Before talking about public art, I just ask myself if I still have an idea about art. Luckly, I still remember that I define art in no limits and no boundaries. What I mean by that is everyone has different understanding of each artwork, include murals. It does not matter what kind of artwork it is. So, moving to public art, is that any difference between them? Public art is art, according to the article, the author Ericka Doss mention that “public art is artwork in the public realm, regardless of whether it is situated on public or private property, or whether it is acquire through public or private funding. Public art can be a sculture, mural, manhole cover, paving pattern, lighting, seating, building facade, kiosk, gate, fountain, play equipment, engraving, carving, fresco, mobile, collage, mosaic, bas-relief, tapestry, photograph, drawing, or earthwork” (Page 2). It is such a long definition, but I think it is because no matter when the artwork have been created, no matter who have created them, no matter how abstract or non-abstract they were, they all had value in the history and future.

 

I did not see many murals which created in the past by some famous artists, but I did see some local murals. There was a mural in a side of a street. The main color was pink and it can definitely catch people’s attention to see what exactly they are. There were some patterns in that mural, and I remember there were also some little animals there. Personally, it was cute and it can attract people to get into the restaurant. However, is it controversy? The answer should be “YES”, because everyone is different, they have personal standards to consider each artwork. According to this experience, I think it murals as a public art should consider the public aesthetic standards and this mural get this point.

 

Then, back to the murals we appreciate this week, I am interested the second mural (Development of the Arts) which also made by Arthur and Albert Runquist in 1937. By reading through it, I feel like based on the main structure (the tree), the art developed by each branches. People have more enriched social life about music and music enjoyment as time went by. Doss said “Traditional forms of American public art include figurative sculptures displayed in public spaces—outdoors or in public buildings (often, these are erected as monuments or memorials to important national figures and moments” (Page 2). This mural may not be the national figures and moments, but it do have history value about Oregon history. Taking a Chinese mural in Dunhuang as an example, the murals in Dunhuang were about religion Buddhism. The Buddhism had an important and significant influence of the whole Chinese history. Several years ago, when people discovered those magnificent murals in accident, the whole China was surprised by our ancients who can make those unbelievable murals to spread the culture of Buddhism. So the murals in Dunhuang were “eracted as monuments or memorials to important national figures and moments” (Page 2), they just like a pen that wrote down what had happened in the history in China.

 

“Contemporary conflicts over public art especially relate to contemporary concerns about cultural control and questions about artistic, social, and economic authority” (Page 6). In several decades ago, China published a policy to control the birth. At that time, the government painted a host of murals which used to announce and spread this policy in parks and even in walls. It was a politic issues which concerned by a large number of people in China at that time. Additionally, those murals did influence the general people, and the government spared no efforts to promote this policy.

 

As far as I am concerned, public art do have controversy, and I believe it is not avoidable. But the reason why it is controversial is that people pay attention to it, people want to have suggestions to improve it, and people want to see if they can better the society. Therefore, I think public should be controversial, then it can influence people’s life, and then it can bring a lot of concerns into the society.

 

Work Cited

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 primary thesis of “Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins” which was written by Beverly Jones is about the importance, influence and the development of technology. More specifically, Jones clarified the technology influence our lives and plays a key role in our culture and art. She explained that the technology changes people’s lives, and actually people invent, develop and change technology.

 

The historical example is about Mercedes Benz Corporation. “This perspective is analogous to early market predictions of the Mercedes Benz Corporation, which limited the number of potential automobile sales to the very low number of trained chauffeurs then available” (Page 21).Before it, many people doubt that the microcomputer could be used to make the prediction. This example explained that people do not think the technology in the old days which may increase their business. However, actually the technology, the computer do influence people’s life and more importantly, help people a lot in the real world with different objects, images, etc.

 

There are a lot of examples that can support Jones’ thesis. Technology has influenced in many field for people’s lives, such as healthcare. The author Alyson Krueger says, “In a 2004 survey of 8 million seniors who use the internet, only 66% said they searched healthcare information online. In 2009 24 million Americans reported the same.” It can easily see that with the development of technology (internet), it makes life more convenient than before. Another thing is that there are many electronic devices in medical field which can help patient do more and better treatment but less suffering. The doctors can find patients’ medical record only by typing some words on computers, it can save more time and keep the records for a long time. Right now, there are many medical organization are doing research for different diseases. The technology helps a lot in graphing and prediction for the tendency.

