Mario Costa (philosopher)

Mario Costa (born 7 December 1936, in Torre del Greco) is an Italian philosopher. He is known for his studies of the consequences of new technology in art and aesthetics, which introduced a new theoretical perspective through concepts such as the "communication aesthetics", the "technological sublime", the "communication block", and the "aesthetics of flux".

Early life and education

Career

Costa has had an extensive academic career. He has been Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Salerno and has taught Methodology and History of Literary Criticism at the University of Naples, and Ethics and Aesthetics of Communication at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis. He has authored some twenty books and numerous essays, published in Europe and America. In 1985, he founded Artmedia, the Laboratory of the Aesthetics of Media and Communication, at the University of Salerno, Department of Philosophy. As a director of Artmedia, he developed an intense activity of promotion of neo-technological art and contributed by arranging many conferences and events in Naples, Paris, Köln, Toronto, Tel Aviv and São Paulo.

Thought

His theoretical work followed two main paths of research: 1) the socio-political and philosophical interpretation of the 20th-century artistic avant-garde, and 2) the development of a philosophy of technique, through the analysis of the changes introduced by new technology into art and aesthetics.

* Following the first research path, since the 1960s, he provided philosophical and aesthetic interpretations of several avant-garde movements, in art and literature. Particularly relevant are his works on Marcel Duchamp, Lettrism,