Phenomenology of Perceiving Aesthetic Values in Contemporary Art

Abstract

We aim through this work to reflect on the issue of perceiving aesthetic values in art, based on our belief in the importance of perception in attaining aesthetic awareness of values. This aligns with the path of phenomenology, as long as the artistic experience — whether in creation or reception — is characterized by subjectivity. It begins with aesthetic sensitivity and proceeds to the interpretation of what is presented to the eye or ear through perception, in harmony with the individual's capacities and lived experiences. Accordingly, the inquiry into aesthetic values becomes an inquiry into the experiences of taste and perception.

Consciousness in the aesthetic experience, as in other experiences, is summed up in the individual's capacity to understand. In this sense, consciousness is what determines the object, and nothing determines it. That is, it is defined by what it is aware of among the objects of perception. Every act of consciousness is, by its nature, necessarily directed toward something it intends.