Category: Assignments

The first person I found is a girl, and seems to me, maybe around 20 years old. When I looked at her, she is make-up and she has beautiful and healthy brown skin. From her slim body shape, I guess she often do some exercise outside with a very healthy life style. She is of medium build and wore a white t-shirt, a yellow coat and blue jeans. She has a head of long curly brown hair, and all these set makes her seems very harmonious and graceful. I believe she is a very friendly and easygoing Mexican girl because she always kept smiling to chat with her friend. Also, from her dress, I believe she is a little traditional or conservative, comparing with her friends, they wore some tight or revealing clothes and laughing very loudly in the ice cream shop, but she is just smile and never speak loudly. Moreover, I found her wore a cross necklace and has a small tattoo which also like a cross in her left hand and between the thumb and middle finger. I believe she is religious like Christianity.

The next person I met is an old man with a portfolio. There are some white paper exposed outside the bag, I believe he is a professor in business school because he just walked out the business building. His short hair and beard are both white, and I guess he perhaps is a American person and around 65 years old. He wore a set of clean and neat suit with a pair of glasses. His skin color does not like he is old enough, instead looked very well. Before sitting on a beach in the sun and was reading a newspaper, he had a special action like squat; maybe he is a little tired and stretched his body. From his behavior, I guess he is in favor of reading news and some new issues. Also, I guess he is a knowledgeable and confident gentleman with much experience because his face always keep up not down, and his mouth slightly upward with a little smile.

The last person I observed is a young man, who wore a set of sportswear with logos of Nike, and looked like 20 years old with a black hair. I believe he is from Asia and enjoys sports. Also, he wore a pair of new stylish Air Jordan basketball shoes; I guess he has a wealthy family. Then, when his friends came to the shop, he behaved very actively to chat with them and show something special in her phone to his friends. I guess he is a friendly and sociable person and have a good relationship with his friends. But I noticed that his eyes always look around the shop and seems a little sensitive. I believe maybe he behaved very open but he seems not confident enough in front of others. From his behaviors, he never stop to move and I believe he is little quick tempered and lack some patience.

It is a special and interesting experience to observe these kinds of people. From this activity, I found different people has different life style, and if you want to make friends with them, you should observe them for a while to watch and listen what they are saying, and it will be helpful for you to know a person not just say your thoughts, and learn how to respect other’s thoughts, which may help you to know and learn something you do not know. Also, everything we cannot judge from its appearance.

After reading more articles about food is art or not, I realized I need consider deeply about whether food should be as a major form of art. One of articles “How Can Food Be Art?” written by Glenn Kuehn provides a new aspect of food as art, he believe the Telfer’s methods of describing the artistic status of food is outdated and neglects to acknowledge a philosophy of food，also, he explained Telfer ignore to “offer a context through which food can be seen as part of a profound and significant aesthetic experience. If food is going to be seen as art, it needs a context in which significant experiences of the aesthetic can come from everyday life” (Kuehn, 194). Then he stated that the meaning of food as art is based on the organic interaction between its “production, presentation, and manner of appreciation.”(Kuehn, 195).  Moreover, He used his experience of food-related memories that the food make him have a depth of feeling of harmony, arrangement, articulation, skill, and when food as a medium (Kuehn, 205)

