Video Review

1.)

The videos and article help to further explain the concept, theories and origins of art and aesthetics.  The first video Aesthetics: Philosophy of arts goes through several theories of aesthetics throughout history.  It helps to promote the fact that art and the ideas surrounding has a history that has evolved its meaning and concepts.  The theorists showed in this video all have proposed different perspectives on aesthetics and what it means to have produce a work of art. 

The Second video, Carta: Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics, shows two speakers and their views on aesthetics.  The first speaker helps to explain how conscious and non-conscious reading and processing influences the way in which we view art.  He proposes rules including; the constant search for the unanticipated and the universal search for harmony that help to explain how art is created.  The second speaker helps to explain how our brain influences how art is created and viewed.  He uses examples of how are brains are constantly trying to process information by grouping certain images together.

            The article much like the video explains how our brain influences how we feel about art.  The author explains how artists use lines, faces, color and luminance to make their art appealing to the viewer.  At the end of the article the author specifically point out how popular the study of emotion is becoming in regards to art.  This branch of neuroscience is likely to keep expanding and help to show how art can impact our feelings and emotions.

2)

The artist’s theory on aesthetics that I found to be most important was Marty Keitz.  Around 1956, Keitz proposed a theory that held that there are no necessary requirements that make something a work of art.  During this century cubism, pop art, and many other different forms of art that hadn’t been previously created dominated the art world. His idea held that because there are so many things that we may call art, art is not always necessarily going to be beautiful.

3)

I felt that Ramachandran and Changeux’s presentations on arts and aesthetics were extremely interesting.  I’ve only taken one other art course during my college career, and I never really thought about why certain artworks appeal to me more then others.  Ramachandran brings out an example of a sculpture of a woman that was perceived as beautiful by one culture in the east, but seen negatively by a culture in the West.  This was really interesting to me because it helps show how art can mean different things for different people.  Changeux’s also gets into how our view of art is influenced by both the conscious and unconscious processes in our brain. I found this very interesting because it helps to explain how our unconscious mind can influence what we see as beautiful or pleasing.

4)

            The videos and article relate to the text in many ways.  One way is that they help to form a better idea on the role of aesthetics in art.  The book does go over aesthetics but these videos and article help to give other perspectives of what aesthetics is.  They also help to expand on the information presented in the textbook because they further explain the evolution of art and what art is made up of.  In particular, they help to encourage the point that not all art is beautiful, and these words should not be intertwined.

5)

I found the article and videos extremely interesting, but because I do not have a very extensive background in the art world I did find myself confused at points.  The video in particular was a little difficult to understand with the first speaker.  It would have been helpful if I could have read along with what they were saying, just because much of the information they were displaying was very new to me.