hum 101 module 2a

What are the arts? How do we respond to and evaluate the arts?

ways creativity aesthetics communication symbols applied arts purpose functions perception evaluating

Ways of knowing

1. How do the humanities differ from the sciences in “ways of knowing?”

2. How are the humanities a way of “seeing” and “listening” to the world?

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images 1928 – 1929



Creativity

1. Define the term “creativity”?

2. How do humans take chaos and uncertainty and crystallize new forms and new inno-ventions?

3. What does it mean to be a “creative” (a creative person)?

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937



Aesthetics

1. What is beauty? How do we separate beauty from pleasure, prettiness, and cuteness?

2. Is beauty an emotional response or an intellectual response?

Wassily Kandinksy, Cossacks (Part of the Composition IV)1910



Communication

1. Why do artists need viewers/ audiences to complete the artistic experience?

2. What are the differences between reaction and interaction?

3. How is art an active experience, not just a passive endeavor?

Allan Kaprow, The Happening 1961 – 1962



Symbols

1. How does the symbol help foster commun-ication?

2. How does the symbol force interpretation and meaning?

3. How has our language today become more symbolic?

Charles K. Bliss, Blissymbols or Blissymbolics 1949



Applied Arts

1. What is the difference between “fine arts” and “applied arts”?

2. What is the difference between “high” culture and “low” culture?

3. Why are these loaded terms? What connotations do the bring?

Akan ethnic group of South Ghana, Kente cloth, also known as nwentom



Purpose

1. Does art need to serve a purpose? Should art serve a purpose?

2. Why do we create? What motivates us to be artistic?

3. Why is creating art a risk?

Woman in traditional Maharashtra Saree



Functions

1. How does art serve a therapeutic function?

2. What is the significance of artifacts?

3. What if art simply exists for art’s sake? Should we support this?

Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, Raven Ceremony



Perception

1. How do we choose to or not to engage art?

2. How are the arts a sensory experience?

3. How are the arts an intellectual experience?

4. What is form?

Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain 2012



Evaluating

1. What is the difference between formal evaluation/ criticism and our intuitive experience?

2. Why should we describe and analyze before interpret and judge?

Mark Rothko, No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange 1949

hum 101 module 2a

Art & Photos