1. Aesthetics: Philosophy of Art- Aesthetics is the study of
beauty and art. Art does not imply the idea of beauty. They are very different things.
In these
videos and articles we study the philosophical side of art, and discuss beauty
from many different points of view from many famous artists. Ideas of
beauty occur through the senses. Plato did not trust many people, and believed
they did not know about many things that they spoke about, as he thought
philosophers knew more about reality. Aristotle rejected many of these ideas,
wrote a book, and analyzed tragedy. He believed that beauty meant order,
symmetry, and definiteness. Francis Hutcheson spoke about how there is no aesthetic
delight without good, or moral pleasure without good as “beauty and good are
one of the same.” He believed that humans had beauty and harmony. In order for
an aesthetic response to occur, humans must have some education and knowledge.
Kant thought that nature and freedom separated people apart. Moral freedom is
made possible by the aesthetic experience because it does not have laws and is
brought by imagination. Romanticists thought that art expressed what people
were or may become and saw it as a spiritual action as it was a reflection of
ideas. They did not think that we needed art any longer and that advances
should not occur. Hegel rejected many theories. Schopenhouer thought that art and the momentums were most
essential to art. Although some rejected his ideas, he felt it was a key part
to life and represented the will to live.
20th Century Aesthetics was the expression theory, that art
is the expression of emotion. Many movements changed the idea of art, and
beauty was forgotten in the 60s. Things changed with artists like Andy Warhol.
Boxes were being sold as “art” and it made people think about how making an
object from everyday life into art. Mainstream culture took over, and music,
films, comic, and science fiction are now acknowledged as art. We are
surrounded by art even in our television, novels, and many other things that
once were viewed as bad art, are now normal. Aesthetics is linked to society, and art helps with that.
CARTA: Changeux and Ramachandran viewed art in relation to the human brain.
Both of the speakers raised questions and points about the connection between
art and emotion, and how we react when dealing with certain types of art. Changeux
thinks that there is a genetic envelope to art and human aesthetic. This was
found with the discovery of tools over two million years ago, as well as the
discovery of symmetry. Another discovery was symbolism, and artistic
composition with homo-spaiens. He felt that art is “a human production,
artifact, used for communication. Uses non-verbal communication of emotional
states, and an experience of knowledge with codes. Art has staggering effects
on emotion and reason mobilizing conscious and non-conscious processes. Art is
a constant revolution. Art is done by the human brain with many different
processes. Our brain has many different pathways from the pre-frontal cortex
and it allows us to process and view colors, emotions, etc in all different
ways.
Ramachandran talked about the science of art. He said that he
avoids the word art, but instead they are “visual aesthetics.” He talks about
the 8 rules of art. He talks about how perception has to do with judgment. The
brain has many different areas for vision, as art works because there are so
many areas that process the image. The artist stimulates the brain and distorts
the image.
CNN- The brain recognizes aspects of art and illusions are
created to make art seem more real. The brain responds in certain ways to
lines, for example, as they are traced back all the way to Egyptians, and
monkeys too. There are not actually lines in the world outlining each object,
but we are able to understand when we see a drawing. Drawing faces are the same
way. When we make emoticons, they do not look like real faces, but the brain
can find ways to see representations of faces. In regards to color, artists
usually play with luminance to give three-dimensional illusions. Our brain does
not notice when shadows are not realistically placed, as our brain doesn’t
naturally calculate in that way. “There are certain aspects of art that seem
universally appealing, regardless of the environment or culture in which you
grew up.” Artists work with our brain, and can “hyperactivate” our neurons in
order to draw us in to certain aspects of art. More and more studies are being
done, and these works of art are being used to learn more and more about the
brain.
2. Plato- In Plato’s Republic he said that art is simply is a copy of a
copy. Plato did not trust poets because he did not believe that they truly know
about what they were talking about. Their role as poets (teachers) were to
educate the youth, but they did not know about what reality really was. Plato
believes that beauty is an erotic reaction. For example, Plato talks about
creating a bed in “The Republic.” Here he explains that making a bed from a
picture or another bed is not original art. This “artist” is instead not
creating something, but making a copy of a bed that already exists. I
appreciate the fact that Plato questioned, and wanted to find out true meanings
for him. This shows that Plato did in fact see the importance of art as well as
the potential it had on society to educate. He did not want people to be
distracted from what art really is, and he challenged in order to be sure that
the feelings we have with art are true and meaningful.
3. Changeux talks greatly about science with his research, and talks a
lot about brain development, including how emotions and feelings all work
together. I liked the part about the surprise of the brain imaging. He taught
that when we are surprised, the prefrontal cortex is activated, and this can
also be experienced when new pieces of art are viewed for the first time.
Ramachandran talked about science and art in relation to the brain. He
was able to use humor to capture the audience, which is always helpful for long
lectures in big groups. He was able to make his point about how human
perspective differs and how we are biased toward certain artists and paintings.
He showed two different pictures, and mentioned that many are drawn to the
first photo because of the artist, when in reality it was the second picture
that captured the most artist elements.
4. Aesthetics was mentioned in the video about how it attracts different
people to what they think is “beautiful.” Aesthetics is mentioned in the text
in regards to how we respond. The overall concept that I understand from the
text and readings is that aesthetics can be understood in a different way for
all different people. Senses can we aroused and feelings can be felt from
different works of art. The same work of art can cause a deep aesthetic
experience, and it can do nothing for someone else, again talking about how
beauty can be attractive for different people.
“There are certain aspects of art that seem
universally appealing, regardless of the environment or culture in which you
grew up.” As mentioned in the CNN article, and this is exactly what our text
discusses as “The human experience.” This concept explains that we can share
different feelings and experiences when we view a work of art regardless of
how, where, and when we grew up. Just being human allows you to feel certain
emotions and experiences. Beautiful forms in art appeal to many regardless.
5. The article helped out a lot, and the videos completely lost me due
to their length. The scientific video however did talk about how the brain is
stimulated with different works of art. This helped me to understand why
certain works are so appealing to us as human beings. As the Mona Lisa was
referenced in the CNN article, the artist purposely painted the mouth in a
certain way. The mouth can be seen as smiling depending on how the eyes and
brain are looking at her. I must admit that I am by no means a visual
learner, so I was able to get a lot more out of reading the article versus the
video. I had difficulty understanding the accents as well, so reading the text
instead of a lengthy video was very educational.
