Module 4

1) I think creating the value scale and color wheel was a nice practice to remind me how color can be used. I hadn't done any experiments with color since middle school.

2) I liked working with the acrylic paint the most because watching the colors being created through the mixing of others was interesting. 

3) I think the most important discovery was learning that the primary colors are not blue, red, and yellow as I thought. 

4) I think the most important information learned in the videos was that magenta, cyan, and yellow are the true primary colors. The videos were helpful guides to base my own value scale and color wheel on.

Module 3 Elements & Principles Project

https://photos.google.com/u/0/album/AF1QipMjQLMSgoh2_ad97KqCmEzeWttURt9Ff_wFxe69

Line

Value

Shapes

Forms

Space

Color

Texture

Balance

Contrast

Movement

Emphasis

Pattern

Proportion

Unity

For the project, I used a combination of pictures I've taken specifically for the project as well as some pictures I've taken previously which I felt truly embodied the elements and principles. From the top: my daughter's baby gate in our living room, the ashes in our fireplace, a Halloween decoration which hangs in our house year-round, our tarantula's molt, some piglets huddled together for warmth which we saw at Living Treasures Animal Sanctuary, my son Oliver's artwork which he brought home from preschool, our area rug, some dusty glasses which we never use but are on display in our dining area, some fake red and yellow flowers, my son Oliver playing basketball in the backyard, my daughter Odessa and her striking blue eyes, curtains, our cat Hemingway at the top of a staircase, Valentine's Day sushi 

Module 3

1) In the video, we learn that humans have emotional responses to color. Blue and yellow are colors that we have learned earlier on than colors such as red and green. This means that we have evolutionary responses to these colors which are "hard-wired" into our brains, such as that of the calming effect which blue has on humans. It is believed that because humans evolved from single-celled organisms that lived in water and used energy from the sun, we have had the ability to see blue and yellow for longer. However, the emotions or reactions we have to red and green are simply a function of the cerebral cortex which we developed much later on in the evolutionary process. The correlation between color and emotion is evidenced by the experiment conducted in which those placed in a state of feeling powerful were more effectively able to detect changes in colors than those placed in a state of powerlessness. 

2) Color constancy is an intriguing concept which describes how we should perceive color relatively similarly despite varying effects of light. This is because our eyes do not "see" color, but rather our brains draw on knowledge of what an object's color should look like.

3) I was very interested to learn that we may have deep feelings attached to the colors yellow and blue because of evolution. It's interesting to know that those are the first colors which humans were able to detect and therefore can have the strongest reactionary value.

Module 2

Week 2- Video & CNN Article Review

1) In "Aesthetics: Philosophy of the Arts," we learn about how the idea of beauty in art developed and evolved over centuries. We are introduced to various philosophers who contributed to these developments and the evolution of the definition of art. Starting in the Middle Ages, there was no concept of aesthetics, and beauty was synonymous with the skill or technique of the artist. By the 15th century, the idea of beauty in art changed and was no longer about technique but viewed as "beyond the subjectivity of taste." Philosophers Baumgarten and Kant coined the term aesthetics, which was defined as "judgment of beauty based on a feeling." During the first half of the 20th century, art is defined as expression of human emotion. This definition is later challenged in the second half of the century by styles like dadaism, cubism, surrealism, and pop art.

"CARTA: Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics: Neurobiology, Neurology and Art and Aesthetics" begins with Changeux describing to us the neural pathways which we utilize when viewing art. He explains that a work of art is a human production which is distinct from language and has aesthetic efficacy and that art is in constant motion. Ramachandran proposes that are universal laws to art as there are within science that cut across cultural disciplines, which he summarizes in his eight laws of art.

In What the brain draws from: Art and neuroscience, Elizabeth Landau discusses how our minds can distinguish things such as faces within art from simple depictions. She asserts that this "coarse information" triggers an emotional response. The article also goes on to quote Ramachandran's statement that certain aspects of art are universally appealing despite the culture or environment that one grew up in. 

2) I feel that Leo Tolstoy's expression theory is the most important and influential of the theories. Tolstoy's theory was widely accepted by the 20th century and claimed that "art is the expression of emotion." I agree with Tolstoy that all art can be defined as an act of human expression, which is in response to an emotion.

3)Changeux's hypothesizes that aesthetic efficacy relies on access to consciousness. In other terms, the effects on emotion and reason that we experience when viewing art arise from long-range axon neurons which broadcast signals to multiple areas of the brain. From his lecture, I learned that this visual processing of art happens within the rich interconnection of the limbic system and prefrontal cortex. 

Ramachandran poses the question, "are there artistic universals as there are in science?" He believes that there are and that despite cultural differences, these universal principles transcend not only cultures but species. From his lecture, I learned that there are at least 30 areas within the brain associated with visual processing, making it a complicated task.

4)The text provides an in-depth look at art history. Trends in art styles are discussed and evaluated. The videos tie together the evolution of art and the philosophical and scientific inquiries of what art truly is and how it plays a role in our society.

5)The videos and the article relate to the text by presenting scientific explanations as to how we perceive art. The media enforces the assertion that art is vital to our society and provides insight as to the physiological events which take place when we consume art. Therefore, we can piece together the history which the text offers with the scientific knowledge we are presented in the videos to gain a fuller understanding of art. I particularly enjoyed Ramachandran's lecture on his eight rules of art and how he explains that art and science aren't mutually exclusive, and their meeting point is within the human brain.