Saturday, May 16, 2009

Ramachandran's Explantion of Art



This a very intresting Youtube video and lecture posted by University of California that introduced me to plenty of amusing facts in effort to answer the ultimate question- What is the meaning of art?

V.S. Ramachandran can be easily proclaimed one of the people who take a scientific view toward this question. He, himself, states that he is not a "philosopher." Taking the empirical view toward art led him to dismantle art into 8 features that make it great and successful in fulling its intent. As an Indian, he concentrates most on Indian works. I did not mind this, but I think it would have been more powerful if he took examples from a larger spectrum of art. Stating that Indian sculptures are more erotic than Playboy pin-ups was an unusually comparison. I did not find this to be the case with me. Playboy pictures in most cases were more erotic than Indian sculptures.

V.S. Ramachandran tries to underline the features of art that make it universally amazing to all viewers. Nonetheless, the flaw in this is that some art is not universally pleasant to all. Thus, he critiques people, who don't like Picasso's paintings or Beethoven's classical music. He states that this is because people through there superego suppressed their true feelings. Because they knew that a person's eyes are not supposed to look like that, they suppress their feelings of amazement when they look at Picasso's paintings. He even puts down people who dislike Beethoven's music, as simply their incapability to comprehend true art. Personally, classical music is not my favorite genre. It doesn't evoke emotion to me as other music does. Maybe, it is because as Ramachandran stated of my superego; however, a more realistic explanation would be that different people like different things. Maybe there are vast overlapping features of art that underline the universal artistic principles that make it attractive, but people who don't like some musical or artistic masterpiece is not because of their self-suppression of emotions, but because they were simply born with different tastes.
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How it Came About

"Pi5tol" is a cool name, however, not intended for this blog. My initial desire was to call it "ad lib," "ad victoriam," or "bene placito," or some other Latin phrase... To me, Latin always added a degree of eloquence and interest; each word served as a verbiage of the almighty Roman Empire, a culture and society that since my birth intrigued me. Yet the true meanings of these phrases are unknown to me, my definitions are only the interpretations of today's society, not of fellow Romans. Marcus Tullius Cicero, the famous Roman orator, might for that very reason be turning in his grave for today's common misinterpretations of his sayings. Maybe that's why "Pi5tol" is a better name for my blog? Pete Maravich is my favorite basketball player. His nickname "Pistol Pete" would be the true root of this blog's title. His miraculous dribbling and shooting skills were never managed to be replicated. Averaging 45 pts. per game gave him a rightful spot in the Hall of Fame. Nonetheless, this blog's concentration is not basketball. This blog concentrates on everything, as my interests vary from the quantum theory to Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Just like the title resulted from pure randomness, the blog's topics are also not that similar and homogeneous.
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The Foundations of the Pi5tol Blog

Today, May 16th, 2009, a blog called "Pi5tol" was created. Probably just another future unnoticed website, but the urge to create it was too powerful to be withheld. The designs of the blog are intended to express my interests and views. Like in a bloc of marble, I hope that my sporadic writings would unveil an amazing sculpture- a pleasant addition to the world of cyberspace.
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