Concepts of Beauty in Art

Concepts of Beauty in Art John Keats Beauty and Truth In his famous apostrophe to the Grecian Urn, the immortal poet, John Keats, wrote: Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst, beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. This very famous statement on Beauty and Truth and their interchangeability poses a very important question in the postmodern era. Art and its convention of the Beauty/Beautiful has imperceptibly changed over the decades, from something that should reflect the Ideal (and in reality, twice removed from it, as per Plato), or in essence complete and offering pleasure to the senses to something, that expresses the unique consciousness/angst of the creator. Art has thus rediscovered its definition for beauty. If beauty is truth, then it may dare to be grotesque too, for truth may be harsh or horrific. Beauty does not suggest something beautiful in the actual sense of the term, but that, which comes closer to the true expressions of the self and the vision of a generations psyche, that is fragmented, kitsch-like, complex and beyond the metanarratives of a suffocating conformity. Beauty has evolved into a freedom for expression. Contemporary art, especially questions the paradigms of aesthetic values, with artists like Chapman Brothers or Justin Novak producing artwork that are clearly meant to provoke reactions and challenge notions of beauty, that had its roots in Kants Critique of Judgment (1790). It contemplated on the pure aesthetic experience of art consisting of a disinterested observer, pleasing for its own sake and beyond any utility or morality. Now, the very word pleasing may have different boundaries and contemporary art is trying to escalate their claims. If Marcel Duchamp made a fountain out of a urinal in 1917, that hurtled the Dadaist movement and that later amplified into a surrealist tendency looking into primitive art for their subconscious inspiration, to reveal the mental process, then the essential motivation behind the whole thing was subversion. If primitivism was motivating a new dimension by which beauty of the mind was revealed, then Picasso completely subjectified art and personal experience into a fourth dimension and created a cubist movement to claim a break down of a canon that no longer held on to techniques, symbols and least of all universal criteria for judging anything. There are many socio-ideological forces behind the same and the destructive World Wars had many reasons to question the notions behind the traditional idea of Beauty, and it addressed the subjective, transcendental and alienated psyche of modern man. Metaphysical hopelessness gave absurdity to beauty, while the meaninglessness of this Being, made beauty seem more akin to grotesque, either by derision or by the light of their tragic truth. What makes the question more intriguing is that, whether contemporary art has found a better form of beauty (constructed to please and create a certain discursive paradigm) in the grotesque, since it frees us from any moral and political/ideological constraints? Can it be linked to greater dimensions of teleological magnitude, or should it be treated as an alternative method of understanding true aesthetic, if not the complete aspect of aesthetic itself? Is grotesque possible without the knowledge of Beauty itself? I shall attempt to answer the following questions that I raised, with a few examples. One must first understand the idea behind perception and the dialogical force that surrounds it. If the world is raised as an illusion in ones mind then the mind has been symbolically trained to read it as a language. This matrix of complex spontaneity is paradigmatically and syntagmatically (Roman Jakobson, 1987) being challenged, when Grotesque plays the part of Beauty. The Dystopia arises out of a shattered archetype that must restructure itself to include elements of the grotesque within the beauty, and reach towards the same aesthetic experience: the sublime. But interestingly what produces sublime is shock. But one must not confuse this with the cathartic experience of the Tragic pity and terror, but something quite opposite to an ideal communicative situation that all such art produces. Thus this element of mimesis and/or representation of the ideal have given way to an infinite subjectivity (Hegel, Lectures on Fine Art, given in the 1820s), or the abyss of the human mind and condition. But the self is interpellated as per Lacan and later Althusser too estimated the impossibility of a single position from where one can judge, since the self was preconditioned with a lot of logocentricism (Derrida), which are again socio-culturally specific as per Barthes. Thus there is a complete inquiry into art through the artists personality or self (or selves). Justin Novaks disfigurine often conforming to the bourgeoisie values, distort them to such an ironic extent that one cannot miss the counter realism that it offers. Often it serves to offer no alternative reality, but just launches one amidst a grotesque re-examination of old values and with its attendant disillusionment. Once there is a silent barrier between class and gender is dismantled, the escape is into nothingness the sublime height of vast unending solutions and this underscores the definite presence and the horrors of undying conformism. If truth is beauty, then Novaks artworks reveal the finer sides of it by shattering the comfortable and compartmentalized thought processes with which one can objectify art from a safe distance. The grotesque closeness of these truths gives beauty to the mind by releasing it from the shackles of confinement and overpowering illusions. Truth is not universal, but a power to accept the inextricable complexity of human behaviour, mind and his /her social, cultural and historical environment. Is Grotesque a rebellion? Or is it an inextricable element of beauty? Disfigurines 2006, by Justin Novak Grayson Perrys ceramic works portray this polemic by making them superficially beautiful (as beauty has been notoriously claimed to have been) and underneath it remains the darker motives of an artist who tries to wrest with disturbing truths (or shall one call them home truths, with a larger social back drop to them). His works like Coming Out Dress 2000, Weve Found the Body of your Child 2000 or the Boring Cool People 1999 (reminds one of Eliots famous lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock In the room the women come and go, Talking of Michaelangelo). Not only does he deal with issues like cross-dressing, child abuse and social sterility (spiritually hollow cool fashionistas), but also he plays with this abnormal interrelation between beauty and grotesque. He raises questions about taste and the sublime. In short he subverts the notion of beauty with beauty that is skin deep! Reality is a diabolical faade and Perry questions whether hegemony denotes or connotes the medium o f taste in art. Transvestite to transgression, the Chapman Brothers question the inevitability or orthodox value of the canon. This reflects in their works, defacement and torture figures create the complete picture of Beauty. They usher in a new experiment with taste, bad taste and the notions of good taste. Art moves into the realms of public or mass low category, which becomes an essential democratic medium for evoking or carrying forward a provocation to rouse the sense of that horrifying answerless void. With the Chapman brothers there is a sadist tone attached to their insult or reiteration of Goyas influence especially in the irrecreation of his Disasters of War, which inflict bold horror. But the grandeur of that horror is reduced to a trivial and yet a sardonic sensationtaste comes off them. They twist the sensation of violence into an aestheticground and arouse a variety of physical and mental demands for perceiving Beauty amidst such a squandering grotesqueness. Beauty here lies in the re lease from holding back appreciation, awe and complete shock. Violence does not stand-alone and nor does any other human emotion. Sex, 2003 is thus desire, decay, diabolical, deliberate, freedom or defeat. Purity is not that far fromits pornographic mockery of it and they are interrelated in their apparent verisimilitude. A true representation of kitsch art, their works like Zygotic Acceleration, roused shock as they attempted to portray the sexualisation of children due to the media and increased gender awareness. These treatments nevertheless push questions about morality that grotesque beauty actually challenges. Thus morality and beauty in its aesthetic straight forwardedness seem to flatten out newer boundaries of experiences, which the Chapman brothers challenge through their craftsmanship. Traditional Sculpture, especially in the hands of the Chapman Brothers and Justin Novak or Grayson Perry are objects of anti-canonical parody, grotesque imitations or thought-provoking reverse-discourses. All these postmodern artists are challenging aesthetic experience. All these artworks succumb to one the power of the grotesque that sublimates beauty with its truth, and they make us realize that truth is not about a fixed standard, but accepting the actual absence of it. What makes contemporary art more