The Arts

Information compiled from a variety of sources including Kognity

Introductory activity: how many different art forms can you come up with? Think, pair, and share with your group.

Reflection: How would you define art?

What kind of knowledge can the arts bring us?

Is there Good and bad art?

If all the people walking by had known the paintings were by Banksy, would more have sold? In this instance, both the media and gallery directors are serving as gatekeepers for quality by helping to make artists famous and, in turn, providing validation for their art.

The Guardian (a UK daily newspaper) estimates that the work sold that day for a total of $420 has a value of over $200,000. However, the majority of people walking by the stall clearly disagreed – only two people thought the work was even worth $60.

‘What role do experts play in the construction and dissemination of knowledge within the arts?’

Arts_Is there good art and bad art?.pdf

How can you tell one from the other?

A cognitive awareness of the artist’s fame (or lack of awareness, in this case) can affect how viewers and, more generally, audiences interpret the quality of an artistic work.

Art affords us a level of individuality, subjectivity and interpretation that other AOK do not – but that does not mean there are no rules.

The Definition of Art

The Art Assignment - PBS - 14 mins

Creativity is Overrated

PBS - The Art Assignment - 11 mins

When it comes to knowledge in the arts, the audience plays a very important role. In fact, there is an interesting dynamic between the artist, who creates his/her work of art, the art itself and the audience who engages with the art. Through this dynamic relationship, knowledge can be created. This interpretative aspect is what makes the arts so unique. Sometimes, the artist intends his/her work of art to mean something, but the audience interprets it differently and we may still consider this interpretation is true or valid. In some cases, the knowledge created by this dialogue between the spectator and the work of art, can be valuable knowledge, even if this knowledge is not in line with the artist's intentions.

The Art Assignment - LINK HERE

You will go to the lower section where it says Assignments - and you will choose an art assignment to complete.

You will document your process and explain it to the class - short presentation.

Article

Unexpected Math in Vang Gogh 4 mins

Art, Beauty, Virtue and religion 3 min

Science of Symmetry 5 mins

Darwinian theory of beauty 17 mins

Analysing the arts as an AOK can be both frustrating and liberating for TOK students. It is frustrating because there is a shortage of clear answers. The arts is an AOK that cannot find agreement among its experts (critics, artists, gallery curators and record company executives) and yet, paradoxically, it relies on those same experts for a large portion of knowledge creation within the field. Experts play a major role within the arts due to their power to confer validity and quality.

Art is very personal. However, it can transmit knowledge incredibly effectively.

This song was essentially a collaboration between people who never met, facilitated by the internet.
The DJ who made the beat sampled part of it from another artist (originality)
The song made it onto the top of the country music charts but was then removed because it wasn’t “country” enough. (Definitions and categorization of art).
The artist wrote a “country” song about experiences he didn’t have and culture he wasn’t a part of. Is this an example of cultural appropriation? Does it matter whether the song is about authentic experiences?

What does it mean?

Your answer informs you of the power of art to transmit knowledge effectively and simply.

John Cage, the famous composer of 4’33” stated that ‘everything we do is music’.

Music is an art form so, by extension, is everything we do art?

Kinetic Sculptures 5min

John Cage 8mins

Art & Craft 5 mins

Physical Theatre 1.5 mins

OK Go - 5mins

Axis of Awesome 7mins

Theo Jansen 10 mins

THE ART PROJECT

The Design Cycle.

You will be creating an art piece of some kind that will take 4 iterations of this design cycle. Each iteration of going around the circle will be approximately one week duration.

You need to collect evidence of your stages of development and have a product to share for the Feedback stages.

Round 1

Round 1 should have some evidence of the following things in your shared google document:

1) (Step 1 & 2) A list of videos, websites, images, book titles, articles or anything else you have used to consider your art project. All listed in appropriate MLA formatting.

2) (Step 3 & 4) Attempted starts of a project or a plan of what you will be doing. Some sketch or initial concept should be in place. You may have several starts to a project and not sure which one you want to follow through on. Bring them all for feedback. You must have something to show or share to your peers that can be commented on. Aim for a 5 minute presentation to your peers. Photos of your item (if too big to bring in) must be clear to see and show enough detail.

