HUMANITIES 2

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR DISCUSSIONS:   Your contributions should be thoughtful and developed.  Answer all parts of the question and use concepts from the course materials.  Use a professional style of communication, with attention to grammar, spelling, and typos; cite your sources.  

Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, choose ONE of the following questions, and give a substantive response to at least two other students.  

OPTION 1:  DESCRIBE AND DISCUSS A FAVORITE WORK    1. Describe a favorite work of visual art and include a picture of it in your post. Your selection may come from the entire range of visual arts, anything from a famous painting in a museum to an iconic architectural masterpiece to a handmade basket or an especially well-designed object.  The only restriction is that you need to have seen the actual work of art, rather than a photo or online image.   2. Describe the medium it represents within the scope of visual arts.  Tell us about its maker or designer.  What year is it from?  Where is it located? What was its intended function?  What is its significance to you?   3. Does this particular piece help you understand something about reality or is it intended to be more of an illusion pointing to something we don't really quite understand, like a shadow on the wall of the cave as in the Allegory of the Cave we looked at last week? 4. Use at least two of the vocabulary, concepts or techniques from the Learning Resources or the module to say something more about this piece of art. Underline or bold the vocabulary, concept or technique you use as a interpretative tool in your post.

READINGS

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history-basics/beginners-art-history/v/why-look-at-art

https://content.umgc.edu/file/97f6d5f6-219e-469f-ba5a-08c0bb58975b/1/TheSkillofDescribing.html

http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/constructing-gender

https://youtu.be/2aUFB9hQncQ

https://youtu.be/uDuzy-t7GDA

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365355864/

https://www.freersackler.si.edu/tibetan-healing-mandala/

http://crochetcoralreef.org/

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/prehistoric-art/paleolithic/paleolithic-objects/v/nude-woman-venus-of-willendorf-c-28-000-25-000-b-c-e

The Visual Arts

Please refer to this study guide when you read, view and review the Learning Resources for this week. The terms, concepts and methods (sometimes called analysis tools)  listed here are useful to properly answer the questions on the weekly quizzes and can be used when you are writing your Weekly Discussion Posts, Cultural Experience Reports and the Final Project Assignment for this class. 

Some may seem elementary like rhythm and melody for music or brushstrokes and color for visual art, but each allows you to understand the artist representations and to further your understanding of each humanities area as you move forward.

Resources from the previous week that will help with the work for this week include:  

· MOMA Glossary of Art Terms  https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/glossary

· "What Is Art For?” by Alain de Botton  https://youtu.be/sn0bDD4gXrE

Overview 

· Connecting art to the “Allegory of the Cave” 

“Historical Overview” Powerpoint (pdf)  https://content.umgc.edu/file/c0fb28d2-2f74-4cb2-b184-0729d14625fa/9/HUMN100_Wk2_Overview_of_Visual_Arts_History_2015.pdf

· Beauty 

· Gothic Architecture 

· Humanism 

· Renaissance architecture 

· Enlightenment - Voltaire 

· Empiricism - Locke 

· Aesthetic Theory – Hume 

· Naturalism – Shaftesbury 

· Romantics – Ruskin 

· Christian Socialism vs. Industrialization 

· Handcraftmanship – Morris 

· Modernism 

· Abundance Design –McDonough 

· Plato – Moral and Ethical matters are intrinsically related to art. 

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art   http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/

· Over 8K works of art that can be used for assignments 

“Why Look at Art?”   https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/start-here-apah/why-art-matters-apah/v/why-look-at-art

· How images communicate 

· Art is everywhere 

· See beyond 1st impressions 

“The Skill of Describing”   https://youtu.be/h_pWZBOR4ec

· Describing is best way to start analyzing visual art 

· Brush strokes cause the idea of motion 

· Modern art has many meanings 

· How art can be used to challenge political power 

· How art helps us remember 

· How art communicates the idea of being human 

“How Art Can Change Society”   https://youtu.be/fSmAsbbzcB0

· Aesthetic force more than rational argument can start change in society. 

MoMA “Investigating Identity” Constructing Gender   http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/constructing-gender

· How cultures socially construct human roles 

· Art challenge social construction 

MoMA “The Body in Art”   https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/the-body-in-art/

· Performance Art 

· Genre  

MoMA “Intersecting Identities”   https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/investigating-identity/intersecting-identities/

· Feminist art 

· multi-faceted identity 

Tibetan Healing Mandala   https://www.freersackler.si.edu/tibetan-healing-mandala/

· How art expresses spiritual and ritual practices 

· Sand Mandala 

· Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art (link) lots of Asian Art 

The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project   http://crochetcoralreef.org/

· How art can be representative of nature 

· How art can be a connection to science 

The Beautiful Math of Coral   http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_wertheim_crochets_the_coral_reef

· How art connects thousands of people around the world 

· Hyperbolic models 

Nude Woman: The Venus of Willendorf   https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/prehistoric-art/paleolithic/paleolithic-objects/v/nude-woman-venus-of-willendorf-c-28-000-25-000-b-c-e

· People love to make art, this sculpture in 25K years old 

· People assign meaning beyond the artist’s intention 

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel   https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/high-ren-florence-rome/michelangelo/v/michelangelo-ceiling-of-the-sistine-chapel-1508-12

· How color can work to define character  

· Renaissance optimism  

Art and Context: Monet and Malevich   https://youtu.be/2aUFB9hQncQ

· How art depicts a rapidly changing world 

· Impressionism was named by critics because it looked like it was made quickly 

· How art shows life at a moment (light and other natural effects constantly changing) 

· Supremacist Composition – meant to give political message 

· Sometimes you need to know the history of the time of art creation to really understand it. 

· How an artist can be a voice and visionary of a culture at a moment 

· How art attempts to change the world by using a universal language  

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living   https://youtu.be/uDuzy-t7GDA

· How art deals with big questions 

· Why Modern Art is wide open to interpretation 

· How Visual Art is completed by the viewer 

· Impermanence of Art vs. Artists attempt to create that which outlives them 

Craft in America: Service Episode   http://video.pbs.org/video/2365355864/

· How crafts provide humans a way to inspire others, create and heal 

· Why service members often need to create to balance the times of destruction