Assignment

This week’s assignment is really an interesting topic which relates closely to our lives. Public art   occurs mostly around us which sometimes provides us with a lot of hints on our perspective to  look at the world. Sometimes we have become oblivious to the existence of public art but  imperceptibly it exerts much meaningful and invisible influence on us. This is how my experience  of appreciating the Runquist Murals, development of the Arts and development of the Sciences   in the Knight Library enlightens me.

Generally speaking, public art is considered to be a piece of art that is displayed in a public area  for people to appreciate. Some of us often take it for granted and seldom attach much importance  to its existence. Just like some people do not pay much attention to the Runquist Murals. But it  relates closely to our lives in many aspects including the history of our residence, the identity,  value, meaning and culture of the community and so on. According to Doss, “Public art includes  sculptures, murals, memorials, monuments, civic gateways, pocket parks, playgrounds, and  outdoor performances.” (Doss, 2) public art shows a great variety to us and in another sense also  demonstrates cultural diversity within a certain community. The Runquist Murals are a very  wonderful way of art creation. Although public art presents visual feast, what the art really  transfers is its deep meanings and values. Public art is a kind of symbolism of what we  communities think,expect and reflect just as Doss’s article says “public art embodies the ideas,  initiatives, and inspirations of America’s many publics.”(Doss, 2) It represents the public’s freedom  of expression which is rather essential for humanity. The two murals demonstrate to us how people  once look at the development of the arts and the sciences in a visual method as if they are telling us  stories of the past in a vivid way. By appreciating The Runquist Murals, we can learn the cultural  evolution of our ancestors to make us away from ignorance.

Also in another aspect, because public art is displayed in a public area, everyone has the opportunity  to appreciate the artwork, which serves as a platform for people to communicate with each other.  This is the same case of The Runquist Murals. By this artwork, appreciators can generate the same  value and awareness. By this way, people can resonate with each other and feel united as a whole  regardless of the ethnicity, religion, gender and age and so on. This kind of positive effect brought  by public art can contribute to the development of the community as in the reading article “These  early programs were guided by the idea that public art was a form of civic improvement and could  help generate a shared sense of civic and national identity.”(Doss, 4) The Runquist Murals is a part  of Eugene which tells the story of the city and stands for the identity of the community of Eugene.

The development of the Arts and the development of the Sciences in the Knight Library, the two pieces of artworks have existed in the library for many years and sometimes have been ignored by the contemporary generations. But from another aspect, this represents that public art has been an  inherent part of our lives. They represent the artistic achievement of the previous artists and also  the cultural value of the whole community. Their existence is meaningful to everyone of the  community. And I appreciate them very much for serving as a means for me to learn about the  history, values and cultural developments of the library and even the city.

Doss, E. (2006, October). Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate. 

Retrieved from http://www.americansforthearts.org/pdf/networks/pan/doss_controversy.pdf

The keywords that are employed in this image is freedom, transcendence, insightful, expressive, and  thoughtful. I think this image is a kind of abstract expressionism which represents certain kind of  ideology in one’s mind. According to Dissanayake，he proposes that  “Art is a psychological or  emotional need and has psychological and emotional effects.”  Actually the creation of art is simply   for art and inner worlds of people. Art is the product of creators to satisfy their emotional needs in the society while also to serve the emotional function within the world of the appreciators. And on  the other hand, this work is in essence a kind of remix which also expresses new ideas. Dissanayake’s  idea that“Art trasforms the ordinary into extra-ordinary”, I think this is what remix sometimes do. In  RW culture, “people build upon the culture around us by making reference to that culture or criticizing it” (Lessig.106). So, remix is not simply a kind of copy but an advancement on the former cultures and ideas by both absorbing and criticizing. And this project consists of different elements which add more to the essence of the image which will to some extent provide a multidimensional thought on it.

Copyright has already been an familiar topic in our daily lives which some people even take it for  granted,  but in copyright, there are actually some issues worthy of considerations.

In the reading material, the argument about copyright is mainly extended between the difference of RO  and RW culture. The former one focuses on the legitimacy of copyright while the latter one concentrates  on the limitation of copy right. For Lessig, he is a supporter of the RW culture and at the same time, he  does not deny the application of copyright. While as far as I am concerned, I hold the same point with him.

