Thursday, May 27, 2010
Your PHL 301 Professor has an Arts Colony Event!
Just in case you might be still "following" this Blog, I thought you might be interested in knowing about the June 12th Art Walk in the Arts Colony in Pomona where yours truly has an opening of photographs. It's at the SCA Project Gallery at 281 South Thomas Street, near 2nd and Main.
The theme of the show is "Sense of the Past" - as captured using the palladium printing process from digital images. Click on the accompanying picture for more info. Would welcome seeing yor there.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Week 10 Last Class
Quarters are all too short! It seems we have just scratched the surface, but here we are. In-class today you'll have a chance to answer some relatively brief questions about some of the concepts in the course. Then the online component of the final will be open on Blackboard. There will be several blog-posting possibilities on this component. All will be due by Tuesday, March 16th at 4:00 pm. So head off to Blackboard and I'll catch you later. Final grades should be in your Cal Poly email the latter part of next week.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Comparison Survey Data
Here are the Comparison Data Surveys.
Review them and be able to form an interpretation of the intra-subjective agreement that exists in many instances. Does the agreement mean that aesthetic comparisons, even aesthetic evaluations, can be objective? (Look for a question on the file on this issue.)
Review them and be able to form an interpretation of the intra-subjective agreement that exists in many instances. Does the agreement mean that aesthetic comparisons, even aesthetic evaluations, can be objective? (Look for a question on the file on this issue.)
Week 9 - Tuesday
We did an appreciation of Rashomon as well as thinking about the film as an epistemological parable. We also looked at the survey results for the film and musical comparisons. Let's see if I can put them in a more accessible place. On Thursday we will focus on the epistemology modeled by the film and at some of your papers.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Messages in Rashomon
People talk of the "Rashomon Effect." Is this appropriate?
We will also be talking about Paul Ricoeur and postmodernism.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Rashomon - The Movie
Film Aesthetics is a subject by itself, but it should be fun to do some film aesthetics while looking into the message of a particular film; in this case, Kurasawa's Rashomon.
Week 8!
I've created a couple of surveys in our Blackboard site to test the intra-subjectivity of your responses to closely-similar versions of the same work. Take these by March 1st. A favorite thesis of mine is that agreement increases when attention is focused on the same "thing". So many times we think we are talking about the same thing, and yet we are not. Make sure that we are focusing on a key feature -- then agreement seems to follow.
Agreement, of course, does not prove the objectivity of aesthetic features (for example), but it certainly diminishes the sense of utter subjectivity - the feeling that we often get when we confront aesthetic issues for the first time.
Agreement, of course, does not prove the objectivity of aesthetic features (for example), but it certainly diminishes the sense of utter subjectivity - the feeling that we often get when we confront aesthetic issues for the first time.
Friday, February 19, 2010
Shakespeare Versions: The Grades
Here are the results of your choices from last class. The trends are interesting and I'll be commenting on them in upcoming posts.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Grading Musical Versions
In the same way we can set up a set of respects (or criteria) for comparing musical versions. This table is for a "straw" vote on which version of the Beethoven Cello Sonata in certain respects. It may or may not be possible to make a summative judgment. Again, coming up with the overall "points" in this case may or may not be possible. But it is an occasion to engage in a complex way in the various modes of discourse, where appreciation is key. It may well be that by the time a vote can be taken the important things have already been done and the summative judgement is moot. (This is, perhaps, Isenberg's key claim.)
"Grading" the Versions of Romeo and Juliet
Our viewing of the two versions has involved all of the modes of discourse, including especially those of appreciation and interpretation. But the evaluative mode is possible here as well, though it is complicated. One needs to choose the respects in which the strengths and weaknesses of the two versions are compared. One most be careful to be talking about the "same thing" (though this may beg important questions!). Once the criteria are identified, then it would appear possible to apply them one by one. It might even be possible to "sum up" the individual grades and offer an overall score. Consider this table of possible criteria for the 1968 and 1996 versions of our Shakespeare play. As an exercise, we will whether preference trends (at least) emerge within the class.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
ZFS and Web Links - Fixed (and a note)
Cal Poly just shifted over from DFS to ZFS in early February and some web links were affected, but are now okay. There are some links that still point to DFS folders but this should not matter this quarter. These are the Indian Iconography links. At some point I'll need to update them. For example, the Krishna Home pages will be http://www.csupomona.edu/~jcmanley/PAM/krishhp.htm and so on rather than through the IGE group link as given on the blog and which will go away at some point.
This is not an issue of concern for regular user, but I'm a believer in continuity and long term use of material put on the web and this should remind me of future updates, should they be needed.
This is not an issue of concern for regular user, but I'm a believer in continuity and long term use of material put on the web and this should remind me of future updates, should they be needed.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Comparisons Assignments
I indicated there would be a comparison assignment last week, but felt you might best focus on completing the Arts Colony Assignment first (and to complete more of the Shakespeare scenes). So the first intra-subjective survey on Romeo and Juliet is now available in the Week 7 Course Document folder. Take it before next Monday. There will be a similar survey on the Beethoven Cello Sonata soon. Stay tuned.
Your Paper Assignment Resources -- Isenberg Article
One student reported problems accessing the paper materials on Blackboard. I checked and found them intact on my system, but just in case, here is the link to the *.pdf file of the Isenberg article.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Musical Comparisons Revisited
The links in my posting of January 28th had you skipping about and the original Rostropovich video is no longer available. What follows is a better organization of resources. The Beethoven Cello Sonata no. 4 remains the same, but the players are grouped according to whether they are playing Part I or Part II.
Part I
Yo Yo Ma
Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy - Christina Ricci
The "Boots" Recording - need a citation (Fournier and Gulda)
Olga Mancescu
Hitting All the Notes? Need a citation here as well.
Kempff & Fournier - Beethoven cello sonata no.4 (I) - Andante - Allegro vivace
Self-publishing, private performance - need citation (Cello Journey #15)
Part II
Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, op. 102 - 2nd Movement Fournier/Gulder (Van Gogh)
Ludwig Hoelscher & Elly Ney plays Beethoven Cello Sonata No.4 2n movement
Kempff & Fournier - Beethoven cello sonata no.4 (II) - Adagio - Tempo d`Andante - Allegro
Cello Journey #18 (same self-publishing, private performance).
I'll introduce the comparison exercise in class today, but you should feel free to listen to the first few notes of each part and begin to form your own opinion.
Part I
Yo Yo Ma
Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy - Christina Ricci
The "Boots" Recording - need a citation (Fournier and Gulda)
Olga Mancescu
Hitting All the Notes? Need a citation here as well.
Kempff & Fournier - Beethoven cello sonata no.4 (I) - Andante - Allegro vivace
Self-publishing, private performance - need citation (Cello Journey #15)
Part II
Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, op. 102 - 2nd Movement Fournier/Gulder (Van Gogh)
Ludwig Hoelscher & Elly Ney plays Beethoven Cello Sonata No.4 2n movement
Kempff & Fournier - Beethoven cello sonata no.4 (II) - Adagio - Tempo d`Andante - Allegro
Cello Journey #18 (same self-publishing, private performance).
I'll introduce the comparison exercise in class today, but you should feel free to listen to the first few notes of each part and begin to form your own opinion.
Your Blog Addresses
The Arts Colony Assignment is not due until Monday, February 15, but many of you are ahead of the curve. Take a look at what your colleagues are doing.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Vermeer
Vermeer's technique was replicated by a painter named Van Meegeren. This site has some good information about the latter, but some broken links.
This site has good links and information about this remarkable forger. He fooled the critics and made a fortune -- and risked it to show how good he was.
The significance of Van Meegeren's ability to work in the style of Vermeer would indicate that Vermeer's place in art history is in part because he defined his style first, not necessarily because he was technically the best working in his style.
But check this out yourselves. Do you think that Van Meegeren was as technically accomplished as Vermeer?
Also, check out this short YouTube video featuring Jonathan Lopez who has written a book about the man "who made Vermeers".
New and Old: Homage to the Past
There is a double meaning to the "New Traditionalists" at the dA. Yolanda Gonzalez represents one side of it. But the second exhibition is of work by new artists based on old artists.
So Perry Marks pays homage to Goya and Kevin Stewart does the same to the work of Thomas Hart Benton in this work. (Sorry that it's fuzzy -- the point is that he explains this work's connection to Benton. He then becomes a "New Traditionalist".)
Click here for a Thomas Hart Benton account of a flood.
Sun Mad Raisins
How many of you noticed this edgy sun maid?
I find many "dark" works find their way into the Arts Colony Galleries.
However, the other skull is inspired by Goya's "Disasters of War" in a modern setting by Perry Marks at the second exhibition at the dA.
More Yolanda Gonzalez
This is the $12,000 work by Gonzalez, exhibited in a nearby gallery to the dA who featured her as a part of the New Traditionalists. This invites the question of monetary worth in art. Will this be sold by the next Second Saturday?
In what ways is this style unique and distinctive? Here we are dealing with "taste-sets" and the artistic community.
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