Extending existential feeling through sensory substitution

AbstractIn current philosophy of mind, there is lively debate over whether emotions, moods, and other affects can extend to comprise elements beyond one’s organismic boundaries. At the same time, there has been growing interest in the nature and significance of so-called existential feelings, which, as the term suggests, are feelings of one’s overall being in the world. In this article, I bring these two strands of investigation together to ask: can the material underpinnings of existential feelings extend beyond one’s skull and skin? To begin, I introduce and adopt a componential-systemic view of extended affectivity. In doing so, I specify the vehicle externalist criteria for extension em…

What can the concept of affective scaffolding do for us?

The concept of affective scaffolding designates the various ways in which we manipulate the environment to influence our affective lives. In this article, I present a constructive critique of recent discussion on affective scaffolding. In Part 1, I summarize how the theories of situated mind and niche construction contribute to a multidimensional notion of scaffolding. In Part 2, I focus specifically on affective scaffolding and argue that current ambiguity over its distinctive criteria causes uncertainty as to how the concept can and should be used. In Part 3, I identify and examine two possible responses to the suggested state of conceptual ambiguity. The first, restrictive option is to k…

A conceptual analysis of the oceanic feeling : with a special note on painterly aesthetics

Paintings as Solid Affective Scaffolds

How Museums Make Us Feel : Affective Niche Construction and the Museum of Non-Objective Painting

Art museums are built to elicit a wide variety of feelings, emotions, and moods from their visitors. While these effects are primarily achieved through the artworks on display, museums commonly deploy numerous other affect-inducing resources as well, including architectural solutions, audio guides, lighting fixtures, and informational texts. Art museums can thus be regarded as spaces that are designed to influence affective experiencing through multiple structures and mechanisms. At face value, this may seem like a somewhat self-evident and trivial statement to make. However, in this article, I argue that niche construction theory enables us to make several illuminating observations about t…

Making Space for Creativity : Niche Construction and the Artist’s Studio

Abstract It is increasingly acknowledged that creativity cannot be fully understood without considering the setting where it takes place. Building on this premise, we use the concepts of niche construction, scaffolding, coupling, and functional integration to expound on the environmentally situated nature of painters’ studio work. Our analysis shows studios to be multi-resource niches that are customized by artists to support various capacities, states, and actions crucial to painting. When at work in these personalized spaces, painters do not need to rely solely on their “inner” powers of imagination, memory, decision making, and technique to execute their paintings. Instead, with the help…

The oceanic feeling in painterly creativity

The oceanic feeling has been a relatively persistent topic of discussion in both creativity research and aesthetics. Characterized by a sensation of self-boundary dissolution, the feeling has often been reported to involve experiences of fusion with various objects, including works of art. In this article, I will discuss the oceanic feeling in the specific context of painterly creativity. I will begin by arguing that the oceanic feeling cannot be classified as an emotion, mood, or bodily feeling in the established senses of these terms. I will then introduce philosopher Matthew Ratcliffe’s theory of existential feelings to help formulate a more accurate view of the oceanic feeling. More spe…

Kokemusta maalaamassa : Olli Piipon Eight Notes on Oceanic Feeling

Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment: Pleasure, Reflection and Accountability

Social Aesthetics and Moral Judgment is a stimulating collection of essays that seeks to emphasize and explicate the socially situated nature of aesthetic-moral judgment. The socially accentuated a...

The oceanic state: a conceptual elucidation in terms of modal contact

Despite its lengthy history in psychoanalysis, the psychological origins, essential features and value of the oceanic state remain open to dispute. This ambiguity has come at a cost to the clarity of theoretical discussions on the topic. In working towards a conceptual elucidation, the author maintains that there are three primary accounts of the oceanic state: the metaphysical one of Romain Rolland, the developmental one of Sigmund Freud, and the cognitive-perceptual one of Anton Ehrenzweig. Based on the notion of modal contact, he argues that the accounts share a general theoretical structure that establishes as the necessary criterion for all oceanic states the loosening of ego boundarie…

Review of Creative States of Mind: Psychoanalysis and the Artist’s Process by Patricia Townsend

What happens in the mind of an artist as she creates a new work of art? In Creative States of Mind (2019), visual artist and psychoanalytic psychotherapist Patricia Townsend approaches this long-st...