At the beginning, I agree with Kuehn’s point that people’s experience in the daily life can form an aesthetic experience to consider food as an inherently art. However, Elizabeth Telfer in her article”Food As Art “explained that there can be aesthetic reaction to tastes and smell and that these reactions are distinct from the natural appreciation of food as merely a source of survival (Telfer, 11). This argument is against the Kuehn’s experience that food makes him have a feeling of harmony, and articulation etc. because this kind of feeling is just the aesthetic reaction to tastes and smell, and it cannot simply illustrated as art. This is your memory feeling of this kind of food, and your personal feel of food not stands for the food itself. Perhaps food deserves to be treated as simple art or minor art because it is necessarily transient, cannot have meaning and cannot move us. For instance, a cup of delicious coffee espresso, experts suggest that people should consumed it during two minutes when it is done, and some delicious food should be eaten before it become cold etc, these kind of examples all prove that the food art can be shared and preserved by people is very limit and contemporary. Also, food cannot vehicle meaning; this is not to say food means nothing to you. For example, a wife spend much time to do a delicious dinner with much of her love for her family, this kind of food may be have a good looking, smell good and have a harmony feeling for her family, which may means the wife loves her family very much, but the point is that the meaning is not in the food, the meaning maybe in the gestures, and in the words. The food can stands for all sorts of meaning, but it cannot carry any specific statement per se. Furthermore, food cannot move us in way music and other major arts can. Good food can elate us, invigorate us, startle us, and cheer us with a kind of warmth and joy, yet food cannot shake us fundamentally as shown by tears or fear. Perhaps many people would say according to personal cultivated experience can appreciate the art of food because they treat each special taste and smell of food is special feeling for them. However, these aesthetic experiences mean the food, not the food itself.

Furthermore, sometimes we can experience foods that display skills that are borrowed from other forms of art. For instance, many fruit carvings, decorated eggs and cake with sophisticated decoration, which are all display the artistic skill applied into food not the food itself. Likely, the artistic skill can be applied into stone or wood etc. Art is original creation, these artistic skills can be called art but it was not solely inspired by the food. Also, some cookery can qualify as art if degree of creativity is criterion because they use their creativity to make their food look special and good taste, and the process of making food can be called an art form not the food itself. Food are created just for eating not appreciating because it’s good looking just for attracting people to consume and last for very short time, and its main purpose is for people to eat or survival no matter how beautiful they are be cooked. That is, food as an minor art form because it can vehicle many kinds of meaning and last for a short time, but not similar to live performances of theater and music, which have long been considered some of the most aesthetically important forms of art. So I believe food should be consider as minor art which have limited and fleeting art life but cannot carry meaning and move people by itself.

References:

Telfer, Elizabeth. “Food As Art.” Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates. 2nd ed. Routledge, 2002. 9-27.

Kuehn, Glenn. “How Can Food Be Art?” The Aesthetics of Everyday Life. Ed. Andrew Light and Jonathan M. Smith. New York: Columbia UP, 2005. 194-212.

After reading this article, I believe food can be viewed as a minor art because it is necessarily transient, cannot have meaning and cannot move us (Elizabeth, 24). According to the Ellen Dissanayake’s point of view, “there is no appreciation of art without interpretation” (Dissanayake, 5), and art is for art’s sake not for other’s sake. Also, from the Elizabeth Telfer’s article, he states that “(he) appreciates the thing’s look or sound for its own sake, not for any benefit it brings to him or others” (Elizabeth, 10). These two authors have the same interpretation of the art that art is created for its own meaning, and it should be interpreted and appreciated objectively not for benefitting others. Telfer makes many comparisons between art and food mainly from these two questions: How the object is regarded? (Classifying) and does the object merit the label work of art? (Evaluative).then she get the result that art just can be as simple form of art.

From my perspective, food and drink is too physical, bodily and lacks sufficiently complex, first, as we all know the aim of creating food and drink is against hungry and they are also needed to survive for humans, and they are do not have its own special meaning like music, food can be appraised as good but it can never shake us fundamentally as shown by tears or fear, instead, music can do it. Also, there are various designing kinds of food by cookers, but it is just for attracting people to buy and eat it not just for appreciation. Next, maybe you can say food has its own meaning, for instance, it can stands for a symbol of a nation’s way of life and traditions. Yes, I agree with this. Yet, food does not have many kinds of meaning as major art of forms, for example, a representational painting can present the history, culture and even some emotion like to inspiring people to do something. Furthermore, human’s aesthetic reaction on food may not truly for appreciation of its beauty, and they are just being influenced by its taste and willing to consume it. The individuals would consider eating as the most important point not its look or smell. For instance, some people go to restaurant is not for see the food, and they want to eat it. On the contrast, if people go to museum or watching movies, they are for the sake of doing these activities, rather than for the sake of surviving. So I personally believe food cannot be seen as major forms of art, and it just can be seen as a minor art or even not can be appreciated as a form of art. But I have a question that can we say increase the quality of food will raise the level of art, if food as a minor art? Why?

