What is art? This is a very interesting question. According to Wikipedia, “Art is a diverse range of human activities and the products of those activities; this article focus primarily on the visual arts.” I can read art as something beautiful in different forms. This means art is a translator of beauty and there are many forms of being beautiful. Based on the Ted Talk “A Darwinian theory of beauty” by Denis Dutton, beautiful can be four forms- “human beings, natural land forms, works of art and skilled human action”(Denis 2014). Everyone has a different sight of what is art, on the other word, what is beauty. The differences are based on different taste of beauty and different taste of beauty is caused by different culture and living environment, like childhood. For me, I really love some types of music, not all the music, but the type I like. Here is a link and example of the music I like-” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ba_WoSZXvw&list=WL&index=46″. For this kind of music, I see them as art work and like so many people, they see or hear something they like as art and beauty. In my opinion, art and beauty are connected together. People see something as an art work usually means this thing provides an intensity of pleasure. This is nature selection. Everyone grow up in different environment and their taste of beauty is changing through the path of their growing. Some people may like traveling a lot. I think it is a response of they love natural land forms or different culture environment. And these people may have seen beautiful land forms in the childhood which makes them liking natural land forms. Art can be so difficult to define because art itself is so different in everyone’s mind. If you see it as an art, it is an art.
I really enjoy the music that you gave in your blog. It’s really a beautiful song. In your blog you said that “Everyone has a different sight of what is art, on the other word, what is beauty. The differences are based on different taste of beauty and different taste of beauty is caused by different culture and living environment, like childhood”(Wang). I admit that there are differences between individuals’ aesthetics. Still, the video you talked about from Denis Dutton also mentioned the idea of the uniformity of the beauty all over the world. I am considering besides the differences, how about the beauty that the majority of the population like. For instance the music you provided in your blog, which is a French song, might be one example of the uniformity of beauty across French and China.
I felt you made an interesting point when you mentioned that art and beauty are connected. Stating that if someone can see and appreciate a piece of art, they will inevitably find it beautiful as well. While I do find some truth in this statement, I can also see where it would have it flaws. While often times when people hear music that they appreciate they find the beauty in it as well, I don’t feel that this holds true in the case of the typical hand drawn art piece, or certain sculptures. While I can see and appreciate different art, and the talent it takes to create it each and every piece, I don’t always see the beauty in each of the masterpieces. Especially since art and art pieces can be controversial not every piece of art is designed to display beauty, rather they are set up to convey a message to its viewers.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful perspective of beauty, I was enjoyable looking through your post. Based on the principle of evolution, this TEDD show addresses Darwin’s theory of beauty. The word “beauty”, like the word “art”, is hard to be defined as there are predictable as well as unpredictable varieties existing in the world. No matter how complicated beauty is, its original purpose should be the thing of perfect performance, which allows to satisfying all organisms in different ways even across different culture and countries. In the post, Yiqi claims “Everyone has different sights of what is art, on the other word, what is beauty. The differences are based on different taste of beauty and different taste of beauty is caused by different culture and living environment” (2014). The country one belongs to, the place one lives in, and the family one communicates with would inevitably permeate ones standard of beauty. That is to say, I believe those who share similar standard of beauty are more likely to belong to the same social class or same culture background.
You made a good point about connecting the art and beauty. I really liked your statement “The differences are based on different taste of beauty and different taste of beauty is caused by different culture and living environment, like childhood.” You also gave an example of yourself, which is the connection between art and music in your perspective. Everyone has a different taste about something that is not confined in any barriers. In addition, you also mention, “People see something as an art work usually means this thing provides an intensity of pleasure. This is nature selection.” which you extended the meaning of art even broader. In this week’s reading, Ellen states “that the idea of art encompasses all of human history, second, that it include all human societies, and third, that it accounts for the fact that art is a psychological or emotional nee and has psychological or emotional effects.” (Page 15) This statement is basically saying the art contains or consists of everything that we are surrounded with. I think you have pointed out well by connecting art and beauty.