3) (Step 5) Questions that you want to get feedback on so that you can improve your idea. You will engage with 3 people during the feedback session - ensure your questions are detailed enough that you can move forward with your project.

4) During the feedback process you will document that feedback you received and how you might move forward with it - in your shared google document

** Save your piece for your final exhibit - take photos, and document as you will need this for your final Round. **

Round 2

Round 2 should have some evidence of the following things in your shared google document:

1) (Step 5) Feedback from your peers in Round 1.

2) (Step 1 & 2) New research on ideas/techniques/skills that were inspired by feedback. MLA Cited.

3) (Step 3 & 4) New ideas in prototype stage, or your previous idea further developed. This is still not a finished project/product - but it should have much more development than the previous stage. You can still have doubt about the direction you are planning to go, and may have multiple options of what you might do. Your product may be getting larger in size, or more developed - but questions still exist on the direction you might take.

4) (Step 5) Questions that you have for your peer review documented. You will engage with 3 people, a 5 min review with each person to gain advice, feedback and gain some clarity on where to go next.

** Save your piece for your final exhibit - take photos, and document as you will need this for your final Round. **

Round 3

At this stage - many of your questions should be answered, and you are more confident in your process, design, project, product. You may still have a few questions that you need some guidance on - perhaps your skill or technique is not quite what you wanted, or colour choice, design choice, or end product is not quite what you are looking for. This doubt is normal.

Include in your shared google document your feelings and emotions going through this process, Round 3 should have some evidence of the following:

1) (Step 5) Feedback from your peers in Round 2.

2) (Step 1 & 2) New research on ideas/techniques/skills that were inspired by feedback. MLA Cited.

3) (Step 3 & 4) New ideas in the final draft stage, or your previous idea further developed. This is still not a finished project/product - but it should be much closer to a finalised product than before. You can still have doubt about the smaller specifics of what you might do, but the larger product you are creating should be firm in mind. . Your product may be getting larger in size, or more developed - but questions still exist on some small decisions that you might take.

4) (Step 5) Questions that you have for your peer review documented. You will engage with 3 people, a 5 min review with each person to gain advice, feedback and gain some clarity on where to go next.

** Save your piece for your final exhibit - take photos, and document as you will need this for your final Round. **

Round 4 - Final Round

This is the final product - you should have a finalised product to share with the students in the class. You will be showcasing your product in a sort of gallery exhibit. If your product requires additional tech to present it, you will need to have that coordinated (ie, I might need speakers for my music piece - or my computer with my photos of the project). You will be showcasing each of your stages of development of your project and the Final Piece for review.

You will set up a table showing your piece and process. You will take time during the class to answer questions for others, and you will have time during the class to wander and look at the pieces. Please be prepared to speak about your piece and your process, and be prepared to ask questions to others.

You will document this process in your shared Google Document for assessment. Include all photos of your final piece, table set up, and documented feedback from others on your work.

Art and Technology

Technology continues to increase knowledge in the arts via the invention of film, photography and digital editing (to name just a few), and the internet has been a massive factor in the dissemination of the arts by creating a platform for sharing and creating artistic works and knowledge.

Once technology enabled books to be mass produced and sold at a reasonable cost, more people could learn to read. As more people learned to read, the art of writing exploded.

It can be claimed that democratising the creation and assessment of knowledge in the arts as a result of technology has been a positive occurrence. However, a counterclaim is that technology has not given us better quality art, just more bad art. Thus experts still have a very important role to play.

Hight Tech Art 8:20min

AR - 6 mins

Artists using Technology 10 mins

Art as knowledge construction via experience

In Dewey’s 1934 work, Art as Experience, he put forth an aesthetic philosophy centred on art as a conduit to a heightened experience via interaction. Dewey believed that great art facilitates an interaction and thus provides access to the emotional realm of experience. Dewey espoused the idea that anything that meets this end could be considered art. Dewey’s perspective supports the claim that an intelligent mechanic who does his work with care could be considered to be artistically engaged. According to Dewey, high-quality art is art that creates an interaction for the viewer. If you look at a Rothko or a Pollock or any artwork and feel something, you are having an interaction with that piece of art and you are having an artistic experience. Dewey’s perspective therefore is that a piece of art is higher in quality if it elicits a greater intensity of emotional or intellectual response within the individual experiencing it than other works of art.

