Nature of art and its assumptions

Objectives: At the end of the class, students will be able to;

1. Understand the concepts of arts including its nature, assumptions,
importance in our daily lives;
2. Differentiate the importance of art as part of the human nature; and
3. Exhibit concepts of arts through various platforms.

 Have you ever seen an individual with body all-covered with tattoos? What do you think
of them? According to studies (Deter-Wolf, 2016), tattooing has been practiced around
the world since the Neolithic times as seen in the archaeological records and ancient art
of mummified preserved skins.

 In the Philippines, tattoos have been seen among the indigenous peoples called the
Pintados, since the pre-Hispanic colonization (Blair, 2004).

 What about those people who walk gracefully like a model but they are actually not? Is
walking gracefully considered art?

Humans and Art

 Humanities is an academic discipline that studies the different aspects of the human
society and culture (Bod, 2013).

 Derived from the Renaissance Latin expression studia humanitatis (or study of
humanity), referring to an education befitting a cultivated man

 Latin word, “humanus,” meaning human, cultured, or refined, humanities is basically the
big umbrella of various subjects that attempt to answer the question, “what makes us
human?” (Ganzon, 2017).

 Stanford University defines Humanities as “the study of how people process and
document the human experience”.

 It includes the traditional liberal arts such as philosophy, literature, religion, ethics, art,
music, history and language which humans have used to understand and record our
world. These records of human experiences give us the opportunity to connect to those
who have come before us.

Why, then, do we need to study humanities?

1. One reason is that, humanities provide insights into everything. We learn how to think
creatively and critically as we explore the humanities.

2. We learn how to reason and ask questions. These skills make us aware of what is
happening around us and provide us with new perceptions of the world. This way, we
gain additional knowledge as we encounter more human experiences.

3. We learn about the values of different cultures through the works of humanities experts,
about how history is made, and what goes on behind every work of art and learn from
the accomplishments of the past, thus, enabling us to understand the world we live in.

What is art
  Art can be traced from the Latin word “ars” which translates to “skill” or “craft”.

 The Webster Dictionary (2012) defines art as the “human ingenuity in adapting natural
things to man’s use.”

 Art, according to Webster (2012):

1. may also by synonymous to cunning (which suggests ingenuity in inventing or

devising),
2. artifice (which refers to the technical skill especially in imitating things in nature),
3. craft (which implies expertness in workmanship) and;
4. skill (which stresses the technical knowledge and proficiency).

 Some define art as a form of communication (Ganzon, 2018).

 In the early ages of civilization, humans communicate by making sounds (such as

grunting sounds either at a low or high pitch that denotes social communication or a
warning sign)

 drawing or painting (such as cave drawings that tell the story of the early people’s
culture)

 dancing, acting and using symbols, which evolved for the purpose of written
communication that later on developed into the alphabet system that we know today.

 Most of you would even spend so much time thinking about what to wear in an ordinary
day, some of you shop a lot because you want clothes that fit your personality, some of
you would try out expensive salons so you can have the hairstyle of your favorite TV
artist. These are all art. Whether it be a simple watch that you wear every day, graffiti on
the wall, or a scribble on your notebook, art touches everyone's life in some way or
another.

Why study art

 The most common among the many reasons why there is a need to study art is because
it helps us understand individual differences.
 art teaches us to identify our own and other’s uniqueness.
 It also helps us develop our skills in decision-making and problem solving.
 it also enhances our creative skills, nurtures our imagination and promotes originality
and innovativeness.

Why do people create art

 People primarily create art as a tool for communication. But throughout the history of
man, art has become an important part of daily life:

1. making our surroundings more beautiful (i.e. decorations such as architecture,

painting, sculpture, jewelry, and design objects)

2. creating records of a specific time, place, person or object (i.e. paintings of

individuals, battle scenes, or even wedding or baby photographs)

3. expressing or communicating ideas

4. expressing religious beliefs

 5. criticizing elements of society

6. for educating people (allowing us to learn about different times from the past and
also about ourselves)

7. for showing that we are capable of doing something no one else has tried before.

 During the course of time, art has been given many valuable meanings and different
objects have been given a great importance because of what they mean or represent to
a specific group of people.

 Some are treasured because of their significance, and others have become symbols of
power or national identity.

 Some are not only valued for their beauty but are also given a material value.

What is art history

 The study of the history of art is called, unsurprisingly, art history (Oxford Dictionary,
2005).

 This discipline focuses on the development and uses of art throughout the history of
man where art historians translate arts into written critiques and analyses so that people
who visit a museum, for example, can have a better understanding of what the artist
wants to impart.

 Art history is important because it enables us to understand how different societies have
lived and evolved throughout history.

 art historians focus on the visual arts, those which are defined by visual qualities and
perception.

 By and large, art historians do not study performance arts, like music and theater, or
literary arts such as poetry.

 Art history is a discipline that examines trends, movements, and periods in history
(Adams, 2007). As a field of study, it is more concerned with large-scale artistic
movements rather than the act of creating any piece of art.

What is art appreciation

 Art appreciation is the process of applying the basic tools of visual literacy to understand
and appreciate works of art (Tabotabo, 2010).

 It refers to the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of the universal and timeless
qualities characterizing works of art (Ariola, 2014).

Assumptions of art

Art is universal
  Communication is important for all people everywhere (Agarwal & Garg, 2012). In fact,
thousands of languages are spoken and written all around the world and in order to
communicate effectively, translators have become essential (Anderson, 2012).

 art as a form of communication has no language barriers.

