Diarmuid Costello

My research draws on both analytic and continental approaches to aesthetics and the philosophy of art. It is also informed by recent debates in art history and theory. The goal of a number of recent papers has been to defuse antipathy to aesthetics in art theory by showing that works of art typically thought to challenge aesthetics may be accommodated by a sufficiently rich aesthetic theory. To this end I have drawn on neglected resources in Kant's theory of art, and have worked on a variety of contemporary artists and art forms.

More recently, I have been working in the philosophy of photography, particularly what distinguishes photography as an artistic medium and whether an an adequate account of photographic agency puts pressure on default assumptions in the philosophy of photography. Much of this research was conducted as Co-Director of an interdisciplinary AHRC-research project, ‘Aesthetics after Photography,’ in collaboration with Prof. Margaret Iversen from the Dept. of Art History & Theory at the University of Essex (2007-2011). To date there have been three journal issues, a curated exhibition and various conferences associated with this project (see webpages).

I am currently working on two books associated with the two strands of my research outlined above: 'Art after Aesthetics: A Critique of Theories of Art after Modernism' (for Chicago) and 'On Photography' (for Routledge).

Since 2004 I have been on the executive committee of the British Society of Aesthetics, since 2008 as Chair and Vice-President of the Society. I have been a member of the AHRC's Peer Review College since 2010.

Edited Collections and Special Journal Issues

'Agency and Automatism: Photography as Art since the 1960s', a special issue of Critical Inquiry. Co-edited with Margaret Iversen and Joel Snyder, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Summer 2012).

'The Media of Photography', a special issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. Co-edited with Dominic McIver Lopes, Vol. 70, No. 1 (Winter 2012). Also published in book form by Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

‘Photography after Conceptual Art’, a special issue of Art History. Co-edited with Margaret Iversen, Vol. 32. No. 5 (Dec 2009). Also published in book form by Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

The Life and Death of Images: Ethics and Aesthetics. Co-edited with Dominic Willsdon, London: Tate Publishing and Cornell UP, 2008.

Journal Articles:

'Kant and the Problem of Non-Perceptual Art' [in preparation]

'Photography between Art History and Philosophy' (co-authored with Margaret Iversen) in Critical Inquiry 38:4 Summer 2012.

'Automat, Automatic, Automatism: Rosalind Krauss and Stanley Cavell on Photography and the "Photographically Dependent" Arts', forthcoming in Critical Inquiry 38:4 Summer 2012.

'The Question Concerning Photography', forthcoming in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 70:1 Winter 2012.

'Photography after Conceptual Art’ (co-authored with Margaret Iversen) in Art History, 32:5, Dec 2009; pp. 825-835.

'Automatism, Causality and Realism: Foundational Problems in the Philosophy of Photography' (co-authored with Dawn Phillips), Philosophy Compass 4:1, 2009, pp. 1-21.

'Pictures, Again,’ Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 8:1, 2008, pp. 11-42.

'On the Very Idea of a "Specific" Medium: Michael Fried and Stanley Cavell on Painting and Photography as Arts,' Critical Inquiry, 34:2, Winter 2008, pp. 274-312. Reprinted in: Sunil Manghani (ed.) Images: Critical and Primary Sources, London: Berg Publishers, 2013.

'Whatever Happened to "Embodiment?:" The Eclipse of Materiality in Danto's Ontology of Art,’ Angelaki, 12:2, 2007; pp. 83-94.

Translated as: 'Cosa mai è successo all'"incorporazione"? L'eclisse della materialità nell'ontologia dell'arte di Danto', a special issue of Rivista di Estetica 'Artworld & Artwork: Arthur C. Danto e l'ontologia dellarte' ed. Tiziana Andina e Alessandro Lancieri, 35:2, 2007; pp. 113-128.

‘Greenberg’s Kant, and the Fate of Aesthetics in Contemporary Art Theory,’ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 65: 2, Spring 2007; pp. 217-228.

Translated as: 'Kant Podle Greenberga, Aneb Osud Estetiky V Soucasné Teorii Umení' in Sesit pro Umení, Teorii a Príbuzné Zony (Notebook for Art, Theory and Related Zones, No. 6-7, 2009), Yearbook of the Academic Research Centre of the Academy of Fine Arts, Prague; pp. 44-66.

‘On Late Style: Arthur Danto’s The Abuse of Beauty,’ British Journal of Aesthetics, 44:4, October 2004; pp. 424-439.

