Clotilde Toregrossa: "Aesthetic Experience and the Puzzle of Sequential Art"

Clotilde Torregrossa, Uppsala University: "Aesthetic Experience and the Puzzle of Sequential Art"

Abstract
Theories of aesthetic experience can broadly be divided into externalist and internalist theories. The first set tend to identify aesthetic experiences by their content, i.e. what the experience is of. The second set, though, tend to identify aesthetic experiences by certain kinds of mental responses, e.g. a certain kind of aesthetic attention or attitude, pleasure, or a more complex mental state such as aesthetic appreciation. In this paper, I argue that neither type can comfortably account for our experience of sequential art, i.e. artworks which are not experienced ‘in one go’, but over time - ‘sequentially’. I sketch the key features of sequential art before defending the internalist/externalist classification of theories of aesthetic experience. Finally, I outline what I call the puzzle of sequential art and present some upshots.