Category: Unit 03

What is Art For?

In Ellen Dissanayake’s keynote address, “What is Art For?” she discusses the meaning behind her term “paleoanthropsychobiological”. Looking at the word we can recognize some root words for example: paleo, anthro, psycho, biological. Paleo meaning anciet, anthro coming from human, psycho involving our minds, and bio meaning life. By breaking down the word we can begin to understand what Dissanayake might be trying to discover. The title of her speech says a lot, she is trying to find what purpose art plays in our lives. Dissanayake’s main goal was to attempt to account for every purpose of art across history and cultures and the emotional effects that art has on all of us.

Within Dissanayake’s speech she talks about a concept she calls “making special.” Making special involves finding things (activities or objects) that have personal significance for us. These special things are different from pieces of our everyday life and hold a meaning for us. Dissanayake believes that all animals can notice something special but what has set us apart from animals is that humans have deliberately set out to create something special. Human survival has relied of making special and Dissanayake makes the connection between hunting and it’s ritualistic, special role it played in society. Making special also relates to all types of art too because art sets out to make something that has meaning, significance, and is extraordinary.

Throughout her speech Dissanayake talks about several different movements and eras of art that were developed and changed our views of art. Firstly, the Renaissance era of art during medieval times “replaced God-centered [art] with man-centered concerns” (Dissanayake, p. 2). This era was a time of art that attempted to portrayed reality, whether accurately or not still remains a question. Modernism came during the 18th century and portrayed the social, political, and intellectual trends and changes of the period. The art of the modern era also transitioned to became somewhat abstract and free to interpretation since it was not always portraying reality. Following this era was postmodernism which is “a declaration of the end of all isms and movements” (Dissanayake, p. 5). Postmodernists focus on points of view or frames of references and are often critical and skeptical.

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26).

Art & Beauty

Art and beauty were the topics for this weeks reading and video presentation. These are two of the most abstract things in our society as they are universal yet can take on so many forms. Denis Dutton addressed one of the major philosophical questions, “what is beauty?” in his TED talk. Dutton discussed how as a species, humans have always appreciated things of beauty. Dutton comes to the conclusion that “we [humans] find beauty in something done well.” He looks back on our ancestors, the first humans and found that even then our species appreciated something that took time and craftsmanship to make. Those skills made you a particularly suitable mate and worked in the process of natural selection. The artifacts that have been found are small hand axes and have little wear on their edges indicating they were not used for hunting but rather as a piece of art work.

I found this intriguing because I do not think of the evolution of art until the Renaissance when art really began to flourish and some of the most well-known, classic paintings were created. I believe that art really thrives in times of technological, societal, cultural, and social change. Today, technology has given us the ability to create photographs, drawings, paintings, music, theater, and mixed media art and then share that art with a huge audience via the Internet.

Despite my beliefs, I do see why Dutton claims that art is an innate ability we have engrained into our mind through generations and the evolution of our species. Darwin’s theory of natural selection surprisingly plays a key role in the development of art and there’s no doubt that art and the appreciation of beauty is a part of who we are as a species.

To watch Denis’ TED Talk click here.