Abstract
This paper aims to clarify the new role of art appreciation in today’s media-saturated life, in which sensibiliy, mind, and body are affected. Firstly, it analyzes arguments from aesthetic and media theory and identifies problems inherent in everyday media experiences, including possible effects of daily reception of visually- and linguistically- encoded information on sensibility and intellect; the individual profiled as user, controlled through the capture of attention and desire; and insensitivity to otherness on the other side of the huge attention paid to popular videos and topics. It defines these problems as hindrances to the individuation process which should be supported by the inheritance of a collective history and an openness to otherness. Finally, it argues for the effectiveness of art appreciation through dialogue in supporting this process, and along with sample lessons, proposes a method to use the distinctiveness of art as media open to both others and otherness.
