02 - Defining and Responding to Art

The Humanities

• humanities are evaluated to subjective criteria

• scientific claims evaluated to objective criteria

Medieval usage

areas of learning distinct from God

• ex. mathematics , science, arts, philosophy

Contemporary usage

areas of study and creativity distinct from mathematics, hard sciences, and social sciences

• ex. visual/performing arts, literature, philosophy

Four Criteria for Defining Something as Art

subject matter - what is it about/what are we seeing?

artistic form - how is it presented?

participation - how does it compel a person to engage

content - what is the meaning you interpret

DETERMINING WHAT IS ART: conceptual (concept)

what we know or think we do (conceive) "

“how do we conceive art"?”

DETERMINING WHAT IS ART: perceptual (perception)

what we can actually observe, sense, experience

Identity

how we selectively present yourself to society and how society perceives me.

• external, categorical (ex. race, gender, etc)

The Self

body, habits of thought, feeling, action that develop through going interchanges with physical/social surroundings

• internal, defies categorization

culture

complex whole acquired by a human as a member of society

• knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, customs, etc

• artistic tastes and values are determined by your identity , self, and culture.

TWO DIMENSIONS OF ART ANALYSIS: Form

what can be observed or perceived

• works structure

• shapes, objects, lines, texture

• use senses to experience

TWO DIMENSIONS OF ART ANALYSIS: Values

external references that inform the work

• political, religious, philosophical, aesthetic

• what we interpret, its content

• individual and socio-culture identity of artist and how its expressed.

? reveals ?

? determine ?

form reveals values

values determine form

THREE LEVELS OF ART CRITICISM: descriptive

focuses mainly on subject matter. and artistic form

• what did you miss?

THREE LEVELS OF ART CRITICISM: interpretative

content (meaning or message)

• how does its presentation convey meaning

• artistic form

THREE LEVELS OF ART CRITICISM: evaluative

relative merits of work (how compelling, effective, does it have value?)

• is it good or not in my opinion

• how effective is the artistic form in conveying meaning

Semiotics

Study of signs and symbols and how they acquire meaning

Sign

something (signifier) that means something else

• ex. stop sign

Three Sign Process: Iconic

a signifier that acquires meaning based on resemblance to the signified

• ex. medal - olympics

Three Sign Process: Indexical

Acquires meaning based on co-occurrence

• ex. flood from rain indicates storm happened

Three Sign Process: Dicent indexical

meaning of signified is direct cause of signifier

• ex. smoke from a fire

Three Sign Process: Symbolic

meaning of signified is socially and culturally determined

• ex. most words

Semantic processes: semantic snowballing

sign or symbol acquires more/new meanings over time based on its occurrence, social, cultural circumstances.