The aim of the research program was to research the key issues of philosophy of art and philosophy of culture and to concentrate especially upon contemporary themes such as: the contemporary status of art, culture and visuality; the new media and technologies and related issues of aesthetics; the "end of art" thesis and the reduced import of art; the status and the nature of art in the former and present socialist countries and their common features; contemporary aesthetic theories (W. Welsch, P. Crowther, R. Shusterman, H. Paetzold, F. Jameson, G. Vattimo, A. Danto, etc.); the reactualization of the philosophy and the aesthetics of M. Merleau-Ponty; avant-garde art of the 20th century. With the help of critical philosophical analysis of the mentioned issues we developed and presented views on key contemporary phenomena in aesthetics and actively took part in central international scientific meetings on aesthetics, philosophy of art and culture and the new media and contemporary art. In this context aesthetics was interpreted as a segment of philosophical thought which under the contemporary temporal conditions of globalization, virtualization, visualization and of mass and consumer culture demands new theoretical approaches and the application of the most developed and advanced theories. One of the results of the work on the research program are various scientific monographs that have been published in Slovenia, the US, Austria, and China.