This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.Define “art” within the context of the ongoing discussion about its meaning (course level learning objective) IntroductionĪs a thought experiment, imagine what a society without art would be like? How would buildings look? Could any kind of visual communication exist at all? It’s a provocative question that quickly necessitates defining the boundaries of what does and does not constitute art. Source: Christopher Gildow, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, Now that we have a basic understanding of what art is, the cultural roles it plays and the different categories and styles it can belong to we can begin to explore more specific physicalĪnd conceptual issues surrounding it. Source text, website or someone knowledgeable about the art. In a museum or gallery it may be wall text that provides this link, or a We ask others for information about it, or find it ourselves, to help understand the meaning. Religious function or other cultural significance to the art we are looking at. They provide a context: a historical background, Words, either spoken or read as text, help fill in the blanks to understanding. No matter how visually aware we are, visual clues alone hinder our ability to fully comprehend what we see. Relation to our ideas of what is beautiful, as a vehicle for meaning. That is, when something is considered for its visual properties alone and their View of the mountain mentioned above, a portrait or simple visual composition that catches our eye – that we make reference to an aesthetic perception. It's when we stop to contemplate what we see – the At this point what we see becomes part of what we know. Our gaze becomes more specific, and with that comes specific meaning. The content in this course or catching up on the day's news or emails. We concentrate on that which has the most meaning for us: a street sign that helps us get home, a view of the mountains that lets us enjoy a part of nature's spectacle, or the computer screen that allows us to gather information, whether it's reading So, as we confront the huge amounts of visual information coming at us we start to make choices about what we keep and what we edit out. After all, when we say "I see" we really mean that we understand. To look is to glance back and forth, aware of surface qualities in the things that come into our line of sight. To confront the viewer with confounding visual information.Īs was mentioned at the beginning of this module, there is a difference between looking and seeing. The Belgian artist René Magritte used his easel as a soapbox Raised arms, and see how we perceive each one according to what we know about them.Īrt is a resource for questioning our perceptions about how objects and ideas present themselves. For example, let's look at three images that share one particular element that of Moreover, cultural ties to perception are many. Being visually aware is more complicated than just the physical act of seeing because our perceptionsĪre influenced by exterior factors, including our own prejudices, desires and ideas about what the 'truth' really is. We areĮxposed to so much visual information every day, especially with the advent of mass media, that it's hard to process all of it into specific meaning. Here the light is converted to an image that we can perceive – the 'truth' – as we understand it to be. The retina has nerve cells that act like sponges, soaking up the information and sending it to the visual cortex of our brain. Scientifically, the process of seeing is the result of light passing through the lens in our eye, then concentrating it on the retina at the back of The subjective and objective ways we see helps us become more visually aware of our surroundings. Our eyes literally navigate us through a visual landscape all our lives, and we all make decisions based on how and what we see. Visual information – images from media and the environment around us – dominates our perception.
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