Aesthetics students,
I welcome you to this blogsite for a new year of active participation in the matters of aesthetic experience. Please scroll down and open past years of dialog and postings to see just how rich a subject aesthetics is---notice the insightful comments your fellow students (many now graduated) have made.
I now ask you to make your mark, add your line and contribute to the ongoing discussion about the meta-esthetic world our five senses presents to us when we are consciously aware of our own states and modes of awareness.
Aesthetics means more than anything else being in touch with our marvelous faculties and refining our ability to access our sensory world, mindful that they are our bridge-- linking us to one another and to our external and internal worlds.
I also welcome Dr. Joe Ferguson who will also be posting and regularly participating in our weekly discussions.
Bill Havlicek PhD
21 comments:
Hi all, I'm looking forward to this class in hopes that it will help me refine some concepts I've been exploring for future paintings.
I watched the series on beauty and found it to be very insightful. I would agree that we live in a very utilitarian society in which I think our (western) consumer culture has dealt with beauty as a commodity by turning it into something that can essentially be bought and sold, based purely on form (par).
The things mentioned in the series that really resonated with me dealt with beauty on a more 'meta' esthetic basis. Platonic ideas, such as beauty is something to be contemplated and not possessed, look deeper into the human connection in which beauty can be realized. I liked Kant's way of experiencing beauty best. He said that in order to see to the heart of things we have to put our interests aside and absorb things as they are. I feel that this is also speaks directly to the purpose of Realism.
I watched the video of the a cappella group Perpetuum Jazzile perform "Africa". I was fascinated by the intro (more so than the rest of the song) because of the amazing and uncanny ability for the group to recreate the sounds of a thunderstorm.
The origins of music started in the recreating of sounds heard in nature, and this video certainly showed that inspiration.
I have never been too much of a fan of Van Gogh's work. His story to me is more interesting than his work. What I do enjoy if anything of his are his portraits and self-portraits. I feel that a lot of his work which attempts to show his inner turmoil doesn't really succeed for me personally - but I do get it from his portraits. The penetrating gaze at the center of an ordered chaos of color is quite captivating. You get a sense of how he saw the world most of all in how he saw himself and other people.
Of course all of this can easily change if I see his works close-up, which I never have. I always liked Tolouse-Latrec's work, for example, but I never really 'felt' how dynamic and interesting it really was 'till I saw his drawings at the museum, along with several of the massive original posters. In my experience books never really do justice at all to actually seeing the work in a gallery or museum, therefore all my opinions and assumptions about the artist have to be taken as artificial and abstract.
I agree with Averi on looking forward to this class and having some lively inspection of my ideals through others perspective.
I also watched the video on beauty about 6 moths ago and even though it was coming from a place that i could identify with. That post modernism and a lot of what we are being shown to be of our own is out side the context of human experience. I did not agree with its view on concentrating its own ideals of what is beautiful as that which was exemplified by a group of peoples from a particular part of the world and time frame- that of a "white" European view of the world. I think it is important to understand and study work in the realist fashion that was taken to a pinnacle of expression centuries past, but at the same time have our eyes open to the world of today and realize that we are not those people and that if those approaches of expression were right for them, it doesn't mean they are the best suited for today.
We live in a world were various other cultures histories have shown us other just as important and relevant aspirations of beauty that do not follow realism. The abstracted figures and animals of the Inca comes to mind, as do countless others. As much as I like listening to classical music or seeing artwork from Renaissance or French Academy masters I cannot attempt to try to understand my world through their eyes or ears. Give me crickets singing in an open field, rain drops falling on a dusty patch of ground, a sunset sinking past an island by the sea.
ee
Really looking forward to this class, cant wait to dive into the Aesthetics of fine art and contemporary digital age. I've been surfing around the blog and noticed that there is a lot of very valuable information. I found the post about the Human Face to be very interesting. Also the portrait shots of Van Gogh, its interesting to see that in the beginning of his portraits he is facing right then slowly towards the end of his life he chooses to slowly explore his face towards the left view and then back to the right. I wonder if that is significant or just a coincidence that he preferred his previous aesthetic when he started painting his self portrait or his knack for doing numerous studies to reach a personal goal.
The African Thunderstorm video was just plan cool! Its amazing that a group of people can get such realistic sounds of nature. The male and female post was great too, kind of obvious the differences we have in aesthetics though.
One of the main things I want to walk away from this class is a better understanding of the Aesthetics surrounding why we as humans buy certain things purely because of the design on the label, and the hidden message that our brains receive that make us determine why we like minimal design like those of bauhaus and the modernist movements of the swiss. The use of a serif font, versus a san serif font.
