ISBN : 9782296117075
ON THE SHINE OF THINGS AND THE USES OF GLEAMING
Keith Russell1
Since the time of Plato, the philosophy of objects has had to content with at least three
understandings: the ideal, the real and the aesthetic. In the case of things made, god
makes the ideal, man makes the real and the artist makes the pictorial representation
of the real. In the case of real objects, we can observe that the qualities of the other two
objects are implicated if not revealed. This implies that there are transitional spaces
between the real and the ideal and between the real and the pictorial.
In the transitional space between the real and the art object we can find affect
machines. That is, sensory experiences of reception (such as shining and gleaming)
that can be found describing and promoting affects.
In the transitional space between the real and the ideal we can find the effects of
production. That is, the material qualities of real objects more and less approximate a
perfect solution to objects as problems: the real chair, in its production, comes closer
to or retreats from an ideal chair.
The paper falls into two part. The first is a philosophic investigation into the nature of
the making of things. The second part is a phenomenological account of the nature
and uses of affects in the reception of