Aesthetics and The Definition of Art?

Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

Welcome and nice to meet you!

The word aesthetics must not mean much to many people (I never even knew what it meant until a couple of days ago). I mean, everyone uses it in the correct context...I guess, but do they really know what it means?

The easiest definition I could find was "pleasing in appearance" and that was from the Merriam Webster Dictionary. But Aesthetics isn't just pleasing. Not all things with aesthetics are pleasing. Almost all things try to have 'good' aesthetics. But what if the artist/designer/creator wanted a 'bad' aesthetic? 

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh made beautiful works of art, paintings, and they weren't necessarily pleasing in appearance. His work was not well known and apparently did not have 'good' aesthetics. But Van Gogh made his art like that for a reason. He made it grainy and raw to gather a sort of effect that his work was different and mind-blowing. 

Pablo Picasso made wonderful art too, but he had a rough start in the beginning.

 I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them. 

Pablo Picasso

The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso

That quote was from BrainyQuote.com. Picasso painted what he saw, skewed images, an abstract world and a cube prospective. Picasso was different and in the beginning his work was not popular. Later in his life people finally appreciate his work but there were many low times in Picasso's life. 

Leonardo da Vinci although illegitimate, lived a grand life with much recognition and ability to practice and do as he wished, to an extent. Without all the troubles of Van Gogh and Picasso, da Vinci lived a prosperous and full life. He was recognized for practically all of his work, and although unorthodox at times he was not left to die by the people.     

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci

These works of art and design by da Vinci are realistic in nature and pleasing to the eye in a gentle, beautiful way. Unlike the works of Van Gogh and Picasso, da Vinci drew for the seers eye, not his own. This does not mean he was a bad artist, just a thoughtful one.

Even though we are long and far past this I want to explain 'good' vs 'bad' aesthetics...‘Bad’ aesthetics does not necessarily mean something is bad, but rather not pleasing in appearance. I told you earlier that Aesthetics meant pleasing in appearance.  Though in contrast, aesthetics can be pleasant looking or, it can be appalling; raw or not professional. In a sense when I say aesthetics I mean that it is truthful and creates a certain wonderment or feel surrounding it, so in essence when I say ‘bad’ or ‘good’ both can create this feeling but they affect different audiences differently.  Something can be perfect and jaw dropping and it can have very good aesthetics, but it can also be so horrendous and raw that one gasps and is speechless for fear.

Through this bafflement towards an image, we can call it art. In Humanities we came up with a succinct definition of what we believed art was or consisted of. Through John Berger while we read The White Bird we learned that to him, art was a form of prayer. But it is not only that, it is a creation a want for something more. It is HOPE.

-There is a struggle, violence, bleakness in the world. Artists trying to freeze the aesthetic moment when we confront beauty. Hoping to make the aesthetic moment permanent.-

By Period 3 Humanities Class

We got to this conclusion through a discussion that lasted for the entire 50 minutes of our class, and what it means is that (if you would so kindly read The White Bird by John Berger) within nature is the good and evil that this world possesses. So through all the horribleness of nature, beauty is the only good and when beauty is seen the Artist wants to recreate that moment of awe, the awareness that awakened them to the wonders of the world. The Artist wants that moment to be seen by all, thus making it a permanent beauty. 

Going back to that moment of awe we can assume that to create that bafflement the artist uses aesthetics to wonder the audience. Through aesthetics, the design, the artist can recreate the beautiful, tragic or jaw dropping moment. 

So I guess you could say that the purpose of Artists is to create art that wonders the world, and the purpose of art is to permanently freeze a sight or space of time to show the people the wonders of the world, and the purpose of aesthetics is to give good in all the evil of the world. 

Arigato!

Now, as per usual:

Aren't the aesthetics of this picture amazing?

(Good vs. Evil, can you tell which is which?)

Forbes Mindbook Activity...The Reflection

Yes, I'm back!

