Module 4 essay prompt – Art in Society (AAD 450/550)

Hannah Bulkley, Laurette Garner, Eve Thorne, Yi Liang

Module 4 Essay

Module Questions

1. How do we experience Art Worlds today versus how we experienced them in the past?

We chose this question because it forces the students to be introspective about the past and themselves in a current state. Only by assessing the patterns of populations can people know what really drives them towards constant change and evolution. There is an insatiable need for human beings to create and learn. Curiosity drives people to invent faster ways to learn and experience.

Some topics students might consider based on trends of today include:

How the types of places we experience Art Worlds have changed over time: For example, before the use of the internet, location played a large part in how audiences experienced the arts. In addition to location, physical items were extremely important. If a person were to see a musical, theater, opera or dance production it would be a specific venue and a person would pay a specific price in order to experience this art form. A person would have to go to a place in order to experience these things with their eyes. Some audio opportunities became available with radio, records and the phonograph but before radio or broadcasting, a person had to go to a place to experience a specific Art World. People were also limited in transportation before the invention of the car and so things were experienced more locally. Even after the car it took a long time for most people to afford transportation to cities far away.

How each Art World relates to place and distribution: For instance, informal art has always been something practiced alongside of traditional rituals and this practice is still alive and healthy today because human beings feel that roots are important to understanding their place on this planet. For the visual arts, location is also extremely important. People had to go to a museum or fair or festival to see works of art. Some people did make an effort to see globalized visual art with the creation of the World’s Fairs. Transportation was expensive and slower, as were forms of audio communication. In general, life existed at a slower pace. Literary art was also distributed at a slower pace and dependent on a tangible product. In order to read a book, a person had to have access to a bookstore or library or a friend with a library. Art Worlds existed within specific public spaces and could only be done so with a commitment to travel based on a slower communication process and limited information.

How technology has affected how we experience Art Worlds: As in today, while many people still value going to a location to experience art, the option to stay at home is prevalent. The aforementioned locations have become a virtual reality in some cases. The internet allows people to move less and experience tangible art pieces in a virtual form. People can see fine art over online and watch a movie or a play while sitting at their computer. Technology has also given access to the arts in personal ways by allowing public access to art making tools. Home made videos and radio broadcasts are commonplace. Human beings can express our opinions immediately without waiting for the carriage post. People can participate and experience art with multiple audiences by sitting in one place. Some people from older generations still hold on to older practices and enjoy seeing art on the walls and seeing a movie in a movie theater, but most people also enjoy having immediate access to whatever art form they choose whenever they like. Movie production is more localized in the future and many people make their own movies and display them online for the world to view for free. Paying for the arts has become a very current issue and the world is trying to wrap their brains around free distribution versus putting a price on creativity.

2. Do you think human contact and tangibility is important to arts engagement and learning?

We chose this question for students to discuss because the 21st century has refocused energy on researching the effects of tangible experiences within Art Worlds. While technology advances and people are able to experience entertainment at home more than ever, scientists say it is biologically inherent for human beings to touch and feel. Human beings were all given five senses and sometimes a sixth for a reason. The Internet can teach a person how to relate and engage with other human beings face to face. Cell phones and the web have allowed for a different kind of human interaction. These tools make it easier for people to be less personal and sometimes less accountable for their actions. The human eye also sees things differently than a machine and experiencing a work of art or an art program engages all the senses. The Internet only really engages two. Some hospitals hire artists to draw anatomy during surgery because an artist’s eye catches things a camera does not. A machine has limitations. People are also inherently social creatures and most people find pleasure in interaction. Will sex cease to exist once scientists discover a method to make the perfect child outside the womb? Can human intimacy ever be replaced, and if so, do human beings want this? An example of why this question is an important one for our future can be found in the Saguaro Seminars created and researched by Harvard’s Kennedy School. The below is an excerpt.

Art as social event: By their very nature the arts are social activities which connect artists with spectators. Artistic exchange is a form of communication — the “making common” of an idea or emotion. As such, the arts offer a naturally fertile terrain for cultivating social capital.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways to be involved in the arts:
1) as a spectator at an art event
2) as a performer in the arts
3) as a presenter of an art event (e.g., producer, sponsor, organizer, curator, etc.)
While arts attendance in America is steadily rising, spectatorship itself is not necessarily a significant form of social capital: looking at a painting, listening to a concert, or watching a dramatic performance is at its essence an individual activity, even when it occurs in the company of others. The degree to which arts-going stimulates social capital probably depends on whether or not the spectator uses the experience to build new or strengthen existing bonds of trust and reciprocity with co-attendees, and whether the experience is structured to promote new connections and to strengthen these social bonds. In any event, it is group-performing and arts-presenting that offer the surest means of creating social capital. Taking part in a multi-person dance, concert, or drama involves social and emotional interaction, coordination and trust, as does to a lesser extent participation in arts classes or on-line discussion groups. Helping to bring art to the public can be another source of social capital. The staff of the art gallery, the theater management company, or the YMCA can come to know, rely on, and trust one another, as well as the community around them through collaborative endeavors.
In other words, the arts can yield civic engagement and social capital, sometimes while addressing pressing social concerns. But how can we maximize social capital through the arts? And are there keys to the process — certain types of art or ways of presenting them — that might bolster social capital?

