Aesthetic archaeology does not exist. But it should. Lecture by philosopher Jakub Stejskal from Freie Universität Berlin.

The meaning of the aesthetic archaeology should not lie in the assessment of the aesthetic qualities of a particular find but in its classification as an artefact, aimed to trigger an aesthetic response. The prevailing wrong belief that this classification cannot be done without assessment prevents aesthetic archaeology from coming into existence. Stejskal will demonstrate what aesthetic archaeology should(not) look like on the example of Cycladic figurines from the Bronze Age.

Jakub Stejskal received his PhD from Charles University in Prague in 2014. In his dissertation he investigated the philosophical sources and consequences of the idea of art as ‘second nature’ (Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Lukács, Adorno, McDowell, Pippin). He was a lecturer in visual art theory at the Department of Aesthetics, Charles University, and held a part-time position at the Research Center of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. In 2009/10 he was a visiting PhD researcher at Royal Holloway, University of London. He has been Associate Editor of the journal Estetika since 2008.