ARTS 1: Critical Perspectives in the Arts

Module 1: An Introduction to Art

Learning Objectives

Definitions of Art

Activity 1.1: Defining Art (1)

The Relevance of Art

Activity 1.2: The Interface of Art and Society

Conclusion

Module 1 Supplement

Activity S1.1: What does art mean to you?

Activity S1.2: Defining Art (2)

Activity S1.3: Defining, distinguishing, and challenging terms

Activity S1.4: Two items

Activity S1.5: Unpacking Guillermo

Activity S1.6 (COVID-19 Special Activity): What is the relevance of the arts to you during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Readings, Resources, and References

Why does art matter? Amidst chaos and confusion in what have been characterized as post-truth world, art affords us a form of criticality. That is, to question things, to interrogate, indeed, not to accept things as they are. This means further an incisive reflection, interpretation and evaluation of various texts, ranging from poems, paintings, photographs, and performances. In the words of Edmund Feldman (1996:18), “the images we make do not end their lives on school corridor walls: they find their way into human minds, into the language of civic discourse, and into the building blocks of culture. And that is a matter for serious reflection.” Thus, an objective of this course is to equip you with the necessary critical lens of viewing the world, without negating the enchantment of art. In this module, you will revisit some of the ideas, concepts which you may have encountered in your previous education.

Learning Objectives

After working on this module, you should be able to:

Discuss the different concepts in defining art from various perspectives;
Examine the relevance of art from an individual to a societal standpoint.

Definitions of Art

What is art? Art as a concept, like culture, defies a singular definition. There have been attempts to define art, and the following enumeration is just some of the examples how art has been defined through time:

Art is an attempt to create pleasing forms. (Herbert Read)
Art is the enjoyment of forms. (Ernst Cassirer)
Art is a man-made object demanding to be experienced aesthetically. (Erwin Panofsky)
Art is expression; it is not intention or talent. (Bernedetto Croce)
Art is the skilled performance or distinctive ability in any activity whatsoever. (James Jarrett)
Art is the power to produce a preconceived result by means of consciously controlled and directed action. (classic definition derived from ancient Roman and Greek concepts)
Art molds our actual life of feeling; by giving form to the world it articulates human nature, sensibility energy, passion and mortality. (Suzanne Langer)
Art is any embellishment of ordinary living that is achieved with competence and has describable form. (Melville Herskovits)
Art is the product of creative human activity in which materials are shaped or selected convey an idea, emotion or visually interesting form. – Encarta Encyclopedia
Art… is the becoming and happening of truth. – Heidegger (1960)

Activity 1.1: Defining Art (1)

Allot 60 minutes

(The required resource for this activity is currently not available on MyPortal, so treat this activity as optional.)

To lay the ground, let us use Robert Stecker’s (2003) article, “Definition of Art.” Here, art is defined by various key concepts coming from different perspectives.

Outline the various definitions by taking into consideration the major concern of each key concept in relation to art, and at the same time, examine the limitations of each defining concept. The following are your guide questions:

One key concept mentioned in the article is “representation,” and/or “imitation.” The Greek philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, offered the concept of “mimesis” in dealing with poetry and performance. How do these concepts- representation, imitation and mimesis- define art?

Consider the Gustave Courbet painting “The Stonebreakers”; in what way that this work exemplifies mimesis or representation? What about your ‘selfie”? How would you characterize it?

If art is defined as representation, does it take into account other art forms like instrumental music or the so-called abstract art, like the painting below by Wassily Kandinsky?

Art as “expression.” Among the key concepts, this is likely the well-known dimension of art. You hear people say, “I paint (or dress) this way to express myself.” How does ‘expression’ relate to the artistic process, in general, or the artist, in particular? How does this compare with art as representation?

If art is framed from a formalist perspective, how is it viewed or defined from this standpoint? In the article, the art historian Clive Bell mentioned the notion of “significant form,” what composes form, then. For example, consider the three art works below:

What similarities and differences do they share as to form? Is Bell’s characterization, applicable to all art forms, like folk arts, sculpture, architecture, and the like?

