Abstract
This paper analyzes the terms "art" and "aesthetic" from a philosophical perspective. The author states that this essay is meant to explore the idea of a mythically inclusive concept of art and aesthetic. Additionally, the author examines the relationship between art and aestheticism and how each is an equally important vehicle into the "imaginal" realm. The paper takes a look at the experiences of creating and viewing art, citing the opinions of various art historians and philosophers. The author concludes that redefining "art" and "aesthetic" creates a bridge between the conscious and unconscious self when experiencing art.

From the Paper
"The creation and observation of Art pulls open the doors of the human experience, many of which exist at an unconscious level. Symbols are the means by which we may embrace the undercurrent of energy flowing within world's collective psychology. Culturally, Art ties one to a particular space while also knitting the creator/observer into the fabric of the global society. Hollis, (2004) relates that, "Our stories go deep, very deep into the archetypal realm, into the genetic code, the tribal history, the family of origin..." (p.112).These layers of symbol link personal history to cultural history, tie our personal understanding of the universe into the global cosmology. The energy of this connection rises up archetypally and fuels the communal symbols through which one gains access to the trans-personal, cross-cultural experience. "

Tags:art appreciation, philosophy, Western art, modern society

Abstract
The paper looks at how Friedrich Schiller reacted to late 18th century decadence and also efforts to rule European society that were harsh and law focused after the French Revolution. The paper discusses how he saw a split between science in German speaking countries and the aesthetic, believing that moral and creative approaches and societies could only result from combined intellectual and aesthetic studies. The paper makes references to several of his Letters.

From the Paper
"For Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805), education in the arts offered the possibility of creative ideas to counter a mainstream he saw as dedicated to Utility as "the great idol of our age, to which all the powers are in thrall and to which all talent must play homage." (II, 89) The idea carried through his Second Letter's comments on concern for profit, rationalized war and ignorance of poverty. Those joining higher education, studying the arts as opposed to engineering or finance should be critical, geared to themes of suffering and what might lessen their effects. In his..."

Tags:schiller, letters, late 18th century

Abstract
This paper analyzes Theodor Adorno's essay entitled "Aesthetic Theory" which is Adorno's critique of subjectivist aesthetic theory in light of the role art plays in society today. The reviewer perceives Adorno as seeking a higher truth for art. Adorno's essay is considered a criticism of the new, bourgeois view of art, in which art exists simply for the pleasure of the viewer. Additionally, the reviewer is surprised that Adorno attacks psychoanalytic and the Kantian approaches to art criticism, seeing that they attempt to understand art at a higher level. The paper further elaborates on Adorno's issue with these two academic approaches to art criticism.

From the Paper
"Given Adorno's disgust with the hungry, subjectivist view of art, it is unsurprising that within his essay Adorno lodges an attack against two subjectivist theories of aesthetics: the psychoanalytic and the Kantian. Adorno is especially disgusted with the Freudian notion that desire propels art, though he finds fault with the Kantian notion of disinterestedness as well."

Tags:Kant, Freud, art criticism

Abstract
The paper discusses how the aesthetic form, even that of language, played a highly important role in terms of modernity's exploration of the nature of representation. The paper explains how it played an important role as an alternative to language, as a mode of both perceiving and expressing experience. The paper examines Woolf's "To the Lighthouse" and Heidegger's "Work of Art" and shows how the aesthetic is presented, in both theories and representations of modernity, as highly important for the perception and expression of experience as a meaningful unity.

From the Paper
"Allyson Booth notes in Postcards from the Trenches that expressionist architects, in their handling of 'glass in a way that encourages us not to see through glass but to see glass' opened up, in modernity, a 'self-consciousness about the nature of representation'. Being primarily a post-war phenomenon, this mode of aesthetic representation was contemporary in 1927 when Virginia Woolf published her novel To the Lighthouse. It can thus be seen as significant that she opens this novel with part one entitled, 'The Window'. By means of its obvious reference to glass, Woolf immediately establishes a connection between the aesthetic use of glass in the expressionist architecture of modernity and the thematic concerns of To the Lighthouse. This connection indicates that Woolf, like the architects of her time, wished to direct her readers towards a consideration of language as a material of construction and, like the expressionist architect, demanded that her structural material was itself examined rather than merely looked through."

Tags:language, separation, meaning, unity, reconciliation, forces, experience

Abstract
The paper examines the "South East African Tsonga Ceremonial Rhinoceros Horn and Wood Chief Staff", the "Mother and Child", the "Civilizing Hero", the "Pendant Mask" and the "Ikere door". The paper shows how these pieces of art tell a story that can be different for each individual.

From the Paper
"The first piece is the South East African Tsonga Ceremonial Rhinoceros Horn and wood Chief staff, the artist is unknown and the time it was completed is somewhere between 1800 CE and 1900 CE Geographical mobility, during the 19th century was extremely common amongst the communities. Members of the migrating communities included craftsmen and carvers, who were influenced by all the styles amongst their journeys that accurately pinpointing the original location and tribal source of an artifact wasn't unheard of. Though the Staff doesn't have a lot of historical location facts behind, the Staff itself can depict so much."