First and foremost, “The ability to channel the commercial return from music or film has allowed many  people to create who otherwise could not. This is the proper function of copyright law.”(Lessig.85) Innovation  and creativity can be regarded as two most important elements in modern society for the improvement of the  community. Therefore, the capacity to regulate the spreading of innovative ideas can guarantee the owners the  right to benefit themselves to a certain extent. And this kind of regulation is also necessary for the order of  academic and social world, or the innovation will be misconducted. Thus, a reasonable control over creation  is for the good development of art and social life in the long term. “Copyright law, after all, is a regulation of  speech, and justified if it produces incentives to created speech that otherwise would not be created.”(Lessig. 96)  To a certain extent, this can be regarded as the role and function of copyright which serves as a kind of security  for the renewable creation of innovative speech and artworks and many other things.

However, on the other hand, the limitations of copyright also exert certain influence on the production of  creativity. Take remix of Jazz as laptop music as an example, “A modern equivalent to Jazz is called by some  laptop music, by others simply sampling. Musicians create this music simply by taking the sound of recordings  of other musicians and remix them.”(Lessig. 104) This kind of recording of remix is later thought of as a trigger  to copyright law. Some people appeal to the original creativity and think that the recreation based on the  previous works should be limited. “But anyone who thinks remixes or mashups are neither original nor creative  has very little idea about how they are made or what makes them great. It takes extraordinary knowledge about  a culture to remix it well.”(Lessig. 93) From this, actually remix is something also inspirational as other cultures  instead of some kind of copy. So in reality, I think the regulation of copyright should be somehow limited to some  extent both to serve the function of both protection and eliciting creativity.

Work cited

Lessig, L. (2008). Comparing Cultures. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (pp. 84-116). New York: Penguin Press HC, The.

How do you define “spirituality”?

Spirituality is the general atmosphere of a place or situation and the effect that it has on people, and people reflects it from inside. The spirituality is a concerned with or affecting the spiritual soul. Spirituality is instinctive, and it is not be swayed by the outside. We usually say that a person has a spirit, because we see or feel that people beyond the language and logic, and it is an intuition. Spirituality is more like the way you think about the outside, and it is spontaneous and personal.

Does spirituality differ from religion?

For me, Religion is the belief which people believe in, and religious is a perspective relating to religion. Religion may come from the outside. For example, a person may believe in Christ because of his/her parents or friends. It reflects how the outside influences you. Spirituality is more like the way you think about the outside, and it is spontaneous. The similarity of both religious and spirituals is that they are the reflection of human values. Also, spiritual is more personal.

How do you define “creativity”?

Creativity is a comprehensive human’s skill. Creativity refers to the production of new ideas, and the ability to discover and create new things. The real creativity always produces valuable results to society, and the essence of civilization is the history of mankind to achieve the result of creativity. What the base of creativity is the ability that to absorb knowledge, to consolidate knowledge, to gain practical experience, to broaden their knowledge, to apply knowledge, and to analyze problems.

What is the source of creativity?

Creativity is from the knowledge, and the knowledge is also from creativity. As the fundamentals of creativity, it includes the ability to absorb knowledge and ability and understanding of knowledge and memory of knowledge. Also creativity is from a comprehensive intellectuality and multiple capabilities including both acute and unique observation and highly focused attention. In addition, creativity comes from the physical qualities. It is based on the physical qualities of a person, because creative activities demonstrated by the creation of quality in a certain social and historical conditions social practices through the formation and development.

For me, spirituality is instinctive, and it is not be swayed by the outside. We usually say that a person has a spirit, because we see or feel that people beyond the language and logic, and it is an intuition. I think I can use the word “soul” to sum up the spiritual, because the soul touches you at some point if you see the spirituality from the others. The creative spirituality is king of an ability of a person who sees the world with unique perspective, and I think artist should have creative spirituality. Like the article states “The artist’s three eyes of knowing are inspired by the radiant spiritual beauty of the subject, fascinated by the subject’s harmonic structure, and motivated to express the unique wholeness of the subject by drawing a bounding line around it.” (Grey, 73), artists need to create art works with creative perspective, which comes from their creative spirituality. The article also mentioned “The artist’s spiritual eye recognizes the subject as a special aspect of the absolute.” (Grey, 73), but I don’t think creative spirituality is the quality only owned by artists. Everyone could have creative spirituality, and it depends on how you see the world. For example, I met a little girl few days ago, she looks lazy and stubborn, but I totally changed my mind after reading the sentences she wrote. She wrote that a caterpillar would become to a butterfly, the children more intelligent than her always need reminders. Maybe her thought is not logical and reasonable, but she is seeing and expressing the world with her unique way and I think she has creative spirituality. I think everyone comes with creative spirituality, but social stereotype strangled our creative spirituality along with we grow up. Stay confident and see deep to retain our creative spirituality.

