In this weeks reading What is art for?, the author introduced that to her, art is “palaeoantropsychobiological” (Dissanayake, 15). To me this was very interesting because the word he used when broken down means pertaining (-ical) to the ideas of paleoecology (palaeo-), anthropology (anthro-), psychology (psycho-), and biology (biolog-). He then goes on to explain that is suggest that the idea of art includes all of human history whether it’s Paleolithic or earlier, that it includes all human societies meaning anthropological, and that it needs and has a emotional and psychological effect on it’s viewers (Dissanayake, 15). During Fall 2013, I took an AAD 252: Art and Gender course which really broadened my view on art because it taught me that art can be anything made by any human. Something doesn’t have to be made with the intension of being art, some forms of art were accidentally made but as long as it evokes some type of emotion from its view; it’s considered art. I would agree that my view on art, is the same as Dissanayake which is what she foreseen, “Most people would probably agree that their personal “idea of art” includes all these things…” (15). Everyone has their own take on art and there is no correct definition because it depends on the eye of the beholder. However, these are present day definitions or art whereas back in the Paleolithic or pre-modern times the definition of art was extremely different.

Moreover Dissanayake explains that during the medieval times “arts were in the service of religion, as they have always been, but were not regarded ‘aesthetically’ (16). Although I obviously was not there during this time I know that society as a whole had completely different values from the society we live in today. Everyone was so much more conservative and religion was a big part of everyone’s lives. No one really cared about aesthetics, like today’s society.

There’s a drastic change in how people describe art over the years but overall, I don’t think any definition of art is wrong whether it’s what people in the medieval times thought or today’s people. I believe that there is no exact definition of art because everyone has different point of views. Anything can be considered “art” as long as it evokes some type of thought or emotion.