 

Technology plays key role in people’s life now and it can be more helpful in the future. It not only influence in business, but also in many other fields, like medical field, education, etc. I believe, technology would make life easier and more convenient in the future.

 

Krueger, A. 6 Ways Technology is Improving Healthcare. Retrieved from  http://www.businessinsider.com/6-ways-technology-is-improving-healthcare-2010-12?op=1#ixzz3A3DtKeo8

Jones, B. J. (1990). Computer Graphics: Effects of Origins. LEONARDO: Digital Image – Digital Cinema Supplemental Issue, pp. 21-30.

It is my first time to do this kind of assignment. There are five pictures I combined, I used creativity, sky, music, nature, and color. Hope you guys like it!

 

1)    In my point of view, spirituality is about that something from your deep heart, it is kind of an inspiration but actually more than that. It is something that people do not know they have and something can help people to create art. Personally, spirituality is kind of a mystery and cannot be interpret somehow. For example, as for artist, they can have the spirituality to create art without purpose, it is just kind of a feeling, and those artists express these feelings into different artwork. Additionally, I believe that spirituality is a gift, not everyone can have it. The artists create artwork based on different personal experience, skills, growth environment, and more importantly spirituality. As a result, not everyone has spirituality, but artists have spirituality which can help them to create different artwork.

2)    In my opinion, spirituality and religion are different. The religion is a particular system of faith and beliefs. Many people can have it, and actually it is very organized and be treated as a whole for a large number of people; also, people can get it from others in different ways. Moreover, people can share religion with others which can help them to find similarities to share values. As for spirituality, it is quite different. It is something personal and only can develop in person. It cannot be found from others, and somehow, it is natural and it is gift.

3)    I believe creativity is the ability to think about some original ideas and to make something differently. As for creativity, it is not like spirituality, but many other people include artists can have it. For example, the American inventor Thomas Edison was very creative and he invented a lot of device in his life. I think there are many factors can influence creativity. The basic thing is knowledge, only if you have knowledge you will know what things you want to make and how to make. The other thing is about experience which may help people a lot when they create something. Therefore, I think many people have creativity, writers, painters, musicians, architectures, and many other people in different fields.

4)    I think the source of creativity is the growing environment in people’s childhood. Otherwise, it might relate to how parents guide and educate their children. The education plays key role in people’s life especially when they are very young. As for Western parents, they give more freedom for their kids to explore the nature and explore themselves. But for Eastern parents, they used to set up many rules for their children. Actually, it may limit their children to create thing and to discover things in daily life, and it is relate to different culture. However, it may be a part of the reason, growing environment includes a lot of other aspects, such as living environment, but I think education is very important and significant. Many inventors have more freedom than other peers when they in the childhood, they can think freely and be brave to try different things in daily life.

After I watch the TED, I think I have to admit that a lot change will happen in the future, just like the presenter said that when he was young, people like to sing songs, but right now people hear these songs through some electronic devices night and day. People may lose our vocal in the future. I think that is really true and that is what exactly will happen. Actually, we may lose our creativity in the future. Right now, the “read-write” culture is challenged by “only-read” culture, that is the remix culture. The kids, or all people should understand the relationships of themselves and the digital technology. Is that really true we will lose our creativity because of the developing technology and many other remixing electronic devices? Will we lose many nature things in the future just like our vocal? How will the remixing things affect our future life?

Jane McGonigal makes me re-think about what I believe before. Actually, I still feel confused about her intensive speech. She said she recalculated that people need to spend 21 billion hours a week in playing computer games in the future instead of three billion hours as today. However, I think I do not believe that people should have those much time to learn things like collaboration in computer game. I just get confused and cannot understand that why people can feel that successful in computer games instead in the real world.  Do you think that the video game would cause bad influence for people? How can people balance the time?

