On the Beautiful and the Sublime
On the Beautiful and the Sublime…Aesthetics as Subjective Experience One of the longstanding questions that’s been debated in the field of aesthetics involves the nature of Beauty; one question in this area asks us where Beauty lies, in the object
View Tool »What Do We Find Beautiful?
Introduction Students should be given a week to do the following assignment (though it can be revised as needed to fit your time constraints): Pick as many “beautiful” songs as you are old. So, for example, if you are
View Tool »What is art? An Art Activity
Have each student draw two pictures. One drawing must be a drawing they would call art, and the other one they would not call art. Once the students have finished drawing, ask them to share their pieces and explain
View Tool »What is music? Silence and Sound
Organize a live performance of composer John Cage’s piece 4’33” in the school music room (or watch with your students one of the many online videos of it). Cage’s work, which was composed for any instrument and consists of the
View Tool »Can animals make music?
We all love music. Some of us sing daily, if just to ourselves. It could be our favorite tune from Frozen or simply a tune we made up ourselves. What makes sound music? Let’s start with ourselves. The teacher/facilitator may
View Tool »Can anyone make art?
In 2007 an independent film came out entitled “My Kid could paint that.” It followed the art career of a four year old, Marla Olmstead, living in Binghamton, NY who took the art world by storm. Many of her canvases
View Tool »Beauty–thinking about
Beauty: In the eye of the beholder or is there something more to it? This unit invites high school students to explore the meaning of “beauty”. Source Materials: Plato’s Symposium (available in many editions) Crispin Sartwell’s Six Names of Beauty
View Tool »Aesthetics is for the Birds
This is a photo of leaves on rocks. One can look at the content, nature, or the photographic composition, artifice. The leaves and the rocks: The veins run through the dominant maple leaf, staining it deep green. They betray both
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