beastly in its beauty is the power to derive happiness (or sado-masochist satisfaction) out of this grotesqueness. The grotesque shocks but this is a pleasure in itself, because it is the very representation of the consciousness. Theatre and artwork met with experimentalism in the stage by Artaud, who made audience a spectator to cruelty that is harsh, exceptionally brutal and yet beautiful. By shattering estrangement and by creating something that allows no objectivity (in the lik es of Kant or Brecht) Artaud demands a complete involvement of the senses. Moreover, this is where art threatens to change the soul of the perceiver by its dominating beauty, which horrifies the perceiver with its verity and unique angst. Wittgensteins concept of seeing-as, allows contemporary art to shun master narratives completely and standout on their own purely as visual sensations. From British Avant-Garde art that confuses common and the uncommon (like use of mannequin by Chapman Brothers or genitals replaced by the faces in their remake of Goyas Disasters of Wars series). Grotesquerie is about questioning the status quo, about unflinching self-criticism and about embracing outsiders. From Simon Carroll deconstructing the chronology of ceramic vases with his pastiches like Thrown Square Pot2005, engages the observers mind with complex questions that he poses through the irregular construction of his surfaces. Thrown Square Pot  2005, Simon Carroll. The artists seem to dwell on the apparent hyperreality of contemporary situation, where art has become a vastly reproduced object fractured beyond identity. Formlessness becomes the beauty without symmetry and deliberate cruelty an aesthetic grotesqueness. Thus the gap between what is apparent and what may actually exists gives the artists ample space to bridge this defined categories with crushing forces of expressions that though grotesque to the shocked senses is ultimately beautiful by virtue of its truth. Works Cited Eliot, T. S The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Eliot, Thomas Stearns. Prufrock and Other Observations. London: The Egoist, Ltd, 1917; Bartleby.com, 1996. www.bartleby.com/198/. [30.01.2007]. ON-LINE ED.: Published May 1996 by Bartleby.com; Copyright Bartleby.com, Inc. (Terms of Use). Hegel, Lectures on Fine Art, (edited by Hotho) Aesthetics: Lectures on Fine Art, Vol. 1.translated by T. M. Knox, 1973. Poetical Works. London: Macmillan, 1884; Bartleby.com, 1999 Jakobson, Roman. Language in Literature. Ed. Krystyna Pomorska and Stephen Rudy. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1987. See influential essay Linguistics and Poetics by Roman Jakobson, in their collection Language in Literature (1987).

Starbucks Value Proposition

The Starbucks Value Proposition Starbucks’ brand strategy was centred on its ‘Live Coffee’ mantra. Starbucks created an experience around the consumption of coffee. The three main components to this branding strategy were: [pic] Channels of Distribution Starbucks had stores in North America in high-traffic, high visibility settings such as retail centres, office buildings and colleges.Product mixes varied according to the store’s size and location. The retail product mix in North-American Company operated stores is given in the following diagram. [pic] Starbucks sold coffee through non-company-operated retail channels too which were called ‘Speciality Stores’ and accounted for 15% of its revenues, out of which the various sources contributing to the speciality store revenues is as given in the following diagram. [pic]Realizing that many customers (almost 40%) had tried Starbucks earlier before entering their company owned stores; they focussed on these speciality stores to establish relationships with the customers and establishing their brand amongst them. Starbucks Partners The employees at Starbucks are referred to as Partners. The number of employees was 60,000 worldwide, out of which 50,000 were in North America. Hourly-waged employees at Starbucks are called Baristas. Employee satisfaction is the point of concern at the firm.They are provided with health insurance and stock options. The company encouraged people promotion and thus the higher manager ranks were occupied by employees who had been working at the company since a long time. This encouraged the partners to work for a longer duration and work well in the firm. Employee turnover rate at Starbucks was just 70% compared with industry average of 300%. And the employee satisfaction level was 80%-90%. ‘Manager Stability’ was the key to these favourable results and it also helped in serving the customer in a much better way.

