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andrewcrossley · 4 years

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Aesthetics, particularly since Hegel, is the claimed domination of philosophy over art by which philosophy claims to unpack its meaning, truth, and destination after the event of art’s supposed death. … Art, for its part, resists this enterprise and rebels. We propose another solution that, without excluding aesthetics, no longer grants it this domination of philosophical categories over works of art, but limits it in order to focus on its transformation. It’s about substituting for the conflict of art and philosophy the conjugation of their means. … It is a so-called “generic” extension of art to aesthetics; the moment when thought in its turn becomes a form of art. It is a new usage of their mimetic rivalry, their conflictual tradition, which is finally suspended for a common oeuvre, a new “genre.”

I propose considering every art form in terms of principles of sufficiency and no longer in terms of descriptive or theoretical or foundational historical perspectives. To do this, one must construct non-aesthetic scenarios or duals, scenes, characters, or postures that are both conceptual and artistic and based on the formal model of a matrix. … These scenarios, by their inventive and constructive aspects, correspond to veritable theoretical "installations.” I propose an aesthetics in the form of conceptual installations of a new genre.

Aesthetics was always a carbon copy of art in philosophy and subsequently art was always understood as a deficient modality of philosophy. It is the phenomena of self-modeling of philosophy in regards to art, where philosophy finds its model in art, but a model which is philosophically pre-formed or pre-decided. … [W]ithout art, philosophy lacks sensitivity and without philosophy, art lacks thought, but also within the mode of excess, of overlapping, of mixtures and specular reflections. … Can aesthetics become a second power of art itself, can art engender or determine its own aesthetics instead of suffering it as being philosophically imposed upon it?

Non-standard aesthetics is creative and inventive and its genre is that of a philo-fiction, a philosophical artistic genre that strives to make a work with pure and abstract thought, but not to create concepts parallel to artistic works. … Non-standard aesthetics is characterized overall as 1. an aesthetics, no doubt, with a conceptual materiality which is its technological or technical core; 2. equipped with an artistic and thus somewhat specific technological modeling; 3. but deprived of the Principle of Sufficient Philosophy, as a duplication of transcendence.

We could ask, why should we thereby deprive ourselves of the benefits of philosophy? in reality, we are in no way whatsoever deprived of its benefits. Philosophy still serves to formulate photo-fiction and enters into it as an essential part of its materiality. We are only deprived of the excess of philosophy’s pretentions of the absolute. And, in the end, this is only to protect human subjects from philosophy’s sufficiency. For example, photo-fiction is efficient and produces fiction, which is to say a thought less sure of itself than philosophical discourse.

In photo-fiction, the objective appearances are materially the same as in the photo, but they do not auto-confirm themselves according to sufficiency; photo-fiction is lived (vécu) as an art without any bit of realism and it is in this way that it forms an even more intense chaos by the absence of the world or of its own sufficiency.

In this inversion of the object and its equal theory, the object that is first theorized by philosophy becomes the model for the constitution of a new, more complex, theory. A discipline to be created at a second level of which the standard philosophically received aesthetics is nothing more than the first level, or in any case, the symptom, the material, and in the end, the model. … Far from being a deficient, imaginative, and literary form of writing, fiction in its own way becomes a complex art, an art of interweaving disciplines as if imagination would acquire a more superior dimension of complexity by practicing an already existing art, in its form, material, and effects.

A spontaneous objection is inevitable from philosophers who, for their part, cannot get around the elementary simplicity of their conception of philosophy and do not see its doubled nature. According to them, it would be useless to want to create a supplementary art that is apparently parasitic on what already exists.

It is fundamental for aesthetics to follow the movements in contemporary art in the most profound manner, not in order to describe the changes under the same codes, but to import these types of changes within aesthetics itself, and to build scenarios that are themselves “theoretical installations.” Instead of rehashing concepts of mimesis, we instead extend the ideal of art to the thought of art itself, obviously with a respect “within philosophy” for the new conditions of this transfer. The problem of a non-standard aesthetics or thought-art, is to treat this semantic block as an indivisible whole, including art and thought within a holistic apparatus. … It is no longer a question of a mixing (métissage) of art and philosophy without rules, left to the arbitrariness of taste and talent. These two poles conserve their material autonomy and local syntax, but they form an indivisible entity between each other.

To think “aesthetics” in the form of scenarios, quantically conjugating a variety of arts and philosophies, would enrich and liberate possible productive forces and would justify the existence of art not as thought, as was talked about with post-modernists, but a veritable thought-art, entirely specific and worthy of being called “contemporary.” … If there is a possible veritable invention of the order of thought-art, it must be the object of a concentrated revival (reprise), of a decision between utopia and heresy, under the gaze of what we call futurality rather than history.

