Chapter 1: Applied
Media Aesthetics
Today we’ll talk
about...
● What “applied media
aesthetics” is
● AMA and Art
● Perception and Context
● Medium is the message
● Methods
1) What do we mean by
aesthetics (in general)?
2) What aesthetic choices
do you make every day?
3) What do those choices
communicate?
Applied Media Aesthetics:
Definition
● Go beyond those everyday choices; approach creative
problems with educated judgement
● Applied media aesthetics is a process, not an abstract
concept.
○
In applied media aesthetics, we examine media elements (light,
color, etc.), how they interact, and our perceptual reactions to
them.
● Can be applied not only to analyzing different forms of
media, but also to their creation
AMA & Art
● Aesthetic experiences are part of everyday life, but not
all everyday life aesthetic experiences are art
● For you, what is art?
● What does Zettl say art is?
○ A process that draws on life for its creation and, in
turn, seems necessary, if not essential, for living life
with quality and dignity
○ Art educates our emotions
So what?
● “It is our job as producers of media to take
those ordinary life experiences...to perceive,
order, clarify, intensify, and interpret an
aspect of the human condition...for a specific
audience.”
● To begin to do this, we need to understand
how we perceive things
AMA & Perception
● Our perceptual systems are designed to simplify and
stabilize our surroundings
● How do we do this?
○ Figure/ground principle: we order our surroundings
into foreground figures that lie in front of, or move
against, a more stable background
○ Selective perception: we generally select
information that agrees with how we want to see the
world
The Power of Context
● Most of our perceptions are guided by context
● Associative context: consciously establishes and applies
a code that dictates...how you should feel about and
interpret what you see
● Aesthetic context: in this case, our perceptual processes
are so immediate and so forceful that we respond to
certain stimuli in predictable ways even when we know
we are being perceptually manipulated
Associative Context Example
Aesthetic Context Example:
Tilted Horizon
The Power of Context (cont’d)
● As filmmakers, you can share your point of view with
viewers through the way you frame, light, record sound,
etc. for a film
○ Advance from “looking at” to “looking into”
● Sufficient consistency exists…
● What are some elements (lights, colors, sounds, spatial
arrangements) you know have an immediate effect on
you?
The Medium as Structural Agent
● “The medium is the message.” —McLuhan
● Basic model of communication
● Three mediums discussed in this book:
○
○
○
Video: generally includes all kind of video production
Television: discussed in connection with a specific transmission
mode
Film: traditional motion pictures (literal film), as well as digital
cinema that uses digital production and projection devices
● Zwang des mediums
● The medium you need to be most concerned about...
AMA: Method
● How should our methods be influenced by AMA?
● da Vinci and his Notebooks
● His method of describing paintings
○ Defined the fundamental building blocks and
then painted based on what he felt should be
there
● You should do the same when shooting
photos/making your film for this course
Fundamental Image Elements
● In this class, our fundamental image elements are:
○ Light/Color
○ 2D and 3D Space
○ Time/Motion
○ Sound
○ Editing
● These elements function within specific contexts
and contribute to how we feel
● Where does story fit in?
With all this in mind,
what is your
responsibility as a
creator of media?
Consumer of media?
Important
Takeaways
● What is applied
media aesthetics?
● The power of context
● Medium is the
message
● What are our
“fundamental image
elements”?