Benito Mussolini’s Doctrine of Fascism

DOCTRINE OF FASCISM Benito Mussolini outlines several essential characteristics of his preferred political ideology, Fascism, in what has become known as the Doctrine of Fascism. In this paper, Mussolini outlines his vision of the ideology, and explains the major issues that Fascism will address once it becomes the leading political system in Italy. Mussolini’s major points as outlined in the Doctrine included an extreme emphasis on nationalism, organization and modernization of the state, persistent focus on religion, life as a struggle, and the notion that individuals exist only for the improvement of society as a whole.Wolfgang Schieder, after reviewing the Doctrine of Fascism, explains Mussolini’s success based on it and clarifies what exactly Adolf Hitler adopted from the Italian Fascist ideology to incorporated into his own Third Reich. One of the fundamental tenants in Mussolini Doctrine of Fascism is the strong sense of nationalism, which we wants the Italian pe ople to embrace. As a result, he calls for a unification of all Italians over his Fascist regime. Mussolini truly thought that the Italian nation was preordained for greatness, and that the only way to fulfil this destiny was through extreme social cooperation under Fascism.To that end, Mussolini advocated a mass modernization of the Italian state, centralization of government and creation of a state in â€Å"spirit, not territory. † Mussolini wanted Italy to leave its mark on history through the fascist system, so his Doctrine emphasised cultural contributions such as art and philosophy. Mussolini believed that a nation’s power was derived from its people, who had to be â€Å"numerous, hard working, and well regulated† in order to succeed. A further crucial element of Mussolini’s Doctrine was that he constantly stresses the role of the state and government in a Fascist state.As opposed to other political systems such as socialism, the state in a fascist society does not act as a mere â€Å"watchdog† or â€Å"night watchman,† simply protecting its citizens and facilitating material gains. Rather, the state according to Mussolini is the spiritual, moral and political apex of each human being. Its duties are to give a â€Å"concrete form to the political, juridical and economical organisation of the country† though a series of practical actions. Mussolini sees the state as an actual physical manifestation of all positive aspects of the human spirit, and furthermore acting as an â€Å"immanent conscience of the nation. Moreover, The Doctrine of Fascism goes on to explain that through the state, human beings are transformed from primitive tribal beings to glorious emperors, gaining level of power that would be impossible to achieve as an individual or small group. Finally, Mussolini establishes that the only way for one to immortalize themselves, and be remembered within a nation was through beneficial contribution s to the state. One particular notion within the Doctrine that seems peculiar at first glance is the importance that Mussolini places on religion, specifically the Catholic Church.For such a modern and practical-based system, it seems rather surprising that Mussolini not only tolerates religion, but respects and facilitates its progression. Mussolini’s official reasoning for this is that similar to the state, religion is effectively a â€Å"manifestation of the spirit,† and so the Catholic Church and Mussolini’s fascism share this commonality. In actuality, the real reason Mussolini was so tolerant of the church likely goes far beyond that. Wolfgang Schieder, whose ideas will be developed further on, explains that Mussolini required the Church’s support in order to gain the unwavering support of the Italian people.Mussolini was considered the first national socialist to repair the damaged link between the state and church, and was rewarded for it with ful l support of the Pope and Catholic Church. Mussolini was a man obsessed with the notion of empire, and this is reflected in his Doctrine. The concept of force and discipline was stressed not simply in military conquest, but every aspect of life for the average Italian. War is inevitable, as it is simply the manifestation of the strength and vigour of the Italian people that wishes to expand itself, never looking back.Peace was considered as merely a â€Å"mask to surrender and cowardice. † Mussolini stressed that Italians required â€Å"forces, duty, and sacrifice† in order to rise again to their former greatness, that of the Roman Empire. This is also Mussolini’s rationale for harsh and severe actions against any who would resist or try and undermine fascism. Finally, there remains perhaps the most basic and yet most profound idea present in the entire doctrine; being the notion that life is a struggle. The entire doctrine constantly discusses this concept, and in fact Mussolini uses it to justify the entire doctrine.Mussolini states that, â€Å"fascism wants a man to be active and absorbed in action with all his energies,† a desire which he considers synonymous with fascism’s own desire to be constantly progressing. Italians were not only encouraged to frequently be taking action, but it was considered their â€Å"duty to conquer out of life what was really worthy to them. † Mussolini is essentially stating that he believes that a virtuous Italian should be constantly struggling with his life, never becoming complacent and always fighting to better himself.Fascism, being an extension of the human spirit, naturally mirrored these qualities. Wolfgang Schieder, analyzes Mussolini’s political success and what he the extent to which Mussolini