Skip to main content

Aesthetics + Creativity

Aesthetics + Creativity


This week we we're assigned two videos and an article to read, all dealing with aesthetics and creativity, and how they tie into what we consider art. Below I will review what I've learned from each source and extrapolate on how I understood the material. 

First up is the CNN article on the neuroscience of art and aesthetics; "What the brain draws from: Art and neuroscience". This article talks about why + how: we recognize art, and its ability to please us. The most easily recognized form in art is faces, in fact we seek them out. "Our brains have a special affinity for faces and for finding representations of them..." This phenomenon occurs in everything, from modern-day emojis, to Impressionist paintings where a discreet patch of color may be recognized as a face. 
The other thing our brains recognize more easily then would be thought are lines. Lines are a made-up thing, so how can they be assembled into a recognizable form? Though life in reality does not have our surroundings outlined with black lines, this drawing technique can recognizably resemble depth due to the way our brains interpret light and dark next to each other in a way that defines the shapes of our everyday life.

Next I will discuss the "Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts" video. This video talks about the roots of aesthetics, and the differences between art and beauty. The philosophical study of art and beauty began in 5th Century Athens with the theories of Plato and Aristotle. Whereas the study of aesthetics (as we recognize it today) didn't begin until much later in 18th Century England. The first belief about aesthetics was the notion of Romanticism and the belief that great art could only be made by great artists who were born with natural talent, this is also referred to as the 'Genius Artist' theory. This theory stated that art was a talent and not a skill and therefore could not be taught. The theories on art and aesthetics then began to evolve in to the Expression theory states that art is the expression of emotion.

 Finally I will discuss the "CARTA: Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics: Neurobiology, Neurology and Art and Aesthetics" video. This video talks about the origins of art being the discovery of tools because it was the alteration of something already existing into something else with a new purpose. This then led to the discovery of symmetry and the making of items for purely aesthetic reasons.

 These videos help develop the text by going more in depth about different ideas of the origins of art. They help engage us students in a different way however I felt the readings were much easier to digest than the videos but I appreciated the way that it developed what was in the text. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Visual Culture Art Education (VCAE) Blog Posting

Visual Cu lture Art Education (VCAE)  Blog Posting: In your own words, what does Visual Culture mean to you, how would you define it? Visual Culture is the collection of imagery that we as a society hold in regard as important. What are the most important things discussed that are still relevant today in regards to Art Education and Visual Culture? I think the idea of sharing personal experiences with students was an important issue discussed. Because not only can students "learn from your mistakes", I think this also helps ground you as a human to your students.  Have you heard of "Zines" before?  Yes, they're frequently talked about and respected in the photography community. I actually own a few, including a great book called "Making Stuff and Doing Things" which is a collection of zines.  What do you think about the Zine Library? I think its a good idea, they show an excerpt of a culture, traditionally of alternative group, which wil
Post a Comment
Read more

Guernica

Guernica + Me Pablo Picasso's piece Guernica was created in 1937, as a reaction to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Upon first viewing the piece it appears to be a greyscale painting, but when view with a more careful eye, grays become blue, and shed light onto the sadness Picasso felt about this tragedy. But the piece did more than shed light onto how Picasso felt about the war, it exposed the world to the war as the piece went on a brief tour to bring publicity and hopefully aid to the war. This piece grand scale also speaks to how heavily this war affected not only Picasso but the public of Spain. It also happens to be painted in oil paints, which wasn't unusual for the time period, but it speaks to the effort that Picasso went into painting this piece, as oil takes an extremely long time to dry and therefore is quite precarious to use.   The other assignment we were tasked with this week was creating a self-portrait. Spring is coming. Self-Po
Post a Comment
Read more

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator For this assignment we were asked to talk about the most important facts from each video. In the first video I felt the most important information shared was the explanation of a vector and how it is different from other images. For the subsequent reading I felt the most interesting information/relevant to my use was the preset options for document size and that there are mobile presets for Apple products. For the next video I felt the most useful piece of information was the ability to have multiple artboard on one (giant) canvas, as well as how to easily navigate between them. For the next reading, I believe the most helpful tip shared was the way of changing the number of sides for using the live polygon tool.  For the brush stroke video I felt the most useful information was that you can alter the appearance of already defined paths using the brushstroke tool. Overall I feel like all of these videos and reading were very valuable for someone just learning Illus
Post a Comment
Read more