GE006 Module 1: Humanities and Art Appreciation

• The module is titled "Understanding Humanities and Art Appreciation," and the course code is GE006
• The instructor is Maria Linda C. Verdadero, and her email is [email protected]
• This module combines synchronous and face-to-face classes, lasting for two weeks

Module 1: Humanities and Art Appreciation - An Introduction

• Module Duration: Week 2, January 27-31, 2025, including synchronous meeting and face-to-face class
• Learning Objectives include understanding the importance of humanities and art appreciation, gaining general knowledge of the creation and functions of arts, and recognizing the purpose and classification of art

Lesson 1: Humanities and Art Appreciations

• Looking at, making, and writing about art develops critical thinking skills
• Art helps us understand the culture and values that produced it and contains information, so creativity is essential in any field of study
• Humans engage in activities related to ultimate destiny and morality, as well as social needs
• Art is intrinsically necessary for humans to appreciate beauty
• Art appreciation encompasses interpreting art and articulating personal thoughts and feelings, which develops an open mind and allows understanding of different perspectives
• Studying art appreciation and philosophy helps us appreciate each other, develop literacy and communication skills, enhance visual thinking, broaden our understanding of the world, and connect us to the past, present, and future
• Great art transports us to different places and cultures, providing different perspectives

Philosophy

• Philosophy employs logic and reason to analyze human experience and teaches critical thinking, close reading, clear writing, and logical analysis to understand the world and our place in it
• Philosophy is undertaken when people seek to understand themselves, their world, and their relationship to it by asking, answering, evaluating, and reasoning about basic, meaningful, and difficult questions
• Philosophy develops intellectual abilities applicable to any subject matter and enhances analytical, critical, and interpretive capacities

Meaning of Humanities and Art Appreciation

• Humanities comes from the Latin word "humanus," which means a refined or cultured human
• Humanities are studies about human culture like literature, philosophy, and history
• The humanities introduce people to new ideas and perspectives, helping us decide what is important in our own lives and connect with others
• As fields of study, the humanities emphasize analysis and exchange of ideas rather than creative expression or quantitative explanation

Art Appreciation

• Art Appreciation is the knowledge of the general and everlasting qualities that classify all great art
• It refers to exploring visual art forms and applying basic principles of visual literacy to enhance enjoyment of artworks without necessary regard to symbolism or historical context
• Art appreciation can be subjective based on personal preference, design principles, and social and cultural acceptance
• Today, modern art critics and historians underrate it as demanding too little serious thought

Art History

• Art History is study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts like genre, design, format, and style, including painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, furniture, and other decorative objects
• As a discipline it is distinguished from art criticism, which is concerned with establishing a relative artistic value

Creativity and Imagination

• Imagination is thinking of something (a space, time, etc.) that is not present
• Creativity is doing something meaningful with imagination
• Imagination allows us to think of things that are not real at any given time, something meaningful with our imaginations
• Imagination is about seeing the impossible, or unreal, and creativity is using imagination to unleash the potential of existing ideas in order to create new and valuable ones
• With imagination, the focus can be on things that are impossible
• With creativity, the focus needs to be on things that might be possible
• Creativity requires knowledge, motivation, freedom, and intelligence
• Imagination requires having some context from which to envision an idea

Lesson 2: Basic Assumptions, Functions and Nature of Arts

• Art is an expression made visible by a form that attempts to translate the unnamed and the unknown
• Art, at its root, is an expression, and the artist is an expresser that translates in order to create meaning
• Human lives are complex, as is art
• Art expresses feelings, beliefs, and characteristics that are not always easily distilled

Basic Assumptions of Art

• Art has been created by all people at all times, in all countries and lives because its well-liked and enjoyed
• Art involves experience, so you have to use your five senses
• Art is made by humanity, nature is made by God, but nature can be enhanced by humans
• Art is a work of humans and anything created by humans is part of culture, it becomes cultural when it depicts people's way of life
• Art is created with human imagination and skill, and it is beautiful or it expresses important ideas or feelings
• Art is subjective, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Nature of Arts

• Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory, or performing artworks, expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power
• These activities include the production of works of art, the criticism of art, the study of the history of art, and the aesthetic dissemination of art
• Art represents reality using signs that stand in for and take the place of something else
• Art expresses the unnamed and unknown, which exists within humans, and our goal is to create meaning
• The purpose of works of art may be to communicate political, spiritual or philosophical ideas
• The purpose of art may be to create a sense of beauty, explore the nature of perception, provide pleasure, or to generate strong emotions
• Art is an act of expressing feelings, thoughts, and observations of human conditions
• The arts matter because they allow us to express ourselves and illustrate the world around us in a different light, helping us to gain understanding of people and society
• Art is universal and is imbedded into the way of life of the people
• Art is the true Esperanto, an artificial international language
• Art is the combination of already existing material elements and a new creation in response to a sense of need

Functions of Art

• No piece of art can be assigned a function either in essay form or in casual conversation, if it is not first considered within the proper context
• The functions of art are the personal, social and physical functions
• The Personal Function: art is created out of a need for self-expression or gratification
• It also communicates a thought or point to the viewer, provides an aesthetic experience, or simply entertains
• On a slightly higher level, art may serve the personal functions of control, to exert magical control over time, the seasons or even the acquisition of food or to bring order to a disorganized and disorderly world
• Art can be therapeutic for both the artist and the viewer
• Art expresses collective ideas about human life in relation to the divine

The Social Function

• Social functions of art are those that go beyond personal intrinsic value to art's social benefits

• Individuals and their society are dynamically related

• Arts perform a social function when:

• Influences Social Behavior (Political Function). It seeks or tends to influence the collective behavior of a people.

• Display and Celebration. It is created to be seen or used primarily in public situation like fiestas, parade, etc

• Social description expresses or describes social or collective aspects of existence as opposed to individual and personal kind of experiences

The Physical Function

• The physical functions of art are often the easiest to understand, Works of art that are created to perform some service have physical functions

• Include the following:

• Form and Function. The function of an object is generally essential in the basic form that it takes a chair is

• Architecture. The design of the building is determined primarily by its operational function.

• Community Planning. A community is more than just a group of buildings. It is a group of individuals and families living in a particular locality because of common interest and needs

Community planning takes into consideration the assignment of areas for proper land use

• Residential districts.
• Industrial and commercial areas.
• Civic centers.
• Parks, plazas, and malls.
• Streets and roads.

Lesson 3: The Visual Arts

• The visual arts are art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, photography, video, film making and architecture
• Included within the visual arts are the applied arts such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design and decorative art

Visual arts include the following

• Fine Arts refers to an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic value and its beauty rather than its functional value
• Contemporary Arts include a number of modern art forms, such as: assemblage, collage, mixed-media, conceptual art, installation, happenings and performance art, along with film-based disciplines such as photography, video art and animation, or any combination thereof
• Decorative Arts and Crafts encompass a number of decorative art disciplines and crafts, including ceramics and studio pottery, mosaic art, mobiles, tapestry, glass art, etc

Philosophical Perspective of Arts

• Philosophical perspective points to the nature of art, including such concepts as interpretation, representation and expression, and form

• It is closely related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste

• These are:

• Art as mimesis (Plato). Mimesis is derived from the Greek word "mimos" meaning to imitate.

• Art as representation (Aristotle). Similar to Plato's writings about mimesis, Aristotle also defined mimesis as the perfection, and imitation of nature

• Art for Art Sake (Kant). In the minds of late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century philosophers, the role of art could be nothing less than to create beauty

The Subject of Art

• Consists of paintings, sculptures, and literature

• The Subject of art refers to any person, object, scene or event described or represented in a work of art

• There are as follows:

• Representational or Objective. Representational art or figurative art represents objects or events in the ily recognizable.

• Non-representational or Non-objective. These are those arts without any reference to anything outside itself (without representation)

Sources of Subject Art

• Primary sources provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation
• Secondary sources interpret and analyze primary sources
• Some of these sources of art subject are:
• Nature; Animals, people, landscapes.
• History
• Religion and Mythology
• Dreams and Fantasies

Kinds of Subject

• Still Life - Flowers and fruits arrangements; dishes, food, pots and pans, musical instruments and music sheets. The arrangement is that like to show particular human interests and activities
• Landscapes, Seascapes and Cityscapes
• Animals are often represented by artists
• Portraits
• Figures
• Everyday Life
• History and Legend
• Religion and Mythology
• Dreams and Fantasies

Levels of Meaning

• A subject matter has three different levels of meaning. These are:
• Factual Meaning- the literal meaning
• Conventional Meaning - refers to the special meaning that a certain object has in a particular culture or group of people
• Subjective Meaning-any personal meaning consciously or unconsciously conveyed by the artist