I am a huge people watcher, I do it all the time especially at airports or amusement parks. I think that no human is the same even and to understand a different human you must sit and watch them when they are unaware of it. This may sound a little stalkerish but the difference is you do not follow them around you just watch what they do for a certain amount of time then move on to a new stranger. When I normally people watch I try not to judge people by their appearance but rather their mannerisms or their decision making process so when asked to look at a person and not judge them but draw conclusions based on their appearance or how they wear their clothes can make me uncomfortable but I gained some insight of myself because of it.

The first person i observed was who I believed to be an athlete at our school solely based on the fact that she had one of those highlighter backpacks on. But when I continued to observe I noticed that she had the whole nike outfit on from head to foot, The ducks sweatshirt and sweatpants and some green nike shoes (she was too far for me to be more specific with the shoes). If I was new to this school I would assume that this person was trying to stand out by wearing only oregon apparel with the athletes backpack, but now i would assume that this person’s closet has a lot of free sweats and sweatshirts so it is only fair to assume that this person just grabbed whatever sweats were clean at that time. I am assuming she either had practice earlier in the day or just woke up because her hair is in a ponytail and is slightly damp (no rain at this time). But overall what I believe about her is that she is just another student either going to or coming from class in comfortable clothes.

The next person I observed is a (sorority) girl at starbucks. I say this with confidence because she is wearing her letters on her sweatshirt. She is also wearing yoga pants and uggs, or as I like to think about it the sorority girl uniform. I say this because I can look around the room and see 4-5 of the same exact outfits around the room. This particular girl is sitting with her laptop open drinking her coffee and doing what I assume is homework. I have a hard time studying in a place like starbucks so when I see people studying there I assume that they are only have studying and half people watching, so I am assuming that this particular girl is not really studying. The values I see in her though just from this quick encounter is that she likes (or pretends to like) the other girls in her sorority (there are a couple other girls right next to her with the same letters on) but more importantly I assume that she is probably older than 21, studying journalism, in good health but a little stressed about something, and most likely from California (just one of those feelings).

The last person I observe is a man who I would say is 40-50 and most likely a teacher, I say this because he is carrying a cup of coffee, a computer, a book and an envelop with a bunch of papers. The book appears to be a math book so I am going to assume that he is a math teacher. I am concerned because of how much stuff he has with him but he seems to manage just fine. He is wearing a button down shirt and khakis that are a little bit too big for him so I am assuming that he either just lost a bunch of weight or that he likes baggy clothing. He doesnt look sick so I will finally assume that he just likes baggy clothing. his hair is a little messy and he has a stressed look about him so I am going to assume that he is either late to class or that his research is stressing him out. Lastly I would think that he is Russian, this has no real bases but I just have that feeling about him.

I watched the video about fast food first then read (most) of the article about art is food. I really disliked how negative the fast food video was and how much it trashed the fast food industry for what it does. The thing about fast food is that it is mass produced food that is easy to get and is available for cheap, that sounds like an art form to me. Fast food has revolutionized the food industry whether you agree with how they stand or not. Fast food is an art form, not one that everyone likes necessarily but an art form none the less. Because an art does not have to be pleasing to everyone in order to be classified as art. As Dissanayake said in her essay when referring to “species-centered view”, “It does this by thinking of artmaking and experiencing as a human behavior” (22). Meaning that art is just a human behavior not necessarily a good feeling towards a piece of art. And as Elizabeth Telfer says in her article about food as art, “An aesthetic reaction need not be favourable one, and even where it is, pleasure may not be the right characterization of it” (10). This is a description of the word aesthetic and how it relates to everything. People do not have aethetically pleasing reactions towards fast food, but that does not me we dont have any aesthetic reaction towards it. Food definitely can be both an art form and aesthetically pleasing but it is not required to be and fast food is the best example of this because they have made the mass produced food industry an art form and have revolutionized the food industry because of it.

1. Describe the term paleoanthropsychobiological.

   Who coined this term?The term paleoanthropsychobiological was coined by Ellen Dissanayake and it is a way she describes art. “Paleo” meaning from history, “anthro” meaning from humans past and present, “psycho” meaning behavior, “biological” which is life. So art comes from all of these things and therefore cannot be summed up in one area.

2. What does Dissanayake mean by the phrase “making special”? How does it relate to art and to human survival?

   Something that is special is as Dissanayake puts, “different from the mundane, the everyday, the ordinary” (22). It relates to art in the way that something that is mundane cannot be art because are is something that is supposed to be special. As she says “Now all animals can tell the difference between the ordinary or routine and the extraordinary or the unusual” (22). That is to say that something that is special is a natural instinct, so recognizing art as special is a natural instinct. Adaptation is an artform, and it is essential for human survival. Throughout the course of human history we as a race have created objects that are useful for our survival and that is innovation which is art

3. Dissanayake identifies many different theories/movement/periods of art throughout western european history. Name three different theories of art that Dissanayake mentions in her essay. Identify the time period when each theory developed and was prominent. Provide a brief description of the philosophies and ideas that define each theory/movement/period of art. Support your answer with quotes from the reading.

