Response John Berger's "The White Bird"

The article is very detailed, insightful, and peppered with a philosophical mindset that I, at first, find to be a little difficult to follow. After carefully rereading the article and revisiting some of its passages, I found myself admiring Berger’s analytical process of using a simple white wooden bird to explain our tradition of art. The most profound passage to me was when Berger stated, “ The evolution of natural forms and the evolution of human perception have coincided to produce the phenomenon of a potential recognition: what is and what we can see (and by seeing also feel) sometimes meet at a point of affirmation. This point, this coincidence, is two-faced: what has been seen is recognized and affirmed and, at the same time, the seer is affirmed by what he sees.” This passage alone conveys to me what the aesthetic emotion derives from; I now understand that aesthetics have always been an inherent part of nature and is therefore impossible  to erase. In a fleeting moment, when we happen to cross paths with something that we find beautiful, everything will seem to have order. In that moment the aesthetic emotion will offer us a sense of peace and hopefulness amidst this chaotic world we live in.

Berger believes that art occurs when humans attempt to make sense of the ephemeral aesthetic emotion and make it “permanent.” Gaining this new insight has allowed me to effectively enhance my artistic process. Before further analyzing the five qualities of the wooden bird, Berger mentioned that even though the little wooden white birds cannot be compared to the caliber of a Van Gogh or a Rembrandt, it still posses a mysterious quality and the ability to captivate its viewer. This statement encouraged me to actually take steps out of my comfort zone of paint and brush and embrace other mediums during my art making processes. I now realize that it only makes sense to utilize a plethora of mediums to attempt to make a mysterious aesthetic emotion tangible and permanent. 

In-Class Paper Folding Exercise

Labels Help You Organize

All blog posts must be labeled with two keywords, which blogger calls Labels. When faculty visits your blog for evaluation purposes, we will use the labels to quickly find your work. If you do not use the keywords properly, we will not be able to find your work. Proper set-up and maintenance of your blog falls under the Research and Participation part of your grade which counts for 30% of the overall semester grade. 

Topical Keywords

The first set of keywords correspond to the module we are working in. We will refer to these as topical keywords since they correspond to the topic we are exploring over the two-week periods. Your first group of posts will be labeled under Topic: Creative Impulse since this is the first topic (Topic #1). Here are the topical keywords you will use through out the semester:

Topic: Creative Impulse

Topic: Pattern and Ornament

Topic: Rhinoceros

Topic: Narrative

Topic: Landscape

Topic: Zine

Categorical Keywords

The second set of keywords will organize your posts according to kind. Here are the Keywords you will use for Labels:

Exercises - tag for posts documenting all assigned exercises. The first one will be the paper folding exercise from the first class. 

Readings - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to the assigned readings. The first ones will be for "The White Bird" and the Jerry Saltz article from Vulture.com. 

Small Works - tag for posts documenting all assigned small works. The first blog post labeled Small Works will contain images and accompanying descriptions of the three small works you complete for the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1). 

In-Depth Projects - tag for posts documenting all assigned In-Depth projects. The first blog post labeled In-Depth Projects will contain images (or video if appropriate) and accompanying descriptions of the more robust work you produce in response to the Creative Impulse Module (Topic #1).

Outside Visits - tag for posts containing your two paragraph responses to all required visits outside of the classroom. These include visits we do together as a class [during class time] or individually outside of class time. 

Please be sure to use both a topical and categorical keyword when labeling your posts.

Next Steps

1. After copying and pasting this text into your first blog post, create your labels from the keywords we listed above. In the Edit post window you will find an area titles Labels where you can add your own custom labels to your blog. This is where you will add the keywords we listed above. Please be sure to add all keywords to the Labels window for this first blog post. 

The easiest way to do this is by copying and pasting the following text into the Labels window for this blog post:

Topic: Creative Impulse, Topic: Pattern and Ornament, Topic: Rhinoceros, Topic: Narrative, Topic: Landscape, Topic: Zine, Exercises, Readings, Small Works, In-Depth Projects, Outside Visits