Unit 03 What Is Art For? Essay Assignment

1. Dissanayake coined the term “paleoanthropsychobiological”. There are three words in this term, which are Paleolithic, anthropological, and psychological. These three words respectively represent human history, human society, and human emotion. As Dissanayake stated, “my paleoanthropsychobiological view is that in order to include human history, human cultures, and human psychology” (Dissanayake 15).

2. The phrase “making special” means making “something that is ‘special’ is different from the mundane, the everyday, the ordinary. It is extra-ordinary” (Dissanayake 22). Art is a special thing for human beings which means only human have the perception of art so it make us special to other animals. Human make ourselves special compared to other animals so we can survive well in the development of nature. For example, as Dissanayake explained, “when we cook special meals and wear special garb for important occasions, and find special ways of saying important things” (Dissanayake 24).

3. The three thories that I found are man-centered view, modernism, and postmodernism. The man-centered view happened in the period of Renaissance. It mainly connect art to human self, like personal experience or emotions and personal life. As Dissanayake described, “artists gradually replaced God-centered with man-centered concerns, but their works continued to portray a recognizable world” (Dissanayake 16). The modernism developed in 18th century. In this period, “there is a special frame of mind of appreciating works of art-a ‘disinterested’ attitude that is separate from one’s own personal interest in the object, its utility, or its social or religious ramifications” (Dissanayake 17). After the modernism, the postmodernism developed in the 20th century. It is “a point of view that calls into question two centuries of assumptions about the elite and special nature of art” (Dissanayake 19).

Unit 03 What is Art for?

What is art for? It is an interesting question that I never think about it before. After reading the Dissanayake’s article. I think human creating art is for expressing emotions or opinions so it relate to psychology. As Dissanayake mentioned, “(art) it account for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects” (Dissanayake 15). For example, we can feel the hate for the war in Picasso’s painting and feel Michelangelo’s passion in his sculpture.

In addition, art is relative to the human society. As Dissanayake stated, “First, that the idea of art encompassed all of human history (i.e., as far back as the Palacolithic or even earlier); second, that it include all human societies (i.e., is anthropological or cross-cultural)” (Dissanayake 15). Art could be seen as a special form to show the society to people. For instance, the famous painting Storming of Bastille vividly show the situation of French Revolution.

Art exist in our daily life, like music, dance, building, etc. The universality is an important characteristic of art. In my opinion, everything could be seen as art and everyone could be an artist. Dissanayake argued “art must be viewed as an inherent universal (or biological) trait of the human species” (Dissanayake 15). Therefore, my question is what will happen if we lose art in our life? How about our daily life without art? Even though art is very important to us but it still not is necessary like food, water to make us alive. So I feel curious to the life without art.