Emmanuel Alloa

photo

 emmanuel.alloa@unifr.ch
 +41 26 300 7511
 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1919-5074

Biography

Emmanuel Alloa is Full Professor of Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art at the University of Fribourg since 2019. He studied philosophy, history and art history in Freiburg (D), Padua, Berlin and Paris. In 2009, he received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Paris I-Panthéon and the Free University of Berlin with a binational dissertation. He taught at the Département d'arts plastiques of Paris 8, as well as at the Collège international de Philosophie, held a postdoc position at the NCCR Image Criticism eikones (Basel), and worked as assistant professor of philosophy at the University of St. Gallen. Various visiting professorships and fellowships have taken him to diverse international institutions such as the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies at Columbia University (New York), Universidad San Nicolás de Hidalgo (Mexico), UFMG Belo Horizonte (Brazil), IKKM at Bauhaus University Weimar, University of Vienna, Turin and UC Berkeley. His work has received several awards, including the 2016 Latsis Prize and the 2019 Aby Warburg Wissenschaftspreis.

Emmanuel Alloa currently serves as Deputy President of the German Society for Aesthetics.

 

Personal Page with selection of texts (academia.edu)

Research and publications

  • Publications
    326 publications

    Attraverso l'immagine. Una fenomenologia dei media visuali
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Milano: Meltemi, 2025), ISBN: 9791256150670 | Book

    La résistance du sensible. Merleau-Ponty critique de la transparence
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Paris: Vrin, 2025), ISBN: 978-2-7116-3221-3 | Book

    Rezistența sensibilului. Merleau-Ponty și critica transparenței
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Bucarest: R&R, 2025), ISBN: 978-630-6657-23-0 | Book

    视角的分享
    Alloa, Emmanuel (2024), ISBN: 978-7-5473-2268-0 | Book

    The Share of Perspective
    Alloa, Emmanuel (New York-London: Routledge, 2024), ISBN: 978-1-03-273918-2 | Book

    Repartos de la perspectiva
    Alloa, Emmanuel, ed. by Bórquez, Zeto (Santiago de Chile: Palinodia, 2023) | Book

    Um novo TranparentoCeno?
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Florianopolis: Zazie Ediçoes, 2022), ISBN: 978-87-93530-50-8 | Book

    O Corpo da Imagem. A Imagem do Corpo
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Porto Alegre: Editora Zouk, 2021), ISBN: 9786557780534 | Book

    Looking through images: a phenomenology of visual media
    Alloa, Emmanuel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2021), ISBN: 978-0-231-18792-3 978-0-231-18793-0 | Book

    Partages de la perspective
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Paris: Fayard, 2020), ISBN: 978-2-213-71663-3 | Book

    Das durchscheinende Bild. Konturen einer medialen Phänomenologie
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Zürich: Diaphanes, 2018), ISBN: 978-3-03734-119-3 | Book

    感性的抵抗
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Fujian Education Press, 2017) | Book

    Resistance of the Sensible World. An Introduction to Merleau-Ponty
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Fordham University Press, 2017), ISBN: 978-0-8232-7568-7 | Book

    La resistencia de lo sensible. Merleau-Ponty. Crítica de la transparencia
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Buenos Aires: Nueva Visión, 2009) | Book

    La résistance du sensible. Merleau-Ponty critique de la transparence
    Alloa, Emmanuel (Paris: Kimé, 2008) | Book