Philo-fiction is a gushing (jaillissant) and subtractive usage of the means of thinking, of philosophemes-without-philosophy, of mathemes-without-mathematics, and from here, all of the dimensions of philosophy rid of their proper all-encompassing finality, an insurrection against the all-too great superior finalities. Language is a simple productive force without its superior or over-totalizing finalities, but with its immanent finalities, quartially (quartiellement) instituted. The artist of philo-fiction that refers to the photo, to the painting, or to music, knows how to stop at this insurrectional and creative plane of art, creative precisely because its most dominant finalities are taken out of play.

In the photo as in fiction, images or concepts are produced an in one sense, they are the same, but they are interpreted differently. They are still appearances of the world and objects, and thus on this point there is no difference between them. But in the photograph these appearances of the world refer to the world in a certain deterministic and realist relation (principle of sufficient photography) where the world returns and over-determines objective appearances, whereas in fiction the conceptual images remain objective appearances which are no longer lived as in themselves or are not reorganized a second time by the cosmic order. In fiction, the objective appearances are materially the same as in the photograph (the photograph of philosophy since philosophy is a photograph of itself) but they do not auto-confirm themselves according to sufficiency, and it is in this that they form a probable chaos via the absence of the world and its sufficiency, via hesitation or indeterminacy.

-François Laruelle, “Photo-Fiction, a Non-Standard Aesthetics” (trans. Drew S. Burk)

#philosophy #non-philosophy #Laruelle #aesthetics

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cjoyvibrancy · 3 years

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Don't buy into the Adam & Eve bs story and think that we're living a result of that choice. How do we truly even know they exist? Because some book or teacher told you so? Come on. It's all heresy. The truth is you, we, & this entire world are not the results of choices we heard in stories & fables about the so-called past. We are living our lives based upon the results of the choices we are making right now. So choose to be the unconditional love for that which you truly are. And to see it in the world, as the truth of existence. And stop buying into the garbage of conflict taught through history books that we have no living proof of them even being real. Create your reality today. All of us. The stories are nothing more than stories. And we are all so much more capable of reaching beyond all of them, in every possible we. We are NOT the product of our past, nor of anybody's supposed past. We are the co-creators of our lives & we each have the power right now in every moment to shape the destiny of ourselves & of life on this entire planet.⁣ ⁣ Daily inspiration at: Instagram.com/cjoyvibrancy ⁣ ⁣ @cjoyvibrancy ⁣ ⁣ #StayInspired⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #CJoyVibrancy #Reiki #ReikiMaster #UsuiReiki #ReikiPractitioner #LifeCoach #Holistic #Healing #Physics #Art #Poetry⁣ #Infinity #Divine #Love #Unity #Empowerment #Liberation #UnityConsciousness #KeepingItReal #Authenticity #Motivation #Inspiration #Community #Unite #InfinitePossibility #WorldPeace https://www.instagram.com/p/CSBU9P5r23A/?utm_medium=tumblr

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lindyhunt · 6 years

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What Exactly Are Natural Perfumes and Why Are They on the Rise?

Once when Los Angeles-based natural perfumer Douglas Little met with his supplier, he was handed a brown paper bag containing a wildly fragrant stash. Another time, the man showed up in a coffee shop toting a silver Zero Halliburton attaché. After they sat down, he opened the case to reveal tiny bottles held in place by a custom Styrofoam mould. The heady fragrances in the vials quickly drew a crowd of interested patrons. “He’s my L.A. connection to a distiller—a true artist—in India who makes this incredible blue lily absolute,” explains Little, who is also the nose behind Goop’s innovative fragrance line.

The booming market for natural-fragrance molecules is being driven by consumers who are interested in avoiding certain ingredients. “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals like phthalates are often found in synthetic fragrances,” says Dr. Ebru Karpuzoglu, an Atlanta-based immunologist. “DBP and DEP, in particular, are frequently used to enhance the strength of the scent. But the FDA doesn’t require companies to list fragrance ingredients, as they can be considered proprietary, so it can be hard to know if phthalates are in there.”

That same regulation exists with Health Canada, but some companies, like Phlur, voluntarily list their ingredients, adding that they use “safe synthetics” and no phthalates. Natural fragrances, on the other hand, tend to forgo any synthetics and instead focus on natural materials like flowers, leaves, resins and barks.