If art is defined within the ambit of “aesthetics,” whether as “aesthetic object,” or “aesthetic experience,” how is art viewed from this perspective? Consider the photograph here. Is it art? Or is it nature? Is aesthetic experience possible in both art and nature? If yes, what do you look for if art if it is defined from an aesthetic dimension? Is there an overlap with art as formalism here?

Following the influence of the philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein, art as a concept eludes definition because it is “open-textured.” Instead, it is classified based on “family resemblances.” What does this mean vis-à-vis the definition of art? Hence, how is art viewed from an anti-essentialist framework?

The article also highlighted the philosophy of two thinkers- Arthur Danto and George Dickie. How do the two scholars define art relative to these considerations: the role of the art world, the significance of interpretation and the view art of as artifact? In what way, they share similarities and differences?

In 1917, the French artist Marcel Duchamp, known for his readymades, exhibited a urinal entitled, “The Fountain,” which he signed as R. Mutt. How does this ‘art work’ contribute to the definition of art?

Hence, after Danto, Dickie and Duchamp, can any object become an art work? Is the board eraser you see in the classroom an art object? If we agree to say it is not, then, does it have a ‘chance’ to become an art work? How and why?

10.

What did the whole exercise teach you about art as a concept?

The Relevance of Art

Often, our experience with art happens in the comforts of an air-conditioned gallery or theater, but through our engagement, we are brought to a world where we have not inhabited before. It could be a world of magic or mayhem. But what matters is after the experience, we are transformed. The effect may be subtle or palpable, but in reality, we are no longer the same person after viewing, watching, or reading the text. We have come to embody the experience of other people from various cultures or class, which, ultimately, enlarged our humanity. This transformative aspect of our art may be personal to you, such as the cathartic effect after watching a play or it may call to action on your part to, say, plant a tree or teach street kids in your neighborhood. This view finds resonance in the quote below from Ernst Fischer (1963:7-8):

Countless millions read books, listen to music, watch theatre, go to the cinema. Why? To say that they seek distraction, relaxation, entertainment is to beg the question. Why is it distracting, relaxing, entertaining to sink oneself in someone else’s life and problems, to identify oneself with a painting or a piece of music or with the characters in a novel, play, or film?... And if one answers that we want to escape from an unsatisfactory existence into a richer one, into an experience without risk, then the next question arises: why is our existence not enough…

Evidently, man (sic) wants to be more than just himself. He wants to be a whole man. He is not satisfied with being a separate individual … He longs to absorb the surrounding world and make it his own… to unite his limited “I” in art with a communal existence; to make his individuality social.

That said, let us not lose focus then how art matters not just on individual but more so on societal level, as well. Here, what comes to mind are works of art which are deeply ingrained in the community or the country’s way of life.

Activity 1.2: The Interface of Art and Society

Read Alice Guillermo’s “Preface.” (Available on MyPortal.) Allot 30 minutes. Write an essay how Guillermo’s article expands or amplifies the previous article “Definition of Art.” In other words, in what ways her essay advocates a different way of seeing art and, more significantly, a Filipino point of view?
Watch the video “Ifugao.” (The required resource for this activity is currently not available on MyPortal, so treat this activity as optional.) Allot 90 minutes. The wooden sculpture bullol is quite known as the squatting figure. But, what is its significance? Watch this video and discuss with your group mates the socio-cultural context of the bullol within the matrix of ecology, ritual, class and gender roles.

Conclusion

In this module, through the articles you read and the activities you accomplished, the focus had been on the nature and the necessity of art. Art matters precisely because through art we find something about the world and ourselves in the numerous texts we encounter and experience. More often it is an ‘experience without risk’, but transformative nonetheless; thus, change may come in the form of action or introspection. Further, the influence of various disciplines ranging from aesthetics, art history, and anthropology helped shape our understanding of art as a complex but compelling human phenomenon.