  • Research projects

    A Husserlian Theory on the World of the Work of Art
    Status: Ongoing

    Start 01.10.2025
    End 30.09.2026
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    In contemporary aesthetics and literary theory, the idea of the world of work of art or the world of text (in its broadest sense) is mainly associated with Paul Ricoeur, the French phenomenologist and philosopher. According to Ricoeur, every work of art projects a possible world that, while connected to our common intersubjective world, is a world upon itself with its horizons of possibilities, logic, laws, and relations. It is a world within the world, so to speak. From this perspective, the experience of a work of art involves living and dwelling in the world it opens up (a kind of being-in-the-world in the Heideggerian sense) and deciphering what is going on in this world. While acknowledging Ricoeur's significant contribution to the development and configuration of the idea of the world of work of art/ text, I argue that in the rich tradition of phenomenology, decades before him, many traces of this idea can be found in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl. The importance of Husserl in aesthetics has been recognized only in recent decades, particularly after the publication of the English translation of volume 23 of the Husserliana Collection under the title of Phantasy, Image Consciousness, and Memory. In this extensive book, which explores topics such as image theory, phantasy, aesthetic experience, and ontology of art, Husserl provides many valuable insights that contribute to a theory of the world of work of art. He often refers to this world as a Phantasiwelt (phantasy world), and considers it a possible world, a quasi-world, or a “world as it were”. This world, characterized as a “realm of shadows”, a realm of fiction (in its general sense), or an “as-if world”, is, in Husserl's view, a product of all kinds of modifications of perception by artists and audiences, and, as a horizon of possible experiences, maintains a network of relations with our real common intersubjective world. Husserl sees this world as a vast sphere of freedom, emphasizing its optional character and the horizons of its indeterminacy. He also clarifies the different possible relations between this world and the audience of a work of art. The main argument of my project is that by carefully examining Husserl's remarks, particularly in the book mentioned above, one can develop a theory about the world of work of art that anticipates Ricoeur's version in many crucial aspects, including even terminology. Therefore, I intend to articulate and formulate such a theory within the context of Husserl’s phenomenological approach and demonstrate its significance within the phenomenological ontology of art.

    Medien der Künste/Künste der Medien. XII. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ästhetik
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.08.2024
    End 31.10.2024
    Funding SNSF  Open project sheet
    Im September 2024 wird die wissenschaftliche Konferenz Medien der Künste/Künste der Medien an der Universität Fribourg ausgetragen. Es handelt sich dabei um den zwölften Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ästhetik. Die DGÄ ist eine 1993 gegründete wissenschaftliche Fachgesellschaft, die sich die Erforschung und Förderung philosophischer Ästhetik im deutschsprachigen Raum zum Zweck gesetzt hat. Mit über 700 Mitgliedern ist sie die grösste Ästhetik-Gesellschaft in Europa. Obwohl viele ihrer Mitglieder in der Schweiz tätig sind, war in der dreissigjährigen Geschichte der Gesellschaft noch nie ein Kongress auf Schweizer Boden ausgetragen worden. Für 2021 war geplant gewesen, den Kongress zum Thema Ästhetik und Erkenntnis in Zürich durchzuführen, doch pandemiebedingt konnte die Veranstaltung lediglich virtuell durchgeführt werden. Dass der Kongress nun auch physisch in die Schweiz kommt, ist eine doppelte Chance: Für die in der Schweiz arbeitenden Forscher:innen aus der Philosophie, aber auch aus den angrenzenden Kunst-, Literatur- und Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften, die damit die Gelegenheit erhalten, sich mit einer breiten Palette der neuesten Forschung aus dem europäischen Ausland auf dem Gebiet der Ästhetik vertraut zu machen. Umgekehrt besteht jedoch auch die Chance für den Schweizer bzw. speziell Freiburger Standort, sich als unumgängliche Umschlagstelle für die ästhetische und kunstphilosophische Reflexion zu präsentieren.

    SINERGIA Aerial Spatial Revolution
    Status: Completed

    Start 01.04.2024
    End 31.03.2026
    Funding SNSF 

    Ranging from the eve of 20th century to the present day, the collaborative project focuses on the material and imaginary effects on the city, architecture and territory. The study is structured along three interconnected axes: ‘aero-vision’, ‘aero-planning’ and ‘aero-politics’. The first axis analyzes the epistemological and phenomenological significance of the vision from above, be it human or artificial. The second studies the far-reaching effects on architecture, planning and landscape. The third axis focuses on the spatial-political effects of air control, all the way to the impact of satellite and drone imagery.
    This project brings together experts in urban planning and architecture, aesthetics, visual media theory and political philosophy and sets up a collaborative research between the SUPSI, the University of Fribourg and the OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. With a wide depth of field and a broad time span covered, the genealogical method will allow to identify the epistemological patterns, visual codes and symbolic effects that have oriented the development of the aerial space revolution up until now

Teaching and courses

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A partnership with la Mobilière Cooperative.