Module two

1.       For each video and article list/discuss the key concepts you learned. By watching the videos and reading the article I can understand aesthetics better.  From watching the first video I learned that the concepts on aesthetics are changing. As aesthetics means beauty it is hard to make one definition as beauty differs from one person to another.  What I may find is beautiful others may not. The second video said that art is constantly evolving.  When you look at past art history and look at today’s current art it has completely evolved.  A concept that really stuck with me in the article was that our brains make things out of art that aren’t really there. Art and our brain become intertwined. Picasso, himself said, "We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies." 

2.       The philosopher’s theory I thought was most important was Francis Hutcheson from the 18th century.  He believes ideas are brought about by beauty and harmony. These delight us immediately. It contributes to the aesthetic theory because his ideas display the beauty.

3.       I think Changeux and Ramachandran both have different scientific views of art and aesthetics. Changeux breaks his presentation up into two parts, the processing of the visual image and the rules of art. The most interesting fact I discovered from his lecture was the steps of discovery of tools, discovery of symbolism, and discovery of artistic composition being the  genetic envelope for the evolutionary of art. Ramachandran talks about his eight laws of aesthetics. These laws are, grouping or binding, peak shift principle, contrast, isolating of a single cue to optimally excite cortical visual areas, perceptual problem solving, symmetry, abhorrence of unique vantage points and suspicious coincidences and finally, art as a metaphor. I thought these rules were also very interesting.

4.       For the video Aesthetics: Philosophy of Art, I thought it related to the text because it went into depth what Aesthetics means in the Art world.  When I read about it in the text I was so confused.  The video really added to the text which was very helpful. 

5.       My opinions on the films were that they were quiet helpful explaining aesthetics in a different way.  . The philosopher’s theories on aesthetics allowed us to experience different views and contributions to the theory. Yet they were very long and hard to sit through.