CAED 1: Foundations of Culture and Arts Education

Week 2 (August 22-26, 2022)

Topic: Introduction of Humanities and Arts

 What is the lesson about?

In this lesson we will know that creativity in the artistic sense is an intrinsic part of human. You will also
be directed to the meaning and importance of arts.

 What will you learn?

At the end of this lesson, you should be able to identify the basic concept and context of humanities and art.

 Let’s Read!

The Meaning of the Humanities

From time immemorial man has puzzled over the meaning of his existence. "What am I? Why am I? what I
am? Why am I in this world? Where do I go from here?" These are some of the questions he has sought answers
to in an effort to make sense out of life's apparent confusion.

Through the ages many attempts have been made to answer these questions, and records of these attempts
can be found in the writings of great thinkers as well as in the arts. Yet even now it seems that man has not yet
found the definitive answer to what he really is: The meaning of his existence has become all the more puzzling
today when his traditional functions are being taken over by machines.

We learn what it is to be human by studying humanity. But to do this we obviously cannot depend on direct
contacts with fellow human beings. Our contacts within our short lifetime will naturally confined to a limited
set of people, places, and events. Thus, we have to depend heavily on vicarious experience, and we reach out to
people of different cultures in different times and places through whatever means would bring us nearer to
them. This encounter is made possible for us in the humanities.

What then, are the humanities?

Broadly speaking they are records of man's quest for answers to the fundamental questions he asks about
himself and about life. The content of the humanities is anything that is inherently human - man's experiences,
his values, his sentiments, his ideals, his goals. The humanities are thus expressions of man's feelings and
thoughts.

The term "humanities was first applied to the writings of ancient Latin authors which were read not only for
their clarity of language and forceful literary style, but also, and more specially, for their moral teaching.

During the Medieval Age, the humanities dealt with the metaphysics of the religious philosopher. The goal
was the cultivation of the spiritual life and the preparation for the hereafter.

During the Renaissance, the word came to refer to the set of disciplines taught in the universities, which
included grammar, rhetoric, history, literature, music, philosophy, and theology - a body of knowledge aimed to
make man "human, cultured, and refined. This developed from the concept which recognized man's essential
worth and capacity for self-advancement in this world.

In our century, the humanities serve to provide the student with certain skills and values through the arts.
Instruction places his area of specialization within the broader perspective of the human condition and ideal as
imaginatively rendered in painting, sculpture, architecture, photography, dance, drama, and cinema, as well as in the
traditional components of the humanities.

The humanities thus provide more than just an appreciation of what is "the true, the good, and the beautiful,"
concepts which vary from age to age, from country to country. They are aimed to shape the student’s subjective
energies (his feelings, attitudes, and aspirations) in accordance with a particular view of the social world in which he
dreams, act, und fulfills himself. The view about man and his world changes and so too the content and direction of
the humanities; but in all cases, their principal task remains the same, which is to make man conscious and critical
of, and sensitive and responsive to the norms and hopes of his society.
 ARTS: Its Meaning and Importance

Art is Everywhere

The popular feeling about art is that it exists only in concert halls, museums, and art galleries in a world by
itself, accessible only to those who can afford to pay for its enjoyment or to the critics and scholars who take time to
study the art objects. On the contrary, art is found everywhere. It is very much a part of our lives. We cannot ignore
its presence even if we try to.

We find art at all times. If we go back in time to the prehistoric cave dwellers, we would find art as an
integral part of their communal lives. Evidences of early man's attempt to objectify his ideas and beliefs are found in
the paintings of animals on the walls of caves in southwestern France and northern Spain, as well as in Africa and
Australia. Archaeological diggings in various parts of the world have unearthed clay statuettes of fertility goddesses
and pieces of bone, ivory, and horn incised with images of animals. All these date back to antiquity. Art is indeed as
old as the human race itself.

Art exists in all forms of human society and in every generation because it serves some fundamental human
needs.

Art as Expression and Communication

No one can contain an intense emotion within himself for long. The tension that results would compel him
to unburden himself or share the feeling with others. We express our emotional state by some visible signs and
activities. We burst into song when we are happy, or we dance, for it is pleasant to express the joy through rhythmic
body movements. We likewise sing out our love or our despair, or try to convey our deep emotions in poetic
language.

Art has grown out of man’s need to express himself. Expression in the arts, however, is not limited to the
revelation of emotions alone. The personal and social values of the artist and his penetrating psychological insights
into human reality are also conveyed through the arts.

As in other systems of communication, the artist uses symbols which he organizes into some
comprehensible equivalent of the experience that he is trying to convey. If the symbols are understood by his
audience, them communication has been established

Art as Creation

Man has also been led by an innate craving for order to create objects that are delightful to perceive. The
word "creation" in this sense refers to the act of combining or re-ordering already existing materials so that a new
object is formed.

