, attention and satisfaction. If activated in the real-time experience of tallori, following the movement of Ki, the aesthetic modality gives rise to a synaesthesia with the world, creating a tension vis-à-vis neurophysiological equilibrium. The satisfactory resolution of this tension in turn gives rise to an occasion of collective amusement in high spirit. The success and fortune of tallori depend predominantly on the sentimental reception of the neighbors whose aesthetic experience is always predicated upon their emotions and attentive cognition. The most prominent factor for its transmission, as I will argue, is the fact or the level of satisfaction: the artists responsible for the making and theatrical use of the masks claim in unison that the purpose of their artistis activities is to share the sentimental reactions with the live audience. This paper will then proceed to provide a basis for an aesthetics of tallori via interdisciplinary, cross-cultural research on the mechanisms of aesthetic experience.