The Arts

1
The Arts

• All religions, arts and sciences are branches of
  the same tree. Albert Einstein

2
The ART Critic

• You are asked to spend 1015 minutes making a
  picture or design pleasing to yourself.
• Spend 10 minutes looking at the numbered works of
  ART and rank the best 3.
• Discussion
• Why were the three most popular the most popular?
• realistic representation, as distinct from
  abstraction
• content (possible emotions or ideas conveyed)
• choice of colour
• use of space, including issues such as symmetry
  and pattern
• Is there a preference difference between males
  and females?
• Was there a preference difference between those
  students taking visual Arts and those not?
• Go to the wiki and read the article What is
  good Art? Make notes.

3
The art critic

• Does it all come down to opinion?
• Beauty is in the eye of the beholder does this
  mean each person can judge equally well and no
  persons opinion is more valid than any others.
• If this is so is that we say I like it or It
  provokes feelings in me rather than saying This
  is good art.
• Can the school chimes really be on a par with an
  opera?
• So do we really believe there are no standards in
  art?
• Are we more comfortable when things are obviously
  relatively far apart on some scale of merit that
  we can say one is good and one is not.
• Either ALL art comes down to personal opinion or
  there are some standards by which they are
  measured.
• Complete the questions on the wiki Good Art?

4
The arts and ways of knowing

• Read the handout
• Think about the following
• Reference is made in the handout to trying to
  study or analyse the arts. What would be the
  relevance of the following in such study
  biology, psychology, cultural anthropology and
  history? Give examples. Are there other subject
  areas that you think also contribute to
  understanding the arts?

5
Art from the perspective of the creator

• In the IB you are asked to develop your
  creativity through CAS and also given the
  opportunity in group 6 subjects to develop your
  practice of an Art.
• Share with the class a sample of what you do
• What motivates you to do it?
• What do you get out of it?
• What knowledge do you need to do this Art form?
• For you, is your art a way of communicating with
  others?
• Do you think someone from a different culture or
  another era would understand communication from
  your art?
• What do you come to know through doing your art
  perhaps information or perhaps also something
  about yourself or others?

6
Arts from around the world- the perspective of
the audience

• Pick one of the featured works of art and get
  into a group of 3
• Before you begin write down your own immediate
  response to the reaction to the artwork
• Get with your team and discuss your reactions.
  Do other peoples responses affect how you
  respond to the artwork yourself?
• As a team find out as much as you possibly can
  about the artwork in the time available. Give a
  short report to the class in which you deal with
  the questions given to you.
• Jot down notes from the questions on the sheet
  Arts from Around the World
• Whilst listening to your peers try to identify
  what the arts do in our lives, make notes.
• Give a short talk to your class about the work of
  art.

7
The spirit of haida gwaii
8
Guernica
9
Ancient Arabic Art Inside The Omayyad Mosque In
Damascus, Syria
10
Little Kadogo
11
The crying crocodile tries to catch the sun
12
Tiananmen
13
Follow up

• You have been examining works of art, learning
  about them and commenting on what they do.
• What is the role of the arts in our lives?
• In teams brainstorm ideas and jot these down in
  your journals
• Incorporate the ideas that were raised from the
  activity Art from Around the World

14
What are arts about? What are they trying to do?

• What sort of things should we call art?
• In order to answer this question we have to make
  a judgment.
• In the natural sciences if we have a theory we
  can perform experiments to test the theory. The
  natural sciences are about finding out how the
  physical world works so the physical world is
  the judge of whether it has been successful.
• Contrast this with the arts. There are no
  universally accepted standards because there is
  no universal agreement as to the subject matter
  of the arts. What are they about? What are they
  trying to do?

15
What are arts about? What are they trying to do?

• Using your brainstorming activity from earlier
  summarise what the arts try to do?
• Express emotion
• Imitate nature or the world
• Teach us what is right art which broadens our
  experience by necessity does it inform our
  understanding of how we live moral issues?
• Offers insight into the human condition
• Do they offer us a way to make sense of what
  could be viewed as a confusing world, a way to
  interpret our emotions and those of others, or a
  guide to the nature of morality. If so they
  should be valued.

16
Creation and criticism

• Discuss the following
• To what extent do all knowledge creators and
  members of the knowledge community share the same
  criteria for evaluating a work of art.
• To what extent are social context, political and
  economic organisation, history and cultural
  practices something to be overcome and effaced in
  the creation of knowledge in the arts?
• In what ways to creators in the arts build on
  each others work? Contrast with the Natural
  Sciences.
• Knowledge Creation Diagram within the context of
  the natural world

work(s) of Knowledge (math proof, novel, research
paper)
Knowledge community (peers, critics, general
public)
Knowledge creators