week 2

 Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts

Key concepts:

- In the 20th century an explosion of aesthetics began. It went from the expression theory of art to philosophers growing impatient with the definitions of art. 

- Aesthetic is linked to society as a whole. This makes sense because as we evolve our ideas change and we learn new things which make us think differently. 

- I think it is interesting that some people think tv is acknowledged as a medium. I understand that tv plays a whole role in our lives right now but I agree with the idea that it is not art. Tv is a way of getting information and entertainment. Not expressing oneself self like what art can do. 

- At the end of the video the one man was talking about what effect does art has on someone in the long run? He mentioned how if someone likes something it can change their whole life. So does art do the same thing? I think it can. I certain piece of art can speak to someone so much that it could quite possibly change their lives. 

Carta: Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics: Neurobiology, Neurology and Art and Aesthetics

- Bottom-up processing of the visual image. When I learned what this term was it make so much sense that this is what we do when a picture goes up on the board. I did not know this term so it was interesting to hear about.

- I thought it was so cool looking at the brain when there is a surprise and suffering.

- Eight laws of art

- the child with disabilities was able to make a better picture of a horse. This can happen because a child who has a disabilitiy will have a region of the brain that can excel in art.

"What the brain draws from:Art and neuroscience"

-our brians have a special affinity for faces

- Equal luminace meaning recognize a color contract but no light contrast

- when you move your eyes around the Mona Lisa her expressions appear to change

-distorting faces like what Pablo Picasso and Gustav Klimt did can hyperactive our neurons and draw us into the picture

2.) I agree with Plato's idea of aesthetics in the 18th century. He did write about art but wrote about what he aw at that time directly. In the video it also stated that "you end up thinking totally fake things are the real thing." I just find this to be super relevant in our day to day lives right now. There is so much fake news that you can not trust anything on social media or even online. But writing about thing in the present or back in the 18th century when Plato was alive gives it its authenticity. Writing about what is happening right infornt of you gives you little room to make things up but it could lead to your own opinions threaded into your work. But I respect his way of being in the moment and writing about things that happening infornt of him.

3.) I thought both Changeux and Ramachandran scientific view of aesthetics and art was super interesting. When I think of art the neuroscience aspect of it does not come to mind. I crazy that they both go hand in hand with one another. After watching that video I am now more aware of what is happening in my brain while looking at art. One interesting fact that I got form Changuex was the "bottom-up processing of the visual image." I thought it was so cool that our brains do this when we look at a piece od art. Then one thing I learned form Ramachndran was that a child with disbailities an be really good at art due to the fact that there might be misspraks throughout the brain causing the diabaility but the region that makes you excel in art is not missparking. 

4.) The videos and articles relate to the reading in the text because they are all talking about aesthetic and how the brain goes in hand with it. They all state different view points of what philosophers or themselves think about asethetic. 

5.) I thought the videos were interesting and gave an insight into the meaning of aesthetic. I did learn a lot form the videos and article and was amazed by what the brain does. The article was fascinating as well. I liked how it broke things down into lines, faces, color vs. luminance etc.