Colors of the World

Hey there! So I've had a project in the works that I debuted on Monday: Colors of the World! It's an artistic project exploring different cultures around the world, looking at traditional arts, textiles, patterns, culture, language and much more. Each month I'll be working on a new culture or country, posting a photoshoot at the beginning of each month and following it up with blog posts over on the website, so check it out! It's in its beginning stages still, but by the end of the month there'll be something of interest for everyone, and I'd love to have your feedback and support! Here's the LINK, and a sneak peak...

New Computer!

One really great thing about living in Germany is the postal service. 

How come? Well, let’s put it this way: On Tuesday I ordered a new laptop, and it arrived the next day. Woo!! Of course, I immediately had to set it up and play around with it until I had it more or less at a customized state I’m happy with (don’t understand why they put Windows 8 on it, but maybe it’ll grow on me?). By then it was unfortunately too dark to take proper photos (I don’t have a great camera, and the lighting in my room is not the best), so photos had to wait for today!

I got a Medion Erazer X7829 (MD98774), which is a gaming laptop with the stats I wanted for a work computer. Since I’ll want it mainly for heavy Photoshop use (think many layers and different brushes), a bunch of RAM was a must, but hard to find. Most gaming laptops don’t have much RAM, contenting themselves with 8 or even 4GB – definitely not enough for my purposes! 

Luckily, I did find one or two laptops that had 16GB RAM, and settled on this one. It has great stats, and a big screen (17,3”), and though there are a few small things I don’t like, in general I’m pleased with it so far. 

The things I don’t like: 

1) The touchpad buttons are really hard to press (which hopefully will get better with use)
2) The touchpad itself is a bit rough and hard to use (which will also hopefully improve)

3) When I hooked up my tablet, Windows for some reason thought I had a touchscreen and gave me pop-up instructions to swipe my finger in from the edge to switch between applications – and the window wouldn’t go away unless I unplugged my tablet! And then it reappeared nearly each time I did something else with the tablet! I’m thinking I’ll only hook up the tablet when I already have Photoshop or whichever application I’ll use open, but it’s a hassle.

4) I’m not sure why, but today my computer had everything in Spanish. Probably because I added Spanish to the list of keyboard languages, but the language should still have been English, since that’s the language on the top of my list! So strange. Guess it’s a good thing I do actually speak Spanish.

5) There are a bunch of “apps” and programs on there that needed to be uninstalled or deleted, but there remain some that I can’t get rid of before I’m completely sure what they are. I have a feeling they’re useless, but gotta check first.

6) I’m a bit annoyed that the apostrophe key is so far on the right – I’ve gotten used to it being to the left of the Enter key, not over it! That’ll take some getting used to. (Photos of my otherwise awesome German keyboard below!)

Those points aside, I am really happy with the computer. It was easy to set up, fun to play around with, didn’t take long to get used to Windows 8 (though I still prefer previous versions), and the computer runs quickly and silently. It even came with a really neat drawing/painting app, which of course made me happy! Also, I liked being able to set a full-screen image for my lock screen, though I wish I could do the same for the menu screen. I guess the blue swirls aren’t so bad. (It’s the icons that are.)

It also seems like Photoshop and other applications will be really easy to use – playing around with the tablet yesterday was tons of fun, and I’m looking forward to doing more! I’ll have to get used to using a laptop at a desk, though – I’ve gotten so used to having my laptop in my lap, but the new notebook’s a bit big for that! I still have my first laptop for that, though – and this one will probably remain my computer for browsing purposes. The other one should be mostly reserved for work. 

We’ll see how long that resolution lasts! 

See what I mean about the apostrophe key being over the
Enter key?

This beautiful image (which I'm using for my
lock screen) is by Kirk Quilaquil.

And my current desktop image is a gorgeous
shark mermaid by Neolucky.

Seriously cleaned up the Start menu until only the most basic 
applications are shown there: Microsoft Word, Skype, Notepad...

In fact, my computer also has a name. I never named my first laptop, not having seen a need, but when I first turned on the Medion computer it actually asked me to name it! That started a frantic search for a suitable name. My first thought was "George", because that's Mom's go-to name for everything, but my sister's computer already has that name - then I thought "Nuria", because that's a name I've considered my "Spanish name" since I first started learning the language (Thank you, Frau Ortleb!), but I didn't really think it suited the computer. I couldn't quite decide whether a male or female name would suit, so I turned to the internet - this list of Shakespearean characters, to be precise. I thought an S name, to suit my own, would be nice. 

