1、Unit 8 Enjoying the Arts 东北大学大学英语Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Reading Topic Preview Text C 3 3 Pre-reading Questions Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Topic Preview Among all the following art works,which do you like best?What emotions does it arouse in you?Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Pre-reading Questions 1.In you
2、r opinion,what can artistic works bring us in our daily life?2.Who is your favorite artist?Why do you like him/her?3.Have you heard of the sentence“Art heals the world”?What does it mean?Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Text C What Is Art for?I am getting ready to go on a series of teaching and lecture gigs
3、,ranging from classrooms of graduate students and conference keynotes to art competitions.Preparing for these types of events always brings me back to one essential question that is the foundation of the healing arts:what is art actually for?Most of my fellow artists do not make art for money alone;
4、we make art for many other reasons and feel fortunate to sell an artwork from time to time.In fact,if you ask most artists why they continue to work at something that does not pay for the groceries on the lowest level of Maslows hierarchy,they often say,“art heals me”or“art saved my life”.I dont dis
5、miss these statements about the power of art,but I think there is a much better answer to why many of us humans are compelled to make art and why everyone should consider it as a wellness practice.Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Neurodevelopment guru Bruce Perry notes that arts and play are part of every c
6、ulture,to some extent,are familiar to all,and are associated with neurologically normalizing aspects of life.Ellen Dissanayake,an evolutionary ethologist really addresses the core value of arts existence and how the art is really a“species-centric”phenomenon with wide-reaching impact on human surviv
7、al.According to Dissanayake,art boils down to four aspects:Art makes life special.Although making art continues to be sustained by a commercial society,the arts have been present before monetary value was slapped on them.“Making special”relates to humans needs to decorate and personalize.In the visu
8、al arts,this may mean creating an aesthetically pleasing design on something utilitarian or simply wanting to have personally appealing imagery in ones life.Dissanayake also observes that human survival is related to the arts.For example,groups who make things special via the arts have more unifying
9、 interactions and ceremonies.In earlier times in human history,these groups were able to survive longer on the whole than those who did not engage in using arts in this way.Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Art engages the senses.The arts most likely emerged as a health-giving behavior.In other words,they en
10、abled humans to feel good.Possibly before the arts were ever used to make things“special”,humans enjoyed the satisfaction of rhythm,novelty,order,pattern,color,play and body movement.In brief,we engage in the arts because the sensory experience of the arts helps us to feel better.Research in art the
11、rapy,music therapy and dance/movement therapy is starting to support Dissanayakes theory that engaging the senses through the arts has a powerful effect on body and mind,physical perceptions,and cognition.Art involves rituals.Rituals in the arts have been part of human history since its beginnings.T
12、here are sacred art rituals(Tibetan sand paintings and Native American totems,for example)and non-sacred ones as well.The origin of these activities is both sacred and worldly,but in both cases are survival-based because they help us make meaning of life as well as reduce lifes inevitable stresses.R
13、ituals allow for fantasy,too,and are a way to transcend difficult circumstances and tragedies such as disaster,illness and death.Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 Art enhances community.Art is created to be experienced by others and engages us in community even when our reactions to art are deeply personaliz
14、ed.This communal engagement echoes back to“safety in numbers”and the modern psychological concept of social support that is widely accepted as a key factor for toughness.When we act in concert to share a cultural experience through art,we gather together for the purpose of celebrating or commemorati
15、ng lifes important events.In the realm of the healing arts,research increasingly underscores that making art togetherfor example,community art programs and engaging in dance or music groups is an important factor in psychological and physical recovery.Enjoying the Arts UNIT 8 The phrases“art heals”a
16、nd“art saves”have become popular and will continue to circulate;like many catch-phrases,they are just too cool to go away.In this case the actual purpose of art is often forgotten.Will painting a picture cure what ails you in the long run?Will singing that happy song take care of your depression?Not likely,but there is evidence that art serves a larger purpose when it comes to health.As someone who is in the business of“healing arts”,I will not deny that I am glad to hear someone discover arts p
