1. The first person I saw was an American boy. I think he is around 22 years old. I believe he was bored and grown up in a traditional American family since he has light gold hair and blue eyes. I recognized him in the crowd immediately since he was so impressive. He was wearing a green Oregon duck hoody and a large green shorts also with Oregon logo. His bag pack is green to with a cute duck on it. No doubts, he was wearing a pair of yellow sports shoes from Nike. From his dressing, I believe his is a loyal duck fan. His body shape was really good and his calf muscles were obvious. Therefore, I believe he loves and is good at different kinds of sports and has a healthy life. He was relaxed when I saw him. Therefore, I thought he might just finish a midterm since it is the middle of the term now.

From his dressing, I guess he is a person who would like to share his life with others and to express his opinions directly. Because all the logos on his dressing showed that he would like to let everyone know he is a fan of Oregon duck.

I do like the way he shows everyone his favorite teams and sports. In fact, I also like to share my life and ideas with my friends. I believe that sharing and communication are the best ways to keep the relationship with others and me.

2. The second person I noticed today was an Asia girl with very long hair. She was walking with her bike when I saw her, talking on the phone with someone. She might be 20 years old since she looked like a freshman. From her smile on her face I thought he was in a good motion. I feel that she was American Bored Chinese since I thought she was Chinese according to her face and hair. However, her English was really good and did not sounds like international students. She was wearing a hoody and a pair of comfortable legging.  I thought she just finished work out today because she was carrying a yoga mat. She tied all her hairs on the back. I recognized her from the crowd right because of her long hair. Her hairs almost reach her waist. Her clean hair and the yoga mat make me feel that she is a person who really loves life. I thought she might have a healthy life.

I also love to do some exercises in very comfortable clothes. I believe this is the best way for me to stay healthy and then to pursue what I want in my life. In addition, I also have very long hair. I cherish my hairs and treat them as a kind of representation of me.

3. The third person I saw today was an American woman, who is around 35 years old. She was walking in hurry with a heavy big pack. She did not have so much adorned on her dressing. She was wearing a warm pink sweater, a pair of black jeans, and a pair of comfortable flat. I believe she was a mother who was back to school for a degree. It was around almost 4pm when I saw her. She was walking quickly toward to the direction of duck store. I believe she was going to pick up her kids or have something important to do at home. On her hand, there is a cross tattoo. Therefore, I thought she might be a Christian. Based on my own assumptions, I admired this woman who came back to school and continued to study. I thought she wanted to enrich her experience further and learn more skills in school. I am also a person who knows I should not stop learning knowledge forever no matter what happened and no matter how old I am. 

The article “Food is NOT Art” was wrote after the author listened to a presentation about treating food as art. The author stated some concerns about the presentation. He presented three reasons to explain why he/she thought food is not art by using examples and quotations. In the first place, the author thought food does not have the same purpose with paintings or movies. People need food to survive. Secondly, food is not art because food cannot influence people in the same way of art. Food would disappear after people eat it. Last but not least, the author also thought food cannot last over generations but art can. These are the three main reasons the author raise to rebate the presentation he/she had.

After reading the article “Food is NOT Art”, I thought that food may be is not an art but some thing like art. I would like to use the statements in this article to support my conclusion in the following.

The article “Food is Not Art” has different positions about the issue whether food is art. In the first place, from the article “Food as Art”, Elizabeth states that food is art since “there can be aesthetic reactions to taste and smell” (Elizabeth, 11). What’s more, “as with the other senses, the non-neutral, vivid and non-instrumental reaction to tastes and smells can be combined with a judgment for which the judger claims objectivity” (Elizabeth, 11). Based on the understanding of Elizabeth’s statements, we could know that, Elizabeth use people’s aesthetic reactions as a standard to say whether food is art. In contrast, in the article “Food is Not Art”, the author states some opposite opinions on this topic. The author raised the “purpose” of food in his/her article. He/she thinks people need to eat food for survive and they only need food when they need it. In his/her words, “humans necessarily must consume food, so their aesthetic interest in it may not be genuine; rather, their appreciation of its beauty may just be influenced by an inherent anticipation of its taste or desire to consume it” (Web). These two articles stated totally different opinions about whether food is art. In addition, in the article “Food is Not Art”, the author also stated an interesting but considerable opinion. He/she said, “People do not go to restaurants to see the food. Instead, they go to eat it, ultimately for the reason of survival…. People go to museums, watch movies, and play video games for the sake of doing those activities, not for the sake of surviving” (Web).

Secondly, the author of “Food is NOT Art” states that “Food does not have he ability to influence us the way art does because of its limitation of remaining in the physical world. All art seems to require a medium of some sort, and physical food cannot be its own medium. If this is the case, the food cannot actually express anything meaningful in our minds or inspire the deep thoughts that other art can” (Web). Because food cannot exist for a long time like other forms of art, such as paintings or movies, people do not have enough time to do some research on the food to figure out the true value of the food. Based on this perspective, the food may be cannot be named as art even though sometimes food could let people have the same sense or reactions when they say other forms of art.

