Chapter 7: Digitizing and Dissemitizing

In the seventh and final chapter of "But Is It Art?" Freeland focuses on the role of mass production in art. Both positive and negative arguments are discussed, demonstrating the benefits and disadvantages to art that is able to reach a large audience. Benjamin proposes that mass media can be a very positive experience for viewer in that it has the ability to present many people with ideas or artistic beauty that would not have been available to them before. He uses the example cinematic films, and the ability of modern technology to use techniques such as slow motion and montage to emphasize parts of a film to produce a more artistic effect. Contrastingly, others have argued that the ability to produce more than one of a piece of art removes the "aura" or sacred uniqueness of a piece of work. Also because it has the ability to effect a large populace easily, if the message being sent via the piece of art is invalid or negative, that effect has the ability to effect a greater number of people, thus producing a mass negative effect.

Chapter 6: Cognition Creation, and Comprehension

In chapter 6, two important ways of looking at art are discussed. The first is called the cognitive theory which proposes that the purpose of art is to communicate a type of language through the media created. The second theory is called expression theory which says that art is meant to convey a particular emotion. Although both theories have their merits, I believe that they are lacking singularly and must be combined together to form a more comprehensive, overall view of the meaning of art. Art does have the ability to explain a narrative, propose an idea, and visually describe a situation. However, I believe that this more analytical approach to looking at a work of art takes a back seat to the emotion that you first feel when you are presented with a new piece of art.

BFA and MFA art opening

Last Friday I attended the openign reception of the BFA/ MFA exhibit at the UNH art museum. It seem to me like a party filled with artists who had worked very hard this year, for the museum was packed with many examples of some truly fine art. It was especially nice to see some of the art work that I had the chance to see in progress throughout the year in its finished and hung state. I really enjoyed almost all of the art work present, but I was interested to see a lot of the oil paintings present at the show. Most were created representationally, and I really enjoyed the use of color as it describes light in Maggie Green's work. I also very much so enjoyed Cara Cabral's "Gluteous Cactimus," a figural painting. It was rendered with expressive brush marks and bold colors, giving the viewer a strong impression of the piece overall.

Dance Performance

I was very impressed by the performance that the UNH dance department gave last thursday. It began with a section in classical ballet, which I like to refer to as the "still life paintings" of dance. Ballet is rooted in all structures of any dance, and is taught consistently as the foundation of dance. The next section of the performance was even better. The musical selections featured the pure genius of Duke Ellington, and it seemed like this brought out a better performance for the dancers. Their bodies seem much more engaged in the act, and even the audience tapped their feet along to some of the songs. The tap dancing section was also particularly nice, with the dancers taps echoing live African drumming. Seeing the integration of live dance and music was spectacular, reminding me that all art forms can overlap upon each other.

Vera Illiatova Lecture

Today I attended the lecture by Vera Illiatova, a former professor at UNH. She came to teach here directly after completing graduate school at Yale. I found the lecture to be entertaining and informative. I especially enjoyed her explaining how her research process could consist of watching the O.C. and taking long walks on the beach alone. It is small insights of the creative process like that which really help me to dive into the psyche of the artist and make me understand the work more on a whole. I also really enjoyed the way she went about explaining the landscape in her work. Since it is a particular interest of mine, I was excited to hear how she brought the surrounding area of the seacoast into her work. She explained that in the paintings she did in this area, that atmosphere (fog) and light (water reflection) were two of her main focuses. I could definitely sense that she knew the importance of understanding the landscape in which she painted.

"Big Time"

This article appears to be alluding to the discrepency between the impoverished place our country is in because of our recent economic downfall, and glitzy, oppulant display of art in this exhibit. The author does not condemn this exhibition for its oppulence, but does talk about it. I think what the author is trying to say in that ironic, low brow works, like Jeff Koon's big money pieces, were a strange juxtaposition to our current economic times. They may not have been out of context when they were made (a few years back), but now they seem to be waving their price tags high up: at a level no one can seem to reach right now.