January 2014 – If I could save time in a bottle

Discussion post 1: Is Food Art?

This week’s reading is much more interested for me because I really love to eat delicious food. The author Tefler, E. (2002) in the article “Food as Art” discusses about how to distinguish “aesthetic” between art and our daily activities. He points out that “Is food art?” is always an controversial issue in our society. Some people don’t agree that food is art while the author insist that food is kind of art and also has its “aesthetic.”

Coincidentally, today is Spring festival in China, which is a traditional “New year” for Chinese people to celebrate. Relatives will stay together in one person’s house and eat together. In my country, the “Food” is also an significant part of culture. For example, we will always eat”Fish” in the Spring festival because the “Fish” has the same pronunciations as “surplus.” The fish means that people will have enough things to spend every year. According the Tefler, E(2002), he states that” Our reactions is aesthetic, in many simple cases, if it is based solely on how the object appears to the senses.”(Page 9) In my opinion, the food which can contain people’s emotion is an art work because it has a power to make people feel enjoyable and aesthetic. Although the author thinks that “food can not move us at the way that music and other major arts can.”(Page 25) However, some food really have its special meanings for me to remember. The taste from your hometown I will never forget because I already mixed my homesick and the taste of food together. The meal made by my mother, which is not really delicacy as an expensive restaurant or an excellent cooker, but it’s my familiar taste, which can bring me into a extremely sweet dream of my past. So I think that food can be an art in some certain ways not because it looks beautiful or taste so great, but because who made it for you and how you feel about it.

Tefler, E. (2002). Food as Art. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 2). New York, NY: Routledge.

Essay assessment :What is art for?

The author Dissanayake, E(1990) in the reading “What is art for?” creates the word”paleoanthropsychobiological”. He states that it can be suggested several things. First, is the idea of “human history”. Second,he claims that “it include all human societies”.Third, he points out that it accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effects.”(Page 15)

The author Dissanayake, E(1990):”I claim, is also the behavior or propensity to’make special.’ particularly things that one cares deeply about or activities whose outcome has strong personal significance.” The author states a special example to explain the relationship between “make special” and how to be a survival. To be “special” is a significance way for animals to protect them self because “not all animals can tell the difference between the ordinary or routine and the extraordinary or unusual.” However, the human beings had unique abilities such as :”intelligence, resourcefulness, emotional and mental complexity.” When they face possible danger, they will use those abilities to find a better way to solve it which is why those people can be survivals. (Page 22)

At the beginning of the article, the author first points out that the word “art” in early treatise from Greek and medieval times is the same as the word “techne”, which is including some traditional activities such as fishing. He said that “It means having a correct understanding of the principles involved.” (page16)At that time ,art is defined by the real actions rather than an abstract word because art is born of our daily life in the beginning. It is unlike the fresh air—we can’t touch it but feel it. It is just like our actions, people should be involved it first, and then they can understand the principles of art. Second he talked about in medieval times, “the arts were in the service of religion.” However, the artists focus on man-centered instead of God-centered concerns in Renaissance. It means that people are more concerned about analyse themselves’ emotional spirit rather than just focus on religions. By the eighteenth century, with the development of technology, a new kind of period start to show up in front of people. The “romantic Rebellions”. the author also use an example to explain it:” while individualism became possible and people could be freed from tradition, custom and authority, they also became more alienated from their work and from other people.”(Page 17) It means that the people start to liberate themselves from the constrains of social life. Art is not only considered a activities or actions, but also considered to be an art work ,which can demonstrates the intelligent and emotional of people. After that ,in the mid-twentieth century, a new type of art abstract expressionism is created by a artists, especially some American artists. At that time, the modernist artists tend to focus on the art works which are adapted by the society. If the art gallery can sell an art work, this art work might probably can be called a real art work at the period. It is why there are some wonderful art works are ignored by people just because the art gallery can not understand their values.

Dissanayake, E. (1991). What is art for? In K. C. Caroll (Ed.). Keynote adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention), (pp.15-26). Reston, VA: National Art Education Association

Discussion post 1 What is art for?

According to the Dissanayake.E(1991), his article “What is art for?” maintained that “art is for life’s sake”(Page 1) and “What is western art”. he also points out that different period arts have different meanings and influences for people. The most important part that make me think deeply about is that he said:”art is inherent universal trait. ” Yes, art is universal. It make me recall a sentence that comes from the presentation named A Darwinian theory of beauty, which is from Denis Dutton, said that:” People in very different cultures all over the world, tend to like a particular kind of landscape, a landscape just happens to be similar.” Because the art in our world has numerous similarities, so that our world become varied and graceful.

As an international student, I was impressed by the reading’s points about art because the author not only tell us some history of western art that I have never knew before, but also points out a question of what is art for. According to the Dissanayake.E(1991), he said that “art is psychological and emotional need and it also has psychological and emotional effects”.(Page 1) Art not only can be defined by what we usual think in the daily life, for instance, the painting, music or the dance. It can also be an attitude, an exciting football game, or a leisurely afternoon with my grandmother. Art is in our life. It is the reason why I am impressed by the sentence from Dissanayake. E(1991) that “art is for life’s sake.”In some cases, people who like to create art is because they want to express their emotion and find audience to understand their world. Even though the Dissanayake. E said that some people disinterest of what is art. Art can be published in the world, so it also can be ignored by the world. That is why art works sometimes need to wait for couple years for people to understand their value.

