Colleen's Aesthetic Awareness Part One

Aesthetic awareness can range through a variety of categories extending beyond the art work displayed throughout galleries including the realm of performance, literature, poetry, music, and much more. People habitually refer only to paintings, sketches, and sculptures when trying to interpret the types of aesthetic expression, yet true awareness of the aesthetics encompasses an understanding of what constitutes as art. Art allows people to express emotions, thoughts, ideologies and more in a dynamic form much different than the average spoken word. All types of aesthetics are defined by form, technique and beauty.

In order for people to expand their awareness of what constitutes as art, people need to expand their minds. Personally, as I reflect on my past experiences I would not have associated music as a form of art until I applied the New Century College definitions of the aesthetic awareness competency. During my experience in English 325, I attended a lecture focusing on the emotions generated through jazz music in relation to African American prose and poetry. Acknowledging such a strong connection between the music, writings and time period itself reiterated the powerful messages the artists were trying to express. I became much more aware of how these were all important art forms which allowed African Americans to express their struggles and emotional stresses while trying to attain civic equality. It was amazing to see how I could connect important ideologies through music as I physically listened to the songs, psychologically placed myself into the mind of the performers, emotionally tried to connect to the feelings expressed through the music, and intellectually expand my horizons in seeing how important it was for these performers to express their messages in a unique way.

I believe a number of the competencies connect to a person's ability to expand their aesthetic awareness. The first one being communication. Art allows people to connect and interact with one another. It gives people a voice to emotions, experiences, etc. that are difficult to articulate through the average spoken or even written word. Another important competency is global awareness, because art tends to reflect the beliefs and emotions of a particular culture. In order to truly appreciate the art form a person should have a knowledgable understanding of the social, ethnic and overall cultural influences that helped in creating the art work. Finally, I believe critical thinking is extremely helpful in expanding one's aesthetic awareness because it helps people intelligently make connections and open their minds to the various forms of art. Critical thinkers are able to integrate their knowledge of art and apply those connections and ideas to different situations when trying to determine the components that make up art.

The way we can learn how to pay attention to the intangibility of in the physicality of art is through utilizing the various competencies of NCC. Applying our critical thinking skills allows us to make intelligent connections between various art forms, and from those forms make connections between how various art forms can still express the same type of message or emotion. Understanding that art often reflects the cultural background of the artist allows people to comprehend the motive behind the work. It gives people an additional insight into that particular culture, and can teach valuable lessons about the various social, economic, and political factors that influence people's lives around the world. Finally, we must learn not only to appreciate this form of communication, but learn how to communicate with one another in order to reach a strong awareness of the aesthetics. Interacting with one another will enhance our appreciation and awareness of the uniqueness and vareity of art.

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.