Water Harp

H20 water orchestra 1.5 mins

Majestic Plastic Bag

Currently, art serves to entertain, beautify, inspire and educate. One complicated element of art is that a single work of art can do one or all four of the above. This is complicated from a knowledge perspective because the intent of the work is not always clear. This leaves the knower with the responsibility to construct their own interpretation of the work. This interpretation can, in turn, affect knowledge produced. The purpose is to convey knowledge, and thus the artist creates a work that meets that end. If the purpose is to inspire contemplation of the human condition, a different style of work would be produced.

The purpose of art can indeed vary. However, art is always created with the purpose of creating knowledge. But the type of knowledge produced depends on the intent of the artist and the purpose of the art (such as advertising, propaganda, transmitting cultural values, and so on).

Evidence for art as a method of idea creation and an agent for cultural and political change is demonstrated by the fact that many artists throughout history have been censored, imprisoned or even killed by governments because the governments believed their art was too ‘dangerous’. For example, Burmese singer Win Maw was arrested in 2007 and imprisoned for five years due to songs he wrote that included lyrics deemed subversive by the ruling regime.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s perspective is that all art is political and that it should be seen as an important vehicle for collective change. He was a political prisoner in 2011 and remains under house arrest for being an outspoken critic of the Chinese Communist Party.

His work Sunflower Seeds is a vast collection of 100 million replica sunflower seed husks, which are all hand-crafted in porcelain. It can be interpreted as an invitation to reflect on the ‘made in China’ phenomenon. The husks, which all seem alike, may symbolise China’s factory workers, who are often treated as insignificant.

However, just as art may challenge social views,

it may also be used to reinforce conformity with existing social norms

Perspectives in the arts are everything.

A work of art itself articulates the perspective of the artist(s), and the existing perspectives held by the individual who experiences the art are key factors in determining the knowledge that is produced. Art also has the power to change an individual’s existing perspectives in regard to everything from their moral beliefs to political orientation.

All of these experts carry their own personal perspectives and beliefs constructed in part by the culture in which they exist. This fact of the human experience inspires a key knowledge question: To what extent does culture shape knowledge construction in the arts?

Culture is an important element of knowledge construction within all AOK because culture creates cognitive schemas that affect the ways in which we process information. A claim within the arts is: ‘Culture greatly affects knowledge construction in the arts.’

These women, from three distinct cultures, are dressed in clothing that is considered fashionable within their own cultural context. The fact that different fashion styles emerge in different cultures is evidence for the concept that there is no singular or objective concept of ‘beauty’ but rather perspectives of beauty are a culturally constructed concept.

Although styles of art change over time, the quality of knowledge within the arts is not positively correlated with time.

Although dance genres change over time, is it accurate to say that the ‘Hype’ dance is higher in quality than the Tango? Or is a Kandinsky higher in quality than a DaVinci because it is more recent?

Contrast this with an AOK such as the natural sciences where quality of knowledge does increase with time. Art is not a function of time is the power of some works of art to ‘stand the test of time’.

There are objective concepts of beauty comes from a new field of study called neuroaesthetics.

This field of research seeks to understand underlying biological correlates of aesthetic appreciation. It has widely been believed that certain elements of beauty such as symmetry are biologically predetermined universals of beauty.

However, recent research pushes back against this presumption. A large meta-analysis of 93 neuro-imaging studies investigating the biological correlation of aesthetic experience found that the area of the brain most associated with appraisal of beauty is the anterior insula.

This was surprising to the researchers, as prior research had found that the anterior insula is highly correlated with disgust and other negative responses. The researchers hypothesise that the brain assesses stimulus objects as either useful or not. Further research needs to be done to understand whether or not elements of ‘usefulness’ and thus beauty, have a biological etiology or are culturally created.