Reference

Dissanayake. E(1991),What is art for? In K.C. Caroll(Ed.) Key note adresses 1991 (NAEA Convention) (pp, 15-16)

Denis Dutton: A Darwinian theory of beauty(2010 ) Video Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PktUzdnBqWI

Life Values Assessment

Here is my list of ranking:

Health
Personal Development
Family
Wealth
Enjoyment
Personal Accomplishment
Independence
Expertness
Integrity
Wisdom
Community
Security
Friendship
Service
Loyalty
Prestige
Leadership
Creativity
Power
Location

The first top of my ranking is Health, Personal Development, Family, Wealth and Enjoyment. The glossary is listed below:

Health: To be physically and mentally fit.
Personal Development: To learn and to do challenging work that will help me grow, that will allow me to utilize my best talents and mature as a human being.
Family: To have time with my family
Wealth:To earn a great deal of money (i.e., well beyond my family’s basic
needs). To be financially independent.
Enjoyment:To enjoy my work. To have fun doing it.

If I recall what I have done today carefully, I found that it can become an evidence to prove some important value in my life. For example, I can find top three importance value in today’s activities, the health, personal development, and the family. I get up late today because I think that sleep longer can make me health. The first thing I have done after that is to drink a cup of water to be a supply for my body. After that I went to school for my Economic class which represent that I trust this class has benefit for my personal development. I made a phone call for my family once every two day is because I really love my family and it is a integral part of my life. The fourth value in my list is wealth, which is an significant value in my homeland China. Sometimes it can represent everything you done in the world. There is an old saying in China states that:”If you have money, you can make the devil push the millstone for you.” It is why I list wealth to be the top 5 value in my life. The final value I list on above is enjoyment. Enjoyment can give people courage to do what they want to do. Imaging that if you are doing a job that you dislike, you might not have a positive attitude to face it every day.

Children always inherit some sort of qualities form their parent and I was no exception. According to Rachel Lane, “for a belief to really serve you, it has to be something that rings true for you on every level, conscious and unconscious, down to the bone.” The parents are the people who give us the “bone”. When I was 5 years old, my parents decided to take me to go to the church. The reason why I become a christian in such a young age is because I “inherit” my parents’ religion to be my own religion. In addition, my parents also teach me some moral standard that they consider every individual should know and act in their life. However, they will also have their own “personal characteristic”. For example, my mom works in hospital and there are so many deaths occur in her work place. It is why she always told me that I should enjoy every minute in my life because it might become your last minute in the world. This value is appeared due to her own experience and job place. I also affect by her value to that I always take things as they are.

If I think over of all my goals, they always changed as I grow older. Now my goal is just a standard goal for a normal student, which is to graduated and find a job to be a independent individual in the society. Then I might need to build a family and feed my kids. Everything sounds usual because it is a universal and standard value in our life. I don’t know when and why I have such a goal in my mind, but I consider it is influence by society and social media. Everyday we ‘re educated by teachers, parents and social medias. We all start to form our own values. In fact, those values are all come from our external environment. Then our environment will influence our emotion to build our own values.

In sum, I am now an student of university of Oregon and I am study in accounting major and economic minor. The reason why I choose to study accounting is not because I like to manage numbers and accounts, it is because the social information tell me that it is easy for an accountant to find a job. The value of finding a good job is already greater than the value of weather I enjoy the job. However, sometimes we have to adjust the society because no one wants to be eliminated by competition.

Reference

Rachel Lane, How to change your belief Patterns to unleash your human potential, Rachel Lane, retrieved from: http://coachrachel.com/how-to-change-your-belief-patterns-to-unleash-your-human-potential/

Discussion post 1:the Relationship between People’s Value and Emotion

According to the Lewis, H(1990), he points out that what is value an how a person’s value can be shaped. He also tells reader that there might be a framework for people to shape their value an lead them to find their own ways to judge themselves. According to the Lewis, H(1990), he states that a particular mental mode, such as the mode of emotion, could be matters for the people who are shaping their value.(page 9)

According to Common Cause(2013), “Values represent our guiding principles: our broadest motivations, influencing the attitudes we hold and how we act.” In fact, our emotion is show up before our value can influence our behavior. As far as I am concerned, I am extremely interested in a diagram the author mentioned in the article about a process of how people formed their value. In the beginning, people are affected by mental mode, after that, they will find out a way of forming value judgments. Then people’s emotion will choose a dominant personal judgment and a period of time later, the people will have their specific personal values and value system. Finally, they will demonstrate as behaviors in their daily life to show the world their “Value”.

As w all know, we can consider our “wages” to be an important part for a reason to do a job. Meanwhile, we can also consider our personal value have a profit for our rest of life. It is why I am talking about emotion in the paragraph above. The personal’s emotion lead us to find out a right way to be more profit in our life. It is important in shaping our won value. Because of value is always influence by our emotion, it is easy to change some parts of value. For instance, I used to think that a famous person should be a model for all the people who support them. However, sometimes they also make mistakes. When they make mistakes, I changed my value system to accept their mistakes and find a numbers of excuse for them. It is why I think that value can be changed immediately by some accidents or just a change of emotion.

Reference

Lewis, H(1990). A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices that Shape Our Lives. Axios Press.

Common cause, November 2013 http://valuesandframes.org/handbook/1-why-values-matter/

You have the whole world while your dog only have you.

http://www.mydogslove.me/2014/01/6-reasons-why-your-dog-needs-wireless.html

This blog is contain many ways for people to protect and take care of their dogs. I totally agree with the author told us that dogs need to have more freedom. It is easy to imagine that if you were a dog, you will never want to stay in a small cave and just eat and sleep all day long. As an standard master of the dog, we should try to walk the dog every day. Even though you don’t have time to walk your dog, it is important to play with your dog when you have time. 5 minutes or 10 minutes will be great for your dog. I used to have a dog when I was young, I don’t really like to play with my dog, but they still love me so much because I have the whole world, but my dog only have me. I understand this sentence too late because my dog already sent to another family due to my indifferent.