Author: Carolyn Jean Matthews
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Three Months in the Blink of an Eye
Kia ora e hoa ma! (Hello my friends!) It is interesting that term two started with me cramming study for a psychology test and now it is ending with me cramming study for a psychology exam. Although sitting in the same place two months later doing the same activity (staring at the textbook, snacking, and…
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Expression and Emotion
Expression is a keyword when it comes to art, art criticism, art history, and artistic emotion. It is also vaguely defined and used frequently without much thought to its actual definition. Any word that is commonly used and nonspecific has problems, when it comes to expression the issues stem from application, more specifically, how expression…
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Aesthetic Engagement
Is aesthetic pleasure something spontaneous, or is it something intellectual? Primary reference papers: What exactly characterizes aesthetic engagement? In order to thoroughly examine this issue I am going to discuss four pertinent views on the subject. But before we dive in, let’s reflect briefly back onto Scruton this Philosophy of Wine. (If you have read…
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Art and Nature
The question now is how to judge this aesthetic when art and nature collide to create ‘naturalness in art’. Our issue is this…What is the difference between our aesthetic response to artificially wrought objects and our aesthetic response to naturally occurring objects? Primary reference papers: Art and nature are closely linked and perhaps always have…
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My Life Has Become a Lucid Dream
Kia Ora Koutou! This is a dream. Real life can be dirty and heartbreaking and tough with moments of elation, but here, here I am living in a constant state of euphoria. I am living in a happy delirium where all of the pieces fall together perfectly. This week marks the beginning of the new…
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The Aesthetic Attitude
Does aesthetic contemplation demand a special attitude? Primary reference papers: I have talked before about Disinterestedness. The idea that you must remove yourself, your desires, your wants, needs, what you stand to gain, you experience and your personality from a judgment of aesthetic beauty. To decide if something is beautiful, and therefore universal, it needs…
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Discover Your Inner Adventurer
Kia ora e hoa ma! At the beginning of every week in my Maori language class we are taught a “Whakatauki” which is a sort of proverb. Today in class we learned my favorite thus far: Whaia te iti kahurangi kit e tuohu koe me maunga teitei This translates roughly to “Pursue that which is…
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The Boundaries of the Aesthetic
Why are the objects of high art restricted to those perceived by the eye and the ear? Primary reference papers: While talking about aesthetics, how we perceive beauty, appreciate art, the senses tend to get categorized into two groups: the ‘higher’ senses of the eye and the ear, and the ‘lower’ senses of taste, smell,…
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On Judgement of Beauty
“Speak what you think today in hard words and tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said today.” -Thoreau Primary reference papers: I understand now what the tutor meant when he said that these are questions that could keep you awake at night, these infuriating and seemingly…
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Wait, I have to study while I’m here?
After a hectic and wonderful first week I finally have time to write. Wananei! It is very strange to be taking classes again. For the past three weeks I have been feeling that sense of the carefree and infinite that always accompanies the end of summer vacation. However those weeks were finite no matter how much I…