Final Thoughts
15
H
C 2010 , the class called “ The Art and Science of Emotions ”, is a class where we read about , discuss , and philosophize emotions and how they affect human culture . The students read several online articles about specific feelings . During each class meeting , we discuss them with Professor Beckwith . Among the emotions discussed are happiness , sadness , fear , and hatred . For the final project of the class , the class was split up into groups who would make editorial journals based on one particular emotion . Our group was assigned to happiness , and our project had us describe a painting or drawing portraying that particular emotion .
To create the idea of the image , we first came up with a general concept of what the entire picture would be like . Each of us was assigned a section to write about and conceptualize in more detail . We used a recording of one of the classes to come up with what we were going to construct to represent happiness . From this we came up with an image of two roads , representing the two sides on the spectrum of modern-day happiness : The Natural and the Materialistic .
The title of our final piece is “ The Path to Happiness : Which One to Choose ?” The inspiration for this fictional image comes from the everincreasing amount of materialism in American society , where objects are seen as a substitute for true happiness . Each section can be seen as representing either material possessions or nature . The idea of this double-sided reality is that people may have contradicting feelings about anything . The title highlights the split between wanting material well-being or wanting true happiness .
The sections that delve into different aspects of the image that were designated to each contributor are : The base two roads themselves by Hunter . Background material that represented materialism by Jacob B . Background material representing nature by Evan . Pollution by Spencer . Nature Preservation by Theresa . The transition from Fall to Winter by Mason . And finally , the transition from Spring to Summer by Jacob K . Each and every section is written in vivid detail , with everything representing some aspect of happiness . They may represent blissful ignorance of the bad things around them , or happiness in spite of them , but each part of the image serves as a metaphor and artistic interpretation of the emotion .
In conclusion , The Art and Science of Emotions has taught us much about human feeling , and how they can be portrayed in art . Art is important because it is the freest medium in which to express what you truly think . It is meant to be used as a medium for metaphor . You can make an image , song , painting , movie , video game , or drawing that portrays something absurd , but no matter what you see , it can have a deeper meaning . You can learn about the feelings of the poor Spaniards in the early 1900s from Pablo Picasso , for example . The same can be said for many other forms of art . However , deeper meanings may fly over the head of the viewer . It is up to viewers themselves to think deeply and critically about the meaning of a piece of art , and it is up to the educators to teach young learners how to deconstruct and form opinions on the art they view .