Purpose and intent are key elements of a work of art and, in instances where the purpose or intent is not immediately accessible, experts in the field (such as art historians and art critics) can often provide a context for the work which aids in interpretation and justification of a given interpretation.

It is important to appreciate the fact that culture is a major part of context, both historical and current. Cultures change over time, and given that art is often a reflection of, and reaction to, the artist’s culture, it is important to consider culture when interpreting or constructing knowledge in the arts.

Art should stand on its own without any explanation.

Some people make the claim that providing an explanation ruins the art for the individual experiencing it. This view emerges from the belief that all knowledge constructed within the arts is entirely personal and that any outside interpretation will corrupt the experience.

Art has existed since the earliest human civilisations; no other AOK can make this claim. Given that the arts have existed since the beginning of society, it is clear that they have undergone many changes.

Historical development and the role of genre in perspective making

The arts as we know them have existed for at least 35,000 years, and yet anthropologists do not know why art emerged. It is pretty amazing to consider that there is no other AOK that can claim such a long existence or such a foundational role in shaping culture!

Inevitably, over the past 35,000 years, perspectives and paradigms have come and gone yet the foundations of art have remained relatively constant – we sing, we dance, we draw. Although the mediums in which art is created have not undergone many radical changes over time, conventions and techniques within those mediums have undergone many changes and expansions throughout history. Art historians will label these changes and expansions as ‘movements’, ‘periods’ or ‘genres’.

This does not mean that the postmodern form of any artistic genre is separated from the history of art. On the contrary – for example, there would be no hip-hop without 1960s and 1970s rhythm and blues

This shift from art as a conduit of information to a conduit of personal experience or beautification was a major shift because throughout much of human history, art served as a conveyor of knowledge since the majority of people within society could not read or write. Thus the most efficient way to share knowledge, as well as to record it, was through visual and lyrical art.

Historians and archeologists study the stories and artistic works of past civilisations and cultures in order to understand what was valued within that society, because art served as a method for teaching values and enculturating community members.

In European history, the Late Renaissance and Baroque periods generally mark the beginning of the shift in emphasis from mainly knowledge creation and partly beautification to mainly beautification and partly knowledge creation.

This shift was powered by a variety of economic factors such as increased wealth and free time. To a certain extent, progress within all AOK necessitates economic wealth and leisure time. However, for the arts this is especially the case due to a lack of material utility. After all, it is nice to have a six-metre-tall statue of David in your garden, but it is not really necessary.

One perspective, therefore, is that the arts are something ‘extra’ and unnecessary. Evidence of this claim is the fact that schools often cut art programmes when money is tight. This fact raises a knowledge question: ‘Is the value of knowledge directly proportional to its utility?

Art as entertainment

The implications of this claim may fit with one’s intuition about what constitutes great works of art as we tend to be drawn towards art that makes us feel good. However, this is a fairly modern perspective on art. As discussed above, art’s primary purpose has not always been entertainment but rather education.

While examining perspectives in the arts, it is important to take into consideration the perspectives and values that both the artist and the individual knower who is experiencing the art bring to the work of art. Beliefs are formed in large part by both perspective and values; beliefs shape interpretation, and interpretation determines subsequent knowledge production.

What knowledge does this image create? Is there a wrong answer to the question posed above?

This image creates the knowledge that time and space as we experience them are not real but rather perceptual accidents of evolution and biochemistry. This painting tells us that time does not really exist’.

What if Salvador Dalí (the creator) himself told you that, no; in fact this image was inspired by melting Camembert in the sun and not quantum physics? Does this render your perspective and resulting knowledge wrong, invalid or useless? An important issue in the arts is whether or not all interpretation is equally valid. Expressed as a knowledge question you should ask: ‘How does one evaluate the validity of interpretation?’

The personal nature of knowledge construction in the arts is precisely why the concepts of culture, values, interpretation, explanation and perspectives have a unique importance in the arts with regard to knowledge construction.

Different knowledge can be created depending upon one’s interpretation and explanation of the work of art. Inevitably, these two elements are affected by the individual’s culture and values. Thus it is very possible that a singular work of art could create a wide variety of knowledge that is distinct and yet valid.

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