The foundations of aesthetics, the arts, and art education have been re-examined in recent years in light of the resurgence of scientific aesthetics as a research discipline; the development of contemporary cognitive science encompassing aspects of computer science, psychology, philosphy, linguistics, and so on; and the advances of neuroscience.
Offering a conceptual framework for teaching the visual arts (K-12 and higher education) from a cultural standpoint, the author discusses visual culture in a democracy.
Emerging Visions of the Aesthetic Process explores the processes underlying aesthetics and play from the perspectives of psychologists, philosophers, and semiologists. It reveals the different ways in which scholars think about the following questions: (1) What is the origin of the creative process? (2) How do biological, social, and cognitive processes shape the activities of artists and the responses of viewers? (3) How does literary activity draw on our experiences of everyday life and how is it tied to other kinds of media? (4) How does play affect the process of growth from childhood to adulthood? The contributors consider artistic, literary, and play activity from its most biological roots through individual cognitive and emotional processing to its expression at the social level. Emerging Visions of the Aesthetic Process offers a stimulating basis for the discussion of aesthetic processes and will serve as an integrative, comprehensive treatise on the topic for researchers and students.
Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a deep insight and comprehension of the world of Art. Contents: What is Art? The Structure of Art Significance of Materials Used in Art Describing Art - Formal Analysis, Types, and Styles of Art Meaning in Art - Socio-Cultural Contexts, Symbolism, and Iconography Connecting Art to Our Lives Form in Architecture Art and Identity Art and Power Art and Ritual Life - Symbolism of Space and Ritual Objects, Mortality, and Immortality Art and Ethics
This is the first study to survey the field of the anthropology of aesthetics, which during the last few decades has emerged on the cross-roads between anthropology and non-Western art scholarship. While critically examining the available literature, thereby addressing such basic issues as the existence of aesthetic universals, the author elaborates on a central thesis which concerns the relationship between aesthetic preference and sociocultural ideals. Drawing on empirical data from several African cultures, he demonstrates that varying notions of beauty are inspired by varying sociocultural ideals, thus shedding light on the phenomenon of cultural relativism in aesthetic preference. Emphasizing unity within diversity, the systematic anthropological approach offered in this volume invites the reader to reconsider aesthetic preference from an empirical, cross-cultural, and contextual perspective.
Enriching Arts Education through Aesthetics examines the use of aesthetic theory as the foundation to design and implement arts activities suitable for integration in school curricula in pre-school and primary school education. This book suggests teaching practices based on the connection between aesthetics and arts education and shows that this kind of integration promotes enriched learning experiences. The book explores how the core ideas of four main aesthetic approaches – the representationalist, the expressionist, the formalist, and the postmodernist – translate into respective ways of designing and implementing experiential aesthetics-based activities. Containing relevant examples of interventions used in classes, it analyzes the ways in which the combination of different aesthetic approaches can support varied, multifaceted, multimodal and balanced teaching situations in school. This innovative book will appeal to academics, researchers, professionals and students in the fields of arts education, early childhood and primary education and curriculum studies.
"A handbook for educators wishing to incorporate aesthetics in their art programs ... a comprehensive look at what aesthetics is to a brief view of human development in relation to art learning to a complete system for introducing aesthetics to students and moving them progressively toward more complex forms of aesthetic inquiry"--Http://www.naea-reston.org/publications-list.html.
