Aesthetic Awareness - Part One

Aesthetic awarness is the ability to see beyond the pictures and statues in a museum. It is being able to recognize and appreciate all types of art including music and dance; even if they seem odd in the beginning. I find that everything we see or come in contact with has to do with aesthetic awareness. From the set up of a website to how we distinguish our favorite types of music can be seen as being aesthetically aware.

Academic - An experience that I had just this week can be realted to this blog. My friend Cheryl is an AVT major (Art and Visual Technology) and she had to come up with a project to show a path on campus through color. So she decided to wrap pink, blue, and white ribbon around the banisters close to the JC and Fine Arts building. Each new pathway was indicated in a specific color, and if two paths crossed so would the ribbon. It looks really neat.. some of you may have seen it. Even though it wasn't my own work I benefitted from her project. Usually when i walk in the same paths that she had pointed out i don't really think to much of it. But seeing the different routes that can be taken in one small space was amazing. The colors of ribbon helped me see the directiosn the path was taking me. It may not seem like much just by reading it.. but seeing it and knowing the purpose of the project helped me appreciate what she had done. Had i just been walking past the two buildings I would have thought.. how odd? who has time to do this? Oh and it does take forever just to do one little section.

Written - Speaking of Art.. for a humanities class I took at JMU we had to read an article about some over the top artists. I'm not sure the name of the article but it had to do with someone turning a live bunny into one that would glow neon green. Somehow this artist was able to mess with the genetic make up of some rabbits and get them to have a bunny that glowed. Now when I read this at first I was shocked. I couldn't believe that someone would go to such extremes to show how "creative" or edgy they were. I felt bad for the animal. Who knows what was really going on inside the body of the animal. So when it came time for class discussion it seemed like most ppl felt the way I did. They couldn't believe soemone would be allowed to do that, and secondly we wondered how long it took this person to think of this crazy idea. I mean the bunny was NEON GREEN. After a lengthy discussion about values and besides our feelings was it really art.. we came around to see that this was someone being VERY creative. I mean i still felt bad but there was nothing that could be done. It was a really cute bunny... and it could be multipurposeful.. pet and nightlight. This article and discussion made me look at art for what it was; creative, innovative, and memorable. If there weren't artists like this people would get bored with looking at canvas paintings of fruit and animals and people.

Non-written - when i think about the show So You Think You Can Dance i think of aesthetic awareness. I love watching dance performances and I love to dance, but I wasn't always into the lyrical more contemporary side of the art. I enjoyed the more upbeat, hip hop style of dancing. But this year watching the show I gained an appreciation for lyrical dance. It was a performance done by two of my favorite contestants on the show. Their dance told a story of two lovers who wanted so badly to be close to one another but were so far away. It featured the song "Calling You" by Celine Dion and it made the performance. Their expressions and movements made the pain they were feeling by being away from one another come alive. It was the most emotional performance I had seen on the show. Not only did it make the judges tear up.. i was getting teary eyed myself. This performance made me see the big picture.. i was able to understand the story just though their motions.. unlike some of the others i just thought were weird. I am now a fan of the more contemporary styles.. and i think that the coreographer of the piece Mia Michaels is a genius. and i really love the show.