Serra, Ilaria

Amid the rapid advancements in clinical aesthetics, there lies an intricate gap between the artistic and sensory experience of facial aesthetics and the technical approach of medical sciences. As the field of clinical aesthetics veers further into the realm of the ideal, tensions arise between patient expectations and the practitioner's delivery. Central to this issue is the growing reliance on technology, which often overlooks the immediate sensory experience crucial for aesthetic satisfaction. Drawing inspiration from the arts and humanities, this dissertation introduces "Phenoesthetics" as an epistemological bridge, harmonizing the seemingly disparate domains of sensory experience and scientific analysis. By using visual art, particularly the composite works of the Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, as an illustrative tool, this work seeks to elucidate the dual nature of facial aesthetics perception: the universal, tangible forms and the more abstract, cultural interpretations. By weaving together elements from the arts, humanities, and sciences, this study propounds a Phenoesthetics approach — a comprehensive method designed to enhance understanding and communication in clinical aesthetics. The aim is to provide practitioners with a robust framework, fostering more aligned expectations and improving satisfaction rates in the field of aesthetic medicine.

This dissertation aims to contextualize the self-taught Sicilian born artist, Tom DiSalvo (1947-2011) among contemporary artists of Italian extraction. It investigates a selection of his corpus of over 300 works of art spanning four decades as an integral contribution to Italian diasporic scholarship. The primarily large-scale paintings, enhanced with underlying textual layers and semiotic translations of famous works of art, reveal distinct ties to American, Italian and hybrid patterns of ethnicity. Much of his work remains unknown in scholarly and public circles, due in part to the limited canon of Italian diasporic visual art (with the exception of film) and to DiSalvo’s own disapproval of the commodification of his art. The project originated with the classification of the artist’s personal artifacts and the interpretation of his canvases displayed in both public and private spaces. The methodology employed in this dissertation is as unique and multifaceted as its topic. I depart from paintings to reveal the man behind the canvas, thanks to the voices and memories of friends and family on both sides of the ocean, anchoring my findings to the foundation of scholarly discussions, and theoretical and critical sources in the disciplines of hybrid cultural studies, Italian and Italian American art and literature, as well as outsider art to verify the intersections between DiSalvo and members of each of these communities.

The Arbëresh of Italy founded their communities in the 1400s when they were
forced to flee their homeland, Albania, as the country was conquered and ruled by the
Ottoman Empire. For centuries, they kept a close community in the Italian villages
preserving their language, culture, rituals and traditions. These elements have defined
them as “others” in the Italian community over the centuries, but today, they are better
described as Italians who also embrace the Arbëresh culture.
This dissertation explores the narratives of Arbëresh authors such as Carmine
Abate, Anna Stratigò, and Pino Cacozza, who have preserved glimpses of their culture in
their writings, thus creating an oasis that I call “the Arbëresh Utopia.” I situate them in
the larger context of Arbëresh history, and in the environment where their stories are
located. A recent research conducted through interviews in the Arbëresh towns of
Calabria, will add an important “lived” tassel of information, by exploring the Arbëresh
culture today in a state of what Michel Foucault calls heterotopia. After many years of
living in a closed community, the Arbëresh have learned to live by addition.

Globalization has become an agent of socioeconomic and communicative integration and today it envelops all aspects of human life. The quasi-immediate exchange of information that surpasses the now ancient barriers of time and space has triggered a sociocultural revolution with perceptible effects on the linguistic characteristics that are at the core of collective and individual identities. Among the most noticeable cultural changes are neologisms, which are often at the center of heated linguistic debates. Some claim that the increased use of neologisms in the Italian language is a natural component of the fluctuating nature of a language and that their use enriches it. Linguistic purists take a more conservative stance and view neologisms as a linguistic enemy who blurs the distinctive differences among languages and robs them of their uniqueness. Neologisms are a mirror of contemporary Italian society and their use entails an often subconscious support of certain social currents.