Category: Unit 3

The term palenoanthropsychobiological was coined by Ellen Dissanayake. The term was created to show the many facets of art. The first part refers to the fact that art covers all of human history all the way back to the earliest art pieces. The second section is to detail the fact that art is not limited to one section of the world, but instead covers all cultures. The third and final sections are to cover the emotional and physical nature by which art connects with the audience. This is a great term that was created to encompass the entirety of the ideas of art within one study. In the reading Dissanayake uses the term “make special” when referring to how humans and all other species have a tendency to realize a difference from the ordinary. This term refers to the art world because it is precisely that need to make something special that art was created. To make something standout and be noticed is what art has come to be. In the history of human evolution the term refers to our ability to realize what is different from the ordinary. It is this ability that is one of the first lines of self defense. If we can spot something out of the ordinary we are better able to be prepared for it.

One of the periods of art that was discussed in the reading was modernism. Modernism began in the 18^th century and lasted through that time. This art was created to be different from art of the past. It was created to be something different from what the world around it was. According to Dissanayake, modernism “The work of art became a world-in-itself, made solely or primarily as an occasion for this kind of detached aesthetic experience”. In this Dissanayake is explaining the fact that this art was created to be not attached to the traditional ideas of art, but was instead created only to fit this new style. One other period of art came during medieval times and was Renaissance art. This art changed one major role of the subject, which was no longer were mythical figures the subject but humans. “Renaissance artists replaced God-centered with man-centered concerns, but their work continued to portray the recognizable world” (Dissanayake). In this the author is stating that the focus of the art shifted from the outside world to the real world yet still held true to the romanticized ideas of that world. The final period discussed was post modern styling. This style was more based on the world of art and interpretation instead of aesthetics. A new need for art to be explained to the audience developed which has changed the idea of art even more.

I was not born in the United States so I have knowledge of the western world viewing it from a different perspective. When I read this week’s article it was interesting to think that not only did art take a transition from a divine style into the more modern style that is seen today, and this only happened over the last few centuries, but also that there was such a different movement of art outside of the western world. When I first read the line, “Indeed, one of the major insights to come from my studies was just how peculiar our Western concept of art is” (Dissanayake), I thought about how my own cultural view of art is so much different from that of the Western world. As I was reading I began to think more and more about how art is thought of in China and other places around the world that are not in the “Western” style of the world.

The main question that I came to mind as I was reading was, is this transition a natural occurrence or is it something that was specific to the Western world? As I kept reading the concept of divinity and the transition into the modern way of thinking kept coming up. When I though deeper about the idea I realized that divinity could be restated as spiritual. When I continued to think of this in that sense then I began to think back on the historic art of not only my home, but others that I had seen around the world. From this I realized that the spirit world being represented in art transitions into the modern world in coordination with the economic realm. This transition can be seen in many nations that have developed a more modern economy. It is interesting to think just how much influence there is the art world from elements of society.