This semester will be a richly interactive experience for us. Our class will extend outside the classroom onto this blog and Facebook. It is appropriate in studying the diverse subject of aesthetics to view it in multiple ways. We are living in an age that is above all aesthetically atuned.
I look forward to working with all of you and heightening our aesthetic perceptions. From time to time we want to welcome Dr. Joe Ferguson to our blogsite. He is a clinical psychologist with a passion for aesthetics; in fact, I am deeply grateful to Joe for formulating the HFAP, which you will soon discover to be a valuable aesthetic tool.
Welcome all,
Dr. Bill Havlicek
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
Back on the blog!
Dear Aesthetic students and friends,
2010 marks the third year that this blogsite has been open to dynamic discussion.
This year I want to invite all bloggers to share, consider and reflect back the
richly diverse ways in which aesthetic experiences occur. The sidebars have video segments from one of the finest examples of such diversity in the form of the human face and the fascinating ways in which we communicate thought and emotion through facial expressions. My thesis is a simple one, namely that in understanding more about how we use our faces we can better understand the perceptional framework by which we understand art and many other related things. Aesthetics is about perception, and in my view there is nothing closer than our faces that can bring perception closer to where we live and breathe. Please begin your immersion into the magical world of Aesthetics by watching these video segments from "The Human Face" where one serious point after another is ingeniously presented by comedian John Cleese.
2010 marks the third year that this blogsite has been open to dynamic discussion.
This year I want to invite all bloggers to share, consider and reflect back the
richly diverse ways in which aesthetic experiences occur. The sidebars have video segments from one of the finest examples of such diversity in the form of the human face and the fascinating ways in which we communicate thought and emotion through facial expressions. My thesis is a simple one, namely that in understanding more about how we use our faces we can better understand the perceptional framework by which we understand art and many other related things. Aesthetics is about perception, and in my view there is nothing closer than our faces that can bring perception closer to where we live and breathe. Please begin your immersion into the magical world of Aesthetics by watching these video segments from "The Human Face" where one serious point after another is ingeniously presented by comedian John Cleese.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Scanning the Blog
Dear aesthetically minded viewers:
I want to welcome you to this blogsite and encourage you to spool down through the many Postings and Comments. Hopefully, you will discover that the many topics on this blog are interesting and timely. I encourage you to add comments to any of the numerous Postings; especially those that were made a year or more ago. Simply title your comments with the title-- 'New Comments' and the current date will automatically be attached to it.
My students from past classes in Aesthetics are encouraged to stay in touch with us so they may respond to your response. I too of course constantly visit the site and manage it as best I can but the interesting thing about the site is that it has its own strange life in spite of my managing of it.
Read, spool, comment---keep the site alive with your fresh, creative input.
Bill Havlicek PhD
I want to welcome you to this blogsite and encourage you to spool down through the many Postings and Comments. Hopefully, you will discover that the many topics on this blog are interesting and timely. I encourage you to add comments to any of the numerous Postings; especially those that were made a year or more ago. Simply title your comments with the title-- 'New Comments' and the current date will automatically be attached to it.
My students from past classes in Aesthetics are encouraged to stay in touch with us so they may respond to your response. I too of course constantly visit the site and manage it as best I can but the interesting thing about the site is that it has its own strange life in spite of my managing of it.
Read, spool, comment---keep the site alive with your fresh, creative input.
Bill Havlicek PhD
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Many thanks from David Glen
Many thanks for allowing me to talk to you all tonight...I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, and hope I was able to impart something of value.
Please feel free to e-mail me at any time. My local address is davidglen@cox.net
Wishing you all great passion in everything you do!
David Glen
Please feel free to e-mail me at any time. My local address is davidglen@cox.net
Wishing you all great passion in everything you do!
David Glen
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
FACING THE FACTS
Dear students,
Please look at the video segments on the human face that appear
on the last posting. The aesthetic students from the Autumn semester
really enjoyed these segments and left some fascinating comments. I now invite you to read the student comments and to view the film segments. This is an opportunity for us to reflect on the complex ways in which we signal one another through the signs we call facial expressions. Following your reading and viewing please comment on what you think is aesthetically important about all of this.
The point of this exercise is for us to become more aware
of the most common forms of communication; this awareness is the start of
aesthetic awareness. In fact, becoming more aware of how we communicate
though the arts stems from our system of bodily signaling---
and the face is without doubt the most profound of these signaling systems.
Lets begin by thinking about the aesthetic realm of the face and proceed from there. I look forward to the your comments-- please record your thoughts for us to consider.
Regards,
Bill Havlicek
Dear students,
Please look at the video segments on the human face that appear
on the last posting. The aesthetic students from the Autumn semester
really enjoyed these segments and left some fascinating comments. I now invite you to read the student comments and to view the film segments. This is an opportunity for us to reflect on the complex ways in which we signal one another through the signs we call facial expressions. Following your reading and viewing please comment on what you think is aesthetically important about all of this.
The point of this exercise is for us to become more aware
of the most common forms of communication; this awareness is the start of
aesthetic awareness. In fact, becoming more aware of how we communicate
though the arts stems from our system of bodily signaling---
and the face is without doubt the most profound of these signaling systems.
Lets begin by thinking about the aesthetic realm of the face and proceed from there. I look forward to the your comments-- please record your thoughts for us to consider.
Regards,
Bill Havlicek
Thursday, September 11, 2008
THE HUMAN FACE
This post is devoted to the subject of the aesthetics of the human face. Human beings are naturally engaged with human faces, deriving endless information from reading the thousands of expressions found in faces. Any serious study of aesthetic experience must begin with the face for it is the first thing we recognize and respond to as infants. After we learn to recognize our mother's face we quickly learn to respond to other significant faces as we mature.
As we mature, so does the content that we read into faces-- in fact a measure of our humanity can be determined by the degree to which we can respond to the signals broadcast by the face. For the lover, misreading the signals can be cause for concern. For the artist it can be the cause for elation at the successful portrayal of a significant other.
The film segments on this site are some of the most effective and enjoyable reflections on the mysterious and fascinating subject of the human face. Please enjoy learning more about something that we tend to take for granted-- which in the end is the most fascinating thing in all of human experience.
Bill Havlicek PhD
As we mature, so does the content that we read into faces-- in fact a measure of our humanity can be determined by the degree to which we can respond to the signals broadcast by the face. For the lover, misreading the signals can be cause for concern. For the artist it can be the cause for elation at the successful portrayal of a significant other.
The film segments on this site are some of the most effective and enjoyable reflections on the mysterious and fascinating subject of the human face. Please enjoy learning more about something that we tend to take for granted-- which in the end is the most fascinating thing in all of human experience.
Bill Havlicek PhD
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