Over the past week or so in my Humanities class we have been talking about a guy named Rob Forbes. Rob Forbes...well to skip the whole monologue about him I have a link to Ted.com for a quick explanation of him. I'll wait until you've read a bit about him.

Welcome back! Now in my Humanities class we were tasked with the idea of finding regular things and seeing if there is an accidental design or image given with a specific thing. Take a street for instance...

Now you see that on both sides the cars line up just right and the buildings have a nice cool look to them. Unintended or rather a spontaneous design. Don't you agree? 

 You see this wasn't just Forbes idea, it was  Gabriel Orozcos' too. Here is a link to Wikipedia for a quick explanation of Orozco. Orozco walks around the city or in urban places and takes pictures, creates designs or ideas from what people would not really recognize. As a class we took this idea of the unintended design and went out into the world to create our own masterpieces. 

Seeing as I am not the most creative person in the world, most of my pictures were of a wall or my guitar with a hat on its head.

So you see, I'm not the greatest at unintended design...But I am good at creating design. At least I tell myself that I am. 

I borrowed some of my classmates pictures and decided to create a pathway almost, like a street or road one is traveling down. With a leap of faith I took a picture with a stone pattern on it and cut it out by the stones. While keeping the picture looking the same I spread all my freshly cut pieces out. That was my pathway. I told you that I tell myself i'm a good designer! Finally online I found a picture of a cartoon hobo and cut him out and pasted him in the center of the page: 

Isn't this so cute? The idea of pathways and of the hobo/traveler is the many roads one may take. The spread out stones can represent many things: multiple pathways, a broken path, or even the separation between the steps taken.

Well anyways for me taking the pictures, finding them to begin with, was hard. But the whole 'creative process' so to speak was really easy for me. I encourage you to try this. It is NOT as easy as you think, take this from someone who experienced it the hard way. Good luck on your travels through the creative process and I hope to be ranting once again very soon.


Once again it is time for a random picture. Isn't this the coolest thing ever?!?!?!

No, I do not know what this contraption is. Well the picture isn't so random...UNINTENDED DESIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

iMedia

I'm Back!

Today I'm going to go on a rant. A rant about a piece of media (song, picture or a video) which I find has affected our culture and myself personally. Through hours of vigorous research I feel as if i found the perfect thing! Mind you this is my opinion, if you don't like it...well it's not my fault.

Well, I don't normally listen to country but I will make an exception for today. This song is called "Watching you" by Rodney Atkins. This song is about a Father (Rodney Atkins) with his son and the realization that kids really do watch you and mimic what you say and do. I don't really know whether Atkins has a son or not, but from what I know, he probably does.

I feel as if this song has a big impact on all people including myself because it tells everyone that people watch you even when you feel like you're alone or 'invisible' so to speak. Atkins wrote this song starting out with an average days car ride, and then makes the day go downhill when the Father, himself, realizes that his son knows a bad word. Atkins did what most parents would, he said, "I was concerned."

Not many would realize right away how this song might affect or change our culture, but if you take the time to truly listen to the words and recognize the meanings then you would understand that this song can make people more aware of their surroundings as well as how they compose themselves in said surroundings.

By compose, I mean how you act verbally and physically during a specific situation. As Benjamin Franklin said,

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.

Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)

What he is trying to say at this moment is basically 'think before you speak', 'question before you judge', 'treat others as you'd wish to be treated' and so on so forth. There are tons of other sayings we can make up from this one sentence that Franklin coined.

On top of that I chose this song in the because that is how the rest of the world sees us, an old western film with country music and twangy voices. This video and song matters to the United States population because it holds some valuable information which not a lot of people understand or even know. The idea of people watching you is kind of abstract in this form of society. With all this technology and other distractions it's hard to imagine that people are actually paying attention to you.

DISCLAIMER: This rant below is a montage of some 'conversations' that I've made up from past experiences with different people.These conversations are not real they are only based off of what kind of happens to me at times...