Scrolling through, I soon found myself drawn to the name "Lord Saye", and thought that "Saye" was an appropriately genderless name when the "Lord" was removed from it. Thus, my computer was named Saye. Here's to a long and fruitful partnership!

Short Definition of Art and Aesthetics

AESTHETICS

“A set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty.” Also, “the branch of philosophy which deals with questions of beauty and artistic taste.”

The definition of aesthetic, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is: of or relating to art or beauty.

 

According to Oxford Dictionaries, an aesthetic is “a set of principles underlying the work of a particular artist or artistic movement”, such as the Cubist aesthetic. As such, aesthetic theory is often divided into branches such as art theory, film theory, and music theory.  

The word aesthetic is derived from the Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthetikos, meaning "sensitive, perceptive"), and had originally been used merely to mean “sensibility” or “responsiveness to stimulation of the senses”. It received its contemporary meaning of “taste” or “sense” of beauty by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten.

The German philosopher first introduced the concept of good and bad “taste” (and as such, good and bad art) in his book Die Metaphysik. He defined “taste” as the ability to judge according to the senses, instead of according to the intellect.

Originally published in Latin in 1739, his concept received a lot of criticism from other philosophers, including Immanuel Kant, though the latter eventually came to conform to Baumgarten’s usage of the word and himself employed the word aesthetic to mean the judgment of taste or the estimation of the beautiful.

ART

Generally, art (or “fine art”) is when the artist’s skill is used to express his or her creativity, or to engage the audience’s aesthetic sensibilities. 

If this skill is being used in a functional object, it is more likely to be considered a craft rather than art; when the skill is being used in a commercial or industrial way it may be considered design instead of art, though the term “applied art” may also be appropriate. 

Typically, art implies no function other than to please the eye or communicate an idea.

For many centuries it was implied that all art aims at beauty, but art movements such as Cubism and Dadaism struggled against the conception that beauty is central to the definition of art – with great success. 

After the works of such artists as Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol one could believe that “art” is basically a sociological category, and that whatever art schools, museums and artists define as art is considered such regardless of formal definitions. After all, most people didn’t consider the depiction of a store-bought urinal or Brillo Box to be art until Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol (respectively) placed them in the context of art (i.e. the art gallery), which then provided the association of these objects with the associations that define art. 

However, there are other possible definitions, such as that suggested by proceduralists: That it is the process by which a work of art is created or viewed that makes it art, not any inherent feature of an object, or how well received it is by the institutions of the art world after its introduction to society at large. Leo Tolstoy, on the other hand, claims in “What is art?” (1897) that what decides whether or not something is art is how it is experienced by its audience, not by the intention of its creator. 

There are a number of other theories, ranging from the practical (the instrumentalist theory of art, Monroe Beardsley) to the obscure (“Art is an anti-destiny”, André Malraux). In general, one can agree that the definition of art is limited by both era and culture.

Animi Causa - for reasons of spirit

An online shop I really enjoy looking through is Animi Causa. Full of quirky items with imaginative designs, it's a store worth checking out!

Nessie Ladle

Hankie Poketbook set

Jumbo Cutlery Drainer

Lid Sid

Arthur Egg Cup

Images from animicausa.com

Welcome To My Blog!

Having just finished my job at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, I decided to take some time to work on all the ideas I didn't have the time for while employed, as well as brush up on some creative skills that need polishing. So, for the next few months, I hope to post on this blog once a day on a variety of subjects as I work on my projects! The main two topics are art and fashion, but I also want to work on my language skills (particularly Russian and Korean), read those books and watch the movies that I really should have seen by now (I'm getting very tired of telling people, "Oh, I've heard it's very good! No, I'm afraid I've never seen/read it,"), and educate myself on assorted things like history, politics, and philosophy.

Each different topic will have its own tab at the top of the blog, and topics such as history and literature will fall under 'culture', with special tabs reserved for art projects, fashion projects, and languages. 'personal' will be reserved for announcements, special posts, and the like, and 'featured' is where posts about other artists, shops and more will end up.

If you like, you can get email notifications for posts by entering your email address into the "Follow by Email" box at the top of the page, right under the "About Me" section. --->
That said, let's get right to it!

Cheers,
SOPHIE