1. The author, Ellen Dissanayake, coined the term paleoanthropsychobiological. Dissanayake says that this word describes art and she tells her readers what it means when she writes, “First, that the idea of art encompasses all of human history; second, that it includes all human societies; and third, that it accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects” (Dissanayake 1). After reading this definition, the author created this phrase in hopes of having an adjective that encompasses all aspects of art. The author has to create such a term because art cannot be narrowly defined by the definition of one word.

(This image reveals the authors use of Dissanayake’s use of “making special.” because the purple circle stands out. It is different from the rest.)

2. When the author refers to “making special” on page 8 and 9, she is talking about things that are different from everyday tasks. She refers to “making special” as, “things that one cares deeply about or activities whose outcome has strong personal significance” (Dissanayake 8). The author mentions that in the hunting and gathering stage of humanity, humans used to have certain rituals and taboos that they would follow because they felt like it gave them a better chance of succeeding in their goals. These rituals and taboos were very special to them because if they were to fail in something such as hunting, they could all die of starvation. They were considered much more serious than their everyday tasks. I personally believe that many of these rituals could be seen as art. If a warrior had to put special carving in his spear or perform a dance before the hunt, this would be considered a form of art.

3. Ellen Dissanayake talks about an “institutional” theory that occurred in the modernism time period (late 19th and early 20th century). This theory suggests that in order for a piece of art to be considered art, the “artworld” would have to either “buy and sell the piece of art, write about it, or display it, otherwise it would not be recognized as art” (4). Unlike today where anything can be considered art, based off of this theory, “artists made candidates for appreciation” until the artworld did one of the above tasks (4). Furthermore, it goes on to say that one of these tasks perhaps could be more important than the work of art itself. The author then discusses postmodernism, which is a late 20th century movement, when she describes says, “identifying artworks has opened a Pandora’s box that is now called postmodernism, a point of view that calls into question two centuries of assumption about the elite and special nature of art” (5). The people of this movement believed that this was the last movement. Postmodernism discusses that art can been seen and created by everyone and that there is no right or wrong interpretations of art. Also in the reading, the author discusses the medieval times which lasted from the 5th to 15th century. During this time period “the artists were in the service of religion” (2). You can conclude from what they author wrote, that during this time period, artists main focus was regarding God. They did not have nearly the same level of free flowing art that we see today.

 

Reflection:

While I was going through this assigned reading, I found it very stimulating how different periods of time examined art in different ways. The author breaks this down as she discusses the differences in areas such as Modernism and Postmodernism. For example, the author tells the reader a view point of Modernism when she writes, “A startling and influential idea took hold that, like the concept of ‘art,’ was unprecedented. This was that there is a special frame of mind for appreciating works of art” (Dissanayake 17). Before this reading, I would not have been able to answer one question regarding art in Modernism and Postmodernism. However due to this artifact, I have gained insight on different perspective of evaluating art.

In addition, this artifact has significance in my portfolio because it built on my understanding that art is all-encompassing. Before reading Ellen Dissanayake’s article, I did not realize that there was no word to fully describe art until she coined “paleoanthropsychobiological” which got me to thinking; if there is no one adjective to describe art, then how big must art be? As I thought about this, I started to reflect on all of the different forms art can take. As I did this, I started to realize that art can be categorized in many ways and can take many forms. An example of this popped in my head from this last Christmas when my grandpa was telling me look at the cloud because they were so pretty they looked like someone had painted them. At that moment in his mind, the clouds were art. This was an important realization for me as a person because I can be narrowed minded when I have my mind set on something.

Future

As I think about the future, I have set two goals that I am going to accomplish. The first goal is to see art in areas that I do not naturally see it. I am going to achieve this goal by making a conscious effort to examine things around me such as building and the layout of the trees whenever I am in city. I will know I have completed my goal when I can point out three forms of art every time I am in a city. My next goal is once a term to make someone’s day “special.” I am going to do this by buying food for a homeless person once a term. This is important to me because when I ranked my values in our assignment, I realized that I needed to improve my “service.” Service is something that is important to me but I never find time to participate in.

(Here is an example of public art. When walking past this, the average person might not stop to enjoy what someone has made.)

 

References

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.

https://howisbradley.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/special.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Public_art_-_People_in_the_City,_Perth.jpg

 

Table of Contents          Previous Page          Next Page