Unit 3: What is art for? (part3)
October 20, 2013
Ellen Dissanayake is the one who coined the term “palaeoanthropsychobiological”. She created this term to essentially describe arts entire history all in one adjective. Palaeoanthropsychobiological suggests several notions if you break the word down. The first part of the term, “Palaeo”, suggests that art dates back as far as we know mankind to exist. The second part, “anthro”, suggests that art is used and found in every society around the world. The third part, “psycho”, suggests that art triggers some sort of feeling/emotion within us. The fourth part, “biological”, suggests that art is a part of who we are as humans, it is hardwired into our bodies.
Also in the reading Dissanayake goes on and describes art as “art as a behavior of making special”. What I think she means by this is that art helps us “transform the ordinary into the extra-ordinary”. Art helps bring significance to everyday objects or settings and can help make people feel a connection to that art by triggering an emotional stimulus within us. However, people don’t always share the same views about art, which leads me to my next point.
Throughout history, art has gone through different accepted ideologies. For example, in medieval times art was purely a tool for religion. Art at this time encompassed what was thought to be divine and holy, art at this time was not regarded as “aesthetically”. Art later took on a different ideology in the eighteenth century because this was a time that was considered a “focal point in which a number of social and intellectual trends came together, intertwined and influenced one another” (2). This era is known as the “modernism” era. This is when art started to break away from solely servicing the church, and artists started creating art about every day life and popular trends. At this time art was only appreciated by the rich and educated. It wasn’t until later that the ideology of art changed again during the era known as “postmodernism”. During this era art took was open for interpretation by the general public, now everybody has the chance to practice and appreciate art.