In my point of view, spirituality is something extremely related to art, sometimes I treat spirituality like gift. I do not think that everyone has the same spirituality when they create art, or doing other art work. As for the video that attached this week, it includes a lot of kind of art, like sculpture, singing, etc. I think art, or spirituality of art is unknown, thoughtful, sometimes, it has a strong connection between the creators and the things they make, just like the person said in the video. So those creators can have deep seeing to create art. According to the article “Deeply Seeing”, “Depth perception” is the ability of the mind to understand visual space by recognizing certain cues.” (Page 74-75), this statement makes me think about how I read the art. Maybe I am not a good reader to read the art and exactly realize the real meaning from the creator, but people all would have their own understanding of the art, because people have different perspective to observe. As for creators, they have inspiration to create art. “Inspiration is the most mysterious step in the creative process” (Page 80), this statement can show that how important the inspiration is. It just like a mystery and no one may not explain or interpret, and no one can exactly has the same inspiration.

 

In page 78, there is an “aha” moment, the author said that is the illumination or inspiration phase, and it was provided by dream. That sounds really interesting to me. It is just like a sudden feeling of something, and then you use it to create other things at that moment, otherwise, just record your feeling in another way. I think everyone should have “aha” moment, that is where so many art work come from. I believe if people would like to discover and enjoy those “aha” moment, you can create many art which you might not believe you can before.

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

This article is about the scary movie is good for you. The author Joe Martino claims that “Researchers found increases in white blood cells which left viewers better equipped to fight disease and repair the body. This means watching scary movies actually boosts your immune system”, besides, he still states “researchers found that watching scary movies was also great exercise. A single viewing of various movies tested revealed that you can burn around 200 calories depending on the movie”. These two statements are professional examples to prove Martino’s idea and to furthermore interpret the main idea of this article. After that, Martino uses some detailed information to show that horror is good for people. It not only tells people that the movie is no connection with reality, but also can help body to have additional energy. There is an argument shows the horror movie can “cause disruptions in sleep patterns and can cause increased fear in certain situations”. However, Martino still make conclusion that having memory of something scared would help people overcome the fear.

 

In our reading assignment, Noel Carroll claims that “Horror genre gives every evidence of being pleasurable to its audience, but it does so by means of trafficking in the very sort of things that cause disquiet, distress, and displeasure.” It seems that Carroll do admit that horror pleasure its audience, but he add some points that is the psychological effect. The audiences have curiosity to watch horror movie, then, Carroll claims that “we are attracted to, and many of us seek out, horror fictions of this sort despite that fact that they provoke disgust, because that disgust is required for the pleasure involved in engaging our curiosity in the unknown and drawing it into the processes of revelation, ratiocination, etc.” That is to say, horror movie satisfy a lot for people’s curiosity and provide people opportunities to discover themselves. After that, Carroll states a new idea which is the “horror fiction is a special variation on this general narrative motivation”, it is the center of something which people might not know previously. The horror movie is not as general movie which is in a normal narrative, however, it goes with abnormal stories with a lot of disclosure of elements, and unpredicted factors. Those things scared people usually.

 

As a result, the conclusions that Martino and Carroll made are kind of similar. They all claim that horror movies do affect people psychologically, but the difference is that Martino focus on a positive aspect, how horror movie good for people, like the horror movie can inspire your body to gain additional energy, but Carroll focus on why horror becomes popular and more entertaining. The difference is about “how” and “why”. I think these two articles are interesting, and if the ideas can combined, they would both be more persuasive.

 

Martino, J., (2014) “The Science is In: Scary Movie are Good for You!” Collective Evolution. Retrieved May 28th, 2002,from http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/05/28/the-science-is-in-scary-movies-are-good-for-you/

 

 

The second article is about if watching horror movie harm children. This might be a hard question for parents to make decision whether allow their children watch or not. The author Lawrence Ross says “It is equally true that many of these same children experience negative effects of trouble falling asleep, nightmares, fear of the dark, anxiety”. Those problems might confuse and bother people a lot. Actually, those effects can last for a long time, maybe several days, but sometimes several weeks and more. Ross believes that the story horror movie blur children’s mind of reality and fantasy. Sometimes, violence and blood shows up in a lot of horror movies, even with the red color which may in the whole screen when people watch horror movies. That would cause a serious problem, children may influenced by those story and change their perspective of right and wrong. The professional study shows that more than half of the students have disturbances in sleeping and eating. More seriously, 25% students “experienced such “lingering effects” a year or even years after viewing the disturbing movie.” Additionally, younger participants suffered more serious problem. Therefore, Ross made a conclusion to tell parents to lead their children to watch positive movies or sit with them together.

