Lu's world

In the country where I come from, China, people has a really strong sense of understand about food because we believe that food is one type of symbol of culture which reveals the change of history and human wisdom. For example, about 50 years ago, China was recovering from the destruction of the war that people were suffering from food shortage and natural disaster. In order to survive, Chinese people was trying to eat EVERYTHING including something that western people could never imagine and trying to make them delicious. This is one of the main cause why Chinese cuisine are well-known because its flavor and diversity. However, does that mean the food can be counted as form of Art?

According to Dissanayake, the idea of art is consist of 3 concept: human history, all human society and psychological or emotional need which as psychological or emotional effect. In the meantime, Tefler also claim in the article that food is “often arranged or decorated in creative and attractive was which constitute a visual work of art”. As I mentioned above, food or cuisine often has strong relationship with human history, which will affect the framework of the society and people lifestyle. By the definition of art given by Dissanayake, food has already satisfied the first 2 concept of the idea of art; however, I believe the third concept along with Telfer’s argument should be the key point of defining whether food belongs to one form of art. Tefler mentions that when people are making dishes or food, they are prefer to make it creatively like putting some decoration on the cake on around the dish. The purpose of doing that is to enhance appetite and enjoyment, which can be understood as creating “psychological or emotional effect”. For example, spicy food are usually made in red or use red containers. By doing so, it is not only just because of the color of chili but also give people a sense that the food itself might be spicy, but also provides a visual impact which may stimulate people’s appetite. On the other side, some restaurants will offer some small dishes which contains lot of vinegar to stimulate people’s appetite or offer some light-flavor food after you eat some strong-flavor dishes such as beef steak. More typical example can be cakes. People usually eat cakes during the celebration which is considered to be happy and memorable. Thus many cakes are decorated with color and has really strong taste of sweetness because the flavor sweet will enhance the sense of happiness by stimulating the enzymes made by pituitary gland.

In conclusion, personally I strongly believe that food should be counted as forms of art.

Paleoanthrosychobiological is a term coined by the author Dissanayake which is used to describe her view of art. This term  infers that the art has a close relationship with human history, psychology and cultures. She also indicates that art is an universal need for all humans “just as normal and natural as language, sex, sociability, aggression, or any of the other characteristics of human nature”. Besides, art reflects the phenomenon of human society along with human’s emotional needs which might cause certain influence on human behavior.

In Dissanayake’s article, “making special” describes one human’s behavior in order to make things “[care] deeply about or activities whose outcome has strong personal significance”. This term also relates to what is called “species-centered”, mentioned by Dissanayake. Based on the view of modernism, art is more about the value of human with personal experience. Oh the other hand, postmodernism believes that art belongs to everyone individually and independently. Both claims refer that art as a kind of natural human behavior, but we need to make this kind of behavior special. For example, human can use language to communicate, make and use tool for the purpose to survive and enhance the quality of life and satisfaction, which is totally different from animals.

First theory – Greek and medieval period
– Normal people’s view of art are different from artists. Art was mostly used to serve religion. Dissanayake also indicated that during that period of time, art means “having a correct understanding of the principles involved”
Second theory – modernism (18-19 century)
– ideology
– It refers art as “aesthetics” which indicates principles such as “tastes and beauty that govern all the arts and indeed make them not simply painting or status, but examples of fine art”. Rather than religion, art is more related to personal experiences and supreme value of human nature comparing with first theory above
Third theory – postmodernism (20th century)
– interpretation
– This theory indicates that art can be the intrinsic for every individuals and can be seen anywhere in our daily life. It also indicates that artiests are also normal people and without any priority or privilege when viewing objects.

The first thing I did after I woke up this morning was to check email from my mother because she had something for me to buy in United States and brought them back home in China.  After checking these emails and messages, I changed my clothe and came to school to study because I have 2 midterms text week and many homework assignment needs to be finished by Sunday, and I promised my friend that I would come to school to study together with her so I came 5 min earlier in case there was room available in library. Since I am only a college students, my life currently is all about family, friends and health, and these are the only things I care about. My personality is extremely close to my mother, who is really family-focused, and really loyal to her friends. Because of our family, she gave up her job and chose to become a housewife so that she did not have many opportunity to build her personal interests. I do love my family and I think I am pretty loyal to my friends; but I prefer to focus on personal development because I believe that best way to discover your potential is to challenge yourself to try different kinds of things. I am not a personal who will be satisfied by staying in a constant status or doing the same work for a life-long time, thus I put personal development at the second position just after the family as my value.

Reflection:

Firstly, I found it is very interesting to do the value assessment test and actually I spent really long time on it because I have to think what is most important to me. I believe that I made these choices because these are the values that I truly want to have and be known for. However, achieving this value is not a easy job for me to do; other than family, health, and friendship (because these things are really daily-life base and personal), personal development is relatively challenging for me to do.  Firstly, I am easy to compromise. Once I fail, probably I will just stop and give up. Secondly, I am easy to be half-hearted. At the beginning, I might be really ambitious to do something but after 3 days, I might start losing these motivation. In order to achieve my goal, I do need to think about how to overcome these weakness which are rooted in my blood.

Learning goal in the future

Everything might be changed, and I believe the value should not be counted as an exception. I believe that even in the next couple of years that mine will change once I leave college and start working. But no matter how everything else are changing, family will always be the top of my value.

Bibliography:

Lewis, H. A question of values: Six ways we make the personal choices that shape our lives. Retrieved from http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/aad250-shuette/files/2010/09/20120717_A-Question-of-Values-CH1-2.pdf

Respond to: A Question of Values: Six Ways We Make the Personal Choices That Shape Our Lives. Axios Press.

Author: Lewis, H. (1990)

The whole article generally discussed the definition of what value is and several ways of how people defining their belief and values.

First of all, I strongly agree that Lewis has inferred in his article saying that”…without values human behavior [instinct] would be directionless, chaotic and ultimately self-destructive”.  The value of a human is not developed upon instinct; it relies more on your living environment including who you are living with, what kind of things you have experienced, and what kind of conclusion and lesson you have made through these events and people you meet. However, these kind of value, or conclusion (if you like to call it), you made is totally subjective. It will change people’s thought and way of thinking; most importantly, it may change people’s habits which probably has the direct relationship to human instinct. For example, like Lewis mentioned in his article, that once people has a religion, lots of things might change. There is a famous sayings claims that everyone is born with an innocent heart and spirit equally. Personally, I think it is not indicating that everyone is born as a good human, but like a white paper so that you can write everyone it after you start building your own life. Thus, we may make a conclusion that the true human instinct is just a “blank page”; so that you can write and create your value depending on how you are living in this world.

However, does human value really ALWAYS helps human civilization? It is necessary because most of people build their value UNCONSIOUSLY and you even don’t know what kind of value you have built for yourself (just like me). Furthermore, like I just mentioned above, these values are really subjective; there is a fixed standard saying what kind of value is right and wrong. For example, during the WW2, German believed that Hitler was a great leader with amazing human value that can save (rule) the world. The fact is, Hitler was a good leader ONLY by definition: he was able to model the way, share his version, encourage people’s heart and enable others to act. However, the consequence is, now he becomes one of the most infamous sinner among human modern history. Sometimes different value among different people may cause troubles like Lewis says in the first part of article.  But things can be either small or big; most important thing is that we should always be aware of discovering the human value from anyone around and learning them to “upgrade” yourself in order to reach the perfection (if it’s possible)

Testing