Art Experience Assignment

Before knowledge of artist

I looked at a piece by Yue Minjun a chinese artist, it was untitled. It was of five chinese men who were in their underwear with their eyes closed tightly and a huge smile on their faces. They had party hats on and were making hand signals like ones used by rockers. The expression on their faces by the smiles makes me think that the artist is trying to stereotype these chinese men. For we know the typical stereotype of chinese as having this type of expression on their faces. I think the artist is trying to poke fun at his people through his artistic ability. It is quite amusing. 

After knowledge of artist

The artist tends to make pieces that humor his audience by drawing things such as the laughing Buddha or well known European masterpieces and iconic chinese art. He likes present art history through his adaptation of popular aesthetics. He does this through exaggerated cartooning and  his graphic illustration. I would have to keep to my original response except for the fact that he used a famous piece of the laughing Buddha which I had no knowledge of, but the way in which he does his work is pretty much the same as a I predicted. 

Google Image Search

Ten words are:

vision, beauty, composition, creativity, depth, gifted, perception, knowledge, experssion, feeling.

Spirituality

Spirituality is something I have been searching for, for a long time. It is not a certain belief or set of beliefs instead it answers questions like why are we here are on earth, and why do we need to live. Is there something after death, do we get to see our family and friends again? Different people have different ideas of why we are here and why we are here living, breathing, working, educating ourselves. You will find your spirituality once you find the answer to these questions. 

Spirituality differs from religion because as stated before spirituality is not a specific set of beliefs it is different for every person, whereas religion is a certain set of beliefs that many people share, they are not different but the same. And religion hinders peoples ability to find their own spirituality because religion tells people why they are here and why they need to be "good" people. Religion does not allow a person to believe in anything else but what they teach in church. Their are so many religions out there that it is hard to believe which one is right. 

Creativity is a way of expressing something in a new way that someone has never thought about or seen. A person is creative if they can make a connection that someone else cannot. Creativity is not just in the arts but it is also in the sciences. For example many artists express new ideas through painting or sculpture, but scientists or biologist are also creative because they use their knowledge to predict how life began on earth, and that is creative, they come up with explanations that others could not formulate. Thus they are creative. 

The source of creativity is everywhere, it is within people and our surroundings. It just matters whether we can see it or if we just let it go by. Creativity is just making connections between different/similar ideas, so if we can realize those similarities then we are creative. Wherever ideas come from, whether from your own realization or from others, making connections with those is creativity. Creativity again is everywhere, it only depends on whether we can see this creativity with the tools or ideas we already have. 

Enjoyment of Horror Article # 2

Klus, Helen. (2008, March 21). Why Do We Enjoy Horror Films?. Retrieved November 9th, 2008, from http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Do-We-Enjoy-Horror-Films?&id=1060951

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge

Gaut, B. (2002). The Paradox of Horror. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap.18). New York, NY: Routledge 

Mrs. Klus states there are two main branches of explanation for why we watch horror films, and they are integrationist and co-existentialist. The integrationist theory states we get our pleasure from fear and disgust. The co-existentialist theory states we get pleasure not from negative feelings but because positive feelings outweigh the negative. She then goes and talks about Carroll and how she has this co-existentialist view of horror films. This drive to horror films is based on this curiosity of what we believe to be naturally, as opposed to logically impossible. She also discusses Gaut and his integrationist belief. He states that individuals like horror films because they enjoy being frightened. She states a few other reasons why people enjoy horror films and one is "the idea that we will feel relief having released or come to find a deeper understanding of our emotions. This view does not fit for all horror films because "the release needed is a release of sexual emotion which is repressed in our society, for example ideas of incest, rape or other taboo sexual practices. Yet again another theory she states is from Rosemary Jackson, who claims, horror is there so that we can experience things which are not found in our culture.

Carroll states that we watch horror films because "of our curiosity of the monster and the narrative." While Gaut states we watch horror films because "we enjoy being frightened. And of course there is the explanation of release of our emotions or deepest desires. While another is because we can experience things which are not found in our culture. Even though each are different I think the are all correct in some way for there are so many different horror films that not one explanation can fit each movie. So I think each explanation is for why we watch horror films is valid, but it all depends on what type of horror film we are watching. We watch horror films for many different reasons, to be frightened, curiosity of the monster, to experience things out of our culture and to have a release of emotions. 

Enjoying Horror 1st Article

Rappoport, Leon. (Oct. 1997). Why We Like to Watch Scary Movies. Retrieved  November 9th, 2008, from http://www.k-state.edu/media/newsreleases/seasonal/listscarymovies.html

Carroll, N. (2002) Why Horror?. IN Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge. 

In this article Kansas State Professor gives his opinion on why we watch scary movies. He talks about how we are civilized people, that is we want things to become efficient, safe and secure in our society. As we become more civilized we repress our uncivilized nature, through watching horror movies and all sort of related things. The article states that there is a certain age in which people go and watch horror films, and the age tends to max out at 25 years. Teenagers are the ones who tend to see more scary/horror films. But why do they do so. The reason is becomes the movies are forbidden territory, made only for adults, and this makes them seem more attractive. Also as people grow up they want to explore their limits of extreme or threatening situations. 

According to Carroll in Why Horror?,  "the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis and confirmation." In other words the curiosity of the narrative of horror films. The viewers are curious as how the movies will introduce the monster/evil into ordinary life situation, a situation a person can relate to, which establishes this fear of possibility.

