Artifact #2: What is Art for?

Objectives:

Consider the origins of art
Explore a brief history of Western Art
Examine multiple perspectives for evaluating art

In this week article, the author, Dissanayake, discussed about the history of the western idea of art, what she called “Palaeoanthropsychobiological”. “Palaeoanthropsychobiological” suggests art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effect, encompassing all human history and including all human societies (Dissanayake 1). She indicated that “art is inherent universal trait of human species (1)”. She briefly introduced the history of how western idea of art changing through time. Through this timeline, she showed us how the idea of art changing in different times.

In the video, Denis Dutton, the speaker introduced the relationship between art, or say, the beauty related with theories from Charles Darwin: Natural selection and Sexual Selection. in his example of peacock, the beautiful tail of male peacock is chosen by the nature to attract more peahen to increase the possibility of his reproduction. In addition, not only in natural world, but also human’s production, are included in this natural selection system. For example like the hand axes and cave painting he mentioned in lecture. In his lecture, he also showed us several examples about how he believed beauty is universal. Like the music of Beethoven and the literature of Shakespeare. The beauty of their art, are adored overseas.” There are many difference among arts, but there are also universal, cross-culture, a static pleasure and values.

Many people believes that how to define beauty is quite different among different cultures, while in general, there are difference, but the similarity, the universality of beauty are still the majority. the I am quite agree with the idea that how natural evolution can gradually influence humans’ beauty-appreciation.

Reflection:

What is art? This is really a interesting and considerable question for us to consider. In daily life, when we talk about artists or artworks in the gallery, they really sound very high-level and hard to reach, while sometimes we also consider many beautiful things as art in our daily life. As a non-art major student, this might my first time to read those specific history of art evolution in western world. This is really interesting experience for me. From the article What is Art for, Dissanayake showed an interesting word “Palaeoanthropsychobiological”, which suggests art is a psychological or emotional need and has psychological or emotional effect, encompassing all human history and including all human societies (Dissanayake 1). Moreover, in the video from Dutton (2010) really helped me to considering the origin of art: is art something that consist in our gene, in the nature? Is the universal of art really make sense? It is not easy to just make a simple conclusion about those questions but this really helps me to rethink of the definition of art.

Artwork by Maki Kahori

Future Goal:

It is really a good way for me to enjoy life by doing some artwork, like painting, gardening. In the future, I hope I will not only enjoy the feeling that art bring to us, but also learning the background of how these art develop.

Bibliography:

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.

Dutton, D. (October, 16,2010). A Darwinian theory of beauty. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PktUzdnBqWI