 

 

Back to our reading assignment and presentation, the presentation shows that horror movie can have aesthetic reaction from people. Such as, the color, line, shape, texture, composition and balance. It shows in horror movies, there are a lot of costume refers to clothes. At the end, there is a question at the end of the slides, it says “some people argue causes people to think and act in unhealthy, morbid ways, could this be true of other genres too?” I think if let Ross answer this question, the answer might be definitely right, and the horror do cause people to think and act in unhealthy, and morbid ways. Ross deep believes that horror do harm people especially children which related to their mental and psychological perspective. In our reading assignment, the Noel Horror says that horror becomes more entertaining although some monsters are disgusting in horror movie. Maybe people wants more stimulation, or they want to enjoy the feelings that cannot have in daily and real life. But as for Ross, Ross do not believe horror can have positive aspect for people, he claim that children need to be protected in some way and help them have a good living environment.

 

To summarize, this article really makes people to think deeply about how horror movie affect younger people especially for children. Maybe horror movie do have some positive affects for people, but children need protection no matter what kind of horror level horror are. I think this article is helpful, I learned a lot from it about the negative aspect of horror movie. I think people should pay more attention to horror movie and children.

 

Ross, L.(2013), “Can Watching Horror Films be Harmful to Our Children?”, Tidewaterparent. Retrieved October 22, 2013 from http://www.tidewaterparent.com/2013/10/22/can-watching-horror-films-harmful-children/

 

“Soul Food-why cooking isn’t art” which was published in The American Scholar was written by William Deresiewicz. The author states the point, “But food, I concluded, is not art, is not narrative or representational, does not express ideas or organize emotions, cannot do what art does and must not be confused with it”. This statement is really directly point out the attitude of the author, which is the food is too extensive and non-organized to be art. However, the author changes his claim to food is art in the body paragraph. Deresiewicz gives an example about curry to interpret his idea, that is, curry can be cooked with other food and can have more flavors that cook curry itself. Then, he back to his original opinion, he says “If food were really a narrative medium, then all food would be narrative, just as the clumsiest and most simplistic story is. If food were really a narrative medium, it would also be able to speak about anything, to whatever degree of detail and specificity you want—not just, as with the curry, itself”. He believes that food is not narrow and specific enough to show the emotion. At the end, he claims that “if art is everything, then it is nothing”. It obviously present author’s idea about food is not art.

 

Deresiwicz ‘s opinion is quite different from Elizabeth Telfer’s opinion. Telfer’s artivle “Food as Art” shows that the food is art, and people have aesthetic reactions to many natural things, like man-made, beautiful landscape. That is to say, man-made food might be attractive to people with a lot of emotion. She clarifies some specific points, for example, she believe “as with the other examples of aesthetic reaction, we can distinguish liking the taste and smell of food from approving of it instrumentally on the grounds that it is nourishing, fashionable or produced by politically respectable regimes”, she seems enjoys food by different taste and flavors, actually like Deresiewicz, Deresiewicz do admit that the curry might be better if it cooked with other things. Therefore, I would like to say that food somehow is art, if you consider the difference between tastes, flavors, different styles of cooking, and different appreciation.

 

However, based on two author’s points of view, there are still many differences. The argument of food is art is becoming more obvious. As for Telfer, she says “Both an original recipe and an actual dish (a particular performance of a recipe, as it were) are works of art if they are regarded aesthetically” (Page 17). This statement brings me back to the previous one, that is people have aesthetic reaction to great food, including specific and beautiful appliances (plates, spoons, bowls, etc). Although Deresiwicz does agree that food somehow can be art, he do not think that food is art as a whole. He mentioned that “It is spiritual, said another correspondent—a problematic term, but one that points in the right direction. Art addresses the soul”. Basically, he argues that food is not emotional, it does not have soul and it is not sensitive enough. Moreover, he admits that food has something related to culture. I just want to say, as a Chinese, I tasted a lot of food from different area in China. They all taste differently due to different development in the history and movement in different area. Actually, many different type of food in the world are combined by two or more other kind of food. It seems interesting that there are hundreds of thousands of food type in the world that cannot be counted.

