With the civilization of our species there have been a dramatic increase in public art. Many think that the major reason of public art is because of the beautification it provide to the human eyes but this is not the major reason as public art are basically defines the culture and the history of a country or its people. Moreover, public art have also one of the ways that many have been able to capture history and bring a sprit of personality to places. One example of such art is the Runquist Murals of the Development of Arts and the Development of Science.

The Murals by the Runquist brothers of the development of arts and science first and foremost represent the history of human civilization in both fields of arts and science. These pieces of arts do not only signify beauty but also history. As Erika Doss points out in her article Public Art Controversy: Cultural Expression and Civic Debate that “Public art’s multifaceted dimensions segue with the multifaceted forms and multiple publics of America itself” (Doss, 2). We can see this happening in the case of the Runquist’s bothers murals, as there is a diversity, which shows the contribution of different cultures toward the development of art and science. Moreover, such diversity also represents the culture of where a mural was painted as in the case of Runquist murals it represents the culture of Oregon. Presented in the University of Oregon Knight Library, this mural serves as an object of civic beautification, civic identity and spirit of a place.

Erika Doss states the importance of place making as she states that “A widespread interest in genius loci—spirit of place—has helped generate site-specific works of art: public art projects that engage specific factors such as location, audience, and history” (Doss, 5). These factors contribute towards the uniqueness of a particular place in the modern world as well as towards to it beautification. The process of using art as a method of place making as become thoroughly common in the modern world. Many countries and cities now represent their culture, values, and history with art. Their usage of art in place making is not limited to the usage of representation but also to inspire people, to show a community of commitment and to signify the values such as peace, friendship and love. Public art place making also serves in economic benefits to a country or a city as it attracts the attention of tourism.

Though, Public art have many benefits there are always controversies that immerge from public arts forms and individual thoughts about them. As Erika Doss defines the cause of the controversy nature of public arts she states “public art controversy relates to the essentially conversational nature of the art itself” (Doss, 6). There many reasons of public art controversy but one of the main is the lack of diversity among public art. As Doss explains a controversy that occurred because of the lack of diversity is The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington D.C. as she stats that “his public sculpture was deemed inadequate by disability activists, who insisted that Roosevelt’s memorial more blatantly commemorate their own interests” (Doss, 6). This controversy shows how the lack of diversity can cause controversies among public art. Thus, diversity of public arts in all form is necessary towards its usage as a public art.

Finally, I think that public art plays an important role in society especially when it comes to representation of cultures, uniqueness of society and civic beautification. Moreover, public art is also an important aspect of our history that has developed with our civilization and it has also been an important asset in the studies of previous civilization that lives before us. Public art is also a visual representation of the achievement of our species that’s has contributed to civic improvement over the life of our species. Today, public art is the identification of our species and stand as a symbol of our values. Therefore, an important aspect of public art is the diversity of it to represents us as a species. In this view, my personal view about public art is; public art is merely a mirror that shows us our selves but in a manner of historical, cultural, and symbolic aspect as it can be seen in the Runquist murals.

Reference:

Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf

This image can be considered art because art is basically describe by its beauty and to me this image is quite beautiful. Moreover as Ellen Dissanayake states that “there is no abstract concept of ‘art.’ everyone may be an artist – decorating their bodies and possessions, dancing, singing, versifying, performing” (Dissanayake, 21). Since there is no abstract concept of art there is no basic definition however, art is considered as our species trait which basically is Dissanayake main argument. As she basically suggest it is our idea of “make special” that represents art and this is seen in the remixing of these image. As my remixing is basically “making special” of something which why this is consider an art.

Reference:

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association.

