The transformation of the standards of beauty has three domains: first appears within the limits of a single cultural tradition and its various arts (literature, poetry, painting, dance, music, etc.) wherein arise the transformations when newly created images replace the old and become new standards. Second, diverse and distinct cultures have their own conceptions of beauty and the ways the standards are transformed. Third, the encounter of various cultural traditions and the appropriation of standards by one from the others. This is obvious in the context of contemporary globalization where, quite frequently, Western artists exhibit their own current aesthetic standards and regard the arts of other cultures as "exotic beauty."
It would seem that the standards of beauty could range from Platonic search for "beauty in its essence" all the way to a total personalization where beauty is regarded as purely a matter of subjective taste. Yet this traditional range for conceiving beauty is inadequate, since none of the limits of this range is valid: within the total range, there is a constant mixing of the aesthetic phenomena of beauty with conceptions external to art, such as "morality," "metaphysics," "ontology," and even "spirituality." The aim of the conference is to understand various artistic styles and cultural standards of beauty despite all "external" impositions. Thus every concept of beauty must be understood in the context of its own culture and historical period. Other types of interpretation would be misleading since they might easily attribute inappropriate standards of aesthetic beauty to arts of other cultures and historical periods and thus misunderstand their standards. Even such claims that standards of art range from Plato's absolutism to the absolute subjectivism of the twentieth century belong to the West and need not be valid elsewhere.
One important question of the conference focuses on the way specific social, regional, national standards of beauty affect global conceptions of what is beautiful. This suggests that, without having any intentions to do so, artists may create not only changing standards of beauty in their own works but also changing standards on a global arena.
Proposed topics
The conference is organized by: head prof. Algis Mickūnas (USA, Ohio University), members: prof. hab. dr. Gražina Daunoravičienė (LMTA), prof. hab. dr. Algis Kalėda (LLTI), assoc.prof. Rūta Brūzgienė (LLTI), assoc.prof. Silvestras Gaižiūnas (LLTI), dr. Jekaterina Lavrinec (VGTU), dr. Agnieška Juzefovič (VGTU), Elena Sakalauskaitė (VU).
Conference will take place in the Institute of lithuanian literature and folklore, Vilnius, Antakalnio st. 6.