Lecture 3: Aesthetic

Question 1

Aesthetic perception vs Aesthetic production

Answer 1

Aesthetic perception: when you find something desirable, attraction/repulsion, sense of taste
Aesthetic production: to make desirable

Question 2

Personal consequentiality

Answer 2

Emotions are appraisals (objects, situations, etc.)
Personal consequentiality: how these appraisals have consequences on you (good appraisal –happy emotions, negative appraisal –fear, anger)

Question 3

3 dimensions of emotion

Answer 3

1. Valence: positive (feel good, support goals/welfare) or negative (bad for survival)
   (binary)
2. Intensity: weak to intense
   (graded)
   Ex: I am a little annoyed to I am outraged
3. Focus: what the emotion is about

Question 4

Basic Emotion Theory

Answer 4

A 1D Model: Focus
- Expressions of emotions are similar/understood across cultures (universal)
Interpret facial expressions similarly across cultures
- Disgust –when in contact w toxic things
- Fear –when in contact w threatening things

Question 5

The Circumplex Model

Answer 5

2D Model: Valence & Intensity
Quadrant: x-axis is valence and y-axis is intensity
+ + =high intensity, positive valence
- - =low intensity, negative valence

Can accommodate a variety of emotions (more than basic emotion theory)

Question 6

The OCC Model

Answer 6

3D Model: Valence, Intensity, Focus

3 foci of emotion:
1) Outcomes: motivational emotions (pleased (+), displeased (-))
- If outcomes are supportive of our goals –positive emotions
- If outcomes opposing goals –negative valence emotions

2) Objects: aesthetic emotions (liking (+), disliking (-))
Yay (get a good mark on midterm) =motivational
Hmm (see a yummy desert at supermarket) =aesthetic

3) Agents: moral/social emotions (approving (+), disapproving (-))
- See friend helping elderly lady cross the road = +
- Sad story in the news = -

Question 7

Outcomes (of emotion)

Answer 7

MOTIVATIONAL emotions

Can be retrospective (appraising things that happened in past –happy(+)/sad(-)) or prospective (appraising things that will happen in the future –hopeful(+)/apprehensive(-))

Question 8

Beauty-as-good relationship

Answer 8

Things aesthetically beautiful =morally good
Things aesthetically repulsive =morally bad

EX Wizard of Oz:
Glenda (the good witch): morally goo (agent) and beautiful (object)
Wicked witch: morally bad (agent) =ugly (object)

Question 9

Halo Effect

Answer 9

When people are shown pics of random people:
Attract people are rated as: nicer, more successful, more sociable

Question 10

Objects (of emotions)

Answer 10

AESTHETIC emotions
Aesthetics: perception (and production) of beauty (or ugliness) in artworks everything
Aesthetics is generic, not art-specific

Question 11

What do we praise aesthetically?

Answer 11

We aesthetically appraise the products of human creativity

In human evolution –did not have mirrors for us to appraise ourselves Non-self appraisal: other people (important for mating), human-made objects/spaces/performances, natural objects & spaces

Question 12

Cognition/emotion relationship

Answer 12

Emotion is for action

Emotion –>drives/trigger motivation (desire to act) –>decision making (alternative actions –costs/benefits) –consider diff routes to achieve our goals

Question 13

Problem Solving cycle adjusted for emotion/motivation

Answer 13

Problem formulation =>emotional appraisal of a situation
Problem formulation to Solution formulation => motivation
Solution formulation to solution implementation =>decision making and planning to act

Question 14

Real emotions vs virtual emotions

Answer 14

REAL
Production: felt emotion
Perception: perceived emotion
VIRTUAL
Production: acted-out emotion
Perception: perceived acted-out emotion

Virtual emotions are cognitive representations of emotions.
They can be found in the depictions of character emotions in theatre, literature and visual art.
They are also found in the emotions represented in music.

Question 15

Group emotions

Answer 15

Emotional attunement (contagion)
Shared emotional experience
Feeling emotionally connected to others
Group catharsis: release of negative emotions (to purify)

Question 16

Artification Definition & Example

Answer 16

Production counterpart to aesthetic perception
- Making special; making the ordinary extraordinary

Art objects –vase (designed to hold liquid, but has ornamentation on the surface –does not improve its ability to hold liquid, makes it more appealing)
Dance –West African dancing (wrist movement –historically, like throwing seeds (ordinary behaviour), making it special in ritual behaviour of dance)
Literary language –Romeo and Juliet (“light breaks through window”)

Question 17

3 mechanisms of artification

Answer 17

Stylization/ornamentation
Exaggeration
Repetition (both in space and time)
- In time (rhythm)
- In space (patterns)

Question 18

Artification characteristics

Answer 18

Artification is a creative process
Artification is a modification of existing products, just as in many form of creativity
It is an aesthetic modification
Artification is a component of display creativity (novel for its own sake)
It is novelty whose aim is to grab attention (not solve problems)

Question 19

Display thinking

Answer 19

the strategies we use to convey info about our desirability, social status, profession, gender, ethnic identity, religious affiliation, etc.

Display thinking unites creativity and aesthetics via display creativity

Question 20

Animal Displays (individual vs group displays)

Answer 20

Individual displays: mating displays
- Male songbirds trying to get the attention of a female
Group displays: territorial displays
- Our group being threatened by another species, need to mark our territory

Question 21

What we artify

Answer 21

Self –do a lot to make ourselves more appealing
EX: Makeup, clothing, jewelry
Other—don’t spend time making other people more appealing, human-made objects/spaces/performances, do not spend time making natural object/spaces more beautiful

Common link b/w aesthetic perception and production are:
human-made objects/spaces/performances