The thesis or purpose of that article Computer Graphics: Effect of the Origin is actually to identify and argue that “dynamic interactive multisensory output” (Computer Graphics) are not just “technical effects” but are actually the result of a much broader “cultured condition conception patterns” (Jones, 21). Furthermore, the author states, “I hope to establish the relation of specific image, object, event or environment to conceptual thinking” in attempt to identify the purpose of his article (Jones, 21). Additionally, the author explains ancient Egypt architecture as one his example to show or clarify his thesis or purpose of article as he states “The stones columns of ancient Egypt architecture were based on earlier bounds papyrus columns” (Jones, 21). I think a compelling and accurate of Jones thesis at work today can be seen in video games. As he identifies the cultural conception to be a “tendency towards abstract experience” which heightens “sensation and sedate others and for this reason may be examined a potential addiction” and in “visual reality may be viewed in light of addiction television, video games and home computers” (Jones, 21).

Another expert that have similar views and might also support the theory Jones is Jane McGonigal. As her interest in the addictiveness of video games is also the primary point of her discussion TED videos of ideas worth spreading. As McGonigal points out that presently people or average gamer spend over 10,000 plus hours in gaming is very similar or can be supported by what Jones defines as “tendency towards abstract experience” that leads to potential addiction towards television, video games and home computers. Though, Jones and McGonigal basically arguments differs in main points as Jones mainly relate his aspects of video gaming to support his argument of conceptual view in computer graphics by pointing out the abstract experience that one gains form it and McGonigal mainly points at the productivity of the time that young minds spend on games as these brilliant minds that achieve “epic win” in games by successful means of team work and strategies can use that time to actually solve real world issues if games were created to target real world issue instead of conceptual game world issues.

Reference:

• Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.

• “Gaming Can Make a Better World.” Jane McGonigal:. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. <http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world?language=en>.

1. Spirituality Definition
   In My view, Spirituality is a belief in something, someone or in one’s own self. Belief in someone or something is usually seen by worshiping of a God or of an object that have been given godly attributes. However, Belief in one’s owns self is the belief in the inner good of a person or in other words belief in one inner self. Spirituality in western terms is also defined as Enlightenment, which is defined as the belief in individualism rather than traditional practices or religion practices. Thus, in this definition spirituality have both religious implication and also implication of being just spiritual.
2. Spirituality Difference from Religion
   Though in many Religions spirituality plays a vital role it thus stands neutral in its association. As in spirituality can be practiced without religion. This is because spirituality stands more abstract then religion. Moreover, spirituality in any instance does not follow a code of ethics like religion but stands as a belief of all moral practice that tends to do moral good for humans or its society. Example of spiritual practices can be seen in the practices of Buddhist monks, as they do not belief is not a religion but rather a life style, which sold purpose the practice of doing good for others and living a simple life.
3. Creativity Definition
   In my view, anything that is beautiful in the human eye is the product of creativity. Thus, creativity is the act of making something beautiful or the product of a beautifying process. Creativity is mostly considered as an art in the human eyes and the maker of such a creative object is always considered as an artist. However, nature is also beautiful and thus considered creative but in this case the artistic value of such creativity are always credited to God or to the science of nature rather then a human artist.
4. The Source of Creativity
   In my view, the source of creativity can either be spiritual or evolutionary. As if its evolutionary, it is our “survival instant” to makes things beautiful and thus in the process of making thing beautiful creativity in the human species comes by our evolution. However, if its spiritual, creativity is fueled by both our reasons as humans and meditation of our internal self of what is creative and relating it to our beliefs in nature, science or religion.

I have always believes that meditation is an important aspect of art. As Shahzia Sikander points out that it is important to keep “respective for tradition and respect for tradition” in the field of creativity, she thus implies the meditation needed for such work. Furthermore, Sikander art is mostly based on traditional values of both Muslim and Hindu Community. This was mostly shown in her paintings of the Indian goddess with the veil used to cover her face. The abstract knowledge of Sikander art is basically based on her personal belief and memorize. Thus, in this respect she uses the spirituality of both religion (Hindu and Muslim) and personal values in her artwork. Examples of these can be seen in the painting in which she uses the letters of the Quran to make meaningful art.