 NOW it's time for a touching 'personal' story (if you can even call it that) in which I explain my point...

I know for a fact how hard it is to believe people are watching me, that is because I found out the hard way... In school I tend not to pay much attention to people or rather to my classmates, especially during a lecture, or even a group discussion. Yes I know what you look like, yes I know what you are saying. No I do not know your name and yes it is weird that you know mine and my brothers and even that I have a dog. No, I do want to know your name, it's just I'm bad at names and I don't start paying attention to you until you have said your introductory phrase. I don't intentionally forget your name or call you Sam when your name is Jack, honestly I just don't watch. Yes I do understand that you know almost every minute detail of me including my favorite color. No i'm not conceited or feel like i'm better than you, I just don't pay much attention. I'm Sorry!

People watch you, and though you may not know them, they probably know more about you than you think. This song "Watching you" clearly states that the son has been 'watching' the dad and mimicking him. Thus causing that father to need to be more careful in his actions and with what he says around other people privately, or even in public.

Yes i'm getting to my point:

This song causes others to be more aware of those or things around them in which could cause harm to themselves or others in the long run. Rodney Atkins demonstrates this perfectly in this cute and cuddly Official Music Video. Thanks for reading! I know this post was kind of long.


Sorry but isn't this kind of true?

Best of the Week(s)

Hello,

I am here today to discuss what I believe is the greatest observation or idea that I have heard in my Humanities class this week. I know so far this post isn't all that interesting. But it will be...

In class we have been talking about creativity and whether it has been on the decline in the United States. I feel as if it is. The people I work with in school everyday seem to have trouble with all the different projects or essays where the teacher says "Be creative." I remember in my freshman year communications class we all had to write a speech on how to do something. Whether it be make a food dish, write a story, or do a dance move. Whatever it was, all everyone did was create a power-point with pictures and spoke monotonously through the entire 50 minute presentation. I also remember the long speech our teacher gave us on our lack of creativity and ingenuity with our projects. Sure we all did something different, but they were all basically the same.

No one decided to make a poster or show a video of the thing they were teaching. No one decided to try and demonstrate the thing all by themselves. No one decided to spice up their power point with a game or form of interaction with their audience. And most of all, no one decided to make up their own idea to show how to do something. No one chose to change the tone of their voice to make the presentation more interesting. No one chose to walk around the room and pick random volunteers to try the demonstration. And most of all, no one chose to make the presentation fun, for themselves or the audience. This my friends is called lack of creativity.

The article "Creativity Crisis" talked about the decline in the United States as an epidemic of sorts. I agree. To be an innovative or expanding country of sorts, there must be many innovative or creative thinkers. If there are no more creative thinkers than there is no new products, no new designs, no better technologies to support the people of the nation. If the people of the nation are not supported how can we talk about supporting those of other less technological countries?

Without creativity everyone becomes the same. One word comes to mind, communist. Yes there is more to that one word than I am implying but the first thing that comes to mind when someone says communist is the same; homogeneous. Correct? Well that is what it is for me. When everything is the same, doesn't it get boring? Those of us in a Period system in school whether it be any grade level, if every day from 8-8:50 you go to the same class and talk about the same thing as before because the teacher could not think of a better lesson plan you'd be bored. Right?

Yes the monologue is going nowhere...

Back to the point: No creativity, no new things, no fun.

So my greatest observation, or rather idea was that there was little or no creativity being taught in schools, or in everyday life. This is bad. Creativity is good.

Teach your kids to think for themselves and play games like Pictionary, or write a fantasy/fiction story with them. Have them solve innovative problems, like how to all watch the television at once. Get them a toy guitar and let them play you songs they made up. Don't get tired of their questions, encourage them. Most of all, ask your kids questions and tell them to come up with the most crazy idea they can, make a contest out of it. Pretty soon your kids will be more creative than you could ever imagine.

Creativity is everywhere, you just need to know where to look.

Here's something I found and thought was funny: