SPD212 L5 (small).pdf

SPD212 Philosophies and concepts for development and social policy LECTURE 5 Aesthetic Development  Aesthetic Development: progressive growth of an individual’s ability to think about and respond to aesthetic objects Parsons et al.’s Original Research  Aim: to identify developmental st...

SPD212 Philosophies and concepts for development and social policy LECTURE 5 Aesthetic Development  Aesthetic Development: progressive growth of an individual’s ability to think about and respond to aesthetic objects Parsons et al.’s Original Research  Aim: to identify developmental stages in children’s responses to paintings  Method:  Showed 3 well-known paintings to individual students from grades 1 – 12, with 13 participants from each grade  Asked questions related to the paintings  Grades 1-6 were shown Klee’s Head of a Man, Picasso’s Weeping Woman, and Renoir’s Girl and a Dog  Grades 7-12 were shown Bellow’s Dempsy and Firpo, Picasso’s Guernica, and Chagall’s Circus Parsons et al.’s Original Research Parsons et al.’s Original Research Parsons et al.’s Original Research Parsons et al.’s Original Research  6 topics were identified that revealed developmental levels  Semblance: covers the range of possible views concerning how and whether a painting refers, or what makes it a picture  Subject matter:  Feelings: what kind of emotions are influential to the aesthetic response  Color: what about the color is pleasing or what constitutes good colors  The artist’s properties: what it takes to be a good artist  Judgment: the reasons why this is a good (or not good) painting Parsons’ Theory  Answers were analyzed  Parsons claims that aesthetic development is sequential, hierarchical, continuous Parsons’ Theory  Occur in 5 stages  Stage 1:  Children prefer both abstract and realistic art and are attracted to color  Characterized by “associative” judgment  There is no distinction between moral and aesthetic judgment  A “good” aesthetic object depicts a morally good thing or situation Parsons’ Theory  Stage 2:  Children prefer realistic art, that is morally correct  Characterized by “mimetic” judgment  Reasons given for why something is beautiful are based on how well it correctly represents an external object  Two substages  Schematic representation: portrait is regarded as realistic if it contains the main cues (eg. Two eyes, two ears , a nose, a mouth)  Photographic representation: more specific criteria are used and can vary across cultures  Moral judgment concerns only object represented  A “good” aesthetic object depicts a realistic thing Parsons’ Theory  Stage 3:  Adolescents prefer art that communicates emotions and expressive content pictorially  Characterized by “expressive” structure  Aesthetic object no longer primarily a physical object, but a psychical one  Authenticity of expression is important in aesthetic judgment (rather than moral rightness) Parsons’ Theory  Stage 4:  Understands art based on am objective analysis of style, technique, historical, and social issues relevant to art world traditions  Characterized by “formalistic” structure  Aesthetic object as being the aesthetic object  Aesthetic judgment relates to formal and material organization of the object (eg. Texture of painting, arrangement of colors and shapes)  Balance  Harmony  Repetition  Variation  Creator of art seen as an interpreter  Aesthetic object regarded as an autonomous whole in the sense that discussion is based on the inherent characteristics of aesthetic object Parsons’ Theory  Stage 5:  Understands artistic traditions serve to give one authority to transcent the rules of society and make personal judgments  Characterized by “open” structure  This stage is characterized by fundamental examination of the criteria used in previous stages themselves  Works of art do not have fixed meaning, but a meaning that changes with continuous change of perspectives and interpretations Parsons’ Theory  Criteria from former stages do not lose meaning in later stages, but no longer become sufficient in judgment  Each stage becomes more adequate than the previous stage Relation to Kohlberg’s Theory  Pattern ot aesthetic development follows Kohlberg’s levels of thinking  Preconventional level: stage 1  Conventional level: stages 2-4  Postconventional level: stage 5 Relation to Piaget’s Theory  3 of Piaget’s Stages are linked to Parsons’ theory of aesthetic development  Preoperational  Main features for attention are color and subject  Egocentrism  Pictorial realism  Concrete operational  As child understands conservation, this allows for child to compare physical object with mental representation of object  Formal operational  More abstract features like style and composition are considered Relation to Piaget’s Theory  While cognitive development is a necessary condition, it is not sufficient for stage progression  In Parson’s original study, many participants combined formal operational thought with stage 2 or 3 aesthetic reasoning  This may be attributed to the relative unimportance we give to aesthetic development in the educational system