- jordan minardi
Hi there everyone,
I am happy to be taking this course finally. I have always pondered on the subject of aesthetics and am looking forward to an in depth dialogue about it, with people who are as interested in the subject as I am. Attending art school has indeed taught me that beauty can be measured. I was aware of the golden means but, the segment on faces brought me to an even better understanding of the ratio we feel represents beauty.
The concept that our sensory experiences make up our memories as explained to CR in 2008 solidified my feelings about how I want my art to fully encompass the viewer almost like a installation piece, featuring sensations beyond pure visuals. I think at this moment the best solution for this kind of goal would be what one experiences at Disneyland. Walt wanted the viewer to have "sensory overload" when going through one of his rides. What if we made rides that brought viewers into our art? I am certain they would have an unforgettable experience.
Van Goghs' portraits have always fascinated me, the emotion portrayed intrigues with immediacy. His portraits, like so many others capture what most human beings fail to see in their most fleeting of moments. While watching the series on beauty I immediately think of portrait painting, and what it means to really see someone at their core and not simply satisfy by skimming the surface. Through our own lens we satisfy our deepest desire to look. In a sense, our lens becomes a mirror of our own complexity, unusual beauty and human emotion. When it comes to beauty, and the perceived notion of what beauty means to each of us, portrait painting allows our lens to pay attention to both the uniqueness and sameness that constantly attracts or deters us and gives room for any and all possibilites with an open ended result for the viewer.
The video on Beauty was really interesting to me, but it made me a little depressed. Even when they were pointing out the 1:1.618 formula for a perfect face the mask they created seemed to have more of a western standard of beauty.
I liked that at the end that they acknowledged that your beauty last for only so long and that in the end your personality does come in to play. You can't buy personality like you can with plastic surgery. The balance between looks and personality really does show the longevity of your own personal beauty.
The 8 first comments are all valuable. Each reveal an underlying concern on the part of the writer. What I appreciate the most in each of these comments however is the genuine interest evident in the bigger subject namely-- Aesthetics itself.
We have wonderful resources at hand to look seriously into the rich realm revealed to us through our 5 senses and gaining a greater appreciation of the many layered meanings that Common Sense Experience provides us---this then is the core of our study of Aesthetics.
Descartes the thinker said that COMMON SENSE was above all using all 5 senses in common -- that conscious awareness is the foundation of insightful living and the beginning of the Metaesthetic view.
Thanks for your comments! I look forward to more.
Hi all ,
Really looking forward to this class and to read all the texts there is to read about the aesthetics of a painting , what has all the painters and thinkers before me has said about what I have been studying all this time. I am really excited to digest some of the texts with the whole class . I have been reading the painters on paint as well as Susan Sontag on art and a minute ago finished watching the beauty series . I found myself questioning Robert Raushenberg when he said that ".. and its always the moment of doing that counts . When a painting is finished its already something i have done and no longer something i am doing , and it is not so interesting anymore . " I agree with this statement immensely. Also in-my reading of Susan Sontag she points out that Nietzsche (rightly ) says that " there are no facts . only interpretations " . When we started class last week we all had different and vague ideas about what is to come and this weeks readings of that has confirmed to me that the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. When two people looks at the same painting simultaneously the experience that they will share , their interpretations will never be the same , as our take on aesthetics .
FIKRIYE OZMERAL-GIBSON
Dear Fikriye,
I am very pleased that you are looking into Sontag and other thinkers already. We will look very seriously into the question of personal preferences (yes we all have different ones to an extent) and into the issue of cultural and innate agreed upon aesthetic responses that come into the realm of the Collective Unconscious which thinkers like Carl Jung wrote about.
I would encourage you to watch the segments of "The Human Face" that are loaded here on this blog. Note especially the stunning statistical ranking of faces which appears in the film which reveals that over 90% of all peoples of all cultures and and ages agree on the issue of beauty of the human face.
Keep up the good work and the range of reading you are doing that is very impressive!
Hey there LCAD Aesthetics!
Well, I just spent some time watching the Jon Cleese series on Beauty and found it incredibly fascinating. Especially in relation to the golden rule and the plastic surgeon's creation of an idealistic human face mask made up of triangles that fit a mathematical ideal.
I've always reverted to mathematics in nature when I needed to create something appealing. When I design using the Modern Aesthetic (one of the most popular styles used today), symmetry and clean layouts are big parts of the design look. Relating this design theory to the theory of beauty in the human face as demonstrated in the video makes perfect sense.