Work Cited

Grey, A. (2001). Art as Spiritual Practice. The Mission of Art (1st ed., pp. 205-233). Boston & London: Shambhala.

“Why Horror” as an entertainment genre?

Horry is an interesting and popular topic in the entertainment industry, especially the filming industry. Fear is from human’s instinct of self-preservation, and the fear of culture in contemporary society continues to diffusion trend. The film is typical of the industrial era of visual arts, and it never cease to fear humans and provides a new way of visual expression enhance the effects of horror. Horror movie theme fit the culture of fear in the society, and it has a very profound aesthetic and cultural significance. Contemporary horror movies reflect the theme of the contemporary society in contemporary film image is endemic fears, and these fears are actually on the theme of fear and anxiety of contemporary reality of society. Since 1895 the birth of cinema has became as an art form, a horror movie continues to trigger fears on its audience and becomes an enduring Genre. Despite the horror movie experienced several low tide on its development, but horror movies now is a very popular entertainment genre around the world. Here is a clip showing the evolution of horror films.

According to the article called At Leisure: Reconsidering the Horror Genre, “Horror is the genre of monsters-ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and more”(Joyce, 19), and we can see that those horror genres are vogue. People would like to spend time on horror movies, novels and so on, because horror evokes their curiosity and people’s curiosity creates the market value. Considering why horror as an entertainment genre, I am going to analyze several reasons.

Horror Helps Us Face Our Fears

An American author Stephen King says “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” Each of us has fears, because fear comes from the unknown. For example, you may be afraid of walking in the night, and this fear comes from the unknown of the road ahead of you. However, from the other side of the picture, if you clearly know that the road in front of you has no any danger, then you certainly will not have fear. Therefore, horror films and literature is a reflection of the true feelings of the human beings. “These novels demand an emotional reaction from readers: true fear. They achieve the reaction sometimes through psychology, sometimes through explicit violence and gory details.” (Joyce, 19) We can’t deny that we are afraid of horror because it straightly hit into your heart. Here is a clip talking about why people love horror.

“It’s terrifying, but we can’t stop watching” as the professor said in the video, horror evokes us curiosity because it helps us face our fears.

Lasting Impact

The purpose of horror films is to raises audiences’ fears, so that the audience is in a state of extreme tension. All the horror scenes are intended to touch audiences’ nerves, and the body is in a state of alert. At the end of a horror film, the director usually will not give us a definite end, waiting for you is a trigger you want more space for imagination. “Horror is the stuff of nightmares, filled with the worst fears we can imagine.” (Joyce, 19). Therefore, horror film always impacts us for a long period of time, because it gives you an infinite imagination.

Personally, I experienced a lasting impact from a horror movie called Case 39. Actually, this movie is a typical horror movie, but it educated me. The movie tough me that fears come from your imagination, and only the courage break fears. The courage is to face the own past and the courage is to endure the fear to overcome the devil in our mind. I like horror movie, because it always educate me a lot if you see the horror stuff from a positive perspective. Case 39 is the good example to help me build my courage.

Economic Value

Normally, horror movies have small investment, but the profit return is not small. The unique attribute of modern commercial films determine the economic purpose of filmmaking, and this is an important reason explains why horror movie is popular. Artistry and sense of value may not be the main pursuit horror film, but it is also pleasing place of horror, which directly and strange, mysterious and brutal, with a very effective entertainment impact. For example, James Wan filmed the first “Saw” only with a cost of mere $ 1.2 million, while the North American box office reached to $ 55 million, which easily broke 100 million worldwide box offices then. “Paranormal Activity” filmed with $ 15,000 of the cost exchanged hundreds of millions of dollars in global box office. In this industry, high return on investment produces amount of economic values.

Work Cited

Saricks, J. (2011). At Leisure: Reconsidering the Horror Genre. Booklist, 107(22), 19.

Mise-en-scene

From my understanding, I think the mise-en-scene is some tools assisting filming. My example from the Buffy episode is a person went to bathroom and brash her/his teeth, and after that she step into another room, which probably is the bedroom, and the scary sounds came. This is at about 15:00 minutes. Everything in the bedroom is mis-en-scene. For example, the beds, closet, desks, chairs and the girlish decoration and color in the room. The reason I choose this example is because everybody seems like they lost their voice, and they started to panic with the situation. This situation continuants the development of the plot, while causes the audience’s curiosity. Also, the example contributes to the aesthetic of horror because it gives me an imagination of the plot. I would imagine that if something scary hiding in the room anywhere.

