Aesthetics
These are the prompts plus media for those registered in the PHI cross-section.
Blog Post One:
Instructions: Write a one-to-two page blog post from your personal perspective on any one of the prompts listed below. This first Blog Post is due Tuesday, July 8 on our course on Blackboard; you can access the posting site by going to Blackboard, selecting the tab “Course Tools,” then “Blogs,” then click on “Blog One: Tuesday July 9,” and post your essay by clicking the “Create Blog Entry” button and typing or pasting it therein.
(A) Construct two arguments, one for and one against, the idea that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” (i.e., the relativism debate as to whether there can be an universal definition of taste/art).
(B) Richly and fully define/explain beauty and monstrosity (the horrific or very ugly) and what you feel and think when confronted by something beautiful or monstrous.
(C) Is Marcel Duchamp’s “Bicycle Wheel” art?
Marcel Duchamp’s “Bicycle Wheel”
1951, metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool,
51 x 25 x 16 1/2 inches.
Museum of Modern Art [MoMA], New York.
Blog Post Two:
Instructions: Blog Post Two due Friday, July 18 on our Blackboard course site. Write a one-to-two page blog post on one of the following two prompts:
(A)
First, delineate and describe all of the steps you go through to aesthetically judge something according to Kant’s theory.
Second, carefully consider the following four works: (names take you to larger images)
1961, oil on canvas, 1372 x 1048 mm.
Tate, London.
Leonardo da Vinci’s “Portrait of a Young Man (‘The Musician’)”
ca. 1486-87, oil on walnut board, 44.7 x 32 cm.
Veneranda Bibliotech Ambrosiana,
Pinacoteca, Milan.
1963, Acrylic and oil on canvas.
Tate, London.
Salvador Dalí’s “Lobster Telephone”
1936, Steel, plaster, rubber, resin, and paper.
Tate, London.
Finally, complete your post by explaining the Kantian judgments of these works (are they art?—that is, are they beautiful, as opposed to being pleasant or good?) and arguing whether and how/why you agree or disagree with the judgments.
(B)
First, differentiate and explain key features of the judgments of the beautiful and of the sublime.
Second, carefully consider the following five works: (names take you to larger images)
Elizabeth Keeler’s “Quilt, Crazy Pattern”
Made by Ellie Keelr Gorham, ca. 1883, silk, silk velvet, silk thread, metallic beads, and ink.
74 3/4 x 68 1/4 inches.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.
Architect: Sir Christopher Wren, built between 1675 and 1710 (the fourth to stand on the current site in London).
Vincent van Gogh’s “The Olive Trees”
1889, oil on canvas, 28 5/8 x 36 inches.
Museum of Modern Art [MoMA], New York.
Édouard Vuillard’s “Dinnertime”
ca. 1889, oil on canvas, 28 1/4 x 36 3/8 inches. Museum of Modern Art [MoMA], New York.
Barnett Newman’s “Vir Heroicus Sublimis”
(another copy here)
1950-1, oil on canvas
7’ 11 3/8” x 17’ 9 1/4”
Museum of Modern Art [MoMA], New York.
Finally, complete your post by explaining the Kantian judgments of these works as beautiful or as sublime and arguing whether and how/why you agree or disagree with the judgments.
Blog Post Three:
Instructions: Blog Post Three due Friday, July 25 on our Blackboard site. For this blog post, you will select one or more examples (of your choice) in any one of the mediums listed below. View/listen to the selection, and complete a one-to-two page analysis that can be your choice of an aesthetic evaluation (beautiful? Sublime? Etc., how and why?), an explanation of its/their cultural and/or temporal importance, an analysis of their cult and commercial values, etc.:
(A) Photography: Select one or more works in photography to which you are drawn (please include links to them in your post or email jpeg file(s)); in your blog, carefully analyze it/them.
(B) Film: Select and view any film of your choice (please include title, director, and date in your post); in your blog, briefly summarize the film and then analyze it.
(C) Music: Select and listen to one or more musical pieces (please include a link to it/them online or email a sound file); in your blog, carefully analyze it/them.
(D) Design: Select and view/use/consider any object(s) of design—anything created by an agent (designer) to fulfill specific goals or serve a specific function, an applied art, be it industrial design (Eames’ chairs, Schreckengost’s bikes or truck, Noguchi’s tables or lights, the Studebaker Starlight, etc.), graphic design (from illuminated manuscripts to Arts and Crafts movement’s tiles to Art Nouveau’s advertising for biscuits, absinthe, chocolates, etc., Soviet Constructivism to the development of typefaces or consumer packaging), fashion design, etc.; in your blog, carefully analyze it/them.
Blog Post Four:
Instructions: Blog Post Four due Friday, August 1 on our Blackboard course site. Write a one-to-two page blog post on the following: Using all of this week’s readings as guides, write your own manifesto—you can adopt any style of art to speak from/on behalf of or invent your own movement.
PHI Blog Posts One, Two, Three, and Four Prompts