Module 1 Supplement

Hello. My name is Diego Maranan, and I was part of the team across the UP System that put together this course. This supplement to Module 1 is the first of several supplements that I've put together (and which I will continue to develop) for undergraduate students at UPOU.

What are these Module Supplements for? I created these Supplements for three reasons:

Grounding on experience. These supplements give me a chance to speak directly with you and with knowledge drawn from my areas of expertise. As I mentioned in the course introduction, this course was put together a diverse team of faculty from across the UP System. In fact, the team was so diverse that, frankly, we often had a hard time agreeing on what to tackle in this course and how to do it! That we came from a range of disciplines and practices--literature, visual arts, theatre, music, dance, and film, to name a few--made it particularly hard to come to a consensus. In these supplements, I hope to lend a more personal touch to this course by speaking to you about the artistic practices with which I am most familiar.
Clarity. You'll notice that in these modules I'll be using the kind of language I might use if I were talking to you in person. It's not (just) because I want to talk casually or informally to you; it's more because I want to communicate clearly, particularly since many of the readings in the course modules are written in very dense prose. Incidentally, the authors of those readings often write in a complex way not necessarily for the sake of sounding smart, but because the ideas that they are presenting are themselves complex. Treat the readings from this course as "gifts that will take a long time to unwrap", to use a phrase from one of my own professors, the late Marc Diamond. Maybe some of these readings will stick with you for the rest of your life, and every time you come back to them you'll find something new that you never noticed before.
A chance to digress and disagree. Because this course was put together by a committee, there are times when I'm not convinced that the topics covered or the approach followed in a module were the best one to take, especially for the BAMS, BES, and AA programs. In these Module Supplements, I will occasionally be providing my take on what I think really matters in terms of developing a deeper relationship to the arts.

Let's begin this supplement with reflecting on your current relationship with the arts.

Activity S1.1: What does art mean to you?

Allot 15 minutes

To begin with, and without consulting any external references, I would like you to consider the following two questions:

What does art mean to you?
What is your experience of art?

Feel free to interpret and respond to these questions however you want to. Discuss your answers with the class. If you have specific works of art that you can cite to help illustrate clarify your ideas, use them.

Sometimes, when trying to come to grips with the nature of art, it's more interesting to approach the question in other ways. Sometimes, it helps to look at the question of art obliquely. You might have defined it as art as a product—that is, something that you make. But there are other ways of looking at art. Consider these other questions instead:

What does art do?
What is art like?
What is art not?
How does art work?
What have others have said about art?
What other ideas to we associate with art?
What do we confuse art with? (For instance. what is the relationship between art and creativity, or art and beauty?)
What different types are there?
What is art made of?
How does art unfold over time?
Who has a stake in art?
When is it art?

You might find that the answers to many of these questions are addressed throughout the remainder of your course. What is important to note at this point is that instead of simply asking what art is, it might be more useful to approach the subject indirectly.

Activity S1.2: Defining Art (2)

Allot 30 minutes

Read and reflect on the following:

Is It Art? Is It Good? And Who Says So? Wallach, A. (1997, October 12). The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/12/arts/art-is-it-art-is-it-good-and-who-says-so.html?scp=11&sq=&pagewanted=all
What Is Art? A Few Famous Definitions, From Antiquity to Today, from Maria Popova’s 2012 article in The Atlantic. Available from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/what-is-art-a-few-famous-definitions-from-antiquity-to-today/258871/
What is art for? By Alain de Botton and The Guardian (2014, September 10), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlQOytFCRI and embedded on this page.

As you go through the readings and watch the video, consider the following:

Identify two positions on the nature of art that seem to be contradictory to each other, and yet resonate with your own views of art.
Notice that not everyone whose views were presented in the readings directly tackled the question of what art is. What are the different approaches that different artists and philosophers of the arts have used to come to grips with the nature of the arts?
Share with the class an image, audio file, or video that you think captures something important or interesting to you about the contradictions and conversations about the nature of art. Discuss.

