Video and CNN Article Review

1. For each video and article list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts
The key concepts I learned from this video was how the philosophy of Aesthetics developed over the centuries.  Going from a view of art aesthetics that was purely for entertainment and of no real value as Plato stated.  He felt art was just a copy of the object it was portraying.  He stated "What is beautiful in itself is not this object or that one, but that which conveys their own nature"  Aesthetics philosophy now states that "Feelings aroused by a work of are not purely a personal experience, they must be of a universal nature." This is the theory of John Dewey.  Aesthetics like many other things has shifted and evolved through the centuries, I enjoyed learning about those shifts in thinking and how they developed. 

CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics
The key concept I took from this video was the section on the 8 rules of Art by Vilayanur S Ramachandran.  In particular his section on Grouping or Binding.  His "aha experience" explanation of grouping I found fascinating.  To see how the brain develops the image and then once that image is completely understood you get this reward moment of "aha" there it is, I understand this now.  The example he gave the splotch drawing, was perfect.  I had never seen that before and my brain was searching the painting to try to figure out what exactly it was, then as he said a dog, i found it and experienced that "aha experience". 

CNN Article: What the brain draws from: Art and neuroscience
The key concept I took from this article was the idea of color and luminance and how the two work together to create depth and motion in a painting.  The artist's use of shading, lightness and darkness and shadowing can trick your brain into looking at the painting in more of a three dimensional view.   This is how the painting comes to life and in most instances we can better relate to that painting.

2. Which philosopher's theory on aesthetics do you feel is most important? Be sure to mention the philosophers name, era (time in history), and contribution to the aesthetic theory in your response.

I feel the philosophic theory of Immanuel Kant is most important.Kant was an 18^th century Prussian philosopher who felt that the notion that art was rule bound was incorrect.He took inspiration from Alexander Gottleib Baumgarten, another 18^th century German philosopher, whom is credited with first coining the word aesthetics and stated “beauty belonged to a middle ground between sensitivity and reason”.Kant expanded on this theory and stated in his critique of practical reason “As long as the realms of nature and of freedom are separated and the individual is torn apart, he is a citizen of two kingdoms”.He felt the aesthetic experience is not constrained by natural or moral laws.Sensibility and reason are brought together by imagination.When we open our minds up to all forms of being as beautiful, we are opening our soul.Beauty can be found in things one wouldn’t normally define as beautiful such as war.

3. What do you think about Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art? What was the most interesting fact you discovered from each speakers lecture?

To be perfectly honest, I found Changeaux's portion of this video to be quite dull and I didn't take much of anything from his section.  On the other hand I found Ramachandran's section much more fascinating and interesting.  His comparisons between the Indian art to that of Picasso was wonderful.  The way he described how your brain breaks down a piece of art it doesn't understand at first and analyzes it much the way a scientist would analyze a problem, was very interesting to me.

4. How do the videos and article relate to the readings in the text?

I feel that the videos and article relate to the text in terms of expanding on aesthetics and then the science behind the art process. 

5. What is your opinion of the films and article? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics in your reading in the text?

I found the videos very informative, especially the Aesthetics philosophy video.  I hadn't heard of many of the philosophers in the video, so it was new information to me that I found very interesting.  The article was interesting but didn't keep my attention as much as the videos did.  I found myself having to reread paragraphs to fully understand the concept.  These videos and article give more life to the concepts of creativity, aesthetics and understanding of the art process as a whole. Its easy to read and interpret the text but these two videos and the article brought it all together for me better.