AAD011 – Aesthetics and Collaberation

Aesthetics

From the 1860s to the 1900, a movement began in Britain that strived to make art that was beautiful to escape the materialism and smog of the Industrial Age. The Aesthetics Movement brought about sensual and sophisticated artworks. Artist took inspiration from time periods and cultures around the world such as Ancient Greek sculptures, Japanese prints and Renaissance paintings. Artist aimed to invoke emotions in the viewer and forced a new understanding of reading a piece of art. In order to deepen the viewers experience, aesthetic artists also employed the technique of synaesthesia, whereby one sense was stimulated through another.

Aestheticism also changed the relationship between artists and society which paved the way for the art movements yet to come in the 20th century. It also began a revolution within the perception of the middle-class lifestyle and domestic environment. Designers began creating furnishings and household objects with more than just the purpose of use, but to be something that made the house pleasing to the eye through the use of textiles, ceramics, decorative wallpaper or furniture. This led to the line being blurred between fine arts and artisan crafts within the Royal Academy and from this Art and Design was born born.

Victoria and Albert Museum

2013

An introduction to the Aesthetic Movement

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/an-introduction-to-the-aesthetic-movement

Accessed 13th of March 2021

The Aesthetic Movement

Dr. Rebecca Jeffrey Easby

2018

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-modern/victorian-art-architecture/pre-raphaelites/a/the-aesthetic-movement

Accessed the 13th of March

Collaboration

The Science Foundation Ireland set up a collaboration between 5 artists and commissioned them to create a piece of art that conveys or interprets a scientific concept. Each artist was paired with a SFI research centre and were informed by experts in the scientific topic, using a variety of mediums to convey their concepts in the final artworks. This collaboration was intended to engage primary school students and the public with research in the form of artworks that didn’t have to be explanatory but were informed by research. My favourite artworks are from Ed Devane and Shevanun Doherty.

Ed Devane created a musical gyroscope that was controlled by a control interface, with each axes and rotational speed also being user controllable. The direction and speed would transmit tones in a sequence making a song and also creating a code with an audio signal. His creation was informed on research looking into quantum communications in space.

Shevaun Dohertys project focused on the the scientific process of COVID testing using prints. She conveyed the similarity’s between Lino printing and COVID testing. COVID testing uses PCR which takes small amounts of genetic makeup that are barely viable and replicates them until there are multiple copies of DNA, making them visible. And just with printing, you begin with a blank canvas and go through a series of steps to create multiple copies of the original artwork.