Abstract
The aesthetic dimension of experience has not been thoroughly addressed in the study of the psyché. Nevertheless, this topic has been approached in the work of several classical authors such as Dilthey, Fechner, and Wundt and, contemporarily, by Tateo (ed) (Introduction: the art of psychology. An old melody in a new song: aesthetic and the art of psychology. Springer, Switzerland, Tateo, Tateo (ed), An old melody in a new song: Aesthetic and the art of psychology, Springer, Switzerland, 2018), Valsiner (Human psyche between the mundane and the aesthetic: the sublime as the arena for semiosis. In: Pinheiro, M. & Lyra, M. (eds) Cultural psychology as basic science: dialogues with jaan valsiner, Springer, Switzerland, p 43–56, Valsiner, 2018a, Ornamented lives. Information Age Publishers, Charlotte, NC, Valsiner, 2018b), and Frayze-Pereira (Arte, dor: inquietudes entre estética e psicanálise. AteliêEditorial, São Paulo, Frayze-Pereira, Arte, dor: Inquietudes entre estética e psicanálise, AteliêEditorial, São Paulo, 2006), who contributed to construct the theoretical foundations of an inclusive scientific approach highlighting the complexity and systemic nature of the psychological functioning. Their outstanding contributions are particularly relevant facing the current image of psychological science as mirrored in the dogmas of natural sciences. This essay aims to draw attention to the necessary inclusion of the aesthetic, creative, and affective dimensions as inherent included the study of human psyché. In this direction, we discuss the testimony and the work of the visual artist Vik Muniz for his prominence in the use of a diversity of non-conventional materials in the composition and constitution of his creative process. We exemplify his use of sugar as articulating a symbolic world in which the artist engages in his constant and necessary relationship with otherness. The dialogue author-reality implies a diversity of others situated in different dimensions in which the author works through the ambiguity and dynamics of the interactions that make up an aesthetic whole. With this purpose, we analyze the creative process of Vik Muniz considering it as a guide to the understanding of the subtle and striking characteristic of becoming human, in its unfinished and dialogical nature. Hence, we advocate a Dialogical Psychology that integrates science, art, and life as the founding purpose of dialogism.
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Notes
- 1.
It is worth noting that in Vygotsky the term fantasy is recognised and used without a precise conceptualisation. Maybe recognising the affective dimension of creative processes, Vygotsky borrowed not only this, but many other notions from psychoanalytic vocabulary (e.g., sexual maturity, dreams), to the expense of not being able to conceptualise effectively under the materialistic-dialectical epistemological perspective.
- 2.
In Bakhtinian framework, the unicity of the self refers to and highlights the historical, temporal and contextual (space) place that each human being occupy in his/her perennial and unfinished life history.
- 3.
“It is with bitter lives of bitter people that I sweeten my coffee on this beautiful morning in Ipanema” (Muniz, 2007, p. 60).
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Pinheiro, M.A., Lyra, M.C.D.P. (2020). The Semiotic Cultural Foundation of an Aesthetic-Creative Analysis of Vik Muniz. In: Lopes-de-Oliveira, M., Branco, A., Freire, S. (eds) Psychology as a Dialogical Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44772-4_8
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