Activity S1.3: Defining, distinguishing, and challenging terms

Allot 90 minutes

Read What is Art? and/or What is Beauty? from PhilosophyNow.org
Read Collingwood's Aesthetics from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
As you read the texts, keep in mind the distinctions made between the following terms:
- art;
- fine art;
- design;
- craft;
- beauty;
- aesthetics.
Cite a moment in history these definitions were challenged.

Feel free to read ahead in this Course Package and to use other resources other than the ones in this Course Package to help you with this activity.

Activity S1.4: Two items

Prepare or select 2 examples (items, events, or activities). The first example is something that you deem as art. The other example should be something whose status as art is unclear to you; you are unsure if it can be called art. Share and discuss your choices in this thread. Feel free to attach or embed media (images, videos, audio) to your posts.
Do you think you'll end up changing your mind about these two examples by the time you're done with the class? Elaborate on your answer.

Activity S1.5: Unpacking Guillermo

Read Alice Guillermo’s “Preface”, as described in Activity 1.2.

Guillermo mentions terms from postmodern theory such as "death of the subject". Look up the term and try to describe in your own words and as clearly as possible what what it means. Look up the term and try to describe in your own words and as clearly as possible what what it means.
What is "orientalism"? Look up the term and try to describe in your own words and as clearly as possible what what it means.
On the one hand, Guillermo thinks that is is important to "assume a nationalist position in the definition and development of a national art and culture that is consistent with our interests, needs, and aspirations, particularly the needs of the large majority of laboring Filipinos--a culture which is not a shadow or a mimicry of Western culture." But at the very end of the essay, she briefly mentions the idea that "a nationalist point of view does not exclude foreign influences; rather, it can indigenize what is usable and applicable to its context". What does she mean? It feels like there is a kind of struggle between possibly opposing ideas, doesn't it? How would you summarize what that struggle is about?

Activity S1.6 (COVID-19 Special Activity): What is the relevance of the arts to you during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In this special section of each module supplement, you are asked to reflect and elaborate on the role of the arts in the context of the extraordinarily difficult times that the COVID-19 outbreak has ushered in.

Consider the discussion in the module so far, and think about the challenges you are facing in the time of the COVID-19 outbreak, such as the issues you worry about, the activities you look forward to, and the future in which you wish to live. What role does art play in your own life these days? Are you still engaged in anything that you would consider artistic? Has anything changed regarding your relationship to the arts or to artistic practices since the COVID-19 lockdowns began?

Readings, Resources, and References

Required Readings

Guillermo, Alice (1997). “Preface.” In Art and Society, 1-7, edited by Flaudette Datuin et.al. Quezon City: University of the Philippines.

Optional Readings

Stecker, Robert. (2003). “Definition of Art.” In The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, 136-154, edited by Jerrold Levinson. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.
Feldman, Edmund B. (1996). Philosophy of Art Education. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Fischer, Ernst. (1963). The Necessity of Art. Great Britain: Penguin Books.
Freeland, Cynthia. (2001). But Is it Art ? New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Other Resources

Is It Art? Is It Good? And Who Says So? Wallach, A. (1997, October 12). The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/12/arts/art-is-it-art-is-it-good-and-who-says-so.html?scp=11&sq=&pagewanted=all
What Is Art? A Few Famous Definitions, From Antiquity to Today, from Maria Popova’s 2012 article in The Atlantic. Available from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/06/what-is-art-a-few-famous-definitions-from-antiquity-to-today/258871/
What is art for? By Alain de Botton and The Guardian (2014, September 10), at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlQOytFCRI
What is Art? and/or What is Beauty? https://philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty
Kemp, G. (2016). Collingwood’s Aesthetics. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2016/entries/collingwood-aesthetics/

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