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The arts
Key concepts
• Mimesis and antimimesis
• Artistic license
• Golden ratio
• Perspective
• Propaganda
• Ethics and art
• Punk music
• Subjective and
objective views of
art
• Universality of
beauty
• Monetary value of
art
Is our idea of beauty
universal?
In many ways this seems
unlikely…
“Designs for wallpaper are more
finished than this seascape!”
Louis Leroy, the critic for Charvari
What do we think of:
•
•
•
•
•
Bartok?
Traditional Japanese folk music?
The Killers?
Carlos Vives?
Manchester music from the 1990s?
…and how might people of a different
perspective think of these things?
On the other hand…
The 1993 study carried out by Vitaly Komar and
Alexander Melamid
• "Maybe the blue landscape is genetically imprinted
in us, that it's the paradise within, that we came
from the blue landscape and we want it . . . We now
completed polls in many countries - China, Kenya,
Iceland, and so on - and the results are strikingly
similar. Can you believe it? Kenya and Iceland - what
can be more different in the whole fucking world and both want blue landscapes . . . The blue
landscape is what is really universal, maybe to
all mankind."
Objectivist views of art versus subjectivist
views of art
• To fully appreciate art,
the audience must have
a knowledge of art
• Art can be judged as
good and bad
• Rules can be applied
• Art can be interpreted
in any way by its
audience
• Anything can be
considered art
• There are no formal
rules for art
Or is a different measure
required to assess art?