Subject/Object Dualism, Humanist <i>Ai</i>sthetics, and a Posthumanist Aesthetics of Immersion

Abstract As to historical precursors, posthuman theory confines itself to (the dualist) Spinoza and to the (anti)-moralist Nietzsche. This study aims at widening its historical horizon by first pointing to thinkers who cannot be simply subsumed under Cartesian substance dualism. Against this integrative background, Philipp Wolf will outline and exemplify contemporary and related aesthetic practices that aim at relationality to (approximately) close the gap between subject and object, inside and outside. Both the alleged mind–body and subject–object dualism, or, rather, their overcoming, are contingent on the connecting links or switching points between the two ontological components. Thus, this article focuses on sensory perception and, in addition, on an aesthetic mode of perception that not only addresses the perceiver most comprehensively but also effectively includes the outside percept along with (inside) proprioception. For another historical perspective, this article will first point to the problem of spatio-temporal abstraction (or subjective alienation) in modernity, which has fostered a differentiated art system as a compensation for the prosthetic loss of sensuous immediacy. An aesthetics of immersion can both tie in with and “twist” this aisthetic–aesthetic tradition, which values the senses and perception more than the dominant Cartesian and Platonic one. The examples will be installations and performances by SIGNA, Blanca Li, Yayoi Kusama, Random International, and the Britto Arts Trust.