Artifact Two – What is Art For?

Objectives:

Examine multiple perspectives for evaluating art

This assignment asked me to observe the process of analyzing art, both under Ellen Dissayunake’s classification of paleoanthropsychobiological analysis and using other forms of modern criticism.

Artifact:

Paleoanthropsychobiological is a term coined by Ellen Dissayunake to provide a way of analyzing art that is encompassing of all aspects of the human experience. Under this scope of analysis, Dissayunake asks people to consider history, societal norms, emotional and psychological impact, and human biology when considering art. Dissayunake uses this term to highlight the importance of a broad perspective in regards to art. If art is only viewed using a single basis for examination, then something is lost and the true meaning behind the art cannot be withdrawn. For example, a piece of art from another culture can depict a symbol that means something drastically different in another. Without a paleoanthropsychobiological analytic approach, mistakes can be made through ignorance.

According to Dissayunake, art is a product of the human need to “make special.” By this, she is referring back to the meaning that humans strive to explore and express in their art. There is a human need to give a greater meaning to ordinary things. We want to explain the things about ourselves that we have no other way to explain. In art, we can try to grab at elements of the human experience that resonate in a way that affects us in a visceral, rather than cognitive, way. A picture of a normal landscape or a portrait or just an expression of color can portray the religiousness of being alive and can show emotions that are impossible to articulate in any other way. This is the process of making special, turning what seems normal into something that can provoke our strongest emotions. Humans rely on this process to survive because the same urge that drives us to create meaning in art also drives us to improve ourselves as a society. We need to make ourselves special as well, and that need drives us to build new technologies and make cultural and scientific advancements.

What is now deemed the “Romantic Rebellion” was one of the primary artistic movements to counter the established ideas of art that came before it and to respond to contemporary cultural changes. It occurred in the 18th century and was a response to a new-found secularized, personal, and scientific-based culture. This caused artistic expression to be focused more on reason and logistics while fantastic mythologies were “devalued,” although they had practical purposes, sharing “traditional practices” and giving “great emotional satisfaction” (3).

Modernism is an art movement that evolved out of the “Romantic Rebellion” into the 19th and early 20th century. Modernism took hold of the idea of “aesthetics” and found an importance in objectivism, especially what Dissayunake calls “a disinterested attitude” (3). Modernists suggested that any kind of art could be appreciated if they detach themselves from their own perspective. This idea also stresses the importance of “art for art’s sake” (4). They believed that art’s purpose was only to be art and that the importance of the experience is in the experience itself. In result, art stopped being a recreation of the real world and often required “critics as mediators” to “explain what made an artwork good or bad” (4).

Postmodernism emerged in the 20th century as a rejection of modernism. Claiming to be “the end of all isms and movements,” postmodernists began to stress more subjectivity in the analysis of art. They claim that “reality is only a point of view,” arguing that truth means something different for each individual (5). They reject class implications of art, ignoring any concept of “high” art. Postmodernists experienced with parody in art and art that was disposable and ended as soon as it was performed (6). Postmodern art rejected the traditional forms of canvasses and museums and critics, and tried to better capture the experiences of life in action.

Reflection:

For me, this entire chapter can be summed up by my comment that “there is a human need to give a greater meaning to ordinary things,” and that we then look for someone to tell us what that meaning is. Ellen Dissayunake advocates finding that meaning by looking through a “paleoanthropsychobiological” lens (1). However, she gives plenty of examples on how past critics have looked for meaning in different ways. It all is commentary on what each individual person deems as special and meaningful. Sometimes, as with some modernist and postmodernist artists, the meaning can be ironic and a comment on the rejection of meaning. Still, I think every artist is trying to do something to portray meaning in their art. I know that in my music and in my writing, I am trying to convey meaning with what I do.

Lyrics

I think the best determination of art is “art for life’s sake,” which Dissayunake abides to and also attributes to the postmodernists. There is a reason that art has been around since the beginning of humanity. Art is the only way for people to explain the connections between the the world we live in and the internal emotions people feel about those things. In that way, “reality is only a point of view” (6), where reality is dependent on how each person perceives and contextualizes an event. Art is necessary in order to experience the full spectrum of life.

I don’t think I can ever look at art without Dissayunake’s analysis in mind. Every time I encounter or produce art in the future, I will be thinking about how my creations work under a paleoanthropsychobiological analysis. I think this will allow me to be more exact when analyzing and producing my art.