Philosophy Colloquium Series

Dr. Ted Gracyk (Dept. of Philosophy, MSUM) is going to give a colloquium Wednesday, March 26, at 4:15 p.m. in Langseth Hall 118 (Science Lecture Room). His topic is “Audiences, Performances, and Virtual Performances.” The following is the abstract of his paper:

Although painters create paintings with the intention that they will be viewed, and composers create music with the intention that it will be heard, we normally think that there is a difference in kind between the performing and non-performing arts. Although this distinction is frequently extended to playbacks of recorded music, no performance is taking place. At best, recordings provide asynchronous access to the originating performances. Yet many recordings present music without documenting a historically-particular performance. To characterize both types of recordings as providing asynchronous access to performances is to undercut our basis for denying that non-temporal, plastic artworks present performances. I propose an analysis of performances and asynchronous access to them that preserves the distinction between the performing and non-performing arts.

All are welcome.

Please let Dr. Hong know if you have any questions at cshong@mnstate.edu.