Module 8 Blog Review

The required video we had to watch was actually extremely intriguing and brought forth a lot of interesting information. They had made the point that no matter what the painting or sculpture looked like or was used for it had no resemblance to an actual human being. Humans are so dominated by images of themselves that are completely unrealistic.  These images and beliefs steam all the way back to Austria when the first few sculptures and paintings of humans were created. The Venus of Willendorf is the first real sculpture showing why the world perceives people in such an unrealistic manor. The sculpture that is only 4 inches tall and currently is located in the natural history museum is a symbol of motherhood and fertility. But, we don't see women walking around that look like this: virtually no arms, huge breasts, overlay of fact, stumpy legs, and even her sexual organs are smaller and proportionate to what we would see in reality. The belief is that the humans that created the Venus figure had a brain that was programmed to focus more on the fertility and fatness. They were living in terrible cold climates that would make those two things more prominent and focused on than others such as arms and legs. I found it intriguing that the entire video was based around this one small sculpture that only stands to be 4 inches tall.

The second video that I choose to watch was "The Measure of All Things: Greek Art and the Human Figures."  I decided on this one because it was one of the shortest on the list and watching a 59 minute video I didn't have the attention span to watch a whole nother movie. But, I also thought this one would be interesting in that the above one that was required was about human figures and how we perceive ourselves not as we actually area and prefer to see ourselves in an unrealistic perspective. Now this video focused more on the human body and how Greeks play apart in this. The Greek artist and sculptures are actually infatuated with the human body and they have been for  thousands of years. The focused more on using stone to carve their sculptures and most that have been found, located mainly in graves, were of women that looked as if they were pregnant or had scratches on the belly making it look as if they had already given birth. Fertility is a monumental remembrance and sculptures wanted to focus on realism. Producing the human body in three-dimensional figures that view as if they are going to move and giving them perspective in that they are created as a more realistic view on the human body. The part of Western Art that I really liked is that people try and show the inner beauty of humans in a piece of stone. Artists try and show some type of inner beauty through what they are producing.

Both videos relate to the text in that the text goes on to talk about sculptures and the uses of sculpting as it has progressed throughout time. The main product that is used for sculpting is clay because it is the easiest to work with and the easiest to correct mistakes. Those who use stone have very little room for any error because it isn't as easy to correct. The text also talks about the perception of the human body and how artists have used the human body to create many works of art. Unfornately, the videos help talk about how people in today's society have an unrealistic perspective of what the body should look like and what is expected. I feel like a good example of modern day is that women and even men have issues with body image due to advertisements and what we have been fed my the media. If you are somewhat over weight or look athletic in anyway you aren't what society classifies as "beautiful." That's why I enjoy these videos because they do help with the understanding of what is trying to be shown in the text but in a more modern way. I personally am a visual learner, so seeing the videos and listening to them give examples of what the reading is actually trying to portray just solidifies what we were getting from the textbook. I do enjoy the textbook, but sometimes you get lost in the book and stop absorbing what you are reading. But, these videos help break that up and provide me as the reader and student a way to see a real purpose of what we are learning.