| Since the reform and opening up, the context of culture has changed a lot. The most important feature of it is the emergence, development and prosperity of the popular culture, the reality of which is the highlight of utility of aesthetics. The aesthetic activity is human being’s basic activity, which survives and develops in the net of utilitarianism. Inevitably, it will have connections with the power, interests, morality and politics. Therefore, the research on the utility of aesthetics is the need of the introspection that the aesthetics face to the reality, the need of the interventional criticism to the practice of public aesthetics, and it’s also the problematized call for the aesthetic researches at present time.The developing of market economy, the loosening of regulatory power and the promoting of the media are all the bases of the activities of the popular culture.Such activities are taken in the aesthetic practices unstoppable, and thereby constitute a utilitarian situation in the daily practices. The utility can be divided into individual one and social one. The individual utility is reflected in the realization of the power in the cultural politics, and the social utility is reflected in the aesthetic utility practices’ positive or negative effects which are made in the whole level.The realization of the utility of aesthetics is realized in the paradox of perceptual enjoyment and rational surpassing. It should not only affirm the legality of the perceptual enjoyment of the public aesthetics, but also maintain vigilance on the excessiveness of it; it should not only stay clear-minded to the depression of rational, but also seek the possibility of trumping rational.The value diversion of the utility of aesthetics is reflected in the introspection to the previous value orientation and the proposal of utilitarian value orientation. Firstly, we should introspect to the theory-only thoughts, and seek to the real world. Its philosophic factor is habits of the aesthetic researches on the essentialism. It mainly means the excessive entanglement with category, and regarding the essence of it as the target. We have not been open to the reality and practice, which include aesthetic freedom, aesthetic equality and the public life. Secondly, we should introspect to the elite legislation, and seek to the cultural explanation. The elite legislation on the aesthetics hasn’t fully considered the public’s aesthetic practices. They are used to making the aesthetic imagination in the place of the public.As a result, the public cannot feel the aesthetics and the connection between it and the public is being further and further. Therefore, the aesthetics should be explained. The explanation of the aesthetic should be an explorative explanation instead of the elite one which is dictatorial. What we are seeking is the legitimacy of the diversity of explanation, instead of the authority of a single explanation. Thirdly, we should introspect to the creative-oriented freedom, and seek to the protective-oriented freedom. The creative-oriented freedom is to realize the freedom by publicizing the perceptual life, and the protective-oriented freedom is to realize the freedom by restricted rationalization and consciousness. The former seeks the surpassing without foundation, while the latter seeks the criticism after the failing of surpassing. In such a era of popular culture, the protective-oriented freedom of aesthetic utility can be more realistic.Pointing out the development direction of utility of aesthetics theory is a significant opportunity to explore and reconstruct related important theory resources. Firstly, the development direction is pragmatism. Pragmatism aesthetics theory regards the helpfulness and effectiveness of aesthetics theory as the utmost purpose, while abandoning the metaphysical paradigm to research aesthetics. Pragmatism highly praises edifying philosophy and criticizes systematic philosophy. Pragmatism advocates post-philosophical culture so as to dismantle philosophy culture-enlightenment, redemption and irony are the most important routes to achieve utility of aesthetics.Secondly, the development direction is communication. Due to the gap between aesthetic research and the public aesthetic practice, utility of aesthetics unfolds the feature of communication diversion. The gap is featured with the different monologues of elite’s discourse and plebeian’s discourse, however, the limited media and limited populist line make it possible to break down barriers and walk out from monologues. Thirdly, the development direction is criticism. Criticism is aimed at avoiding one-dimensional aesthetic practice, and its objects include consumption ideology, technicism ideology, entertainment ideology, and body ideology. The realistic significance of critical theory is focus on the reality of people, cope with the dilemma in reality and consistently endeavor to find out a better destination for people, no matter it is a utopia or a realistic way out.According to the description to the popular cultural practice, we could get to know the utility of aesthetics in the production, communication and the process of reception of the popular culture. The maximum value of the assembly line work of the popular culture is that it realizes the maximum of the accessibility of the popular culture.However, there are also concerns about the MacDonaldization of the cultural production. In the communication process of the popular culture, the media realized its power-oriented transforming by the cooperation with the authority and capital. Such a situation appeals alert and boycott through a "critical media pedagogy". The utilitarian tendency of the popular’s aesthetic acceptance has been increasingly emerging, and it was reflected through the self-fulfilling impulse, utilitarian reading, the function of identification and the needs of entertainments.In the practical process of these aesthetic utility, it’s very important to realize the possibility and restriction of the meaning reproduction, which will be further discussed in this paper. |
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