 

In my point of view, I do not think Telfer and Deresiwicz are in opposite view totally; however, I would like to say that they may think of each other’s article and even appreciate each other. They consider “Is food art?” in different perspective. Telfer focus more on the food themselves, like dishes, tastes, flavors, etc. But what Deresiwicz consider is about the internal meaning or inherent meaning of he food, like culture, soul, emotion, intelligence, etc. I think Deresiwicz may start to think about the external meaning of the food, he may start to think about the craft of food, also, he may start to think the aesthetic reaction from people. Those points of view are totally new to Deresiwicz and I think it may help a lot to expand the imagination and analysis of the food. As for Telfer, she can develop her idea by paying attention to think more internal of the food in order to make her argument more persuasive and convinced.

 

Deresiewicz, W (2012). Soul Food-Why cooking isn’t art, The American Scholar. Retrieved from http://theamericanscholar.org/soul-food/#.U94Ef_ldWX0

Tefler, E. (2002). Food as Art. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 2). New York, NY: Routledge.

 

During different time or period in my life, I always have different dressing. Depending on different situation, people may dress differently to show their respect and dressing in a right way can make a great impression to others. The other accessories can help you to make a difference and become special in a situation as well, maybe is a pair of ear rings, maybe is a colorful tie, maybe is a pair of shining heels, those things can catch people’s attention well. As for female, the makeup can help them to be confident and positive. When I have a presentation, the dressing become really an important part; I wear suit (a coat and a skirt) and put some makeup, and then a pair of heels always give me a lot of confidence. What I believe is that putting on makeup is a way to respect your audiences, and can give you courage to stand in front of them and stand out. Only if you believe what you talk about, then you audiences do. Sometimes, when I was in a party, my dressing always depends on the topic of the party. If it is someone’s birthday, I would like to dress colorfully to celebrate. If it is a formal party, I would like to wear a dress to make it formal. Therefore, I think the situation influence my choices of dressing, and it is what I consider and what I believe.

 

When I was a middle school or high school student, I prefer to dress in athletic wear. Athletic wear is really casual and do not need to be changed when we have PE class. Right now, I am still a college student, there are no many opportunities to dress formally; but when the time is the end of each term, I always have several presentations that need to dress formally to show professionally. At that time, I always put up some makeup. However, the rest of the terms, I prefer to dress in casual, sometimes, athletic wear, because it is comfortable and convenient. More importantly, those kinds of clothes are easy to wash. It can both save time and care less. As a result, my dressing style changes over the years. People always grow up, the perspectives always change. I think when I start my career life in the future, my dressing style will become more formal, more suits, more heels, and more makeup.

 

People always affect by parents and families. I think I believe almost what my parents and family believe. The first important thing I got from my parents is confidence, which is to believe yourself that can overcome everything. Only if you are confidence, you will have the courage to show your values and abilities to others, you can keep moving when you are in trouble, and then you can make progress step by step. That’s why I believe dressing suitably can help me to become confident, it is more about to find another me in the world. My parents also taught me to smile all the time even if you got a huge gap to your goals. Until I study abroad, I realize how important and necessary to smile to face the challenge. To help myself become relaxing, I would like to dress in casual in daily life. Sometimes, wear some special or customized ear rings or necklace can always help have a great mood in a day. In that case you can gain a lot of positive power and have a strong heart. Just like that, my parents give me varieties of positive energy to encourage me. Besides that, they told me to relax myself if I had a hard time in my life. Just relax, nothing behind. Then, I can regulate myself well and re-start my life. During this time, I would like to stay at home and wear pajama, just like stay with my parents and family. I would think and live by myself and obtain some new ideas at the end.

 

As for my peer community, the atmosphere is relaxing and exciting. As for international student, I was surprised by the football game in U.S. when the first time I came here. Then, I just cannot stop purchasing t-shirt, hat. I still remember, I and three of my friends purchase the same t-shirt together and wear them on campus which brings people’s attention. In addition to that, as a student in University of Oregon, I would like to say the custom in our school are really cute, the slogan is “Once a duck, always duck”. It shows the attitude for students, and I think we love our school and we all have a happy time and life in U of O these years. The first time I back China, I got 3 t-shirt for my family, I just want to let my parents know that I like my school and they can feel the happiness through the t-shirts.