Abstract
Homo-Aestheticus is a term that describes human art aesthetics and evolution under its effect. When we look at the artworks that came to our date million years ago, the similarities we encounter are the signs that our aesthetic preferences, understanding of beauty, and our tastes are a legacy from our ancestors. Aesthetic is not only an understanding adopted by our cultures; it has been with us for centuries. Similarly, violence appears as a concept that has been part of humanity for ages. It is an interdisciplinary concept that is center of attention of scientific fields particularly social sciences, art, sociology, psychology. As a result of digital developments, virtual reality, anonymous identities and together with the fantasy of the virtual world emerging with uncontrolled digital media eases presentation of the violence in digital medias. In video games, violence is presented to the player in an aesthetic way. This study aims to reveal how the aesthetics of violence in video game are received by the players and fill the gap in the literature.
TopOn Aesthetics And Homo-Aestheticus
The word aesthetic, which comes from the Greek word “aisthesis”, can be defined as “the philosophical branch that examines beauty and the nature of the fine arts”. Aesthetics as a research area was developed for the first time by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. According to Baumgarten, aesthetics is the science of sensational knowledge. But aesthetic is also the essence of everything related to experience. It deals with the basic components of meaning, understanding, reasoning, and values of the human. For this reason, it is at the heart of having a meaningful experience and the ability to think wisely about it. The concept of beauty, which is within the field of aesthetics, was discussed for the first time by Plato and Aristotle. From ancient Greece to the Renaissance, beauty is thought to be an objective, physical feature, and that beauty is inherent in the object. However, over time, the idea that aesthetics is a subjective concept and that beauty is in the eyes of the viewer has become prominent (Tekel, 2015: p.150; Keskin, 2018, p. 16; Marc, 2018, pp. 200-201; Web_6, Access Date:14.12.2019; Web_3, Access Date: 03.12.2019). Although it is Baumgarten who added its current meaning to aesthetics, Immanuel Kant, who combined philosophical knowledge with aesthetics, should not be forgotten. According to Kant, aesthetics is subjective and corresponds to the mind which we can call the aesthetic mind whose object is beauty. The aesthetic mind gives judgments on beauty, and it is the judicial power placed between the power of understanding and the mind. (Heimsoeth, 2012: p.66).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Homo Aestheticus: Homo Aestheticus is a concept that expresses that the human species evolved with art, aesthetic, and their influence.
Reception Analysis: These are the in-depth studies of how the visual or audio elements of a work has interpreted by the present people and what affects they created.
Digital Games: They are games that can be played through any device that is technological.
Violence: A behaviour that contain force that designed for harm to a person or anything that is physical or not.