1. Describe the term paleoanthropsychobiological. Who coined this term?

The term paleoanthropsychobiological is coined by Ellen Dissanayake to suggest several things of his point of view about the history of Western art. There are three main parts in this adjective word. “First is that the idea of art encompasses all of human history; second is that it include all human societies; third is that it accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects” (Dissanayake, 15). She use this word as view to describe that art must be viewed as a inherent universal trait of the human beings.

2. What does Dissanayake mean by the phrase “making special”? How does it relate to art and to human survival?

Dissanayake use the term “making special” to illustrate the behavior or propensity to ‘make special’, particularly things that one cares deeply about or activities whose outcomes has strong personal significance” (Dissanayake, 22). Also, she point out that the special is not mundane, and it can take something ordinary into extraordinary. Moreover, a behavior of art is not only stands for recognizing the special, but also to make something special with your ability. By the way, “artmaking and experiencing as a human behavior” (Dissanayake, 22) and “art as a kind of behavior that developed as they evolved to help them survived” (Dissanayake, 16) is also states the relationship between making special, art and human survival. In order to prove this point, she use the example how an animal’s behavior to survival to tell people how to make ordinary behavior become special with unusual behavior of art. This special ability could take on a significance in terms of human beings’ behaviors like thinking, making a plan, and using intelligent minds etc, which not only simply presents people know how to make ordinary behavior become an art and survival, but also stands for they have this artmaking ability to make their life complete and meaningful. For instance, human beings made of ritual ceremonies which make these normal behaviors as a form of art with special meaning.

3. Dissanayake identifies many different theories/movement/periods of art throughout western european history. Name three different theories of art that Dissanayake mentions in her essay. Identify the time period when each theory developed and was prominent. Provide a brief description of the philosophies and ideas that define each theory/movement/period of art. Support your answer with quotes from the reading.

Medieval times–the arts are not regarded “aesthetically”, and it serves for the religion and God. In the Renaissance period, artistes use man-centered concerns replace the God-centered (Dissanayake, 16). Although there are something changes with art, these artistes still focus on a recognized world and the normal standards of beauty, harmony and excellence still exist to stands for that period’s art.

Modernism–during the 18^th century, art as ideology and began to be called “aesthetics”-“a concern with elucidating principles such as taste and beauty that govern all the art and indeed make them simply not paintings or statues” (Dissanayake, 17). However, there is special frame of mind to appreciate works of art like according to people’s preference, and it’s utility, social and religious etc. Moreover, art had become an ideology, which needs some educated people to acquire them, and not everyone can get the meaning of this.

Postmodernism—during the mid-twentieth century, art as Interpretation, The artists in this period believe art is not reflect some kinds of knowledge, and art can be interpreted by anyone according their unique thoughts and cultural sensibilities (Dissanayake, 19). Also, artistes encourage individuals to ignore the standards of appreciating art and mold themselves with their own ones without restriction of religion and knowledge, each individual can interpret works as they like.

After reading this article, the author- Ellen Dissanayake stated that the meaning of the terminology “art” through her experience and an understanding of the different time’s perspectives on art. From her article, I learned that “art (is) as a kind of behavior that developed as they evolved” (Dissanayake, 2). Also, foe modern people, art includes many principles like taste and beauty from the authors’ point, which reminds me whether an artist’s work can be evaluated objectively if each modern people has his own frame of appreciating works like personal preference, interests, and styles. Furthermore, Dissanayake mentioned that “there is no appreciation of art without interpretation” (Dissanayake, 5), does it mean art is an imitation or an interpretation of nature? Or it means you cannot truly appreciate the meaning of the art without other’s interpretation. Moreover, how can we value works of art objectively without personal preference? As we all know, nowadays, many arts of works are being sold with high prices by auction. And the author pointed that 18^th century thinkers pay their attention on the term of  “aesthetics” ,which can be interpret as taste and beauty (Dissanayake,3). I have a question that according today’s situation about the value of art works, is the monetary value of a work of art important in determining the aesthetic value of the work?

