The Aesthetic Principle and a Factor in Art Essay

The Aesthetic Principle and a Factor in Art - Essay Example According to Bullough, distance plays an essential part in generating an authentic aesthetic response. Bullough supposes that there has to be a quantity of distance gained between an object or work of art and a viewer. This will make the observer understand the object or work of art. On the other hand, Bell’s views are drawn from Kant. Both Kant and Bell agree that an object or work of art can neither be intrinsically moral nor cognitive. In addition, they both agree that the value of an object or work of art is found in its form alone. Bell’s notion of significant form is representative in its clarity. Bell perceives the aesthetic response on the basis of a global standard and the source of the aesthetic emotion in the work of art or object (Arnold and Iverson 73). It may be valuable to approach an art object or work with physical distance and focus on its significant form because of several reasons. First, when the appropriate distance is observed, splendor can be observed and realized in an object or work of art. This does not mean that an artist or observer should be impersonal with regard to art, but instead, the viewer should separate himself emotionally and physically enough, so as to attain an accurate aesthetic response to an object or work of art. It is also essential to focus on a significant form of an object or work of art (Arnold and Iverson 76). Moreover, focusing on its significant form will assist an individual to focus at a work of art without preconceptions and predispositions and without being preoccupied by extraneous connections with the work or object of art. Second, according to Bullough, if a viewer does not position himself at an appropriate distance away from the object or work of art, he will become excessively enclosed in his own life. For example, in Othello, the jealous spouse looking at the play cannot realize it because he is so much entangled by how the play is personally affecting his life.

Discuss the Ethnicity, Race in new cinema and how these elements Essay

Discuss the Ethnicity, Race in new cinema and how these elements represent the culture identity in new cinema - Essay Example Countless movies have been made that placed the white race concept atop the pedestal. This is apparent in many genre, setting and context. Films strengthen the existing prevailing social concepts (Kellner, 1995, as cited in Brayton, n.d.) that refer to a middle class white heterosexual male as the normative figure (Brayton, n.d.). The concept of race is a social construction and originally defined by western people. The general notion brought by this concept is that the white people are superior over those with colored skin. This prevailed during the colonization period where the colonizers were white people. Whiteness reached its peak after the colonial era though (Lopez, 2005). Thus, having colonized lands with black people, the latter were treated as inferior and were made slaves. The same treatment is accorded to people with brown skin. The concept of whiteness was perpetuated even after colonialism as desirable and utilized to repress and marginalize the others (Lopez, 2005). Th e concept of â€Å"personal whiteness† referred to by W.E.B. Du Bois has been readily and systematically accepted by groups which were â€Å"racialized, enslaved, conquered and colonized,† but who regard â€Å"white power and white pretense† as critical concerns (Towards a Bibliography 2006, p. 5). Although numerous groups are working to counter this unequal social construct, there are still segments in society as well as individuals who retained such white supremacy notion. Even those not belonging to organized groups, their individual attitude towards colored people show antagonism or disgust. Individuals who do not belong to the whiteness group are categorized as belonging to the â€Å"other† (Performing Whiteness n.d.). The concept of race can be found in many cultural materials such as stories, narratives, habits, etc. and perpetuated in cinema (Critical Race Theory 2011). Although socially constructed, race has been institutionalized in the US throu gh systematic and deliberate actions, thus creating social structures and consequences (Lipsitz, 1995). In cinema, race is constructed continually as a performance and â€Å"understood as a set of cultural tastes,† but not in relation to biological or cultural existence (Brayton, n.d., p. 63). The lifestyle of the rich upper class whiteness is portrayed as the proper norm (Johnson and Roediger, 1997, as cited in Brayton, n.d.). It is played around the concept of consumer choice (Brayton, n.d.). Academic debates on race focus on cultural identity, the roots of the group, and how members see themselves as a cultural group (Bernardi, n.d.). Identity does not remain the same. It undergoes continuous change and transformation (Hall, 1989, as cited in Bernardi, n.d.). White dominance as a performance is aptly described by Orwell (1936 as cited in Lopez, 2005) in saying that by wearing a mask, the face grows to fit with it. Shifting Focus of Whiteness Racial formation, according to Omi and Howard (1994, as cited in Bernardi, n.d.), is a divide grounded on cultural and physiognomic parameters that tells who should have access to institutions. Racial formation changes like identity (Bernardi, n.d.). During the early developments in cinema, the concept of race was dominated by social Darwinism and eugenics wherein humanity is placed in a â€Å"hierarchy of human cultures and histories† with the Anglo-Saxons at the top, followed by the other Caucasians, the