Non-diegetic Sound

For me, the people in the screen do not create the non-diegetic sound, and it comes from the outside of the screen, which is kind like a sound rendering an atmosphere of horror. My example is a lady comes to home, and then something scary happened because the wired sound is from the outside of the picture. It is at about 13:30 minutes. The reason I choose this example because there is a hand which looks very strange making something, also all those happened in the dark and scary night. Also, the example directly expresses the aesthetic of horror, because dark night with horror sounds gives audiences an illusion of ominous. Dark night is one of the best places filming horror movie, because in a movies bad things always happens at night.

Diegetic sound

The diegetic sound is the sound directly from the scene we can see. My example from the buffy episode is a girl lying on the front desk in the classroom. After a guy kissed her, all students are just disappeared and a sound, which a little girl is singing, came in. When I was watching it I felt like that the girl is dreaming, or the guy reminds the girl something horror. This part is at about 1:00 minutes. The reason I choose this example is because it arose my curiosity about this video, and I think it is a hint foreshadowing later developments in the story. Also, this example attracts audiences, which is the purpose of the aesthetic of horror. The reason I think it is attractive is because it arose my curiosity. Personally, the little girl is an element always used in the horror movie, and especially a little girl standing in an empty area, which exactly like the scene in the video. I would want to know what is going on with this girl when I watch the video.

Personally, I like simple adornments and colors, such as black and white. In my closet, basically all are black and white colors clothes and pants. To be specific, I always like wearing black jeans and white or black coat or T-shirt. I think I like the simplicity of the adornment is because of my value. I am a very straightforward and simple person, and I believe in that I directly express my true views shows my respect. Of course, sometimes I will keep some words when I think it may hurt others. Also, photograph is one of my important values, and it influences me a lot, especially for my taste of adornments. I like photographing very much in my spare life. I spent almost all the time on taking pictures, because I learned a lot from taking pictures. I was beginning to learn to take pictures in order to save some small details of my life of, and then I gradually found that I fell in love with the camera because I gain a sense of accomplishment from looking pictures I shot. Whenever I aftertaste my old photos, I will be very deeply felt own growth mood by comparing different mood of taking picture and admiring picture. As a non-art major student, I think art is a way of discovering and understanding of self. Gradually, I found myself from my pictures, and I realize that I love the way directly express my self and the way talking black and white photo. I like the way I express my self, and I am becoming more and more confident.

Recently, I love the fitness because I feel that a muscle man who represents the power and strength, so I basically wear very athletic. I think this is one of the biggest changes after I came to the US. In China, even though many people have begun to have a health conscious, but there are still a lot of people do not have the consciousness of working out. Before I came to the US, I thought that fitness is just running. I see lots of American students go to the gym every day, so I started to imitate them and I was surprised to find that I fall in love this way of life. I used to be slim, and always in black jeans and a white T-shirt. However, comparing to the past, I become stronger, and often wearing sporty clothes and pants. Of course, the also choose to wear jeans and T-shirt on the days I don’t work out. I like the change, because I think I have become more and more healthier and my attitude is very positive.

For now, my core belief is that actively choose to live with way making me to become stronger. I would like to say that living in the United States gives me a lot of differences, and I choose to love life and believe in myself. My family is the most important value in my life, because my family always provides me the greatest support. My parents are very amazing people, I think that I like the simple adornment is derived from them. My mother liked fashion, so she likes to wear a variety of beautiful clothes, but she basically dominated by black styles. This is because my mom’s personality is very low-key and pragmatic. My father is a businessman, so he basically wears a suit every day. My father always told me that he was wearing a suit every day in order to maintain his professional attitude as a businessman. I agree with the words of my father very much, and my father’s attitude has been affected me during my life.

For my peer community, I think the Chinese students and American students’ values of adornment are greatly different. For example, lots Chinese students like fashionable and fancy, they like to wear very expensive clothes and bags. American students’ value of adornment is diverse, and basically American students are more creative. For example, lots of American students have Tattoo and piercing, and they like using bright color to express themselves such purple or green hair color. However, lots Chinese students like fancy and fashionable stuff, such as Chanel and louis vuitton and so on. For me, I am deeply influenced by American working out person, because I like to dress like some athletic American students. Adornment is the reflection of the values of a person, so I believe in that it is the most beautiful as long as being yourself no matter what you are wearing.

