"Values without value: new arts and aesthetics"

Questions First, I will to examine different aesthetic representations in Western and in Oriental culture in terms of their function as social representations. Both are, above all, representations of subjective experiences that become organisational models for behaviour, hence, social constructions which are created by social subjects according to the group they are part of and to the social frame of reference within which they integrate their own practice and their immediate experiences (Farr-Moscovici 1989). But while Western theories of aesthetic contemplation are based on a subject / object antithesis, which means that the aesthetic object is determined by the aesthetic subject, ancient Taoist thinking, for example, emphasises the unity of Humanity and Nature, and encourages the creation of conditions for contemplating aesthetic objects through conformity to Nature. In this culture of globalisation, however, the subject can no longer have a single identity and is not able to eliminate the antithesis between aesthetic feeling and reason. Weber’s action theory is clear about the importance we must give to subjective meaning (Verstehen) which, in case of Art, cannot be separated from emotional meaning. However, in the case of new media, the subjective meaning of social action is absorbed within the implicit content of each message, with clearly globalising intent. The main problem under consideration generates the question of whether aesthetic representations can be reduced to a mere presentation of objects within contemporary art. Thus we should subsequently analyse the importance both of objects and of their interrelations with the concrete world and environment (Virilio 2007). Theoretical perspectives Second, I shall consider the Arts in relation to post-modernism. Aiming at leaving behind modernism, modernity and also the cumbersome heritage of enlightenment-style rationalism, post-modernism takes on its epistemological valence of resistance (albeit not for all scholars) in its projection towards uncertainty, fuzziness, détournement and eclecticism, pastiche and ironical reconstruction, collage and, mindful of situational suggestions, even plagiarism. Value is so uncertain between objectivity and subjectivity, but neutral value is impossible to reach in social sciences (Nagel 1961) because of its impossibility to be universal, crosscultural (good for different societies and cultures) or predictive. What do art and culture do if not continue to play by the rules of the historical avant-gardes that have just left the solid cage of modernity? If what has actually disappeared is the work of art (liquefied, or in a gaseous state), according to Bauman (2007) on the opposite side we have also to consider spaces like factories, that had a strong, solid destiny in the industrial age, for which a lighter and more flexible future has been designed under the banner of creativity. Conclusions So the optimism of the will urges towards a problem solving direction, that is to say the recognition, through continually increasing forms of attention to industrial archaeology, of a new and important way of creating culture through architecture and art and, at the same time, strong social impact. From a more economic perspective, giving fresh value to creative artists and crafts would certainly stimulate the labour market and favour occupation.