From my perspective of art, I feel many things can be seen as arts according their situation. That is also means “art must be viewed as an inherent universal trait of human species” (Dissanayake, 1). Also, art is not only represent the artists’ creativity, innovation and imagination, and it can stands for one’s belief and understanding of this special or specific things. Arts do not have boundaries; everyone can appreciate them in their different views because each human being has different experience or backgrounds, so we cannot deny others’ understanding of the arts. We should respect each art and use a subjective way to appreciate arts with interpretation.

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Continue reading “Life Values Assessment” →

         After reading the article “A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices”, the Hunter Lewis introduce some main problems: What are values? Does it truly exist? How can we formulate them? In terms of the third question, I agree with the author’s point of view that the six different value systems (authority, logic, experience, emotion, intuition, and science) formulate our values and guide us to know something or decision making (pg.7, Lewis H). However, everyone has his own set of core value systems like me. I have made an assessment called decision making style; I found my style is emphasis on intuitive style. No matter which style I belong to, I still easy to be influenced by others when making some important choice like going abroad to study: choose UK or USA. I choose here because my parents always told me that the American Education System is more advanced than UK.

        In order to be myself, I should know my own set of value. In the process of exploring how can I to be myself. I found that people often should ask themselves some questions: Is this something important to you? Is this point of view you want to stand by even if other people against you? How do you feel when someone you know agrees with yours? When and why would cause you to make a decision that conflicts with your value? Etc. I believe these kinds of questions can help individuals to know how these six value systems to affect and formulate our own core values.

        Besides, everyone have many personal values, I want to mention that we should find that what value we care the most and should insist it. Through this article, we know there are many factors to formulate our core values. Also, different people have different preference and decision making style, but we cannot ignore that our value statement drives us how to behave in the life. In order to have a satisfying and comfortable living style, I suggest people can use Lewis’s six ways to analyze which way they will focus on more than other factors, know how to make their own value more clear, and think how can we use our values to make an effective decisions in our daily life.

         After reading Matt Becker’s blog: How to Budget Without Actually Sticking to a Budget, I realized I have many thoughts want to say. First, I never have a certain budget with my spending, and often make my monthly spending excessively which also sometime make my parents angry with me. Also, I tried to control my unnecessary spending in a traditional way, which waste me much time to track my spending, finally, it fails. Then, from Matt’s writing, I felt that it is not very difficult to deal with my budget. He suggests four steps which includes automate savings; regularly save for irregular expenses; create rock-solid habits and track your spending and re-evaluate from time to time. Besides, I found many people applied them into their lives and be succeed to manage their budget from the comments below the article.

            After reviewing this article again, I found Matt’s points are just like what I study in my management class last week. Individuals are the managers of their life, they need manage change and manage resources in their life. As a good manager, he or she need plan their schedule at first, as Matt’s words, people need plan to create a rock-solid habits, which is not spreadsheets or fancy budgeting apps, are the real key to keeping their spending in line. Next, people need to organize their schedules like to category their spending and named for its specific purpose, and they do not need dedicate to save money, and just do what they usually do and record this things on their schedules which is convenient to track at the end of the month. Afterwards, as our own manager, each person should have their own statements for their monthly budgets. This kind of thing can make our life stay in a regular way with irregular spending. Last but not least, we need learn how to control and form a perfect valid approach that can works for us without causing undue stress we are good to go. Because there is not a certain way to satisfy everyone’s needs. We need to adapt the change and re-evaluate our ways and then form our own the most efficient way. Furthermore, as a manager of our own life, we need to learn how to plan, organize, coordinate and control our budget and time. I believe we will notice how our life becomes better if we insist to change a little thing for a long period.