Course review on Art and Aesthetics

I am a student of 6th semester on the Department of Television, Film

and Photography. As this subject is closely related with art, so we got
the course art and aesthetics.
Film is definitely an art form, photography also, and to work in these
fields we need to thing art and aesthetics first. Because without knowing
about art and aesthetics we can’t apply it properly on our works.
Firstly, the course instructor introduced us with the definition of art and
aesthetics. Then as aesthetics is interconnected with philosophy, she
referred Sofie’s World, then we were introduced with art periods, the
aesthetics of Plato and Aristotle.
Then there comes the discussion on Greek art, Indian art and
philosophy, formal analysis, renaissance art, system thinking,
logocentrism etc.
The things and books were suggested to read are.
1. Sofie’s world by Jostein Gaarder
2. Poetics by Aristiotle
3. Republic by Plato
4. Greek art and renaissance from the book “Art past art present”
5. Indian art and philosophy
6. Six principles of Indian art from the book “Varatshilper Shadanga”
by Abanindranath Tagore
7. Logocentrism
8. Learning from Leonardo by Fritjof Capra
9. System thinking
 10. Formal analysis
11. Art periods
12. Modern art movements

Art and aesthetics:

Art is the expression or application of human’s creative skill and
imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture,
producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or
emotional power. What people imagines try to get them in the actual
life. When they start to do this, they use their creativity to present it.
Thus, imagination along with creativity make a thing art.
And aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that examines the nature of art
and our experience of it. It emerged during the 18th century in Europe
and developed in England as philosophers grouped together such fields
as poetry, sculpture, music, and dance. Through this we can understand
about the certain time, society, and period. One upon a time aesthetic
was not in any boundary. The artist by himself was an aesthetic.
Watching from Multiview started from the time of Picasso.
An artifact is an object made by a human being typically an item of
cultural or historical interest. Earlier people used to draw cave painting
because of various reasons. We can learn about them by studying these
drawings. We can get the idea that people could stand on that time by
watching cave paintings.
In the book Sofie’s World, we can get the overview of philosophical
thinking from the very past. The earlier philosophers thinking was
based on mythology. But the theme started to change soon. The
philosophers Plato and Aristotle are well known for their philosophical
thinking. Plato in his book Republic has explained about an ideal nation,
and Aristotle in his book poetics discussed against the thinking of Plato
on poets.
There are different art period and each of them their own
characteristics such as the prehistoric art, ancient art with Egyptian and
Greek painting, renaissance art of fifteenth century etc. However, the
situation of the society influenced the painting and sculpture of that
time. Such as we can see in Greek art the influence of mythology as
they believed in that. When there comes the turn of religion, there we
can see the influence of religion on that painting. We can see the
paintings of Jesus and Mary as a symbol of religion.
After the art period there came the modern art movements such as
impressionism where there is a more scientific analysis of colo, post
impressionism, romanticism, cubism and surrealism etc.
There are different elements of drawing or painting such as form and
composition, material and technique, line, color, texture, space, mass,
volume, perspective and foreshadowing, proportion and scale, carving
and casting, relief sculpture and architectural drawings. The things are
discussed elaborately in the book Chabi Kake Bole by Ashok Mitra. In
this book he discussed how to get aesthetic experience from a painting.
He discussed that the real being of a thing can be got by the form of a
thing. The unity is effective when there is adjustment of every element
of thing.
There are 6 principles of Indian art such as Roopa-Bheda which means
knowledge of form and form impact, Parmanani which means
proportion, Bhava which means expression, Lavanya Yojanam which
means aesthetic scheme, Sadradhyam which means resemblance, and
Varnika-Bhanga which means color scheme.
Logocentrism is a term where we are locked in a certain thing, when we
make a border around us. We can’t think any other thing without the
thing, can’t cross our border if we are locked in logocentrism. The
example of logocentrism is like that, I am searching a English word in
the dictionary to learn the meaning of Bangla of that word and I have
got a bunch of words based on the meaning of that word.
Now if I take only one word among those word and if I act to know the
meaning of the English word based on that word that’s logocentrism.
Because there were several meanings of that word but, I was confined
with only that word.
If we want to watch the right scene, we have to use the right word,
otherwise it will be considered as logocentrism.
Then there comes the term system thinking which was described
elaborately by Gonshai Pahlovi sir and the course teacher Sheikh
Mahmuda Roma mam. By using this term, we can connect our artwork
with the pattern of natural things. The pattern is term which means the
interrelationship of the components of a thing. Such as we can see
floral influence on some paintings of Leonardo de Vinci. Again, Gonshai
Pahlavi has some sculptures which he has made by using the term
system thinking.