James Turrell showed another aspect of spirituality as he shows the aspect of spirituality that is associated with light and how this tells us our place in the universe. As he uses the crater as a place to observe the light from the moon, sun and stars he points out how with such view we can see that out notions about the universe is wrong that the sun does not rise from the east and sents in the west as it is us who is actually moving but due to the really slow speed of the earths movement we do not actually notice us moving. Thus, Turrell connects the idea of inner peace and spirituality with light as in order to gain inner peace or to mediate one must sit under the bright light of nature or the light of cosmos in order to attain spiritual peace. The Roden Crater project by James Turrell was in order to bring the cosmos closer to better attain the spiritual peace from Cosmos light.

Article 1. (The Phycology Behind Why We Love Scary Movies)

In this article the author Kaitlin Vogel defines three different reasons that identify why do we love horror even with the “disgust” we identify them for. The first reason that is identified by Vogel is as she calls it “The Excitation Transfer Process” in this process as Vogel identifies that “a person heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases after viewing a frightening film” (Vogel). In this process she further identifies “People tend to subconsciously associate their intense physical reaction as a rush of excitement, which keeps them coming back for more” thus, causing a love for horror films (Vogel). Secondly, she identifies “The Tribal of Passage” as another reason for people interest in horror movies. She describes this passage as a way for “Conquering fears by watching a horror movie makes many men feel more masculine and brave” (Vogel). In her explanation of masculine traits that is shown by men at the completing of the film she relates this behavior to that of our ancestral, in which, it was cultural for men to show strength or masculinity by completing chores that shows a clam behavior towards horror. Lastly, she identifies the final reason of our affection towards horror as she explain the theory of “Morbid Fascination”. In this theory, she identifies our lover for horror in terms of curiosity or to understand something that is outside of our understanding. To better explain this theory she quotes “Paul J. Patterson PhD, assistant professor of English and co-director of Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Studies at Saint Joseph’s University, humans have an innate need to understand the world around them, which includes our common fears” (Vogel).

In the Article Why Horror? Noel Carroll identifies the major reason for out love for horror as he states “We are attracted to, and many of us seek out, horror fictions of this sort despite the fact that they provoke disgust, because that disgust is required for the pleasure involved in engaging our curiosity in the unknown and drawing it into the process of revelation, ratiocination, etc” (Carroll, 284). In this article, Carroll describes this as the only and primary reason of why we are attracted to horror movies despite the “disgust” we see in them. This reason is thus similar to the reason provided by Vogel in her article The Phycology Behind Why We Love Scary Movies. As according to her in her final reason she identified the attraction of horror towards Morbid curiosity, which is pretty much what Carroll, is pointing out in his article. However, a notifying fact is Vogel points out three different reasons for affection towards horror while Carroll is centered on the notion of curiosity in his entire article. Though he identifies different versus of the paradox of horror but they were still centered on the notion of curiosity.

Article 2. Horror Movies: Why People Love Them

In this article Leslie Fink also tries to explain why we are attracted to horror movies and thus also identifies three reasons for this affection. The first reason as Fink identifies is “Desired Effect” in this effect she identifies multiple reasons of why one is attracted towards horror. In most of this reason the common sense present is the reason for one to experience horror by their will, as she explains thought their reason differs, as for some is the adrenaline rush and for other is access threat level or masculinity. The second reason identified by Fink is the desire for “Just Plain Suspense” in which, she identifies the reason of affection to be primarily imposed by the suspense provided by the film as she explains the build of suspense for Paranormal Activity. The final reason identified by Fink is merely the biological reason of why we enjoy such horror. As she identifies it “In Your Brain” fink quotes “neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux has mapped out neuron by neuron how the brain’s fear system works. He says the complex human brain with its enormous capacity for thinking, reasoning, and just plain musing, allows us to worry in ways other animals can’t” (Fink).

In comparison to Neal Carroll article Why Horror? Fink does identifies many similar ideas as Neal Carroll as in his article he identifies “ Pleasure derived from the horror fiction and the source of our interest in it resides, first and foremost, in the process of discovery, proof, and confirmation that horror fictions often employ” (Carroll, 282). In this Quote, he identify the pleasure from the build of suspense as the characters in such movies or fiction try to discover, proof and confirm, which, is similar to Fink explanation about her reason for “Just Plain Suspense” as she states “With hardly a drop of blood, suspense builds as the demon (not ghost) makes its malevolence known through increasingly threatening acts the couple witness directly and on video replays. Eventually, things get personal between Micah and the demon despite pleas from Katie and Do Not Disturb warnings from a psychic” (Fink). In this quote, she explains the plot of Paranormal Activity, in which she comprehends how suspense builds up in the movie and leads to curiosity as identified by Carroll.