As a creative activity, art involves skill or expertness in handling materials and organizing them into new,
structurally pleasing, and significant units. This skill does not just happen. It is acquired through long training and
constant practice.

The word "art" originated from the Latin ars, which means "skill."

Art is a planned activity. Unlike the spider when it weaves its web. the artist does not put his materials into
shape instinctively. Rather, he thinks out a design, selects his materials, and arranges them according to his design.
To be sure, he may not be wholly original; no artist really is But he would be producing something that never
existed before. Sometimes, the finished product may not turn out as he had originally envisioned it to be. Creation
involves constant correction and redirection, de pending on the demands of the material and the challenges it poses.

Each finished product is an expression of order the artist's idea of order. The artist has made the form the
vehicle of his idea. Its parts have been so integrated as to produce a unique entity which communicates to all men
for as long as it lasts. It is taken as a self-contained object, reacted to, and evaluated by people who come in contact
with it.

Art and Experience

Our reaction to art is personal and individual. We tend to respond to works of art according to the level of
our expectation. Thus, we like some works and we don't like others, simply because they don't reveal to un what we
feel they should. We cannot escape from our personal preferences. And when we look at art, we do so with a
prejudiced eve. Our reaction would be colored, too, by the ideas of our time about particular aspects of art. Each
generation tends to prefer one style of art to another.

In some cases, our appreciation of art may be blocked by our inability to understand the language used by
the artist or by his presentation of an altogether unfamiliar viewpoint. But if we are interested in getting at the
artistic truth that he has tried to convey, then we must make an attempt to understand his expression. We may not
altogether agree with his statement, but the work of art will at least lead us to form ideas of our own about the
matter.

Whatever response we have to a work of art, we cannot fail to experience a sense of awe at the object's
existence. We look at its form and complexity, we consider the insight expressed, and we think of the artist's talent
as something extraordinary, almost magical, even divine. And the wonder of it all is that the artist is first and
foremost a man, just like all of us.

Art and Nature

Art is not nature. A distinction must be made between the two. The colorful sunset over Manila Bay, the
sky full of stars on a summer evening, the sound of mayas singing in the fields -- these are natural things. They are
not works of art.

A work of art is man-made, and although it may closely resemble nature, it can never duplicate nature. The
closest that we can get to doing this is with a camera. But even then, a photograph is only a record of the subject or
the scene.

Nature has been a constant source of models for art. and great artists have drawn their subjects from nature,
but they have never tried to make an exact copy of a natural thing. Their concern has not been to describe the actual
appearance of objects but to tell us what they felt or thought about these objects.

In many ways, we use art to improve on nature. In a garden, if we allow nature to have its own way, the
plants would grow anywhere and any way they would. With art in this case, the art of landscaping - we can bring
order into the garden. Following a plan, we might group certain plants at one place, others in another; we might
bring in rocks for relief or a garden sculpture for accent. The result would be something different from the
wilderness it would have been without our intervention.

Art and Beauty

The desire for beauty and order around us is another basic human need. Somehow these provide the much
needed comfort and balance to our lives.

A thing of beauty is one which gives us pleasure when we perceive it. The delight that we experience is called
aesthetic pleasure, "aesthetic” coming from a Greek word which means “to perceive with the senses.”

What we call beauty is relative, however. What may be beautiful to us may not be so to others. And no two
persons would derive exactly the same degree of satisfaction from seeing what they mutually agree upon beautiful
object or from listening to what they both consider a beautiful tune.

Concept of beauty change as time passes. The prevailing idea held by one generation is usually different from
that of the previous one. Nowhere is this more apparent than in fashion designs. One period may consider
slenderness very attractive, and so dress designs would be such as to create the illusion of slenderness. Concepts of
beauty vary between cultures, too. That is why the Western listener finds it difficult to appreciate Asian music, just
as we in our time, with our ears attuned to music in the Western tradition, find little pleasure in listening to the
music of our ethnic groups.

We expect every work of art to be beautiful. But it may not always be so. If we look around us, we will find
many works of art which we would not exactly regard as delightful to perceive. It is not always an artist's Intention
to present a beautiful subject or to evoke a pleasant sensation in the viewer. Sometimes he may deliberately
communicate a feeling of revulsion about things he has observed in the human condition. Sometimes he may aim to
jolt us from our complacency by showing us the horrors of deprivation violence, and war.

You may view this video related to this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xjqNGH0QDU

Ortiz, Ma. A. et al. (2002) Art: Perception and Appreciation. Publishers Association of the Philippines Inc.

Regadio, Crisanto and Mendoza, Josielyn (2013) Art Appreciation: Introductory Reading on Humanties Focus on
Philippine Art Scene. Books Atbp. Publishing Corp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xjqNGH0QDU

anrubio