Tags:artifacts, sculptures, artists

Abstract
This paper examines John Keats' "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer"
and Charles Simic's "Stone". It shows that, in both of these poems, one written during the Romantic era of English letters, the other a modern expression of poetic and personal development as mirrored in the natural world, the central conflict is: how can the poet apprehend and appreciate what is beautiful outside himself" It also asks what kind of beauty enriches human life and expression and how is this achieved.

From the Paper
"Keats thus adapts the Elizabethan love and faith in structured, ordered, and beautiful expressions of cerebral thought, even for romantic ideals, in his sonnet. In Keats' case, however, the subject matter is not Shakespeare's fair young man or dark lady, but the text of Homer. The choice of a romantic, rarified, logical yet passionate form is thus quite a deliberate plea, upon Keats' part, to parallel affection for a woman or beloved friend with affection for a once-inaccessible yet beautiful literary text and tradition. As sonnets were used to open the hearts of cold or chaste females, so the translation of Chapman has opened the heart of Keats to a form of poetic expression, once closed, like a stone "a stone, unlike the runes upon the inside of Simic's stone, that can be opened."

Tags:metaphor, classical, victorian, sonnet, Homer

Abstract
This paper describes various scenes ,such as the exchange between Gittes and Cross, which takes over five minutes, much longer than today's standard scene length, particularly for a scene with nothing but conversation; however, the conflict between Cross and Gittes and their constant give-and-take fills the scene with tension. The author describes another scene in which Polanski trains the camera on Gittes's face as he looks down on Cross; Gittes appears hesitant, and the shot serves to highlight his injured nose. When Gittes takes his hat off and sits down, there is no doubt in the audience's mind who is in control of the situation. The paper concludes that "Chinatown" is a richly-layered movie in a classic 'film noir' tradition.

From the Paper
"The scene is short and moves quickly. Roman Polanski reveals volumes about Jake Gittes by juxtaposing the detective with the client. Curly, dressed in work clothes, is sweating in the intense heat. He is crying and in his distress, he bites into the Venetian blinds. Gittes, on the other hand, is dressed in a crisp white suit. Despite the apparent heat -- the fan is on -- Gittes looks cool and, in contrast to his client, unperturbed. The detective calms his distraught client down with a joke ("You can't eat the Venetian blinds. I just had 'em installed on Wednesday"). Then he reaches into the liquor cabinet, quickly shuffles through the whiskey bottles and pulls out a cheaper bottle of bourbon and pours his client a drink."

Tags:tension, length, camera, highlight, noir

Abstract
This paper outlines the principle features of Richard Wagner's operatic aesthetic, and illustrates its practical realization with reference to the operas "Tristan", "Isolde" and "Parsifal". The author conveys an understanding of Wagner's operatic aesthetic and illustrates its practical implications in the writing of "Tristan" "Isolde" and "Parsifal" through examples from the operas and the inclusion of citations from a variety of written and Internet sources.

Abstract
In Kant's "Critique of Judgment," he expressed his thoughts on judging something as beautiful. Kant believed that an object should not be brought under a concept. For example, if a flower is considered beautiful, it is not a pure beauty since it is part of a basic judgment that it is a flower. The paper shows that Kant asserted that part of the miracle of nature is that it should be so well colored and formed, and in thinking of it as beautiful, individuals think of their interests and their luck in living in such a world. For something to be purely beautiful, according to Kant, it should be designed in such a way that cognition gives way to imagination.

From the Paper
"According to Kant, while ones taste cannot describe beauty on its own, it is still useful in finding beauty. Kant observed that within any discussion of aesthetics, there is a general agreement of taste on what is beautiful and what is not. For example, a group of people may agree that orchids are beautiful. However, Kant asserts that this agreement on beauty is not a universal. However, he states, it is still a useful indicator of a universal beauty as it is not based on individual taste.
When the judgment is no longer dependent upon subjectivity, it shifts to include a collective reason. However, Kant clearly states that while this shift leads toward a definition of beauty, leaning too far towards the cognitive can be as misleading as finding beauty as being too subjective."

Tags:imagination, concept, of, purpose

From the Paper
"Editor Hal Foster states in the preface to his book, The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, that he brought together the essays for this work in an effort to present a dialogue on the meaning of postmodern culture as reflected in all the arts. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss postmodern culture, its theory and practice, its affect on design issues, and its influence on society and reaction from society.


Foster defines postmodernism as a "conflict of new and old modes--cultural and economic" (xi). The anti-aesthetic relates to an interdisciplinary cultural position on the present time. It is his aim to reflect various different views coming from different art forms in order to stimulate thinking about the diverse nature of postmodernism and the anti-aesthetic.


In theory, postmodernism refers to the moving away of the..."