 However, in the article written by Rappoport the reasons we watch movies is because we want to know our tolerance of fearful situations. That is people want to learn more about themselves, and figure out the range of their uncivilized behavior compared to the civilized nature. They want to see how far away they can go away from civilized behavior and still fee comfortable with themselves. Rappoport states that "as people grow up, they have to explore or test their limits to discover what sorts of things make sense to them---what they enjoy and can tolerate, compared with things that are too extreme and threatening." 

In Why we like to watch scary movies, the reason why we go to see them is our curiosity as to what our tolerance is for extreme or threatening situations. Whereas according to Carroll the reason why we watch horror films is also because of curiosity. But this curiosity is different in the fact that this curiosity pertains to how the evil can fit into our daily  lives. 

Personal Adornment/Reflection

Most of the time I wear black Nike running shoes with jeans or jean shorts with a tucked in t-shirt. I have no piercing, or tattoos on my body, however, I do wear a black wristband that reads, "remember the taste" along with 16-9. I keep my hair short and don't dye it different colors. I believe in being clean cut in appearance as it distinguishes between the sexes. Sometimes I see people and cannot tell whether they are a man or woman and that is why I believe in keeping an appearance that is easily identifiable as being a male. I don't wear fancy clothing but I do tuck my shirt in like my grandfather and father because to me it represents being professional and keeping true to my family name. And keeping clothing simple allows me to be efficient and organized. Jeans and shirts can be used for anything from work to leisure or dinner. This type of dress is durable and easily taken care of. The wristband represents something I lost and what I have to remember in order to attain it again. It tells me I need to develop myself more and more everyday in order to attain that goal I have lost. The band reminds me of working hard which both my grandfather and father have instilled in me. My last name was built on hard work and I will not deviate from that. I make choices like this because I want to be successful and I see how my father carries himself and how he acts and this lead me to these choices. These beliefs have not changed over the years, they have been the same and will not change as I get older because these are my core beliefs. They consists of family, health, personal development, friendship and enjoyment. In order to have a family you must be able to support and protect them. And to keep supporting them  you must be healthy and strong. Personal development tells someone they are ready for a family because they have matured from a boy into a man. And by becoming a man there comes responsibility. The tucked in shirt is a tradition of our family and that is how I represent family value through my dress. Running shoes represent my health. Blue jeans represents hard work because they were initially made to withstand working conditions. The wristband is for personal development and growth. Core beliefs of my peer community vary drastically. I feel like a major value is creativity and enjoyment especially on campus. These values are represented by piercing, tattoos, clothing, hair and accessories. 

What is Art?

Jack Foster. Cooking as a Art form. http://www.ravenchronicles.org/FoodCulture/foodcultureindex.html

First Mr. Foster starts out with a definition of a work of art from the Encyclopedia Britannica, and then states that art can only function aesthetically in our experience if it has an impact on our senses. And then he states that the more senses it makes on impact on the greater its potential impact. He makes a point stating that cooking is the greatest form of art because for cooking a creating a dish does something no other art form does. It stimulates not one or two senses but all five. Then he goes on to describe how his father cooked breakfast for him on Saturdays when he was a child. The narrative takes us back in time where he waiting and watching his father create the bacon biscuit sandwich. He describes his father cooking bacon and biscuits for him and how this stimulates all of his five senses from the sight to the taste of the bacon sandwich.
One major aspect of Food as Art was the idea that it must gain the observers attention and make him ponder the taste of the food. As with Jack the process by which his father cooked the breakfast caught his attention in numerous ways from the crackling sound of the bacon to the smoke filled smell of the kitchen. Finally the taste of the sandwich was the icing on the cake for Jack. He would appreciate all the tastes, from the bacon crease to the apricot jam on the biscuit. Just before he took the first bite he would always stare at it and imagine the tastes that were about to come. The tastes of a creation that took so much time and care allow the observer to relish in the art form of food. As seen in the videos the making of slow food such as the Saturday bacon sandwich is something that takes time and care into accomplishing. And also the actual art piece in this case the sandwich is never duplicated exactly. For the product is always different than the previous, making cooking a unique form of art that is created by the cook.






Susan Smillie (May 24th, 2007). Is Food Art? http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2007/may/24/theatreoffood

Article starts off with a really funny quote which was asked by Jonathon Jones “If canned shit can be art, why can’t gourmet food be similarly elevated? The article brings up a world wide known art show the five yearly German art show , which Ferran Adria was invited to show who art work. However the big controversy was that she was a chef, yeah she would make art out of food. Then the article brings up the question, but what is art? And it describes contemporary art as being controversial because some might think that it is art and some might think it is nonsense. Then they say it was kind of artistic to invite a chef to an art show. But an important thing that was said was the observer dictates whether something is art or not because art is simply what moves individuals and for each individual this is different. It is how the observer takes in the piece created making it art or just something to pass off.
The idea that the creation must make the observer feel something that moves them, or in some sense makes something ordinary extra ordinary is what the readings have portrayed to me as being art. Whether some critics might constitute food as being just a necessity to get nutrients in order to survive, it does not matter because all the matters is what I believe the piece to be and if I think it is art then it is art. Simple as that. For I am an individual and if something catches my attention and makes me think of it is a deeper aspect than before, then art has been created through my eyes. One thing that was related to our readings was that food can never be art, because chefs are cooking to please the customer. This was a topic of discussion in the article and I firmly disagree. For a well know chef will not deviate away from his cooking techniques to please a disrespectful customer. Either the customer which is the observer will like the meal or he will not. And if he appreciates the meal he will come back. The whole idea behind food not being art because the chef has to please the customer to make money is like stating the artist has to create art based on money instead of creating art for the purpose of enjoyment.