   Her first mention of a time period is during the Greek era. When the term art wasn’t around but instead, “Plato did not discuss ‘art’, but rather beauty, poetry, and imagemaking” (16). So art itself wasn’t a term then, but the elements of art were there. The next era Ellen talked about was the Medieval times where “the arts were in the service of religion” (16). That is to mean that most of the art of that time was about God or any other religious item

   The time period that really changed things for art as we know it today was the Renaissance, because “artists gradually replaced God-centered with man-centered concerns” (16). To say that people started to see the beauty of earth and the lives here rather than that of the afterlife.

 

“Beauty is natures way of acting at a distance”, that is a quote from the video around the 6:30 mark and this is what stuck out to me. Beauty is a defense mechanism that nature uses to ensure that reproduction happens and that a species continues on. It happens for all animals big or small. The example of the peacock was used in the video and that is a very good example because the tail feathers may act as some sort of defense mechanism toward predators, but more importantly they are used to attract the female hens. The peacock has evolved to where it knows that it needs to make a good impression in order to gain the eye of the hen. This is true in humans too. But the difference between us as humans and peacocks is that for peacocks only the male has changed to try and catch the eye of the hen, us as humans have adapted to where both males and females use beauty as a way to attract the other sex. Women put on make-up or heels to impress guys, and guys work out a lot and put on a suit to impress girls, every species in the animal kingdom uses some sort of beauty to attract a mate.

This is such an interesting idea to me because of how long this idea has been around, using beauty as a defense mechanism to ensure the survival of a species. The video talked about how many hand axe blades have been found without any damage to them. He talked about how they were used as art and they liked how they looked, but i think they were more than that. I think they are to homo erectus as the pebbles are to the adelie penguins, a way to show your mate that you are the one. This is mechanism that nature has used to ensure the fate of the species and it has obviously worked. Art and beauty are not only around to be visually pleasing, but nature has developed it in order to protect species.

When asked to think about my life values that are truly mine and no one else’s, I found it surprisingly difficult because my first life value is my family and because of that they influence my other values. So instead of thinking of just my values and no one else’s I thought of my values based on how the people around me have shaped me because I know who I am today is because of them.  Next we are asked to show how we represented those values today, I am going to talk about this weekend in general instead because today was a travel day which involved a lot of sleeping. This weekend I was in Seattle for hockey playing UW and my dad and brother were there. Because My most important value is my family, i gladly gave up hanging out with my team for a couple of hours yesterday so i could show my dad and brother how much they mean to me and to really thank them for supporting me. The main reason I was in Seattle in the first place was because of hockey and how much I enjoy playing hockey. The last 3 of my top five; loyalty, friendship, and leadership can all be used to describe how i feel about my team. They first off are my friends and the loyalty i feel towards them cannot be matched. Being a leader to me is the best way to show that you care about a cause or a group, to really put the needs of the many ahead of the needs of yourself and i accomplished that by coordinating my team off the ice as well as being a effort leader on the Ice. After the top 5, the bottom 15 are in some order but not 100% in the correct order mostly because they all mean either just as much as another one or its hard to say which is ahead of which. The main one that was represented out of the bottom 15 is security, security in my future and in my family. I put security in my future by thinking about school as well as internship possibilities for this summer, and in my family by ensuring that i talk to them and keep them informed in my life and make sure i am informed in their life.

As to which of these values I inherited from my family, I would say all of them especially my top 5. I think that there are some values that i may value more than my family like personal accomplishment or wealth, but all in all my family has been the direct influence of my values.

The goals that I have yet to accomplish are mainly economical or my future job and family. And what is holding me back are a couple of things, my education level and my decision making. I need to graduate before i can truly get a job and eventually go back to school before i can achieve my ultimate goal. What that ultimate goal is though is unclear. That is my second problem, I do not know what I want to do. I feel like i should work for a while in the financial field and by doing that will figure out exactly what I want to do.

 

When given the task of finding a blog that interested me my thoughts immediately went to hockey. So when I googled Hockey blogs and started reading them i came across this blog about Teemu Selanne, one of the greatest players in NHL history and about his top 8 moments in his career. Reading about my idol and all of his accomplishments really made me think about my playing career and what hockey means to me. What really made me think is that Selanne retired last year at the age of 43, and he was still one of the fastest guys on the ice. He holds the rookie scoring record that may never get beaten with 132 points his rookie year. He will go down as one of the greatest players in the NHL and this tribute is amazing.

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/the-top-eight-teemu-selanne-moments-in-honor-of-the-finnish-flash/