What is taste
What is tasteWhat is 'taste'? How do assumptions about 'good' and 'bad taste' affect our judgements about ways in which the visual arts are consumed? Explain what it means to say that 'taste classifies the classifier '?
There are two kinds of taste: biologically through the tongue, and also psychological preference. In this essay I will explain how these are linked and how the latter develops with experience. Good and bad tastes affect consumption of art because 'good' art usually sells, although it is not the same as popular art. Here, I will look at the masters and how they affected taste during the Renaissance. From this we can see where modern conventions of 'good art' have come from.
For the third part of the question, I believe the 'taste classifies the classifier' can be interpreted in two different ways. It can mean that classifications and judgements are personal decisions, or it can be seen as in knowing the individuals classification of something we are able to classify that individual. In this final part I will argue the ambiguity of the question.
What is taste?
When we pass banana milkshake over our tongues, special receptors inform our brain that something in our mouth is sweet and tasty. What makes one thing taste nicer than the other is an unanswerable question. However this is only one version of taste. What I am interested in is why someone finds a Monet more pleasing to the eye than a poster of a super model, or not. Fashion could make us like something more than another, like peer pressure. I believe that taste is personality, and I understand personality as Sigmund Freud theorized: personality is created from everything that has ever happen to the individual. Monet's art is considered to be 'good art' and popular, because it has so many familiar images in the paintings. When a painting is looked at, light is reflected off the image and into the eye. It is then converted into the brains format, which we visualize in our mind. The brain specifically picks out certain shapes and colours, forms and subjects, as they are different or familiar depending on the individual. The reasons for the brains decision on which images are more attractive than others depend on other people influencing the individual and their environment.
When we are created the first thing our eyes see are blurs and colours, we hear vague noises from outside the womb and we feel warm. From here our mind and personality develop. When we are children our parents raise us and we our also taught things at school, while all of this is going on our mind teaching itself a personalised interpretation of the world. Good taste is information the mind likes to receive; these being those that it is familiar with and can relate 'good' things...
To view the complete essay, you be registered.