Theater of Glory

Theater of Glory

Outside Reading: Belden Lane/Ravished By Beauty 

November 21

The Genevan Reformer, John Calvin, used the metaphor of theater to describe the ravishing beauty of God in the natural world. In the beginning of his Institutes, Calvin distinguished between two books of revelation: the book of nature and the book of Scripture. He believed that both books, when read side-by-side, offered a fuller, more complete, understanding of God’s glory. Nature, as the theater of God’s glory, is the stage on which the human mind contemplates divine beauty. Calvin supported theater in Geneva as a medium for conveying the gospel message and alluring the human soul into God’s grand story. In this theater, God plays the lead role and the rest of creation is summoned to a common praise. This act of praise is what sustains order in the cosmos and mirrors the Creator’s love for His creatures. The stability and well-being of the world depends on the creature’s praise of God’s beauty. If the world is God’s theater, the church is his orchestra. The purpose of the created world is twofold: to delight and instruct. Nature is both a school of affliction and a school of desire. “It disrupts the ego, redirects misplaced longings, and teaches radical trust.”(64) Theology always leads to doxology. Calvin viewed creation as the trinity’s invitation to join in the divine dance. All creatures are called to participate in the joy of their Creator and become united with Beauty Himself.

Art as an Object of Taste

Art as an Object of Taste

Class Reading: Thomas Wartenberg/Nature of Art

November 16, 2015

David Hume, the 18th century skeptic and empiricist inquires whether there are objective standards in art. He is amazed how people from different ages, governments, countries, and cultures can all agree that a specific piece of art is beautiful. While acknowledging that there is “a great variety of taste” he searches for a standard of taste that constitutes human perception of beauty. He wants to know what the basis for critical judgements of art and beauty are. Hume holds that beauty is not a quality found in an object or experience but rather a perception of the mind projected onto an object or experience. He attempts to solve his dilemma by saying that there are certain attributes in art that appeal to all humans. Thus, there may be universal agreement that one piece of art is more beautiful than another. Hume seems to take every measure of precaution in acknowledging the universal susceptibility to find value in specific characteristics of art while refusing to admit to objective beauty. Afraid of accepting objectivity in taste, Hume says that only people who are “improved by practice, perfected by comparison, and cleared of all prejudice” are able to recognize the attributes that make art good, beautiful, and true. 

The Incredible is Most Credible

The Incredible is Most Credible

Topic of Choice

November 16, 2015

As I rode my bike across the main stretch of campus this afternoon the sun was setting off in the distance, behind the clock tower at the far end of the great lawn. The stoic academic buildings seemed to have an aged, golden complexion to them. There were people walking around, all on a mission to reach a predetermined destination. I, however, had nothing on my mind and no place to go. I was simply riding my bike as a way of legitimizing doing nothing. In that idle moment of contentment and contemplation I found myself thinking, “this is unreal.” Moments later, it struck me odd that I choose to use the word “unreal” to describe the beautiful scene I was beholding. Upon further reflection, I realized that people are always making such exclamations about beauty. “That sunset is unreal!” “This campus is incredible?” “This moment is too good to be true!” Why is it our common response to beauty that we attribute such an experience or encountered object to falsehood? Martin Heidegger says that art is “the becoming and happening of truth.” Ironically, because beauty is the closest glimpse we have of reality we often mistake it for something unreal. Beauty catches us off guard. Our eyes have been dulled and our minds duped by the pseudo-realities of the marketplace. But every once in a while we encounter something that jolts us out of our passivity and awakens something in our soul. We would do well to recognize such happenings as a gracious window through which we may peer into reality. How much more aware and mindful we would be of beauty if, in such moments, our response became, “this is so real!”