“I think the real enthusiasm for natural perfume began in the last year and a half,” says Little, who first predicted the shift in the market when he was giving a beauty-trends lecture in 2010. “I felt people would rebel against wanting to smell like J.Lo—that there would be a resurgence of individuality. We’ve seen this evolution in the food and alcohol markets with small-batch and artisanal blending and consumers wanting more natural products that offer transparency with ingredients. I saw it as being the future of perfumery.” When an attendee from a large fragrance house called his words “heresy,” Little trademarked Heretic and began mastering the art of natural perfume.

“I felt people would rebel against wanting to smell like J.Lo—that there would be a resurgence of individuality.”

His sophisticated creations for Heretic and Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop are helping natural perfume shed its granola image. With notes of bergamot, coriander, jasmine, blond tobacco, tonka bean and choya ral, Heretic’s Jasmine Smoke offers an olfactory snapshot of an outdoor dinner party where tendrils of smoke are curling about the blooms of pink jasmine. Goop’s Edition 03 – Incense perfume captures the idea of sacred prayer, cleansing and renewal with a unique combination of woods (agarwood, sandalwood, Buddha wood), resins, cedar and rare green frankincense.

“I give Gwyneth a lot of credit for going in a direction that’s sexy and provocative and for really pushing the envelope with the fragrances,” says Little. (The brand even uses sugar cane alcohol as a denaturing agent rather than the standard SD 40 alcohol.) After finding natural perfume too aromatherapeutic, Toronto-based natural perfumer Courtney Rafuse started creating inventive blends such as cardamom, neroli, pink peppercorn, sandalwood and clove for her company, Universal Flowering. “To me, if you smell natural jasmine and then you smell synthetic jasmine, there’s just no comparison,” she says.

“I give Gwyneth a lot of credit for going in a direction that’s sexy and provocative and for really pushing the envelope with the fragrances.”

“There is legend and mythology around raw, natural materials, and I think nothing is as good,” says Benoît Verdier, co-founder of Parisian fragrance house Ex Nihilo. “Our fragrances are in the Middle East, Europe, Russia and North America, and we are seeing that customers want something more natural. I think it’s not to say no to chemicals but to use them with intelligence.” The brand, which promotes personalization, created Sublime Essences, a trio of essential oils with an almond oil base and an accord of oud, musk or amber plus a small amount of synthetic as a preservative. Pure, natural materials are harder to control and can experience colour changes over time with exposure to oxygen. “A natural fragrance can also become deeper and richer,” says Rafuse. “For a small perfumer, that’s a selling point, but larger fragrance houses want consistency.”

Little agrees and says that naturals often require some education. “The way I describe synthetic fragrance to my students is that it is like oil paint,” he says. “It’s opaque, intense, robust and designed to last. Natural fragrance is like painting with watercolours. They’re transparent and sheer, and they’re not going to last as long. But the end creation is alive. It provides a holistic quality.”

That was the thought behind Milèo, a new collection of chemical-free fragrance oils that also treat the skin. “Oud is the hero ingredient and a powerful anti-inflammatory,” explains fragrance expert Matthew Milèo. “Ambrette seed, which is the only plant-based musk found in nature, contains alpha-hydroxy acid; orris root sweeps up oxidative stress; and East Indian sandalwood helps regenerate skin tissue.” Milèo includes other fragrant, healing botanicals like blue cypress, pink lotus and golden champaca in the four-piece collection and tests all extracts to ensure purity. Since sustainability is an important part of perfuming, he also limits his use of endangered sandalwood to government-sanctioned trees. (Little meets with as many manufacturers as he can to approve best practices, and Ex Nihilo works with famed fragrance house Givaudan and its sustainability program for ingredients like vetiver and Madagascar vanilla.)

The fragrance industry’s growth is spurring perfume suppliers to make new technology and ingredients available so that natural perfumers can create smoother notes that weren’t possible in the past—“things like phenylacetic acid for velvety, suede-y notes and gamma-Decalactone, a natural isolate of stone fruit that we’re using in Goop’s Edition 04 – Orchard,” says Little. “And manufacturers in Colombia are using coconut oil to do enfleurage of tiare, a species of gardenia, so now we have a 100 per cent natural gardenia available to us,” he adds. “I’m an artist, so I won’t say that I’ll never work with synthetic molecules again, but I love that I’m able to be a part of this natural-fragrance movement.”

Photography by Daniel Harrison

1/5

Natural Perfumes

Elixir Oud Amber Fort

($160, Milèo)

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2/5

Natural Perfumes

Sublime Essence Musc

($615, Ex Nihilo)

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3/5