MEDIUMS AND

TECHNIQUES
 What is medium?
Medium is defined as the material,
or the substance out of which a
work is made. Through these
materials, the artists express and
communicate feelings and ideas.
In accordance to
MEDIUM, arts are
primarily classified as:
Visual
Auditory
 Visual Arts

Are those whose mediums

can be seen and which can
occupy space
Grouped into two class:
1. The dimensional art or two-dimensional arts
- having its elements in terms of flat surface, especially
emphasizing the vertical and horizontal character of the
picture plane, which include painting, drawing,
printmaking, and photography.
1. The three-dimensional arts
- occupies space through the dimensions of height,
width, and depth. It includes sculpture, architecture,
landscape, industrial designs and craft like furniture.
 What is medium?
Medium is defined as the material,
or the substance out of which a
work is made. Through these
materials, the artists express and
communicate feelings and ideas.
 Auditory arts

Are those whose mediums

can be heard and which
expressed in time.
 Visual Auditory

Combined Arts
Are those whose mediums can be both
seen and heard and which exist in
both space and time.
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Uses metal, wood, stone, clay,

and glass.
The sculptor
Sculptures fall within the
category of “three-dimensional”
arts.
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Uses wood, bamboo, bricks,

stones, concrete and various
building materials.
The architect
Buildings are also called “three-
dimensional arts”.
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Uses pigments (e.g., watercolour,

oil, tempera, textile paint, acrylic,
The painter ink, etc.) on a usually flat ground
(wood, canvas, paper, stone wall
such as in cave paintings.
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Uses ink printed or transferred

on a surface that is in keeping
The printmaker with a duplicating or reproducing
process.

Classified as “two-dimensional”
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Uses sound and instruments

The musician (including the human
voice).
A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:
Uses the body and its
movements. It is often
The dancer
accompanied by music.

Dance can tell stories, but at

other times, they convey
abstract ideas.
 A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Integrates all the arts and uses the

The theatre artist stage, production design,
performance elements, and script
to enable the visual, musical,
dance and other aspects to come
together as a whole work.
 A medium also defines the nature of the art
forms as follows:

Use the camera to record the

The photographer outside world. The filmmaker
and filmmaker uses the cinematographic
camera to record and put
together production design,
sound engineering,
performance, and screenplay.
The writer of a novel, poetry, nonfiction and
fiction uses words.
The Designer, the performance artist, and the
installation artist combine use of the range of
materials above.
 DESCRIPTION
DISCIPLINAL (How does the
ARTIST MEDIUM artist perform
AREA using the
medium?)

Music Voice The artist

Theatre arts Body perform songs
movements accompanied
with music /
acts in a play
 DESCRIPTION
DISCIPLINAL (How does the
ARTIST MEDIUM artist perform
AREA using the
medium?)
The artist
Dance and Voice uses her
music Body body
movements movements
to show an
art of dance
 DESCRIPTION
DISCIPLINAL (How does the
ARTIST MEDIUM artist perform
AREA using the
medium?)

Film and Uses camera to

Voice
broadcast record
Cinematogra
art movements and
phic camera
acts that will be
transformed
into a film.
 DESCRIPTION
DISCIPLINAL (How does the
ARTIST MEDIUM artist perform
AREA using the
medium?)

Film and Voice The artist

broadcast uses her
art voice in
broadcasting
and news
reporting
 DESCRIPTION
DISCIPLINAL (How does the
ARTIST MEDIUM artist perform
AREA using the
medium?)
Stage, Enable the
Theater arts visual, musical,
production
design, dance and
other aspect
performance
to come
elements together as a
and scripts whole work.
Arts can be classified as…
Practical Auditory
Narrative Dramatic
Musical Pictorial
Environmental
 Musical Arts
Include music, poetry (those that
have perceptible rhythm and can be
sung or danced to) and dance that is
accompanied by music.
 Practical Arts
Have immediate use for everyday
and business life such as design,
architecture, and furniture.
 Environmental Arts
Occupy space and change in its
meaning and function depending on
their categories including
architecture, sculpture, and site-
specific works.
http://www.willowarts.co.uk/WebPage2Pportfollio/2015portfollio%20page%20catergories.html
 Pictorial Works
Include painting, drawing, graphics,
and stage and production design
(lighting, dress, props, and set).
 Dramatic Arts
Works that are staged and performed
including drama, performance art, or
music and dance.
 Narrative
Based on stories including drama,
novel, fiction, nonfiction, music, and
dance.
Combined Arts
Give one example of art that belongs to each
classification and explain why it is classified as such.
Classification Example Description
Practical
Environmental
Narrative
Dramatic
Pictorial
Musical
 What is Technique?
Is the manner in which artist use and
manipulate materials to achieve the
desired formal effect, and communicate
the desired concept, or meaning,
according to his personal style.
What is Technique?
For example:
 Stone is chiselled
 Wood is carved
 Clay is modelled and shaped
 Metal is cast
 Thread is woven
What is Technique?
How is art experienced and
consumed?
Art is considered an “artifact”,
when it is directly experienced or
perceived.
How is art experienced and consumed?

It can be spatial and static or

unmoving
Example: painting or building, or
novel
How is art experienced and consumed?

time-based and in motion.

Example: live theater production,
mobile sculpture.
 How is art experienced and consumed?

When we experience a work indirectly or through

a medium like film or video, we describe it as
“recorded” or documented artwork.
Example: a documentation of performance, a
photograph of a painting, a DVD or CD of a film or
musical piece or a novel read from an electronic
tablet.
How is art experienced and consumed?

We call a work time-based artifact or

performance if we receive or perceive it
live or directly in real-time.
Example: live plays, live performance art,
and installation.
Drawing ideas and inspiration from the work of the
late Conceptual artist Roberto Chabet:
The artist gives us information on how to make a
boat installation by clicking the link.
Create an installation project from simulated
gestures of sitting, lying down, walking, sitting
through the link
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

Mark Salvatus, Secret Garden 2 was

inspired by some Quezon City Jail
inmates who managed to set up a
garden out of plastic spoons, fork,
and food left-overs.
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

Secret Garden 2 is an example of a

site-specific work. It is interactive in
a sense that one has to peek, but not
fully enter the space, to get but a
glimpse of the garden.
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

Untitled (Mirrors) by Maria

Taniguchi uses a traditional acrylic
on canvas but she gives these
elements a contemporary twist.
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

Felix Bacolor’s Waiting transformed an

independent space to a simulacrum (a
“fake” real, a simulation that is not
actually “real” but simulated or copied) of
a terminal waiting room.
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

Medium and technique in contemporary

art have become more and more
integrated. Contemporary mediums and
techniques were based on digital and
electronic technology.
How have contemporary artists expanded the
range of medium and techniques they utilize?

The work of Ian Carlo Jaucian draws

his inspiration from science, and
explored its relationship with the
visual arts. He has a “liquid robot”
that is triggered by music.