Zhuangzi's philosophical thinking system is an important part of ancient oriental philosophy. His far-reaching philosophical views cover Taoism, virtue, humanity, nature, and freedom. And "freedom" is the most representative thinking of Zhuangzi, the ...
Zhuangzi's philosophical thinking system is an important part of ancient oriental philosophy. His far-reaching philosophical views cover Taoism, virtue, humanity, nature, and freedom. And "freedom" is the most representative thinking of Zhuangzi, the pursuit of which runs through his entire theoretical system. His aesthetics of freedom is prominent in the aesthetic field, it plays an important role in the artistic field in this modern society where new media technologies are gaining rapid development, and provides significant guidance to the creation and beauty-appreciation of new media art.
This paper mainly discusses the application and expression of Zhuangzi's view of free aesthetics in new media art works. Taking superimposed images of new media art as the key research object, this paper analyses cases, conducts practical creation, and focusing on my superimposed image work Meditation Time, TWIN, Streamer Light, analyses and deeply discusses these works with Zhuangzi's view of free aesthetics.
Firstly, this paper studies the formation of Zhuangzi's aesthetics in depth. Starting from the social background and historical environment then, this paper analyses the social foundation of the formation of the view of free aesthetics, and the theoretical basis of the formation of the view of free aesthetics by papering the influence of Laozi's philosophy on Zhuangzi's thought. Then this paper breaks the view of free aesthetics into a few parts and explores in details the view of freedom from the internal and external perspectives. According to Zhuangzi, only when aesthetics is not limited by anything can infinite possible aesthetic results be created. Modern new media art requires various new media technologies and methods to realize free artistic creation and countless possibilities. New media art creation chimes in with the view of free aesthetics when it comes to the pursuit of artistic freedom.
Secondly, this paper takes superimposed images in new media art as the research object and briefly analyses superimposition features and its history and development in artistic creation. In the analysis of superimposed image cases, this paper highlights the influence of superimposed image's visual features on people's aesthetic experience. The overlapped and compound visual effect of superimposed images enables people to experience and perceive more. Such works also provide more angles and freedom for people to appreciate. Additionally, this paper also analyses the presence of Zhuangzi's view of free aesthetics in these cases and how to interpret them with his view of free aesthetics. Next, it explores the relationships between Zhuangzi's view of free aesthetics and artists, visitors, and works themselves, sorting out the relationship between art and philosophy in the process of interpretation, comparison and analysis.
Then this paper analyses and discusses my works from the view of free aesthetics, and from the perspectives of creative ideas, practical production, presentation effects, work concepts, ideological connotations, etc., discusses in detail the creation process and results of my works. In the analysis of the artistic expression methods and aesthetic results of my works, the inspiration of the cases to my creation and the influence of the view of free aesthetics on my creation are presented.
Lastly, through comparative analysis of my works, this paper discusses the guiding role of Zhuangzi's view of free aesthetics in artistic practice, and then closes by summarizing the irreplaceability and limitations of the view of freedom in practice. The view of free aesthetics is irreplaceable because on the one hand, it develops and changes on a reliable philosophical and theoretical basis provided by Taoism, and on the other hand, the unique aesthetics of Zhuangzi's view of freedom is consistent with the essence of art, which is freedom. Therefore, the view of free aesthetics has gained high recognition and acceptance in the aesthetic circle of the art world. Despite its irreplaceability, it also has limitations, just like any other ideas. Its limitations originated from the society where it was formed. Compared with the thriving society nowadays, the one at that time was not peaceful. Due to the turbulence caused by the change of regime then, people could not live and work in peace and contentment, the culture, science and technology were seriously stunted. Additionally, people's cognition was limited. Therefore, the view of freedom produced in such an era inevitably collides with the open, progressive, innovative, practical, law-abiding, and compliant ideas of the modern society to some extent. In the artistic practice, only by taking the essence and discarding the dregs of the view of freedom can we create excellent art works with free aesthetic thoughts that fit the modern society.