» Artifact #1: What Is Art For? AAD250

Artifact #1: What Is Art For?

Objectives

Consider the origins of art
Explore a brief history of Western Art
Examine multiple perspectives for evaluating art

Artifact #1

1. The term paleoanthropsychobiological was coined by Ellen Dissanayake. The term is used as a way to depict humankind’s history through both psychological and biological perspectives or viewpoints.

2. When Dissanayake mentioned the phrase “making special” she meant that over time as humans evolved mentally and physically they were able to institute a way to recognize the things, events or humans that were so-called “special”.

3. Western Europe was home to many different theories/movement/periods of art. Dissanayake mentions several different theories of art that exemplify Western Euopean art. Some of the time periods were the Renaissance, Post-Impressionist, and Postmodernism. The Renaissance time period was an era where instead of being a society centered on religion it was going to be centered on science and reason. The art during this time was realistic and tried to create “recognizable world”. During the early Twentieth Century the next dominate art theory was Post-Impressionist. According to Dissanayake, this era of art theory focused on possessing preexisting knowledge or ability to view art. The art during this time moved away from naturalist artwork that reflected the real world. The last art theory came, which occurred in late Twentieth Century, was Postmodernism. The theory and art associated with Postmodernism became an outlet or way to represent the view of the worldwide elite of Western European. There was a sense that art during this time period no longer were movements or be called “ism”.

Reflection

I have used this artifact to show and exemplify my understanding of this weeks objectives. This is why I chose this artifact for my portfolio. I now understand that there are many different ways to look, interpret, present, and study art. From the reading that correlates with this week and theme, What is Art For? by Ellen Dissanayake, I was able to see the difference in various types of art forms in the context of the timeline of the history of art. I found out that by understanding the different art forms that pertain to different eras in human history it is easier to see how people interpret and see art.

Dissanayake hints at several cultural, societal, or even traditional aspects of art that can be seen in the history of western art. Not only does Dissanayake go over the history of art and how different people interpret the art but references the term “paleoanthropsychobiological” as a way to show how there are psychological and biological perspectives at work when it comes to art. This was a key reason why I chose this artifact to complete the objectives, especially when it came to understanding the origins of art. The thought that there is more to interpreting art such as “biological” or “psychological” factors at work really resonated with me and I thought it was an important detail in completing this week’s course objectives.

In the future, I really want to get more knowledge about the different era of art forms. I feel that the ones that were discussed in this section were the major ones. In other words, I feel like we just scratched the surface when it comes to the different art forms. Also I think that I would like to know more about where art is going in the future.