Art as Influencebu

Clinton Bronder

Subject: Art as Influence

Outside reading: Bret Plate, Religion, Art, and Culture, Section 1 introduction

January 17^th, 2011

Some people believe we cannot trust our senses to relay an accurate depiction of the world around us. We pick and choose what we perceive and create an altered view of what we really live in. Bret Plate says, “The world out there is not identical to the work that is perceived and understood inside our minds: we cannot directly apprehend the outside world through our eyes or any other sense organ” (Plate, 21). I chose this quote because of the interesting point it raises, ours sense actually deceive us. To me, this quote speaks on the idea of society we sense through the media. We see the glamour and impressiveness of life on television and began to accept this fiction as reality, fooling our senses. This relates to the courses idea that art is powerful in delivering a message. So powerful that it can alter a culture into thinking it is something its not. I find this quote very compelling. The idea that art can have a profound effect on how people view the world is seen in America’s culture in large doses. There are more eating disorders today than in the past because of the skinny women depicted on television that are perceived as the “real world.” this depiction forces “real” women to try and be the women on the billboards.