Blog #2- Video Reviews

1. For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.
         The first video did a good job discussing all of the differnet theories on aesthetics. Before reading chapter three and watching this video, I have never heard of any of these men. Reading the book and how it defined asethetics, I did not realize all of the different theories on it, aethetics and art is not written out in black and white. It takes thought in order to try and understand it and I learned more about that by Plato, Francis Hutcheson, Leon Battista Alberti, Kant, Stendhal, and Tolstoy.
        In the second video, I learned about the science behind viewing art. The processes that our eyes, and brain go through in order to view art and then to try and interpret art, and then to formulate an opinion.


2. Which philosopher's theroy on aesthetics do you feel is most important? Be sure to mention the philosphers name, era (time in history), and contribtion to the aesthetic theory in your response.
     The philosopher's theory that I feel is most important is Kant who is a german philosopher from the 18th century. I really his view on art. He believes that artist is not a "skilled craftsmen" but a " exceptional, sensible superior individual." I agree with this because being a true artist is a special, natural talent that not every person possess.


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?
       They both have an interesting view on aesthetics and art. I would have never thought about the science and biology of the human body in order to even visual and interpret artwork. I found it interesting that Changeux defined esthetic efficacy as "staggering effects on emotions and reason, mobilizing conscious and non-conscious processes." This is true in the scientific view, all of these things are happenening at one time and we do not even know it. Some of the though process we know we are doing(conscious) but then there is more to it and the brain is doing things on an unconscious level. They way he defined that, just really jumped out at me. For Ramachandran, I find it interesting that he came up with 8 laws of art/aesthetics, and they all explain how the human perspective works and the process behind it.


4. How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?
     The first video deffinately related to the text, it went into detail on the different theories of aesthetics, and the philosophers, where the book does not go into alot of detail. The second video explained another side of aesthetics- the science behind it, which is just an interesting topic to learn about.


5. What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the topics in your reading?
        The first film to me was kind of boring, it had good information and added to the text. It talked specifically about the different philosophers and their views on aesthetics. However it was hard to get through the video. The second video was more entertaining, Like I said above, it touched upon the science behind being able to visualize artwork and interpret it which is pretty interesting. I have taken alot of science classes for my major, and I am just amazed by the human body and our capabilites, and watching this video deffinately added to that. When it came to art I never thought about the biology of it before that even allows us to look at and try to understand art, and formulate our own opinion. Both of these videos did add to my knowledge of art.