Just a short heads up if anyone out there ever reads this thing; I will no longer be updating, this hiatus will be of undetermined length, and may indeed be unending. I sincerely apologize, but i find myself lacking in inspiration and drive on this front, and it is a terrible thing for an author. I will resume updating should inspiration and drive find me. In the mean time 6 friends and I will be writing some sort of story creatively. it can be found here if you are at all interested: http://nhword.blogspot.com/
Happy reading!
Durg-Dragon
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
The structure of thought
This week we discussed at length the structure of the mind, specifically the realms of: Thought, Imagination, Creativity, Understanding, Knowledge, and Intuition. First we had to define these. The two major realms: Thought(conscious): Actively manipulating ideas and memories and the like. Intuition: A form of unconscious thought involving a coming together of instinct, and experience. The other four all fall within these two main realms, with a bit of overlap. Imagination: a form of thinking, typically creatively, and a way to interpret intuition. Creativity: Artistic imaginative thinking, does not involve intuition at all. Understanding: Can be initiated by interpreting intuition, though typically stays within the realm of conscious thought. Knowledge: The result of conscious thought directed at understanding, though can sometimes be the result of imagination and understanding together, only resides within conscious thought.
This is the way I see the mind as being structured when defined by just these specific realms. This is best shown with a diagram, but I have no form of creating such a thing on the computer. However, it becomes evident that the unconscious can greatly influence normal thought.
How much do you think the unconscious influences our day to day thought?
This is the way I see the mind as being structured when defined by just these specific realms. This is best shown with a diagram, but I have no form of creating such a thing on the computer. However, it becomes evident that the unconscious can greatly influence normal thought.
How much do you think the unconscious influences our day to day thought?
Response to Denise's question
"Is art just an attempt to capture the experience of being alive?"
It certainly is if you share any of the views regarding art as: Experience, and Communication among a few others. This is rather obvious when considering art as experience. With art as communication the primary use for communication is to share experience, with secondary goals of sharing emotion. An example of this to include bad, or, poor art would be a child's drawing portraying a house and family. This is communicating that the child has a house and parents and siblings. The child grows older, and his/her technical skill progressed as well as his/her understanding of communication, symbolism, art, and emotion. They produce a new work, this time a small black dot, surrounded by a white gap, then a surrounding circle of blood red that fills the rest of the canvas. This work, instead of simplistically communicating facts, representationally communicates, as the artist claims, a feeling of loneliness, peer pressure, depression, among other things.
Are both works art?
It certainly is if you share any of the views regarding art as: Experience, and Communication among a few others. This is rather obvious when considering art as experience. With art as communication the primary use for communication is to share experience, with secondary goals of sharing emotion. An example of this to include bad, or, poor art would be a child's drawing portraying a house and family. This is communicating that the child has a house and parents and siblings. The child grows older, and his/her technical skill progressed as well as his/her understanding of communication, symbolism, art, and emotion. They produce a new work, this time a small black dot, surrounded by a white gap, then a surrounding circle of blood red that fills the rest of the canvas. This work, instead of simplistically communicating facts, representationally communicates, as the artist claims, a feeling of loneliness, peer pressure, depression, among other things.
Are both works art?
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Artistic fetish
Piper's theory of art as fetish is an interesting one. Art is indeed treated absolutely uniquely, given special views and qualities simply because it is art. We attribute special qualities (see aesthetic properties among other things) to it, and elevate it above the mundane simply because it is art. What does making it special add to it? Why does it need to be special, or seen as 'above' normal things? Is this simply to distinguish it from what can, in many cases, be identical(see the urinals stamped with names, or the paintings of brillo boxes, other such paraphernalia)?
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Response to Denise's question
"If art is an abstract concept, how can we describe it without examples and anecdotes?"
For the large part, I dont think it can be described without examples, not completely anyways. Though it can be done, I think it would take blatant, and completely excessive use of generalization. However these generalizations would be most easily reached through use of examples and anecdotes, from a great many sources, averaged and combined into one. Could these generalizations be arrived at without use of anecdote and example perhaps? 'T would take some pondering. Can art be described without any of the three though? (the three being generalization, example, and anecdote.)
For the large part, I dont think it can be described without examples, not completely anyways. Though it can be done, I think it would take blatant, and completely excessive use of generalization. However these generalizations would be most easily reached through use of examples and anecdotes, from a great many sources, averaged and combined into one. Could these generalizations be arrived at without use of anecdote and example perhaps? 'T would take some pondering. Can art be described without any of the three though? (the three being generalization, example, and anecdote.)
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Response to Denise's Question
"What do we lose by avoiding the experience of "bad" art?"
How can one learn to appreciate the good, without also experiencing the bad?
Using these appointed critics influences society towards what they consider to be good art, which creates a trend of people selectively looking at just what the critics consider good. This jades society to the art, until a very elitist trend has been started, only the best of that art field is viewed, and what was once 'good' is now viewed as bad. This puts once popular artists out of work, and while it improves the overall quality of the field, while drastically decreasing the number of artists in that field. The influence of the critics also creates a trend towards their personal tastes, making other fields wither and struggle, though this is typically balanced by the diversity of critics.
Following this train of reasoning, do you think it could be said that it is the critics who control the trends and direction of the arts, rather than the artists themselves?
How can one learn to appreciate the good, without also experiencing the bad?
Using these appointed critics influences society towards what they consider to be good art, which creates a trend of people selectively looking at just what the critics consider good. This jades society to the art, until a very elitist trend has been started, only the best of that art field is viewed, and what was once 'good' is now viewed as bad. This puts once popular artists out of work, and while it improves the overall quality of the field, while drastically decreasing the number of artists in that field. The influence of the critics also creates a trend towards their personal tastes, making other fields wither and struggle, though this is typically balanced by the diversity of critics.
Following this train of reasoning, do you think it could be said that it is the critics who control the trends and direction of the arts, rather than the artists themselves?
Sightless Dreams
How do the sightless dream?
Do they dream in sound?
Do they dream in scent?
Do they dream in touch?
Or do they dream in something else entirely?
Scientific studies say that dreaming is the result of random synapse firing in the visual cortex, as well as memory, and other sensory regions of the brain during REM sleep, at least in humans, which suggests that the sightless still dream in visual means primarily. But then there are those who have either an impaired visual cortex, or it has atrophied due to disuse. If that is the case, then logically one would assume that they dream in all senses but sight.
What do you think?
Do they dream in sound?
Do they dream in scent?
Do they dream in touch?
Or do they dream in something else entirely?
Scientific studies say that dreaming is the result of random synapse firing in the visual cortex, as well as memory, and other sensory regions of the brain during REM sleep, at least in humans, which suggests that the sightless still dream in visual means primarily. But then there are those who have either an impaired visual cortex, or it has atrophied due to disuse. If that is the case, then logically one would assume that they dream in all senses but sight.
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)