Musical DNA

Assigned Reading
Musical DNA Podcast

Growing up NPR was constantly playing in my house; quiet could hardly ever be obtained because NPR was always playing somewhere throughout the house.  Which is probably why I enjoyed the homework assignment of listening to the Radio Lab podcasts.  Out of the two my favorite was the podcast on EMI the computer program that could compose music in the style of a famous composer.  At first I didn't understand the purpose of EMI because I thought that a normal (human) composer could accomplish the same task by listening to a piece and doing his/her best to replicate aspects of it.  What really changed my understanding of EMI was when pieces written by EMI were played in front of an audience and some people were unaware that it was composed by a computer program and were so openly moved by it.  Now, I'm torn between thinking EMI is a great invention and feeling annoyance for how EMI can trivialize the genius of someone's favorite composer.  I can see why David Cope received as much backlash as he did.  However, EMI should be looked at as a true gift.  EMI allows for the composer's musical DNA to live on and although EMI streamlines the creative process the end result is still beautiful.

Art as Feminism

Outside Reading

Art as Feminism: Carolyn Korsmeyer

The article starts with the disclaimer that many established art experts (meaning historians, curators, critics, etc.) have a hard time defining what art is.  Many art experts don't even want to begin to define art for fear of creating categories that possible art expressions cannot fit into.  However, there is an agreement on what traditional fine art is.  Traditional fine art, according to the article, makes a clear distinction between art and craft, does not have a political significance and is usually the product of a lone genius.  Korsmeyer then goes to explain how feminist artists "main agenda" is to challenge the standards.  One of the more favored examples in the article is the use of craft materials in feminist art.

Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party

The picture above is an installment by Judy Chicago made almost entirely out of crafts (the plates, tables, cups, quilts) but it was also a collaborative project done by over one hundred women and contains a political message.  Each place setting is for a female figure from history or myth and uses the craft of quilting to personalize each setting.

Disinterested Interest

Disinterested Interest 

Other Readings: Roger Scruton/Beauty

October 12, 2015

One of the most intriguing parts of Immanuel Kant’s aesthetic theory is the concept of disinterested interest. Kant begins by distinguishing between interest and disinterest. Humans, he says, take on an interested attitude towards something when it serves as a means to their end. Interested objects are instruments designed at achieving some sort of aim or end goal. Our interaction with such objects is driven by appetites, needs, and desires. However, there is a second type of interest that treats objects as ends in themselves. Our interest toward such objects is wholly devoted to the object itself, not the objects purpose. This, Kant calls disinterested interest. We express such interest when we spend time with a close friend. We do not treat time spent with a loved one as a fulfillment of any desire or satisfaction of any goal since the interest is fully placed in the person to whom you stand in relation to. In moments of disinterested interest, no substitute for the object or person that holds our complete admiration will do. You cannot substitute a stranger for your friend. Only the specific object toward which our full attention is geared will do. Disinterested interest is a pure judgement of beauty that is not interested in the use or practicality of an object. Such interest takes on a curious attitude toward it’s object, attempting to understand, value, and delight in the object.

Beautiful Motion

Beautiful Motion

Gerardus Van Der Leeuw/Sacred and Profane Beauty

October 2015

“Before man learned how to use any instruments at all, he moved the most perfect instrument of all, his body.”(p.13) The beauty of motion begins and ends with the human body. There is beauty in the ritualistic repetition of running and feeling the ache of your legs. Engaging the body in physical activity and play is one of the best ways to release pent up desire and longing. The intimate relationship between soul and body is greatly underestimated today. Van Der Leeuw comments on this breakup of unity, lamenting how dance has become entertainment rather than religious and sports have become secularized rather than sacred. But despite this, the power of this divinely ordained connection between the body and soul remains. The body and soul are not dualistic entities. They work together to create beautiful motion. The bodily movements we make are an expression of ourselves. The body is the outlet for the cultivation of the soul. Bodily motion has the reciprocal ability to shape the posture of one’s soul. Assuming the position of prostration during prayer, for example, is a posture of the body that usher’s the soul into quiet reverence. Out of the overflow of what we feed our souls, we act. Lashing out in violence, making a degrading comment, and acting selfishly are all symptoms of an unhealthy soul. The soul thirsts for constant exposure to beauty. We were made to taste, touch, smell, see, and hear beautiful things and express the joy received from these things through our bodies. Bodily movement is the consummation of experienced beauty.