The point that truly made me think about art the most this week came from the TED talk. I do want to point out that I always love the TED talks, as they give new perspectives of the world from some of the most interesting people. As to this specific TED talk the point that surprised me the most was the idea that there is an ideal image of the world, the one where the artist point out certain aspects of the landscape that were considered beautiful from people all over the world, even if their environment did not contain any of the pieces that were in the picture. This was an intriguing aspect to me, because I think that the evolutionary drive that is in all animals, including humans, gives us a sense of what it is that we are looking for in a place to live. The image contained the water, trees, grass land and in the distance some place of water that is inviting. When I thought of this, I wondered if this will eventually begin to change as we evolve as a species, or if this is so tied into our genetics that it will be thousands of years before this ideal is gone.
While part of the idea most likely is tied to the disparity between societies around the world, even for the most advanced this image should still be considered beautiful. It is clear that the image provides the environment where life would be beneficial to tribal life, or early forms of human life. With an evolving sense of human life, this image seems more nostalgic for some societies, and because of that I wonder if in 50 years from now that view of the world will not hold that same level of beauty. It could be possible that the agreed upon beauty would come from life in cities, and having clean streets, lined with trees and beautiful sunlight. The view of the world needing to be the natural look from that image seems to be tied to our survival instincts, so if those continue to change, would the view of a beautiful world change, and what would that mean for the natural scene depicted there?
Everyone finds different things to be beautiful. Some people find wilderness beautiful, others find the ocean beautiful, and some even find deserts beautiful. Beauty is a personal preference. Dutton defines beauty as, “Beauty is an adaptive affect in which we extend and intensify in the creation and enjoyment in the works of art and entertainment”. Beauty relates to art because art can be seen through beauty and beauty can be seen through art. Beauty can be anything and is universal. Dutton said that the things we find beautiful in nature are areas and landscapes that showed survival. I would say that in 50 years from now, our world will have a slightly new and different kind of beauty.