Cecilia Sá Cavalcante Schuback

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Emerging forms

This thesis investigates the emergence of form from movement, approaching form not as a fixed entity but as a dynamic process of forming. It examines how aesthetic practices across philosophy, the visual arts and music articulate and render apprehensible this tension between movement and form. The study begins with a re-reading of Kant’s Critique of Judgment, arguing that his reflections on teleological judgment can be understood as a theory of formation that exceeds biological and organic contexts, extending into reflexive and conceptual domains. The analysis emphasizes Kant’s deployment of analogy as a mode of thought that disrupts strictly teleological frameworks. Turning to the visual arts, the book engages with non-object-oriented practices of kinetic art, with particular attention to the work of Abraham Palatnik. Here, the emphasis falls on how Palatnik’s kinetic art incorporates Gestalt theory and phenomenology to make perceptible the dynamics of formation itself. Finally, the discussion moves to the sonorous, examining Gyrgy Ligeti’s compositional and theoretical explorations of transformation and process. Through Ligeti’s work, sound is theorized as a medium of formation, one that renders the movement of form audible and foregrounds listening as an act of apprehension. By tracing these diverse aesthetic articulations, the book develops a framework for understanding form as emergent and dynamic - an ongoing process rather than a completed state.

This thesis investigates the emergence of form from movement, approaching form not as a fixed entity but as a dynamic process of forming. It examines how aesthetic practices across philosophy, the visual arts and music articulate and render apprehensible this tension between movement and form. The study begins with a re-reading of Kant’s Critique of Judgment, arguing that his reflections on teleological judgment can be understood as a theory of formation that exceeds biological and organic contexts, extending into reflexive and conceptual domains. The analysis emphasizes Kant’s deployment of analogy as a mode of thought that disrupts strictly teleological frameworks. Turning to the visual arts, the book engages with non-object-oriented practices of kinetic art, with particular attention to the work of Abraham Palatnik. Here, the emphasis falls on how Palatnik’s kinetic art incorporates Gestalt theory and phenomenology to make perceptible the dynamics of formation itself. Finally, the discussion moves to the sonorous, examining Gyrgy Ligeti’s compositional and theoretical explorations of transformation and process. Through Ligeti’s work, sound is theorized as a medium of formation, one that renders the movement of form audible and foregrounds listening as an act of apprehension. By tracing these diverse aesthetic articulations, the book develops a framework for understanding form as emergent and dynamic - an ongoing process rather than a completed state. Cecilia Sá Cavalcante Schuback carries out research in aesthetics focusing on aesthetic expressions and form. This is her PhD thesis.