facilitated Hitler’s rise to power in Germany. According to Schieder it largely because of what he calls the ‘Philo-Fascist climate’which was present in Ge rmany during the early 1930’s. During this era Germany’s economy was in ruin largely die to war reparations, and the nation as a whole was not in very good shape.The German peoples experiment with democracy through the Weimar Republic was in many ways viewed as a failure, and people were looking to alternative models of governments. Fascism was being presented as a viable alternative to a ‘discredited Parliamentary system’ What is important to note is that Schieder thinks that the pro-Fascist atmosphere of Germany at the time was largely because of Mussolini himself. Mussolini was a very charismatic figure, and he was especially adept at handling the media in Germany.He often surprised them by speaking German, and by the end of any interaction with the German press Mussolini left them in awe of himself as a person and of the Fascist system, which he had implemented. In the early 1930’s according to Schieder there was no other form of dictatorship in the world that was as widely accepted as Fascism was. This created an environment is which Hitler stood to profit from pro-Fascist sentiment, the more he moulded his political strategy in that direction. According to Schieder there were two developments, which enabled Hitler’s acceptance by the German elites.Firstly, the Great Depression had opened the discussion about implementing a ‘new economic order’, and in this face of rising left-wing economics happening during this time made such a development even more necessary. Moreover, the German elites at first didn’t appreciate Hitler for what he truly was, and in many ways they underestimated him. In a time of economic chaos, the ‘Italian Experiment’ was viewed as a success, and its implementation in Germany was being justified under the context that ‘Hitler was not Mussolini’, and that if he became chancellor he would easily be manipulated by the German elites.Mussolini paved the way for Hitler because there was a tremendous amount of admiration for Mussolini within Germany, and the more Hitler aligned himself with Mussolini, the more he stood to benefit from this in a highly fragmented society. The manner in which Germany embraced Fascism can be best represented by two people at the time: Emil Ludwig and Theodore Wolff. The two men were high advocate of democracy in Germany, who shifted their support to Mussolini and his Fascist Doctrine.They did so out of the necessity to temporarily establish temporarily establish an authoritarian regime rooted in Fascism to offer Germany a political way out of their precarious situation. Although German understanding of Fascism can be characterized by ‘selective readings’, it was nonetheless the perfect political system for Germany given their historical circumstances. Given Fascism highly nationalistic nature, it was ideal for a nation like Germany that was still rebuilding from World War 1.Moreover, the G erman elites saw Fascism as a better political alternative to democracy, or even worse, socialism as was being pursued elsewhere in the world. As this paper has tried to illustrate, the correlations between fascism as it developed in Germany and Italy are not merely coincidental dictatorships, but there is much more to the story. After all, Hitler did view Mussolini has his political mentor. BIBILIOGRAPHY 1. Schieder, Wolfgang. Third Reich Between Vision and Reality. Oxford: Berg Publisher, 2003. eBook. 2. Mussolini, Benito. The Doctrine of Facism . Rome: Ardita Publishers , 1935. Print.

The Impact Of Financial Institutions On The World s...

There is a growing realization that, along with government aid and charitable philanthropy, financial institutions can help to solve some of the world’s social problems. Over the past decade there has been significant growth in socially responsible investing. Just as the formation of the venture capital industry ushered a new approach to funding the private sector, impact investing is attempted to harness the finance industry to bring social improvements. Ideally, impact investments would deliver something good for humanity while generating a financial return with limited downside risk. As socially responsible investing continues to grow, investors have begun to gravitate to companies and assets that hold similar values to themselves. This can include investments towards climate change, alleviating poverty, increasing education or anything that progresses social strides. Traditionally, responsible investing avoided stocks which promoted vices such as tobacco and alcohol. Howe ver, as the industry has evolved, financial institutions have created funds which now actively promote and track sustainable practices. Socially Responsible Investing In general, socially responsible investing creates quantifiable social change while also generating modest financial returns. These investments positively impact a variety of sectors by providing access to critical goods and services to develop impoverished areas. In particular, millennials are more attracted to impactful investing andShow MoreRelatedThe Decline Of The United States964 Words   |  4 PagesThe first decline of the U.S. economy occurred (Dezhao, 2006) back in the 1930s during the capitalist world s great economic depression. The second fall took place in the 1970s and 80s, the time which the international competitiveness of U.S. commodities and capital decreased significantly. The third decline occurred late 2000 , the recent financial crisis 2008/9. 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