Sources:

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge.

Fink, Leslie. “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them.” LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 06 Nov. 2009. Web. 11 Feb. 2015. http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html

Vogel, Kaitlin. “The Psychology Behind Why We Love Scary Movies.” Rewire Me. The Psychology Behind Why We Love Scary Movies Comments. Rewire Me, 29 Oct. 2014. Web. 16 Feb. 2015. <http://www.rewireme.com/explorations/psychology-behind-love-scary-movies/>.

Thinking about my personal dressing makes me realize one think my dressing is far from what’s my cultural dressing is actually suppose to be. As I dress in a more western way or in a most 21^st century way. Basically Jeans, T-shirts, sneakers are my most common everyday wear. But, climate also contributes greatly in my daily dressing as rainy day means I cannot wear my suede sneakers or for sunny days I wont wear a jacket. In this view, I dress as any collage kid would dress around the world. This does not signify any cultural belief upheld by me as Indian, rather I think this type of dressing does signify the culture of our time. I think that every time or era have its own culture as for example; in the 70s bell bottoms jeans were deeply in style however this is not so true for the present decade in which, most of the younger generation prefer wearing jeans that are as skinny as possible. Though time plays a great role in determining the type of dress code I think another factor that as equally responsible in choices of style is age. As different age groups always have different preference in terms of style and dress code. Many people in there 30s or 40s do not were converse or vans or ridiculous shirts that points out they drink or say stuff like “babe magnet”. There is a difference in terms of choice in different age group and mine basically signify that of a collage kid which, Is mostly the cause why I presently dress the way that I do. However, this was not always the case as few years ago when I was still in mother care my dressing sense was very different then now. Mostly, my mother choose my cloths and her choices, now that I think about it would not be something that I would consider wearing.

My family is originally from an Indian background but I was born and raised outside of India. Though not being raised in India, my family has passed down to me many traditional Indian traits including but not limited to the language, cultural belief and religion. However, in thins I have always been thought that Indian woman are to wear “saris” and “salwar kurta” are traditional attire. Piercing of nose and ears are additional adornments that are part of the Indian culture of woman also. However, unlike girls boys on the other hand not have much cultural specification for how him or her should dress. Basically its Indian cultural attire for man are traditional “kurta” but being born and brought up in a foreign country it was never actually necessary for me to practice such traditional dressing. However, on the other hand even in most of India such body adornment practices are mostly only practiced in events and not as a everyday casual wear. As for me my family was never specific in terms of how should I customize my body in terms of dressing. We basically practices western dressing and match with the crowd of were we lived. Other form of body adornment like piercing and tattoos are not part of Indian cultural belief and therefore weren’t practiced by my parents. Though they are not forbidden my family always had an indifferent nature towards it. My family is more western and belief in rationality more over culture and religion. They belief of body adornment is shown by wearing an expensive designer suit, shoes and an expensive watch. This type of adornment does not reflect on me at this point in life but are types of adornment that interest me the most.

My peer community, which is the American community and culture, is driven by an extensive nature of consumerism. In such light, there are many ways of body adornment including but not limited to tattoos, piercing, and fancy dressing. Though they’re many others in my belief these are the most widely practiced among all. Tattoos I think are the most common as in American as according to a NBC poll in 2014 about 40% of Americans have some form of tattoo and the number is actually growing. This can even be seen in our university campus as many students have some form of tattoo. The second form that I think is equally common as tattoo is fancy dressing. In a consumerist society is no surprise that fancy dressing is one major form of customization as the entire economy runs on the fact that people want something better and cheaper. Thus the successful accomplishment in the clothing industry can show how important and successful is dressing adornment in America.