powerpoint 8b

the definition of art WHAT IS ART?

existing with art• the power of meaning

– some of our simplest words carry the strongest, most powerful meanings: birth, love, death, dream, despair

– how does meaning deepen your pleasure of experiences? • art is…

– meaning – beauty– the meaning of beauty – the beauty of experience – a reflection of life, the human condition and existence

• rothko’s transcendentalism – perhaps one of the strongest examples of minimalism and

postmodernism, Rothko’s painting is of nothing but it is about so much

– if you keep an open mind and stare at this work, does it make you feel anything?

– do the color says anything? conjure any emotions? – does the simplicity work? is it like the word birth or dream

– simple and short, but powerful?

the impulse to make art

• visual creatures– so much of our experience is channeled

through our eyes and their connection to the mind

– we see spectrums of color – we sense depth, perspective, proportion,

and distance – we see in the round – a three-dimensional

world of space– and we can see motion and time

• creative creatures – no society that we have record of or

evidence of has lived without art – every culture creates, every culture uses art

to reflect its values, its ideas, and its identity – where does the urge to create come from?– what purpose does art serve?

what do artists do?• specialists vs. everyman

– artists are specialists trained in trade or profession like a doctor being trained in medicine – remember, kandinsky’s shaman comparison? do you feel this is true – does the artist hold

some sacred, secret magic? • the act of creating requires

– sensitivity: heightened awareness of perceiving – adaptability: to be flexible, open-minded and proactive/reactive – uniqueness: originality and innovative – imaginativeness: playful humor, whimsy and that sense of newness and awe in every

experience– impetus: the drive to make, express, share, and communicate – organization: seeing how things fit together and work as a whole as well as individual

parts • is it an artists only club?

– can you think of other skills artists might need? avoid the notion of talent or inborn traits – think about how an artist can be trained or cultivated.

– what other professions or trades require similar skill sets? – how many of these skills do you posess?

what is art?• after postmodernism, how can we

define art?– it is something of value, not just monetary value

but emotional, psychological and aesthetic value – it is something that we experience and then

value that experience• art is a good story

– good art is like a good story or a good song – when we experience it, we remember it – it

changes us in some way– we enjoy it or loathe it, but either way, it

becomes a part of our repertoire of memories, assumptions, feelings or thoughts

– art tells a story – it is a form of narrative, a form of communication, and its message connects with us in some way

• art is not taste– taste is personal preference – but tastes change and grow – are there flavors,

songs, movies that you at one time disliked and now find yourself drawn too?

the study of art• the components of art:

– form: the method and material used, the style

– content: the meaning, the subject matter, the representation or lack of representation

– iconography: identifying, interpreting and describing the imagery using the principles and elements and the visual language

– context: the historical, cultural, temporal atmospheres surrounding the work

– themes: the sacred, the society and politics, the narratives, the history, the external and internal environments, the objective and subjective, the imaginal realm, the psychological world, and art for art’s sake

emergence• emergence phenomena

– complex patterns arise out of the continued, multiplied simple actions – the classic example is the ant colony

• the individual ant is virtually a mindless, random creature who searches for food or danger • taken together, millions of ants are capable of wonderful feats: building multi-structured nests,

farming mushrooms from cultivated leaves, raising aphids for food sources and protecting the nest in coordinated attacks

– another example: • a binary code is a series of 0s and 1s, which in themselves mean nothing • when strung together, patterns can arrive and from those patterns miraculous things can happen:

you can check your email, play a game, download a song • bits of information make up everything in your computer and all from a series of 1s and 0s

• applying emergence to art – paint strokes, daubs of color, and elements and principles are meaningless on their own – but when all of the elements combine they form meaning – the whole is greater than its parts – the elements and principles are but ants or binary codes which unto themselves are

insignificant – but together, patterns form meaning just as the ant colony or computer program have purpose

emergence & beauty• the natural world and emergence

– the natural world provides many examples of emergence – many of these also show properties of beauty and

aesthetic – a pattern from seemingly unrelated, random or

insignificant events – is art a mimicry of this? do we appreciate art because we

see these patterns?• examples of emergent beauty

– snowflakes and water crystals forming symmetry – fireflies living in the Elkmont Great Smoky National Park

(and other places around the world) will start flashing, and then after a few times they will synchronize their flashing to form a sort of morse code

– neurons firing in the brain work similarly to a binary code either sending an impulse (1) or not sending an impulse (0) and from those patterns the body functions

joan miró• the imagery of joan miró

– catalan surrealist who used imagery that was characterized by childlike “doodles”

– consist of organic forms on a two-dimensional picture plane

– these images are “types of planned accidents” which are intended to provoke reactions closely related to the subconscious experience

– they look like microscopic organisms or constellations, yet remain dreamlike

• emergence and beauty in the surreal?– Miró would scribble and doodle, letting his hand do the

work and trying not to concentrate on what he was drawing

– then he would examine the imagery– he would try to see objects, forms, and content in the

shapes– in essence he was seeing emergence and meaning in

random, uncontrolled forms

things to ponder…• does this define art, in a

postmodern age?– does the art come from the way we perceive

and interpret? – does it form under these emergence

properties? – or is it more conscious and controlled? do we

will the art to have meaning? – is it easier to derive big ideas from simpler

images, then from more naturalistic/realistic forms?

• simple shapes, simple symbols – if the art is simple enough, then it is more

open to interpretation – interpretation makes the meaning and the

experience for the viewer – but does this mean it is better or just different,

than say a Greek statue?