Introduction to Humanities

humanus

Where does the word humanities come from?

human, cultured, and refined

What is the meaning of the latin word, humanus?

Humanities

Refers to a loosely defined group of non-scientific, cultural subject areas (the arts) concerned with human thought, feelings, and relations.

Art

One of the oldest and most important means of expression, acting as a universal language charged with feeling, significance, and cultural force that communicates ideas and feelings through a sensuous medium.

Medium

The material or form—such as color, sound, bronze, marble, words, or film—fashioned into a symbolic language marked by beauty of design and coherence of form to communicate ideas and feelings.

Visual Art

The art that we perceive through our eyes; includes architecture, painting, sculpture, clothes, household appliances, and home/school furnishings.

Architecture

One of the oldest and most important areas of visual art, involving the design and construction of buildings such as houses, schools, churches, and stores.

Aesthetics

Refers to the forms and psychological aspects that give any work—such as a painting, song, story, dance, or play—its artistic quality.

Music

The art of combining and regulating sounds of varying pitch to produce compositions expressing various ideas and emotions, serving primarily to entertain through the sensuous beauty of musical sounds.

Pure Art

A classification of music due to its direct ability to convey emotions with great intensity and affect people directly across various moods and occasions.

Dance

A direct form of art common since ancient times that uses the human body as its medium

Expressive Aspects of Dance

The unique ability of dance to intensify moods and emotions, as well as deepen and dignify human feelings through bodily movement

Theater or Drama

An important area of art where a group of people acts out a plot on stage to communicate the author's ideas to an audience.

Stage

A place for re-enacting the joys and problems of life, where the playwright strips away nonessentials to deal with basic and important human issues

Play

A theatrical performance—such as a comedy, tragedy, mystery, musical, or melodrama—acted out by performers to convey ideas, human motives, and passions to spectators

Motion Picture

A popular form of theater that allows a vast audience to view dramatic performances daily, combining multiple art forms into a visual medium

Radio

A medium that makes drama accessible through the auditory sense and imagination[cite: 3].

Television

A medium that brings theatrical productions and motion pictures directly to many people by combining various art forms

Waltz in Flat

What is this picture?

visual arts, music, dance, literature, and drama

Five Areas of Art

Common Element of the Arts

The shared fundamental characteristic across all arts—that they are concerned with emotions and feelings about things, provoking primary emotional reactions (excitement, pleasure, anger) distinct from intellectual responses

Artist

A person exhibiting exceptional skills in design, drawing, painting, or performing arts who possesses heightened sensitivity, creativity, and the knack for interpreting ideas into artistic form through various mediums

Creators

Artists who originate works, such as composers who write songs, dramatists/playwrights who write plays, and choreographers who compose dances

Performers

Artists involved in performing arts (like singers, actors, and dancers) who recreate and bring individual interpretations to existing compositions, making works complete

Creators and performers

Two kinds of artists

Dual Contribution in Performing Arts

| The combined creative input where the performer adds their own interpretation and ideas to the original vision of the creator, giving added richness and meaning to the work

Creativity

| An artist's trait developed over a lifetime to solve problems, express feelings, and respond to nature and social life, resulting in new ideas, methods, art, or social transformation[cite: 5].

1. the artist (the prime mover)

2. the performer (the interpreter)

3. the audience (reader, observer, or listener)

Threefold Creative Process |

1. having an idea

2. having a material to work on

3. giving form to the idea

Three Major Phases of Creation | The three essential steps in creating art

The Idea

| The initial spark of artistic expression based on an artist's heightened awareness of their surroundings—primarily through the higher senses of sight and sound

Higher Senses

| The senses of sight and sound, which serve as the primary foundation for artistic expression and inspiration

Art of Time

| Auditory or temporal art, like music, that takes a duration of time to be performed or heard[cite: 6].

Arts of Both Space and Time

| Combined performing arts, such as theater and opera, that involve both visual spatial elements and temporal durations[cite: 6].

Organization and Form

| The third phase of creation in which the artist organizes their idea and structures it within the selected material using conventional or recognized patterns[cite: 6].

Standard Forms in Time Arts

| Structured organizational conventions, such as the 32-measure length in popular songwriting, four-movement structures in symphonies, poetic forms (sonnet, quatrain, Spenserian stanza), and acts in plays or operas[cite: 6].

1. an introductory section that sets the stage

2. a middle section that develops the plot or melody

3. a concluding section that resolves the work

Three-Part Structure in Time Arts

Style

| A term referring to the development of artistic forms that are related to specific historical periods[cite: 6].

Symmetrical Balance

| A design pattern common in space arts where both sides of an object are identical, creating a logical focal point at the center