Research on Arnheim's Aesthetic Thought

Author: Shi Fenghua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: The topic of this paper also went through several twists and turns. Early on, I had a strong interest in scientism aesthetics. Later, under the guidance of my teacher, I gradually narrowed the scope of my research and determined to focus on Gestalt psychology aesthetics. During the research, I found that as a representative figure of Gestalt psychology aesthetics, Arnheim's aesthetic thought is extremely rich, and both the aesthetic community and the art community have great interest in his ideas. However, the few published articles about him only introduce some aspects of his theories on visual perception and visual thinking. As a groundbreaking figure in contemporary aesthetics, his aesthetic thought far exceeds these, and his ideas on film aesthetics, the application of entropy in literary and artistic aesthetics, and his non-linguistic determinism perspective are quite novel. Therefore, I decided to conduct a comprehensive study of Arnheim's aesthetic thought. Despite my best efforts, I realize that Arnheim's depth and breadth are far from being fully encompassed in this paper, and I submit it with a sense of humility. This book does not limit its research on Arnheim's Gestalt psychology aesthetics to his visual perception and painting, but expands it to areas rarely explored before, such as film, broadcasting, and the application of entropy in art. In terms of research on Arnheim's life, this book is also the most comprehensive, including primary materials provided by Arnheim himself. Moreover, this book makes new breakthroughs in uncovering the value of Arnheim's Gestalt psychology aesthetics. The author discusses the significant practical relevance of Arnheim's theories on visual perception in the context of the highly developed state of contemporary visual arts and the fashion of "eye-tracking art."