Person one:

I chose a Chinese female student, and she was sating in Lillis Atrium and watching her iPhone. I think she may be waiting for her friend from class. She was carrying a blue bag pack, and the bag looks very heavy because full of stuff. At first glance, I think her style is athletic, because her adornment is simple and athletic. She was wearing a black T-shirt, black fitness pants and a pair of Nike shoes. Her outfit is common, but the Nike shoes look very fashionable and expensive. She was also wearing an eye-catching watch, and it looks very nice and stylish. According to her decorations, first, I think she likes sports and she is very healthy, because I think that she probably goes to the gym every day if a girl usually dressed as athlete. Secondly, I think she is interested in fashion. Although her outfits do not look very expensive, there are some details showing that she likes fashion, such as her fancy shoes and watch.

Person Two:

The second person I observed was a Chinese girl sitting next to the person one, and she is totally different with the person one. Her hair is black and straight, and it seems too she care very much about her hair. She wore a white sweater as a top, and it looks both stylish and expensive. Also, she was wearing a white dress and black high heels. I think that the girls should be like clean very much, because her clothes look very white. She looks very calm, and it seems she was thinking about something. I deliberately watched her bag, because her bag is the limited edition from Chanel. Therefore, I think that she is very concerned with their appearance. First, I think that people who like to wear white clothes normally have strong sense of self. Secondly, her outfits and decoration are expensive and fashionable, so I think she is a relatively care about other people’s opinion about her.

Person Three:

The third person I chose is an American guy. He and his friends were siting on the chairs and discussing problems. They are dressed in suit, and he looks very nervous. It seems that he would have a speech later. He dressed in black suit and red tie. His suit looked very clean and very trim. I feel that he seems have been well kept his suit. His shoes are very bright and well kept. He looks like a very professional businessman. I think he is a very detail-oriented person. First, his decorations are carefully prepared, so I think he care about her appearance. Secondly, from his red tie, and I think he might want to attract the eyes of others from his speech. Overall, I think he has professional and great attitude, whether from the outside or look inside, because he was very seriously prepare for the upcoming presentation.

Caitlin Freeman, Leah Rosenberg and Tess Wilson are three artists and pastry chef for Blue Bottle Coffee in San Francisco. They create simply and beautiful desserts inspired by modern art. The book Modern Art Desserts wrote by Caitlin Freeman. This book is an amazing place to inspire people to express their ideas through desserts. Here is the website they introduce some artworks created.

From Caitlin’s perspective, Desserts is not only art but also a modern art tool. The website FLICKR shows some desserts which exhibited at the SFMOMA. It illustrates their artistic desserts and the inspiration which are some modern artworks. Desserts have aesthetic appearance, and the majority of people feel sweet and lovely when they see desserts, especially for girls. A lot of girls would like the opportunity to treat themself with a dessert. Basically, all my friends like desserts, and especially almost every girl are crazy about dessert because of their amazing appearance. I always hear that “This cake is too beautiful to eat”. Personally, I think people like eating dessert for several reasons. First, most desserts looks very attractive, and the appearance of fine desserts attract a lot of people. Exquisite desserts appearance can stimulate the sense of visual. For example workers who temporarily leave the boring and repetitive work, and it is definitely a good choice to see such a rich aesthetic desserts at that time. Enjoying the beautiful things can relax both body and mind, and at this time the dessert is no longer a simple food, but a work of art. Here is a clip shows how Caitlin create the art of desserts.

Also, desserts can stimulate the sense of taste. According to studies, there is a great use of dessert is releasing the psychological pressure, and this is exactly one of art’s objectives and impacts. Sweet could allow buds fully enjoy the taste, of course, and this dessert is sweet rather than greasy. Imagining, when you taste the sweet and refreshing ice cream and the moment let it melt slowly in the tongue and sweet gradually filled, and then the mood will naturally feel comfortable. At the moment, you would just want to enjoy a delicious, and put all the troubles behind. Art is about to look up everything with an art point of view which means positive for me. There is no doubt that not everyone can exactly read artworks, but everyone could have sense of aesthetic appreciation of food. It is an amazing approach to create desserts by the inspiration of modern art, because the advantage is advocating modern art through food which is more familiar with our life. At the same time, it is a kind of attitude of living express everything in our live has connection, and no matter it is food or art. There are a thousands of perspectives seeing the world and expressing your ideas, food is one of the amazing perspectives because food is our life.

Work Cited

http://www.modernartdesserts.com/templates

https://www.flickr.com/photos/51653636@N02/sets/72157624277977793/with/4753047179/#_=_