 In fact, it has the ability to speak to all people of any race or of all ages, no matter what
the form is.

 one does not have to have the ability to speak or listen to get the message that all
artwork sends to its audience.

 Artists are people just like any other individual like us who experience various feelings of
anger, fear, joy, sadness, or peace and apply them in their masterpiece. Be it to share a
feeling, depict a memory or explore an idea, the artwork connects people of all
nationalities, languages and ages — young or old, deaf or mute — all sorts of people can
enjoy art and give meaning to it.

Art is not nature

 The first reason why art is not nature is that art is a product of the artist's imagination. It
doesn't exist in the real world until the artist creates it. Nature, on the other hand, has
always existed and will continue to exist long after we are gone.

 Nature is real such as birth, life, and death as cycles of nature. Nature is beautiful and is
perfect since it was designed by the omnipotent God.

 It is a perception—a conception of ideas on many aspects designed by man. Therefore,

art can be beautiful and it can be horrible which can be considered oas perceived ideas
of nature, birth, death, emotions, artificial intelligence, hunger, or war.

 In the simplest sense of this assumption, art is man-made. It can be seen as an aesthetic
representation of real-life situations, an expression of how man interprets nature, or a
direct representation of reality or even a distortion of nature (as in the case of movies).
It can be a part or within the nature itself, but art is not nature.

 Artists are not expected to create art which is composed of everything in nature — they
are actually not supposed to duplicate nature for an obvious reason that nature cannot
be perfectly replicated in any artwork.

Art involves experience

 Have you ever been moved by a song that you felt your tears are falling down your
cheeks because you can relate to it? Have you ever been stuck in a movie that you kept
on watching the same movie over and over again because you see your life story in it?

 When we say art involves experience, it just goes to say that art is not just a recording of
experience as discussed earlier, but an involvement of human experience as well.

 This involvement is evident to anyone who has felt emotionally or psychologically

attached to an art work.

 In other words, when one creates art, he/she must fully believe and immerse
himself/herself in their art in order to produce better art. Hence, any expression of
oneself is based on one’s experiences.
  Humans cannot draw what they cannot see for themselves and even have a harder time
drawing from other’s experiences. This is what art involves experience means—artists
are inspired with what they have undergone and base their masterpieces on these
experiences.

Art is cultural

 Every culture has its own kind of art as it has its own language. There are primitive
cultures that have no real mythology or religion, but all cultures have some form of art
such as dance, song, design, or tools and even art on the human body as in tattoos
(Langer, 1966).

 Since culture is defined as “the totality of socially transmitted behavior, patterns, beliefs,
institutions and other products of human work,” art, indeed is cultural (Tomasello,
1999).

 Culture also refers to all the things that make-up people’s way of life (White, 1949). As
stated in Banaag & Cruz (2017), it is the social behavior and norms found in human
societies.

The Categories of Art VAALA

1. Visual Art
In the very basic terms, visual arts are creative works that stimulate the visual sense — anything
that is perceived by the eyes is a visual art.

Visual arts are further divided into two:

(a) Graphic Arts (also referred to as two-dimensional arts or 2D). These are arts that have width
and length and are described as flat arts since they are most of the time seen on flat surfaces.
These include: painting, drawing, lettering, printing, sketching, digital imaging, computer
graphics, and photography.

(b) Plastic Arts (also referred to as three-dimensional arts or 3D). These are arts that have
width, length and volume. These include: sculpture, architecture, landscape architecture, city
planning, interior design, costume design, set design, theatre design, industrial design, or
handicrafts.

2. Auditory Arts
These creative works that stimulate the sense of hearing — anything that can be heard or
listened to is an auditory art, which include music or drama on radios.

3. Audio-Visual Arts
These are arts that can be perceived by both the senses of sight and hearing. Also referred to as
performance arts, these arts are intended to be presented in front of an audience. The artist
creates this particular art in a variety of forms: language-based, music-based, or a combination
of both.

(a) Language-based include poetry, which may be performed for an audience using original or
published works; spoken word, which is sometimes similar to poetry in its focus on cadence and
rhythm (i.e. preachers during sermons, protesters at rallies, and digital podcast or video of
monologues or speeches); storytelling, which may be done in places such as an auditorium or
theater, a classroom or library, or a small group or in the church, a coffee house or under a tent
at a festival.
(b) Music-based include performances by an individual or with a group of any size, which comes
in several genres: vocal, instrumental and mixed; dance, which are usually accompanied by
music and correspond to a particular genre such as ballet, ballroom, classical, contemporary,
jazz and modern dance

(c) Combination which include theater-based performance such as dramatic plays (i.e. tragedy,
comedy, tragicomedy, farce, melodrama), improvisations, musical theater, and films, which can
be created using motion-picture camera (as in a movie camera), animation techniques,
Computer-Generated Imagery and many more.

4. Literary Arts
These are written arts intended to be read. These include prose, which is in paragraph form
(such as short stories, novels, essays and plays); and poetry, which is in stanza form composed
of lines (such as narrative poems, lyric poems, and dramatic poems).

5. Applied Arts
These are arts which refer to the application of artistic design to useful objects for everyday use.
While works of fine arts have no functional purposes other than for aesthetics or beautification,
applied arts are created with aesthetic and functional goals. Applied arts range from a teacup or
table, to the walls and roof of a train station or a mall, a simple ballpen or even computer
mouse. Most of the time, these overlap with visual arts that include: industrial design, fashion
design, interior design,