SEAN ColonnA

Drug Studies, Aesthetics, and the Decolonization of Subjectivity

To study drugs and the experiences they induce is to study the nature of human subjectivity, a central concern in aesthetic discourse. Common themes like taxonomies of pleasure, the relationship between desire and reason, and the value of self-transcendence emerge in both the study of aesthetics and drugs. In this talk, I explore these themes and demonstrate how theories and methods from drug studies can help decolonize Western aesthetics and reshape our understanding of human selfhood.
    Drawing from diverse disciplines such as anthropology and philosophy, I outline several methodological principles derived from the interdisciplinary field of drug studies. I argue that these principles are invaluable not just for the humanistic study of drugs and their cultures but also for understanding art and aesthetics more broadly. In the second part of my talk, I provide a comparative reading of eighteenth-century German writings on coffee and music. Inspired by Sylvia Wynter’s work on "the coloniality of being," my analysis examines both the fluidity of the aesthetic as a category of experience and how historical writings on music and coffee contributed to naturalizing and universalizing “Man” as the ideal version of the human.

Sean COLONNA is the Felicitas Thorne Postdoctoral Fellow in Music at Bard College, where he teaches a variety of courses related to music history as well as the First-Year Seminar. His dissertation, "Musical Aesthetics, Drugs and Subjectivity in Germany, 1770s–1820s," published in May of last year, examines theories of subjectivity as they are articulated in writings on music and drug-induced experiences in Germany during the turn to Romanticism. Some of this research can be found in expanded form in his 2021 article "Coffee and Music: Anthropotechnologies of the Enlightenment," published in The World of Music. His latest article, "Intoxication and Re-Enchantment in German Romantic Musical Aesthetics," is set to appear in The Musical Quarterly later this year. Additionally, Colonna has written on pedagogy and inclusivity in his essay "Using Mastery Objectives to Foster Inclusive Teaching," featured in the book Teaching Gradually (2021). He is currently working on a book project that examines the history of drug culture and musical aesthetics from the nineteenth century to the present.