The video discusses the various theories of aesthetics and how philosophers have tried to define the term for many centuries.
-Plato-one of the most important contributors to aesthetic theory. I also believe his theory to be the most important. He argued that what attracted people to an object was what they were personally believed was most beautiful. It is an "erotic attraction." I believe this is most important because it provides the basis for evaluation of art and why the same artwork can be interpreted differently.
- Aristotle was Plato's student. He believed that art is imitation.
- Alexander Baumgarten was also important because he introduced the term aesthetic and helped define it.
-Immanuel Kant argued that it is our judgement that allows us to evaluate and experience beauty.
CARTA: Neurobiology Neurology and Art and Aesthetics Concepts
Changeux
-The evolution of man meant larger brain capacity. This allowed for the discovery of tools, symmetry, symbolism, artistic composition. Also, evolution afforded man to create more advanced techniques through more complex thought processes
- Art: uses symbolic forms to communicate non-verbally in order to convey emotions
- Aesthetic efficacy is the access to consciousness
- Art is constantly changing and evolving
- Bottom-up processing of visual image to generate emotional response
- There is difference in conscious and non-conscious processing of art
- Rules for processing art:
Novelty: constant search of unanticipated
Concensus partium: universal search for harmony
Schematisation: top down abstraction vs bottom down realism
Artist conception of the world is important. It is a function of art to make us aware
Ramachandran
-The goal of art is to deliberately exaggerate and distort image to create pleasing affects in brain-(hyper stimulation)
- Aesthetics is what happens before object recognition
- Argues that there are artistic universals (laws of aesthetics)
-Brain’s response to art
1. Grouping or binding-problem solving-brains circuitry-similar colors to be pleasing to eye
2. Peak shift principles-amplify features
3. Symmetry
4. Isolation-focus on the critical and outline
5. Perceptual problem solving
6. Suspicious consequences
7. Art as metaphor
8. Contrast
Changeux and Ramachandran's conclusions of aesthetics make a lot of sense. Changeux approached the topic from more of a evolutionary standpoint by arguing that the increase in brain size allowed for the development of complex thought, which in turn allows for simultaneous conscious and non-conscious evaluation. Ramachandran attempted to explain what it is specifically about a piece of art stimulates the brain into telling us it is beautiful. The pictures he showed as evidence really enhanced his ideas. The most interesting fact I learned came from Changeux and his evidence that the brain reacts non-consciously to a hidden image without us realizing.
Both films were very interesting to watch. Watching them definitely enhanced my understanding of aesthetics, one on a philosophical level and the other on a realistic level. The videos expanded on the text. The CARTA video took the idea of what makes art aesthetically pleasing beyond the tools artists use.
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