Understanding Art: Perception, Space, and Cultural Influences
2) Science and Technology
Science
Science is a set of objective knowledge that attempts to describe the laws of nature. It’s used to refer to systematic knowledge in any field or discipline. Every science is distinguished not only by the object or subject of study but also by the method applied for it. We can speak of pure sciences and applied sciences.
Pure science is focused on theoretical knowledge (mathematics, physics, chemistry), while applied science focuses on the practical use of knowledge (agriculture, engineering, medicine).
Technique
Techniques are the procedures, resources, and methods used to do or accomplish something.
Technology
Technology includes the study or systematic knowledge about each technique. It involves the interaction between man and nature.
3) Perception in Art
The languages of art are created from and for the senses. Perception is the key to art. The perception of the artwork consists of the feelings aroused and the rereading of the world, offering a way to think about how we perceive and understand.
There are two aspects relating to perception:
- What we receive from the outside environment through our senses (feelings).
- The cognitive and representational, mental phenomenon caused by the stimulation of the senses.
One theory tried to explain perception as the result of experiences stored in the body.
Another theory states that the only mode of perception depends on the present. The person does not need any previous experience to perceive. This theory also says that perception sorts items into understandable structures. This system obeys certain laws, valid for all people (although according to their origin and environment, individuals differ in their mode of conceiving and expressing art). These laws are:
- Law of Equilibrium: Based on physical experiences that we experience every day and then we are bound to respect in the work of art (e.g., the law of gravity).
- Law of the Group: If there are different elements in a table, the view tends to lump those who are alike.
- Law of Closure: If a simple form is not complete, our view tends to complete it.
4) Understanding Space
Space is the extension property of bodies, their size, capacity, volume, and the extension of the area in which these bodies are located.
Types of Space
- Visual Space: Constructed through addresses, sizes, and shapes that relate to each other. It is given by vertical and horizontal coordinates in the directions encompassing vision. Binocular vision allows the notion of depth in relation to objects. The sense of depth of field is given by the processes of accommodation, disparity, and convergence.
- Auditory Space: The ear gives us a sense of space that fulfills its role in balance and body location. Space is perceived by sounds or noises that we perceive, helping vision in the representation of distance.
- Taste and Odor Space: The taste space is created when we perceive the taste of things. It collaborates with the sense of smell perception. This also creates a space for itself and opens our minds to a deeper perception.
- Dimensional Space: Three-dimensional plastic space occurs in the physical space to link volumes.
- Virtual Space: This is the space that is suggested and is contrary to reality. They can be flat or three-dimensional forms that are not physical but that the eye perceives them as such. Before cybernetics, there was talk of virtual space for painting. Currently, virtual reality is the system that allows one or more users to view, move and act in a computer-simulated world.
5) The Sign in Communication
The sign is a unit capable of transmitting representative contents. It is a material object, called the signifier, which is perceived by the senses and in the process of communication carries information called meaning.
6) Contemporary Culture and Art
Contemporary culture is characterized by change, environmental problems, and contradictions. It handles many languages and makes them symbolic meanings. Cities are populated with verbal and nonverbal messages. The messages transmit emotions, moods, and ideas, sometimes confused, sometimes contradictory.
Art is a way of interpreting reality. The media are a powerful resource that contributes to the interplay between cultures, but also to the homogenization of cultures. We are impregnated by an aesthetic of globalization, defined by the media.
7) Art Objects: Connecting Past and Present
The art objects of antiquity are the links between us and the past of humanity and its cultures.
In contrast, today’s art objects are the links for other cultures through music, film, dance, drama, painting, and sculpture.
The perception of art objects allows us to interpret, know, understand, and enjoy.
When faced with a work of art, the essential question is: what did the author mean?
8) The Relationship Between Religion and Art
The relationship between religion and art exists when the latter is made available to the first, making art devote itself to recreating the right atmosphere for the worship of the gods. The Renaissance marked importance in the development of European art where the relationship between religion and art was narrow and taken as a work of art or architecture in temples and the production of religious works like the Sistine Chapel, the sculptures “Pietà ” and “David”, among others.
9) Morality and Ethics
Morality is the set of behaviors that most members of society generally accepted as valid, and ethics is the branch of philosophy that ponders why they are considered valid, and compares the “moral” of different societies or different groups within society. Ethics emerged as a doctrine of morals. Subsequent developments led to the word ethics alluding to moral behavior, and within it the legal behavior. Then, it was still identified with the good, honest, and fair.
10) Philosophy and the Search for Knowledge
Philosophy relates to the search for knowledge, to questioning the reality around us, trying to find the deeper causes of things. It is a mental attitude or tendency toward explaining the universe and man engulfed in it. Philosophy begins with wonder at the everyday.
Originally philosophy was linked to science, but then they were differentiated.