Module 8: Video Reviews

1.      Explain why you selected the video you choose from the selection listed above.

I selected the last video, “The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure” because I was most interested in learning more about Ancient Greece, and why Greek artists created so many human forms. I have learned throughout my life that Ancient Greeks are widely respected for their contributions to society in architectural, political and social aspects. 

2.      For each video list/discuss the key concepts you learned.

Video 1: More Human Than Human

·         The modern world is dominated by unrealistic images of the body, and ancient art was too.

·         Sculptures were made in different countries with similar exaggerative areas.

·         Ramachandran- performed an experiment with birds to help determine why people’s brains were affected by art. A specific type of bird, had a beak with red stripe, and he performed a test in which the birds were shown a stick with a red stripe on it. The birds were stimulated by the simple red stripe, regardless that it was on a stick and not a brain. More stimulation and excitement was discovered when there were multiple red stripes shown.

·         Ramachandran believes that using grotesquely exaggerated figures in human forms is a similar concept to the birds red stripe test. Our brains are stimulated by the exaggeration of what matters most.

·         Egyptians- In 1090 BC ancient Egyptian artists didn’t create exaggerated figures and they were hardly realistic. Artists chose to show each part of the body at the most realistic angles. This type of art was consistently created as the only image of the human body ever seen for 3000 years. All images were created utilizing the same grid, and they were obsessed with precision, order and consistency in human forms because of their culture.

·         Ancient Greece- Greeks were completely fixated with the human body and what it should look like ideally. They believed that their Gods took human forms and the bodies they took were only the “perfect” looking ones. They created realistic statues of human forms in order to see the gods. This realistic style of human art forms occurred for a generation but then stopped even though their culture strived for this realism. The ancient Greeks then started to incorporate the exaggeration concept, which other ancient civilizations had used in the creation of their art forms. While continuing to create idealistic human forms, the human bodies were exaggerated to replicate an athlete in movement.

Video 2: The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figure :

·         As far back as 3000 BC, Greeks were obsessed with the human body. They were obsessed with working out and their bodies and it was reflected in their art forms.

·         In the 6^th century Greeks developed a sense of realism and started to produce the body in 3D, and in movement.

·         There is a lack of record of ancient Greek paintings, but there is a lot of pottery. The pottery and sculptures were painted.

·         In the classical period Greek artists were great at making idealized perfect human forms and portrait sculptures.

·         The Greeks tried to portray ideal beauty rather than ordinary beauty in the human forms. Their obsession with beauty has dictated how we look at and think about other people and ourselves in the 21^st century.

3.      How do the videos relate to the readings in the text?

The videos discuss how ancient civilizations impacted the world of art today. The first video focuses on why humans, past and present, are focused on creating unrealistic images of the human body. Ancient Greece and Egypt artists created unrealistic human forms that were not similar at all, but they both included exaggerated features. Chapter 14 in the text discusses how these two cultures differ from each other. The second video relates to the text because in Chapter 14, there is a section about the Classical World of Greece. The text states that Greeks excelled in many fields, and their art can be considered classical because their intention was to achieve the highest standard of quality art. This concept is reflected in the video as it discusses the Greeks focus on perfecting human figures. They produced these human forms to show the “perfect” human figure that their society strived for, for example through sculpting their bodies from working out. The chapter also discusses the Greek sculptures that focused on including complicated and intense movement which was also discussed in the video. 

4.      What is your opinion of the films? How do they add depth to understanding of the readings and art concepts?

I thought these films were interesting, and the videos were easier to interpret than simply reading the text. I enjoyed the second video more, because it focused solely on the Greeks, and the duration of time was shorter so the information was to the point. The videos added to my understanding of the concepts because I found the images and sculptures shown in the videos easier to interpret than the ones in the text. I found it interesting to learn about why societies today are equally as obsessed with human body perfection as they were in past civilizations.