Media Aesthetics
Contextualism in Applied Media
Aesthetics
Formal Elements
• Light
• Color
• Motion
• Sound
You make aesthetic choices
everyday that you don’t even
realize.
Some things include:
What you wear to school
Judging the speed of
another car by yours
Simply saying “I know
what I like”
• No longer limit aesthetics
to traditional
understanding of “art”
• It is a formalist analysis
Formalist analysis =
understanding what the
context is within the art
Say what? . . . .
No… it’s not an abstract concept.
You will use a process to
examine a number of media
elements and gain your
perception of their use
First.
Looking at things like light
and picture composition…
How they interact and our
own perceptual reactions to
them.
Second.
• The media (mainly TV and
film) are no longer considered
a neutral means of messaging
Third.
• Whereas traditional
aesthetics is basically
restricted to analysis of
existing works of art…
• Applied media aesthetics
serves synthesis as well
Fourth.
• You employ formative
evaluation
You evaluate the relative
communication effectiveness
step-by-step while it is in
progress
Applied Aesthetics
• Art is part of
everyday
life; yet is
separate
from
everyday life
It is an experience that is…
• Clarified
• Intensified
• Interpreted
• Looking through the
viewfinder of a camera,
arranging things on a
screen or editing a film
all engage you in
clarifying, intensifying
and interpreting
Helpful concept…
• We focus more on the Form
of the message more than
its content
Contextual Aesthetics
• What and how we perceive
an event is greatly
influenced by its context.
Contextual Aesthetics
• Also…
demonstrates connection
of major aesthetic fields
Light, space, time/motion
and sound.
Contextual Aesthetics
• Organizes variety of
aesthetic element in each
field to show relationship
with one another
Contextual Perception
• We understand art on a
basis of contextualistic
aesthetics and our own
understanding
Contextual Perception
includes
Our need to stabilize the environment
Our tendency towards selective
perception
The associative process of linking
certain elements together in a
pattern…. Known as CULTURE
Culture is based on
SYMBOLS
• Things that represent something else
Aesthetic context
• The framework in which we
have responses to the
aesthetic stimuli presented
to us
The framework includes our
own previous experience of
the world
• This is called associative
context; our own code we
establish that to some
extent dictates how you
should interpret what you
see
• Associative context is
Culture-bound
Context is important…
• We respond to certain
stimuli in predictable ways
even when we know it’s
perceptual manipulation
Good example of this
Optical Illusions
• Because humans
respond certain,
predictable ways…
• We can predict with
reasonable accuracy
how people will respond
to certain specific
aesthetic stimuli in our
own art
As a creative artist
• You decide where to place
the camera or
microphone…
• Therefore the viewers
have no choice but to
share your point of view
Method: Inductive
• Rather than analyzing
existing elements, we seek
the 5 fundamental image
elements of TV and film
LIGHT
Light
• Visible radiant energy that
effects the way the scene
is presented by how the
viewer sees the light
Light
• Manipulates and articulates
the perception of our
environment
• Creates specific feeling
Light
• Reveals surfaces
• Creates shadows which
help to control perception
Light
• Various formats to consider
–Cast or attached shadows
–The Falloff
–Low key light
–High key light
–Below eye level light
Attached shadow
Can suggest:
Relative location or
mood
Cast shadow
Can suggest: Locale and Mood
Falloff
• Used to determine
–The brightness contrast
between the light and shadow
sides of an object
–The rate of change from light to
shadow
Falloff rate of change
• Slow- diffused light, little
brightness contrast between
the two sides and the attached
shadows are transparent
Falloff rate of change
• Fast- big contrast between the
light and dark sides without
levels in between. Typically
has dark, attached shadows
Falloff
Think about: the shadows and contrast!!
Fast or slow fall off?
Low-key Lighting
Leaves background and part of the scene
predominantly dark
High Key Lighting
Scene has abundance of bright lighting, slow fall-off
and a light background
Below Eye-Level
When the light
source strikes
from the
bottom, the
shadows are
opposite of
their expected
position
Light
• Use of light can entail setting
the mood, creating emotion or
suspense, setting the season
or time of day, or
distinguishing an atmosphere
Structuring the light
• Example of structures:
–Chiaroscuro
–Rembrandt
–Cameo
–Silhouette
–Digital
Chiaroscuro
• Single direction for light
source
• Selective lighting
• Low key
• Fast fall off
Chiaroscuro
Rembrandt
• Selective
• Low key
• Fast falloff
• Dark but not black
environment
Rembrandt
Cameo
• Directional lights
• Fast falloff
• Figure lit but background is
black
Cameo
Silhouette
• Evenly lit background
• No shadows but the figures
within the image
• No illumination on figures
• Seems as though they are
“cut outs”
Silhouette
Digital
• Edge glows
• Created by digital means such as
special-effects equipment or
computer programs
• Can also be the use of programs
to enhance present elements
such as contrast or shadows
Digital
• Lighting is the deliberate
control of light and shadows
to fulfill specific aesthetic
objectives relating to outer
and inner orientation within
the medium
Get out a piece of paper…
• Study the next image, use your notes
to describe the use of lighting.
Consider things such as the falloff,
low or high key use, the structure and
shadows.
• Discuss how the director used the
aesthetic element of light to create
perception in the aesthetic context of
the image.
What is the director trying to convey to you? What do you
perceive?