2023 Cilt 24 Sayı 45

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From Gestalt to pattern in post-war American aesthetic theory: The works of Rudolf Arnheim and György Kepes
(Bursa Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2023-03-16) Üstün, Berkay
The following article is an inquiry into the aesthetic valences of the concept of pattern as informedby the contrasting frameworks of Gestalt psychology and information theory. On the trail of itsobject, it evokes the historical context of the Post-War American aesthetic theory and technologicalculture and enters into a critical dialogue with texts by its main interlocutors Rudolf Arnheim andGyörgy Kepes. The article demonstrates that both theorists grapple with the challenges issued byadvances in computation and the epistemological implications of visions of data processing (evenmachine learning research) ascendant in their time. The discussion has a philosophical orientationin paying particular attention to matters of abstraction underlying patterns, the temporality ofpattern formation, and the dimension of subjectivity; it highlights the fundamental oppositionsbetween discrete and holistic coding, as well as quality and quantity. Finally, in its departure fromKepes’s intervention in the relationship between science and art, the article situates the question ofpattern in the context of the history of science, putting it in contact with influential treatments ofobjectivity in the discourse of Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, but more critically, in the workof Donna Haraway.