Hello Everyone,
I'm really looking forward to grasping a whole new understanding to aesthetics and how beauty is translated and perceived.
The VanGogh Portrait video was intense, too see his paintings portrayed in animated way is a brilliant way to view his work.
I started watching the series on Beauty and found it really interesting. The thought of not caring what something looks like and only what it can do, really disheartens me, no wonder suburban homes now look all the same.
Trace
Hello Everyone,
I'm really looking forward to grasping a whole new understanding to aesthetics and how beauty is translated and perceived.
The VanGogh Portrait video was intense, too see his paintings portrayed in animated way is a brilliant way to view his work.
I started watching the series on Beauty and found it really interesting. The thought of not caring what something looks like and only what it can do, is really disheartening and that beauty is seen as a convenient commodity when beauty is to be examined and not possessed.
Trace and all-- Your observations are important and expressing them verbally equally important.
What we can already discern in the range of your comments is that there are both Universal responses in Cosmological Aesthetics and also private aesthetic preferences--- they both exist.
What we will be working at in this semester is the relationship between time-tested experiences of beauty verses fads and hyper-personal fantasy.
The extremes: between what Nature provides in abundance verses shifting cultural and personal trends, gimmicks and compulsions.
There are some fascinating meeting or melting places where these extremes can overlap as in culturally-based aesthetic tradition, myth, storytelling etc.
Hi Everyone!
I'm excited about being in a class dedicated to the exploration of Aesthetics, and I'm eager to gain new perspectives in looking at art and beauty.
I watched The Human Face videos and found the documentary to be very interesting and entertaining. It was especially interesting to see the judgement of whether a face is beautiful or not simplified down to whether it fits the golden ratio. Although the golden ratio is fascinating, I think it can only be the deciding factor in beauty if we exist in an isolated world where social, cultural, political (etc) factors do not exist. I think even if we, for the sake of discussion, agree that a person is born with some underlying, natural acceptance that the golden ratio determines beauty in a face, we still have to consider all the factors of "nurture" before determining what shapes an individual or group's physical aesthetics. People's upbringing, social interactions, culture, class, etc. may lead them to deviate away from these "natural" standards of beauty. For example, in the Elizabethan period, women plucked their hairlines back to create longer foreheads. In the Renaissance, a plump face was considered more desirable. Indigenous women in New Zealand tattoo their lips a bluish color because it is considered more beautiful.
The documentary mentions that, "babies spent more time looking at adults with smooth skin, big eyes, and full lips," and that shows how significant beauty is to us. However, I wonder if the babies in the experiment looked at those specific faces longer simply because they had similar physical characteristics to themselves.
Also, even though infants can prefer their mother's face over another face because they can distinguish specific shapes, I wonder if they are really making that aesthetic choice visually. Infants have weak eyesight but stronger hearing, and can distinguish voices even as fetuses. I wonder if an infant aesthetically prefers their mother's face because that is the source of the sound that they find comfort in. I think it's really important to consider the contribution of more senses than just sight. I agree with "laramclaughlin" that it would be dynamic creating art, "featuring sensations beyond pure visuals."
Hi,
I am excited to start a new semester here at LCAD. I really enjoyed our first class. I have never really though about the history behind Van Gogh's sunflower painting. It was great to get some insight about the piece and learn how Van Gogh was as a person. I look forward to learning more in this class.
In exploring the blog I came across an entry about the aesthetic differences between men and women in art. I have looked at gender differences in behavior as well as dress. It never occurred to me that these differences would extend to appeal in art. Now that I have been made aware of this I am starting to see the differences. I hope this class continues to expand my knowledge and way of thinking about art.
Samantha Willson
really looking forward to history of representational painting, bill. i feel like it's vital to study the history and the concerns of what and how the past represented things and how it has constantly rediscovered itself. or at least the people within their time found their meaning to paint.
at a school where so much is focused on just the act of representing, it'll be great to see the historical links that caused different ways of representing through paint. i'd like to learn about all that in more depth. as well as investigating the lineage of how artists comprehended the world we live in through paint and what that means today.
roger scrutin says, "i think we are losing beauty.. and there is a danger that with it, we will lose the meaning of life". did we as humans ever know the meaning of life to begin with? isn't that the beauty of life?
-jason nam
Hi, This is Nicole Williams.
I watched the Van Gogh clip and really injoyed it. Praticularly because I Enjoy his work. I never used to like the work cause in my mind it wasent eggy or it was to "old lady house painting" for me. But thrue school I Enjoyed learning about Van Gogh and his stories why he painted the way he did and why he paintined what he did.
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