The course aims to study some contemporary approaches to the philosophy of art through the analysis of a single concept, that of the medium. This notion will be examined in various contexts of use, pertaining to philosophy, art criticism as well as visual culture studies. In this way, a history of the concept between the 20th and 21st centuries will be outlined.
Two themes will emerge during the course. On one hand, the difference between autonomistic and heteronomistic conceptions of art will be highlighted; on the other hand, the role played by the spread of the internet in the development of contemporary visual culture and the hypermedia society in which we live will be analyzed. In the first part of the course, Clement Greenberg's formalist art criticism will be contrasted with Richard Wollheim's analytical philosophy of art; the second part of the lessons will be dedicated to the post-media condition of art described by Rosalind Krauss, the notion of meta-medium formulated by Lev Manovich, and the processes of remediation and relocation of media as framed by Jay Bolter, Ray Grusin, and Francesco Casetti.