International Wassard Elea Symposium

The XIIth International Wassard Elea Symposium will be postponed to 2023


Computer Creativity in

music performance, improvisation, composition

aesthetics, ethics, performance practice, musical creativity


Initially scheduled for  May 26 – 29, 2022, Ascea, Italy

is postponed to 2023, dates to be announced


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Music Improvisation and Creation

Human and Computational

 

October 20 – 23, 2021

Ascea, Italy

  

~ call for papers ~

 

We have been, like several others, compelled to postpone the XIth WE symposium, please notice the new dates; consequently submissions are also accepted until September 15.

These two terms, ‘improvise’ and ‘create’, are in frequent use, not only in several, but in many dis-parate ways and their nature, analysis and description currently come to a head by the efforts to translate them into AI. So first, in order to decide if all – and in particular these – human capacities are computable, one has to get beyond the notoriously vague conceptions and cavalier uses of them. How are they distinguished from inventions, inspirations, impulses, experiments, accidents, discov-eries, etc.? What are the criteria for their descriptive or their occasional uses? Are they co-extensive, inter-dependent, conceptually distinguishable? Is creation always or generally the product of im-provisation? Is improvisation dependent on a learning process that may or may not lead to a creative product? Is it consistent and/or useful to (attempt to) define creativity? 

Several projects are underway to install these capacities in (students as well as in) machines; since the success of some of these (particularly in music), we need to ask how human and machine improvisations relate, and whether they do. Are improvisation and creation teachable? Are they temporary or permanent capacities? Can one acquire talent? Can a machine be(come) talented? Can machines improvise in the sense that humans do, can they co-improvise, and is there a valid general approach to understanding or evaluating machine improvisation? Its musicality? 

In what way does it make sense to describe or analyse the activity of improvisation? Can improv-isation be reduced to parameters? Is improvisation a general or particular category of action or performance? Is musical improvisation a particular kind? Can a computational improviser system trained in music then be applied to improvise in other kinds of activities such as decision-making in (all?) other AI programs? This call is for original and detailed examinations of the content and logic of the concepts of ‘improvisation’ and ‘creation’.

The XIth International Wassard Elea Symposium, held in Ascea, Southern Italy, invites musicologists, computer scientists, musicians, artists, philosophers and other interested parties to submit papers on the topics of this year’s theme. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista. 

New deadline for submissions: September 15, 2021.

 

There is no registration fee; participants will receive details about accommodation rates in due course.

 

Inquiries are very welcome. Full papers (attached in Word format) should be sent directly to the organizers:

Dr. René Mogensen, Birmingham City University, England: Rene.Mogensen@bcu.ac.uk, or

Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com. 

Notice: At this time you are additionally invited to submit chapters, original work, to the forthcoming anthology on Improvisation and Creation: Music, Arts, and AI. Please send works, proposals etc. to Dr. René Mogensen, Birmingham City University, England: Rene.Mogensen@bcu.ac.uk. 

Wassard Elea

Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy

Wassardelea.blogspot.it

 



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The Concept of Example


May 22-25, 2020
Ascea, Italy


~call for papers~


The question ”Are There Counterexamples to Aesthetic Theories of Art?”, raised by Nick Zangwill (JAAC, 2002), hasn’t made deep marks, and we invite proper analyses, expansions and interpretations. A counterexample is after all just an example and examples are legion as are samples, instances, cases, and so on, but what exactly is the logic of ‘example’? What’s the matter with examples? Do examples matter? Examples are deployed in many ways, e.g. to confirm, support, disconfirm, explain, clarify, illustrate, teach, and more. Do they? If they do, how is that? Why are examples taken to be so consequential? Why so prominent in practically speaking all the sciences, human and natural? If a thing (person, work, event, or other) is unique, how could it be an example of something? If it is “one of a kind”, what is the kind? This call is for fresh and detailed examinations of the logic of the concept of ‘example’.

The Xth International Wassard Elea Symposium is dedicated to investigation of this most frequent element in reasoning. We seek to engage philosophers and scholars in a conceptual analysis of what it means to be an example (good, bad, irrelevant, paradigm, etc.).

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and aestheticians to submit papers on the topic of this year’s theme. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries are welcome. Full papers (attached in format: word) should be sent directly to organizers: Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com, or Prof. Jane Forsey, University of Winnipeg, Canada: j.forsey@uwinnipeg.ca.

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2020.

There is no registration fee; participants will receive details about base rate accommodations in due course.

Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it



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Past editions of the symposium:


Parody


May 27-30, 2019
Ascea, Italy


~call for papers~


Parody, the term, is in common usage. Many writers seem to suppose it applies mainly to theater and literature; while virtually absent in several genres (Sokal’s an exception), it is certainly not only a category of style. It’s also considered a bright tool in humour’s arsenal. In philosophy parody is a rare and neglected concept. Yet parody raises prompts myriad/a host of questions, most of which lack precise answer. Some such as: Parody’s exact difference(s) from travesty, allegory, satire, farce, irony, comic, pastiche, caricature, parable, (indirect?) quotation, etc.? The value of parody? Are they necessarily abstractions? Are there several types of parody? Does parody produce, present, insight? The conditions of (failing) parody? The charm of parody? Parodies exhibit the logic of the absurd? When does a parafrase, an analogy, turn into a parody? Are parodies arguments? critique? Do they necessarily imitate or refer to some (prior) thing, can one parodise nothing? Are series of theories, the path of despair, each a parody of the former? (Example: I think therefore I am, I laugh therefore I am, I drink therefore I am, etc.). This call is for fresh and detailed examinations of the logic of the concept of ‘parody’. Treatment of particular works or groups of works, current or historical, are only considered relevant insofar they significantly advance philosopical explication of the concept of ‘parody’.

This, the IXth International Wassard Elea Symposium, is dedicated to thorough investigation of this common concept. We seek to engage philosophers and scholars in a conceptual analysis of what parody means.

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and scholars to submit papers on the topic of this year’s theme. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentator’s paper at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries are welcome. Full papers (format: word) should be sent directly to: Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com.

Deadline for submissions: February 1, 2019.

Registration fee: 10 €. Information on base rate accommodations will be posted in due course.

Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it

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Taste, Bad Taste, Tastelessness


May 25-28, 2018
Ascea, Italy


~call for papers~


Taste is a common sense concept. Almost everyone thinks that they have taste – indeed, thinks they have good taste – in such things as conduct, arts, dress, design, cuisine, and so on. But many of them are also wrong. Frank Sibley described taste as an ability involving perceptiveness, sensitivity, aesthetic discrimination, and appreciation, and further noted that taste “is a somewhat more rare capacity than other human capacities”; relativists and skeptics would dispute this, and argue that taste is little more than liking, or preferring, some things over others. This call is for fresh and detailed examinations of the logic of the concept of ‘taste’. Rehearsals and exegesis of tradition or history (e.g. Hume, Kant, etc.), sociology (e.g. Bourdieu), empiricism (e.g. Brunius) fall outside the scope of this conference as does criticism of such types of speculations unless significantly advancing philosophical explication of the concept of ‘taste’.

The VIIIth International Wassard Elea Symposium is dedicated to ransacking this core topic in aesthetics. We seek to engage philosophers and scholars in a conceptual analysis of what it means to have – or lack – taste. To this end, we invite papers that focus on, e.g., the following topics:

1. Taste as liking the right things for the right reasons—and bad taste as the reverse;
2. Taste as a capacity, and how it can be improved;
3. Distinction(s) between bad taste and tastelessness;
4. Relationships between liking and appraising or appreciating;
5. Taste being a kind of judgement, verdict or valuation;
6. Distinction(s) between lapses and mistakes of taste and flaws in taste.

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and aestheticians to submit papers on the topics of this year’s theme. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries are welcome. Full papers (format: word) should be sent directly to co-organizers: Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com, or Prof. Jane Forsey, University of Winnipeg, Canada: j.forsey@uwinnipeg.ca.

Deadline for submissions: February 15, 2018.

There is no registration fee; details about accommodations will be posted in due course.

Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it




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Aesthetic Foundations


May 19-22, 2017
Ascea, Italy


~call for papers~


There is an explosion of works on the aesthetics of this and the aesthetics of that – sport, film, design, television, video games, atmosphere, graffiti, rap, food, etc. This contemporary diversification involves a confident and often facile use of such notions as aesthetic experience, aesthetic value, aesthetic appreciation, and so on. But this use in fact belies confusion about what these terms mean, or what we mean when we use them. The question of what makes any kind of encounter a particularly aesthetic one cuts to the heart of the discipline at its most complex. Not only are there divergent approaches to locating the aesthetic – in the properties of objects on the one hand, or the phenomenology of our experiences on the other – there is also a great deal of disagreement about what values arise from, or are involved in, these experiences, and how they differ from the ways we otherwise give our attention to the world. The VIIth International Wassard Elea Symposium is dedicated to a reconsideration of these core problems in aesthetics:

  • What is the nature of aesthetic experience? Is it primarily evaluative?
  • Is the aesthetic necessarily linked to pleasure and enjoyment?
  • What is the difference between aesthetic value and other values (cognitive, etc.)?

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and aestheticians to submit papers on the topics of this year’s theme (to which papers in applied aesthetics are not relevant). Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator and open discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also prepare a commentary on another presentation at the meeting. All suitable contributions are published in our journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries are welcome. Full papers (format: word) should be sent directly to co-organizers: Prof. Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Via La Chiazzetta 27, I-84046 Ascea (Sa), Italy: wassardelea@gmail.com or Prof. Jane Forsey, University of Winnipeg, Canada: j.forsey@uwinnipeg.ca.

Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2017.

Information on accommodations will be posted in due course.

Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it

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On Ugliness (etc.)
(“There is an awful lot of ugliness in this world”)

June 17-20, 2016
Ascea, Italy

~Call for Papers~


While it is probably true that there is an awful lot of ugliness in the world, the intelligent treatment in fact, theory, and judgement – in the precise mapping and conceptualization of this and its kin features – is not a whole lot. The scant mention here and there in the literature hardly exhausts, let alone provides, a firm contemporary grasp of the objects, experiences and judgements of what is ugly, unpleasant, horrid or revolting. Can one have “pure” aesthetic experiences of these, free from cognitive or moral presuppositions and implications? How, if at all, does ugliness contrast with the beautiful? And exactly how does the ugly affect the quality of life?

Wassard Elea invites philosophers and aestheticians, critics and theorists, to submit papers on any topic in this area for the 6th WE international symposium. Sessions of 90 min. include speaker, commentator, and discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also provide commentary on another presentation during the meeting. All suitable contributions will be published in our quarterly journal, Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries and proposals are welcome. Full papers (in English) are to be submitted to Professor Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Via La Chiazzetta 27, I-84046 Ascea (Sa), Italy. Emailed submissions, word format, are welcome at: wassardelea@gmail.com

Deadline for papers: March 31, 2016.

Information on registration and accommodations will be posted in advance of the date.




Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy

Wassardelea.blogspot.com


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The Aesthetics of Design
(in the land of great design)

May 16-18, 2014
Ascea, Italy


It is well-known, that aesthetics is expected to tell what we do know (or we can know) about beauty, the dainty and the dumpy, the ugly, and so on. The world is replete with designs, designers, and designed things, images, sounds, texts, etc. So what do aestheticians find is true to say about all this? E.g., about what is designing as an activity, and how if at all does it differ from other activities and makings like art- and craft-making, producing, fashioning, fabricating, manufacturing? Are designed objects distinct kinds of things from those of mere things, goods, arts and crafts? In what does the aesthetic excellence or beauty of a designed object consist? Do judgements of design excellence differ from judgements of natural beauty or art? What role does the function of designed things play in design excellence? Can one have “purely” aesthetic experiences of design, free from cognitive or moral or other implications?

Wassard Elea (wassardelea.blogspot.com) invites philosophers, design critics and theorists, and design practitioners to submit papers on any area of design aesthetics for this international conference (or intensive symposium, if you like). Sessions of 90 minutes include speaker, commentator, and discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also provide commentary on another presentation during the conference. All suitable contributions are published either simultaneously or subsequently in Wassard Elea Rivista.

Inquiries and proposals are welcome. Full papers (in English, prepared for blind review) are to be submitted to Professor Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Via La Chiazzetta 27, I-84046 Ascea (Sa), Italy. Emailed submissions, word format, welcome to: wassardelea@gmail.com

Deadline: March 1, 2014.

Information on registration, accommodation and conference fee will be posted on proper date.

Keynote:
Prof. Jane Forsey (Winnipeg University), author of The Aesthetics of Design (Oxford University Press, 2013): “The Value(s) of Design”




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Better to be an unhappy man than a happy pig?
May 27-29th 2011
Elea, Italy

John Stuart Mill provides a detailed argument as to why unhappiness as a human is preferable to happiness of the most satisfied “beast”, concluding that
It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (1861) Ch.II.
This conclusion raises rather difficult questions: is it actually better to be an unhappy human than a happy pig? and such as the substance and purpose of morality, the nature and utility of happiness, the comparative value of happiness and contentment, and indeed the question of why a human who experiences extreme unhappiness should not wish to be either a pig or a fool.
Keynote speaker: Prof. Timothy Chappell, Director of the Ethics Centre, The Open University


Wassard Elea (& Parmenideum) invites philosophers and all those interested in the themes broached by Mill’s conclusion, to submit papers for this international conference (or intensive symposium, if you like). Sessions of 90 minutes include speaker, commentator, and discussion (40/20/30). Participants whose papers are accepted are expected to also provide commentary on another presentation during the conference. All suitable contributions are published either simultaneously or subsequently in Wassard Elea Rivista.
Inquiries and proposals are welcome. Full papers (in English) are to be submitted to Professor Lars Aagaard-Mogensen, Via La Chiazzetta 27, I-84046 Ascea (Sa), Italy. Emailed submissions, in word format, are welcome to: wassardelea@gmail.com
There is no registration fee; details about accommodations will be posted in due course.

Deadline for submissions: March 15, 2011.

Wassard Elea
Refugium for writers, artists, composers, and scholars in Southern Italy
Wassardelea.blogspot.it

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