Free Custom «Personal Reflections» Essay Paper

Introduction

One certain reasoning behind global art and culture is that they are both interlinked hence inseparable. This personal reflection paper explores the concept of one’s “aesthetic point of view” using six given articles. Additionally, it explains the contribution of the six articles in growing and developing of an aesthetic point of view. The Marketplace Visit exhaustively discusses an American’s personal experiences in a western Kenya marketplace. Secondly, Taking a Picture entails a passionate individual description of a scenic picture, so beautifully done that it would have been passed for reality.

The third article, “Trip to Target”, discusses on the role of designers in the American society based on the Target Chains Stores Michael Graves. Fourthly, The Ivan Illyich Paper takes on an authors’ critic on the book The Death of Ivan Illyich. Furthermore, Private Concert looks at various forms of music and musical instrument employed across cultures. Lastly, Architecture in Town covers real author’s experience with respect to the historically infamous Indian Taj Mahal.

Personal Reflections: Aesthetic Point of View

As earlier sighted, the above papers share in-depth discussions on different encounters with art and culture. This is where the humanity of Aesthetics gets into one's head. Therefore, aesthetics is defined as the study of cultural and artistic beauty. The concept of aesthetic point of view would translate to an individual’s ability to describe an artistic experience. The historical interest in aesthetics can be traced back to the eighteenth century with numerous articles on imagination published in The Speculator, and it has since then been evenly expanding.

However, notable figures had been earlier discussing this concept with exclusive citations on proportion and harmony, architecture and music. For instance, let us follow the thinking of classical aesthetics theorist Emmanuel Kant-a formalist who studied the concept of art in nature. His personal reflections view art as raw and impure. Kant looked at patterns displaying nature (such as vast fields, seas and sunrise) lacked artistic freedom. However, modern art reviewer may argue that imposing art tries changing such natural forms (Miller, 2004).

During judgment, the Kant theory of aesthetics explores four characteristics: independence from concepts, objectivity, obligation, and viewer disinterest. Through concepts, Kant argued that eminent pieces of art possessed the power of grasping onto the entire human understanding and imagination. For instance, an individual would find it easier playing judge to an object such as “it is a live tree”. However, concepts cease to work in matters of vast nature where the powers of cognition exist in free flow, as with scattered trees in the African savannah. Therefore, individuals display a tendency of experiencing pure “aesthetics” in the presence of pure artistic harmony. Real life examples of harmonic experiences include “a tree”, “a rock”, “the Taj Mahal”, and “a market place” as opposed to rocks scattered over a landscape, a collection of Target designs, and instruments at a concert (Miller, 2004).

Objectivity would be present in judgment based on the notion that most cognitive powers are present in individuals who have the ability to recognize objects. Kant assumed, for instance, that as long as individuals recognized the trees, similar judgments would be offered even if they were left free flowing or in a pattern along the savannah. However, the aspect of objectivity would be independent of obligation to apprehend pure aesthetics in given pieces of art and culture. If the individuals in the Trip to Target recognized a certain type of designer-made mop bucket, they had no obligation in interpreting their pure beauty. Since they are selfless enough when objectifying independent of a given obligation to cite beauty, individuals should develop disinterest (Hennessy, 2006).

Paradoxically written the aspect of disinterest relates to one's interests such as travelling, art collection, sports, shopping, and photography. During Kant’s time, hobbies were viewed as kinds of self-interests such that painting would be ethical. This leads to the understanding that pure beauty does not always lead to the selfish desire to possession. Instead, one is utterly pleased in a distinctively intellectual point of view. One would cite the individual in Architecture in Town as a passionate tourist whose heart has been stolen by the architecture behind the Taj Mahal. The presence of beauty, therefore, takes hold of the affected party’s attention slowly creating an emotional relationship with the object itself. Similarly, perceiving in the Trip to Target, Private Concert, Ivan Illyich and Taking a Picture could mean an ending, an enjoyment for arts own sake (Wadeson, 2007).

In present times, “ugly”, and “beautiful” appear among the basic terms that may be used when developing, growing, and describing ones aesthetic experiences. For instance, the photographer in The Marketplace would have chosen an “awful” or “lovely”, “gross” and “foul” rather than just plain “…smells of dried fish”. While a rather sad Ivan Illyich displays a rather sad experience,  Taking a Picture, Architecture in Town and Trip to Target prefer using terms such as “superb”, “wow!” and “exquisite” when describing their various experiences. Indeed the six articles are not, on their views of aesthetics, rule-controlled, but well written on free forms of individual perception: Sensitive, Judgmental, and Taste. Through their full analysis, the articles not only concern themselves with positive aesthetical aspects, but also look at different sets (Harwood, 1932).

For instance, energized and readily bracing the African sun, the photographer in Marketplace Visit embraces the diverse African culture then goes to a market made up of “new and old, clean and dirty” structures. While at the market, she is blankly advised to be wary of conmen and pickpockets. This warning is then ironically twisted with “Hakuna Matata” (no worries). Most individuals describe art in relation to their daily emotional and mental lifestyles. More specifically, most reviewers would term them as serene, vulgar, melancholic, and a joyful “wow”. Although not ethical, such terms are generally accepted to describe aesthetic experiences. After all, artistic and cultural experiences are best defined using primary individual “aesthetic point of view” (Mozota, 2003).