Re-evaluating Byung-Chul Han’s Stance against the Aesthetics of the Smooth in Jeff Koons’ The Balloon Dogs
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article analyses the critical stance of Byung-Chul Han towards the aesthetics of the smooth as it is epitomized by Jeff Koons’ Balloon Dogs. In his critique of Neoliberalism, Han argued that arts are the Other that contests the consumption and velocity of the digital age. Accordingly, Han devalued arts to be merely within the contemplative stance. The vita contempletiva is positioned as a contesting vita activa that devalues human beings to be simply animal laborans that exploit themselves in the achievement society. Art demands distance and contests lustful touch. Consequently, Han praised only certain genres of arts and ignored the potentials of contemporary arts which could point out political issues in public domains. In order to solve this problem, the author proposes two following arguments: Ways out to solve the problem in this digital age that affects the lives of human beings can be considered within the framework of contemporary arts, and to redeem human beings from exploitation in the capitalist working environment requires struggling for recognition through arts.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Journal of TCI is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence, unless otherwise stated. Please read our Policies page for more information.
References
Benjamin, W. (2019). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction, in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. Mariner.
Brockes, E. (2015). Jeff Koons: ‘People respond to banal things – they don’t accept their own history’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/05/jeff-koons-people-respond-to-banal-things-they-dont-accept-their-own-history
Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and punish: The birth of prison. Vintage Book.
Groys, B. (2008). Art power. The MIT Press.
Han, B.-C. (2015). Burnout society. Standford University Press.
Han, B.-C. (2017a). The scent of time: A philosophical essay on the art of lingering. Polity Press.
Han, B.-C. (2017b). In the swarm. The MIT Press.
Han, B.-C. (2018a). The expulsion of the other. Polity Press.
Han, B.-C. (2018b). Saving beauty. Polity Press.
Han, B.-C. (2021a ). Capitalism and the death drive. John Wiley & Sons.
Han, B.-C. (2021b). The palliative society. Polity Press.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.
Heidegger, M. (1971). The origin of the work of art, in poetry, language, thought. Harper & Row.
Sharr, A. (2006). Heidegger’s hut. MIT.
Simanowski, R. (2018). The death algorithm and other digital dilemmas. The MIT Press.
Sloterdijk, P. (2017). Not saved: Essays after Heidegger. Polity.
Stańska, Z. (2021). Jeff Koons and His Balloon Dogs. DailyArt Magazine. https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/jeff-koons-balloon-dog/