Charlotte Flynn
February 7th, 2020
Module 2 Questions
Fundamentals of Art Inquiry



1.) In the video Aesthetics: Philosophy of Art, I learned that there is such a thing as "positively sinking into art as we look around us, as art is supposed to be everywhere (42:29). Many media forms contain art, humans cannot escape art fully as it is always around us. Art allows for feelings to come about beyond just aesthetics. I also learned that the foundations for modern aesthetics were started in 18th century England (11:33), this period started the first modern system of the arts. In the second video Evolutionary Origins of Art and Aesthetics I learned the definition for a "consensus partium" it is stated that it is the universal search for harmony and the coherence of the parts within a whole is what leads to harmony (16:22). I also learned from this video the eight laws of arts (26:47) which includes the grouping/binding, peak shift principle, contrast, isolating a single cue to optimally excite attention, perceptual problem solving, symmetry, abhorrence of unique vantage points and suspicious coincidences, and lastly art as a metaphor. From the article, "What the brain draws from: Art and neuroscience" I learned from this article that scientifically, it turns out viewers of paintings don't notice when shadows in paintings are unrealistically placed, this attributes to the way art can make us distracted from reality.

2.)  I think Leo Tolstoy has the greatest theory on aesthetics he claimed to be an advocate for the 20th century's claim and problem behind the notion of art itself. He is a firm believer in the expression theory of art. Art to me is an expression of emotion instead of focusing on the beauty of the art, Tolstoy believed in focusing on the emotions the piece is meant to convey.

3.) In Ramachandran's lecture I enjoyed how he highlighted how culture influences art. He connects science and art when he says that art transcends species boundaries, he mentioned the type of birds that live in the trees create symmetry and harmony by bringing in fruit and color, this shows that nature has its own ways of creating art. In Changeaux's lecture at (11:19) when he started explaining how the brain/consciousness experience aesthetics, he connects science and art by saying the GNW, the global neuronal workspace allows the brain to have the optimal aesthetic experience. In the videos I learned a lot that I didn't know before about the brain and its abilities to perceive art.

4.) In Ramachandran's lecture, when he was talking about the rat associating cheese with a rectangle so when he sees the third rectangle option, he prefers that one due to the fact that rectanglarity is more important to the rat (39:55). In the article, the section titled faces began to explain that evolutionarily brains will prefer faces, this same preference appears in the rat's situation as well, if the pattern means something to the organism it will prefer it. In the article it actually mentioned Ramachandran's peak shift principle stating, "Ramachandran calls the "peak shift principle." The basic idea is that animals attracted to a particular shape will be even more attracted to an exaggerated version of that form". These two parts in both the lecture and the article contain similarities in the neurology behind preferences in art, what makes a person like a certain painting more than another one, etc. 

5.) I preferred the article to the lectures because it laid out the neuroscience that both Ramachandran and Changeaux were explaining in a much more condensed fashion. The article used famous examples as well using Van Gogh as an example twice, backing the distortion techniques as more appealing to the human eye. The underlying message in both the articles and the lectures is that art is universally appealing because of little things like symmetry, shadow use, luminance, they all are underlying reasons as to why certain art comes across as appealing.