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Archive for May, 2012

May 30

Mimesis and Molecular Gastronomy: The Cognitive Dissonance of Food Art

In her first article on food, Rachel Hite considered the “aesthetics of food.” Now she turns to the aesthetic experience of mimesis and cognitive dissonance in the food art of Ferran Adria. “Cognitive dissonance” typically refers to the discomfort felt when one notices a discrepancy between previously held beliefs and observed behaviors or circumstances – how we respond to new encounters based on our expectations built from past experience (click here for more). Ferran Adria puts aesthetic experience in most unexpected places as he explores the world of “molecular gastronomy.”

Click here to read Rachel Hite’s continuing examination of the art of food in her latest article, “Mimesis and Molecular Gastronomy: The Cognitive Dissonance of Food Art.”

May 22

The Aesthetics of Food

by Rachel Hite

Food is a basic necessity for human survival. Likewise, many an artist will undoubtedly tell you that art is a also basic necessity, an inherent part of human life without which one literally cannot survive. But can food itself be art?

Rachel Hite argues for food to be regarded among the arts in her contribution to The Muse Dialogue, “The Aesthetics of Food” (click to read full article).

May 18

An Art Overlooked

The question of whether to consider food an art is not a frivolous one, though it may seem so at first blush. It presses up against the larger questions of how we characterize anything as an art. Art requires the willful manipulation of materials with the primary intention of creating an aesthetic result. It would seem that food could fulfill the basic requirements of becoming art, and perhaps we have just overlooked it.

The Muse Dialogue launches a new series today: Is Food Art? with Andrew Swensen’s “An Art Overlooked.” (click to view full article)

May 15

What Are the Standards, Anyways? Part 2

National Coalition for Core Arts Standards

States are looking at how educational standards can be consistent across the country. Despite federal direction, the states themselves still set their own standards. Yet the implications for the arts remains unclear. Kathleen Dean reflects on the situation in the second part to her series “What Are the Standards Anyways?”

“What Are the Standards Anyways? Part 2″ (click to read full article)

May 3

Aesthetic Judgment and the Modern Era

Bartolomeo Cristofori, Grand Piano. Florence, Italy 1720 (Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art)

by Andrew Swensen

In our era of fascination with technology, it only seems natural that our art would reflect what has become the spirit of the age. It is interesting to watch how innovations in the hard sciences become innovations in the humanities. Robotics, software engineering, digital information storage and retrieval have all become tools of the trade for artists. Yet this contemporary situation has a couple of traps, and we would be wise to not substitute our infatuation with the new for our continuing pursuit of great art.

Andrew Swensen discusses the age of innovation and argues for keeping our eyes on aesthetic judgment when art meets new technology. Click here to read the full text of the article.

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