Videos and CNN Article Reviews!

1.         The video, “Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts” spoke strongly about the idea of beauty of art, and how it is shown through many senses. Aesthetics is the study of beauty and art. One of the man philosophers spoken of was Plato. He didn’t hold a strong opinion on art itself.

            The video Carta addresses many different concepts. One being that art is a constant evolution. The video also talks about how culture plays a significant role in universal art. Works of art can be defined as artifacts, or human productions specialized for inter subjective communication that uses symbolic forms. Consensus Partum is the universal search for harmony. Exemplum is the artists’ attempt to share his conception of the world.

            The CNN article discussed different ways that our brain perceives artwork. The human brain is wired in such a way that we can make sense of lines, colors and patterns on a flat canvas. Artists throughout human history have figured out ways to create illusions such as depth and brightness that aren't actually there but make works of art seem somehow more real.

2.         Francis Hutcheson is a philosopher’s idea that I enjoy most! He was from the late 1600’s and early 1700’s. Hutcheson helped move aesthetics from theories about Beauty and Harmony, as characteristics of the world, to theories about the experience of the viewer. This eighteenth century shift is the source of all the theories about "the aesthetic sense" that have developed since the beginning of the eighteenth century. The idea of Beauty, according to Hutcheson, is actually the idea of a certain experience of pleasure that we have when we look at or listen to certain things. The sense of beauty Hutcheson and his contemporaries called “taste”. That which arouses the pleasurable experience we call Beauty, according to Hutcheson, is the perception of "unity in difference".

3.  Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art are both different and comparative. Changeux breaks his presentation up into two parts, the processing of the visual image and the rules of art. Whereas, Ramachandran’s point of art is to deliberately alter the image to produce pleasing effects of the human brain. He also uses the eight laws of aesthetics. These were quite interesting to me. The eight laws being; grouping or binding, peak shift principle, contrast, isolating of a single cue to optimally excite cortical visual areas, perceptual problem solving, symmetry, abhorrence of unique vantage points and suspicious coincidences and art acting as a metaphor.

4.         The videos, and the article all relate back to the textbook. The first three chapters discuss why artists do art; they discuss different themes of art, and most importantly, aesthetics. The beauty and harmony of art is discussed in all three of these sources.

5.         After reading the three chapters, I gained a lot of knowledge of art. I also learned what aesthetics was. Although I took an IB art class in high school, I have never heard of this term. The two videos and the CNN article only added to that knowledge. It is always important to learn knowledge in multiple ways. Besides reading, visuals, and audios help to grasp a full understanding of the material.