'Lyotard’s Modernism' in 'To Jean-François Lyotard,' special issue of Parallax (17); October 2000; pp. 76-87.

Papers in Collections/Books:

'Leaning into the Wind: Poiesis in Richard Long' in Aron Vinegar and Amanda Boetzkes (eds.) Heideger and the Work of Art History, Ashgate 2012 [in preparation]

'Xenophobia, Stereotypes and Empirical Acculturation: Neo-Kantianism in Adrian Piper's Conceptual Art' forthcoming in Adrian Piper, Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2013.

'Kant, l'opera d'arte, l'immagine' in Daniele Guastini, Dario Cecchi, Alessandra Campo (eds.) Alla fine delle cose: Contributi a una storia critica delle immagini, Firenze: VoLo, 2011; pp. 109-122.

‘Retrieving Kant’s Aesthetics for Art Theory after Greenberg: Some Remarks on Arthur C. Danto and Thierry de Duve’ in Francis Halsall, Julia Jansen and Tony O’Connor (eds.) Re-Discovering Aesthetics, Stanford: Standford University Press, 2009; pp. 117-132.

‘Kant and Danto, Together at Last?’ in Kathleen Stock and Katherine Thomson-Jones (eds.) New Waves in Aesthetics, Palgrave MacMillan, 2008; pp. 244-266. Reprinted in Mark Rollins (ed.) Danto and his Critics, 2nd Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2012; pp. 153-171.

Translated as: ‘Danto y Kant ¿Por fin juntos?’ in Ensayos sobre Arthur C. Danto, ed. Miguel Ángel Hernández-Navarro and Yaiza Hernández Velázquez, Murcia, Spain: Editorial CENDEAC [forthcoming].

'Kant after LeWitt: Towards an Aesthetics of Conceptual Art' in Peter Goldie and Elisabeth Schellekens (eds.) Philosophy and Conceptual Art, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007; pp. 92-115.

'After Medium-Specificity chez Fried: Jeff Wall as a Painter, Gerhard Richter as a Photographer' in Photography Theory, ed. James Elkins, London: Routledge, 2007; pp. 75-89.

‘Overcoming Postmodernism’ in Art History versus Aesthetics, ed. James Elkins, London: Routledge, 2006; pp. 92-98.

‘Intención e interpretación: aporías de la crítica a la Teoría Estética de Danto’ (‘Intention and Interpretation: Aporias in Danto’s Critique of Aesthetic Theory’) in Francisca Pérez Carreño (ed.) Estética después del fin del arte. Ensayos sobre Arthur Danto, Madrid: Antonio Machado, 2005; pp. 233-256.

‘Aura, Face, Photography: Re-reading Benjamin Today,’ in Andrew Benjamin (ed.) Walter Benjamin and Art, NYC/London: Continuum, 2005; pp. 164-184.

Translated as: 'Aura, Rostro, Fotografía: releer a Benjamin hoy' in Alejandra Uslenghi (comp.) Walter Benjamin: Culturas de la Imagen. Buenos Aires: Eterna Cadencia Editora, 2010; pp. 99-140.

‘“Making Sense” of Nonsense: Conant and Diamond Read Wittgenstein’s Tractatus’ in Barry Stocker (ed.), Post-Analytic Tractatus: A Reader, Aldershot: Ashgate, 2004; pp. 99-125.

‘Museum as Work in the Age of Technological Display’ in Dana Arnold and Margaret Iversen (eds.), Art and Thought, Oxford: Blackwell, 2003; pp. 174-196.

Translated as: 'Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Ausstellbarkeit' in Dorothea von Hantelmann and Carolin Meister (eds.) Die Ausstellung: Politik Eines Rituals Berlin: Diaphanes, 2010; pp. 161-189.

Curatorial Projects:

Ways of Worldmaking: Contemporary Analogue and Digital Photography, Curated by Diarmuid Costello and Margaret Iversen, 2014: in preparation.

Hannah Starkey: Twenty-Nine Pictures, Curated by Diarmuid Costello, Mead Gallery, University of Warwick: 14 January-12 March 2011. 88pp catalogue published by Mead Gallery and Maureen Paley, London with contributions by Diarmuid Costello and Margaret Iversen.

Exhibition Catalogues:

'Painting through Photography, Photography through Painting: Some Thoughts on Chuck Close's Contrarian Modernism' in Chuck Close: Family & Others, London: White Cube, 10 Oct- 17 Nov 2007, and The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2008; pp. 49-54.