Graham Harman's Weird Realism and Its Influence on Contemporary Art and Architecture

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Abstract

This article examines Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO) and its influence on contemporary art and architecture. The key tenets of OOO are outlined, emphasizing the autonomy of objects and their existence beyond human perception. The aesthetic and literary principles formulated by Harman are analyzed, particularly the concept of weird realism (based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft) and the specific nature of the art object in the context of OOO philosophy. Harman's ideas are compared with a number of examples from contemporary architecture and art: works by architects Peter Zumthor, Mark Foster Gage, Tom Wiscombe, the firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, as well as artists Mark Leckey, Alfredo Aceto, and participants in the "Adaptation" exhibition are examined. Detailed analysis is provided for these works, discussing their concepts, artistic methods, and connections to the philosophy of objects. The research is based on an interdisciplinary approach that combines philosophical analysis of Harman's texts with art historical methods for examining specific artistic and architectural works. The scientific novelty of this research lies in its interdisciplinary analysis of Object-Oriented Ontology philosophy and concrete artistic practices. For the first time in Russian art criticism, an attempt has been made to compare the postulates of OOO with works of contemporary art and architecture in the format of a comprehensive academic study. The novelty also consists in summarizing Harman's aesthetics (weird realism, metaphor, rejection of representation) and deriving methodological principles from it for the analysis of visual arts. The term "object-oriented art" is proposed to designate an approach where the art object is understood as an ontologically independent actor. In conclusion, the characteristic features of artistic methods corresponding to the principles of object-oriented art are summarized: autonomy of the object, working with mystery and understatement, rejection of anthropocentrism, new forms of narrative through metaphor, and return to materiality as a philosophical value.

References

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