Last but not least, the author of “Food is NOT Art” raised another important idea to express his/her position. The author mentioned “To use an economic term, food is a rival good. In other words, if one person consumes a piece of cake, for example, then another cannot consume the same piece of cake. Unlike many famous paintings, statues, and architectural feats, food does not persist over time” (Web). The statement in the article really point out one essential different between food and art. The value of the artwork may be increased as time went by. People in different time period could have different understanding of the same art based on different experiences. However, food did not have this characteristic. Food stimulates people’s sense in a very short period of time. Only a small amount of people could appreciate food’s value and beauty. Therefore, food is not the same as art.

In conclusion, based on the contrast of the two articles, I conclude that food is not art because food’s purpose, ability for people to share, and persistence are different from the normal art.

Cited Work

Mstoibe. (2012, December). “Food is NOT Art”[On-Line Blog]. http://artblog.catherinehoman.com/food-is-not-art/

Food is the necessity for people’s daily life. Even though food is normal, I still view food as an art. Food is not just the thing to feed people. People pursue to make delicious food with great look and taste so that they could distinguish their food with others. In the process of making more delicious food with great look and taste makes food a kind of art little by little. Just like what Elizabeth Telfer said in “Food as Art”, “it is generally agreed that there can be aesthetic reactions to tastes and smells.” People not only want to stay away hunger, but also want to enjoy the figure and smells of food. They appreciate the food in good shapes and have aesthetic reactions.

What’s more, food could be a representation of the different cultures of the countries all over the world. For instance, burger is a form of traditional food of the U.S.A, while dumplings is that of China. People could think of the countries when they saw the food. Dissanayake stated different theories about art in her article. I found that postmodernism’s theory, Art as interpretation, could support my opinion. The postmodernism thought “Rather than assuming that art reflects a unique and privileged kind of knowledge, any ‘truth’ or ‘reality’ is only a point of view- a ‘representation’ that comes to us mediated and conditioned by our language, our social institutions, the assumptions that characterize individuals as members of a nation, a race, a gender, a class, a profession, a religious body, a particular historical period” (Dissanayake, 5). From my point of view, art could meets postmodernism’s understanding of art well. The climate, topography, social structure, and culture are some of the elements that determine the diversity of food in different countries. For instance, people in the U.S.A have the different food system with people in the Africa because of the climate. Therefore, the ways they made food are totally different. In this way, we could say that food is also a interpretation to state the culture or climate of a specific area.  

In this reading, the topic about art for life’s sake impressed me. At the beginning, based on my own understanding of art, I think art is a kind of imaginary concept. No one can find a formula for art or define art as the way to define a math concept. When the author related art with life’s sake, the author makes art practical. “While there is no abstract concept of ‘art’, everyone may be an artist-decorating their bodies and possessions, dancing, singing, versifying, performing-even when some persons are acknowledged as being more talented or skillful than others” (Dissanayake). From this sentence in the reading, I refreshed my understanding of art. In addition, artist is not a mysterious occupation as more in the society. Someone are famous artist may be just because more people have the same opinion with the artist and the artist just have a proper way to express his opinions. Even though some other artists do not accept by so many people, they have their own definition for art. Their sake to pursue art is just to express their own thoughts.

Since art did not have a clear concept, I started to think about the diversity of art and people’s attitude to different kinds of art. The diversity of art may be one of the reasons that cause the religion conflict all over the world. If people in one religion cannot accept the differences from other religions in the understanding of art, art would not be a sublime concept any more.

While writing about the unclear definitions about art and thinking about what art really is, I suddenly find the charm of art. No one can define it, no one can touch it, and no one can saw it. It is not real, but it exists in our every-day life. 

From this week’s reading, I had a better understanding of value. According to the reading “Value should be synonymous with personal evaluations and related beliefs about the ‘good’, the ‘just’, and the ‘beautiful,’ personal evaluations and beliefs that propel us to action, to a particular kind of behavior and life.” This broad definition of value makes me think about the meaning of value deeply. From my point of view, the meanings of value are various because different people have distinct understandings of value based on their own backgrounds. Therefore, there is not a specific meaning of value. Every single person could write down his or her own definition of value.

In this paragraph, I will explain my point of view using a practical and common issue, whether someone should go to a university for a couple of years. Based on the different understandings of the university, someone may think it is a waste of time to have lessons in university. They are rather to enrich their experience from working than just learn things from the textbooks. However, someone would like to spend a couple of years in school in order to strengthen himself or herself as much as possible by learning different kinds of knowledge. As we all know, there is not a absolute answer to this issue. Everyone has the rights to decide how to maximum the value he/she could get from the money and time he/she spends. As long as he/she thoughts his/her contributions pay off, he/she could say that he/she catches the value of the money and time.

In a word, from this week’s reading, I learned that it is hard to find a specific definition of value. Based on various backgrounds and distinct ways to “know” things, people can define value variously as long as the value they get from their contributions satisfy their requirements at the beginning.

Yesterday, I read a blog of Thomas Smith, who is the Social Media Director of Disney Parks.

The following website links to the blog I read.

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/10/guest-assistance-card-program-update-for-walt-disney-world-resort-disneyland-resort/ 

The blog talks about a new guest assistance card program for guests with disabilities. The new program will save more time for guests with disabilities and allow them also have fun in the Disney Parks.

After I read this blog, I knew that directors of Disney Parks really pay attention to customer’s satisfaction. They would like to enhance the environment and equipment in the Disney Parks so that everyone in the Parks could enjoy the attractions. Directors are trying to find a way to refine the current program so that the Disney Parks could satisfy more customers with disabilities.