3. Do you think globalization has created a homogenous culture worldwide? How has this affected local arts?

Some great impacts on the 21st century are media and communication technologies and the growth of cosmopolitan culture. Much of the arts can be produced and consumed in the home; many people contribute and learn from each other and much of what is made is considered community property. Moreover, there is now an explosion of cultural choice made possible by new technologies and a renewed mingling of high and popular arts. In context of globalization, citizens have developed skills and expertise for seeking out new experiences, learning about them and sharing that knowledge with friends all over the world instantly. But critiques argue that consolidated ownership, centralized control of content, and bottom-line pressures in public companies are leading us toward less diversity, less risk, and fewer opportunities for emerging artists or art forms to find audiences. Such trends are crowding out local and independent voice. Citizens are increasingly confronting a homogenized culture that does not speak to their unique expressive needs. In the process of globalization, one major issue is how local arts can cope with competition so as to achieve innovation in an age when global trends can control local culture. Thus, it is worthy to discuss the relationship between globalization and local arts.

4. How has technology affected our built environment (home and public spaces)?

Technology has brought a great change to affect how we use the space of life. In the past, family members shared a TV set to appreciate the same program, but now we can sit in our own rooms and watch different channels. Moreover, we can exchange our feelings of the program and discuss online. This change gradually effects the space division in the house. In the morning, the mother does the cooking in the kitchen, and she receives a message from the family members by a hand-held device and gets to know their choice of the breakfast. In the afternoon, the boy uses Google Maps to find the café in the university, opens his laptop to get in touch with his partners in the other places by a wireless network, and talk about a new idea instead of taking a long flight to go to a faraway place. On campus, we share resources and discuss with our professor and classmates not only in the classroom but also in any parts of the university. In the past, we needed to make an appointment or meeting, book a room, coordinate the different time of the attendees, but now most people are interacting with each other online, getting in touch with others, checking mailboxes, and sharing images in the network. Public meetings space may not be as important 20 years in the future. Floppy disks, Walkmans, and beepers have been replaced by USB, MP3/MP4, and smart phones. Since the widespread use of the internet, the world has become smaller; people in different places can use it to communicate. With the advent of Cloud technology, the usage of space has changed again. Judging from what we have seen so far, it is not hard for us imagine the circumstances 20 years in the future. The space of the construction will change a lot. We forecast boldly, some function of the room will fade away or be replaced by the new space.

Final Project

Students will form groups of three to four members in which to work. Each group will be assigned an unusual outdoor or indoor space—e.g. an abandoned building, church, scrap yard, orchard, barn, etc. Students will determine the community most directly connected to their space through demographic research and identify the defining aspects of their culture. They will then construct an art project around the assigned space that is designed to attract other cultures and communities not necessarily associated with it. Students will also consider the technological capabilities/limitations of their space and how they will affect and shape the project. Some spaces will be better suited for a very high-tech experience while others may pose many difficult barriers for technology, and so more archaic techniques may need to be utilized. A written proposal for each project will be summitted. It will justify the platform of the project, as well as explain the execution strategies. The proposal for the project should involve at least one transmedia element, although that one element does not have to constitute the entirety of the proposal.

The purpose of this project is to let students consider the four different modules presented in class while focusing on a smaller picture. It is designed to make students think simultaneously about how art worlds are experienced and about how human contact/interaction, the physical place in which art is experienced, and the technologies involved all influence that experience. Throughout the construct of their projects, students must consider each module and respond to them in relation to their project.

Learning Environment

The learning environment for our course is half online, half in class. We imagine that 20 years in the future, many if not most classes will be conducted online. Thus, if we are teaching a class for students whose learning environment is usually virtual, we want to break the mold and make students interact in person. This learning style will serve as a framework for our course, acting as a way to stimulate dialogue around how art functions in a society so heavily based in individual expression and technological capabilities.

This split learning environment also fits perfectly with our module questions and the final project’s focus on place. Module questions 1 & 3 will be discussed online because these questions focus on modern vs. historical experiences of art worlds and the trends of globalization. While questions 2 & 4 will be discussed in class since they deal with human contact, tangibility and how technology affects the built environment. Thus, each question matches the learning environment. Furthermore, by discussing each topic in person after having class online and vice versa, students can experience the effect place has on their expression. We hope that changing the learning environment in accordance with the modules will stimulate discussion, re-shape students’ perspective of their surroundings and prepare them for the final project.

References

Bill Ivey. , & Steven Tepper, J. (2006, May 19). Cultural renaissance or cultural
divide?. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/artsustainablesociety/files/2010/01/Ivey-Tepper_cult-rennaisance.pdf

Update on the seventh meeting of the saguaro seminar:. (1999). The saguaro seminar,
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/saguaro/meetings/thearts.htm

One Comment


November 20, 2012
Hannah Bulkley

Hannah Bulkley, Laurette Garner, Eve Thorne, Yi Liang

Module 4 Essay

Module Questions

1. How do we experience Art Worlds today versus how we experienced them in the past?

We chose this question because it forces the students to be introspective about the past and themselves in a current state. Only by assessing the patterns of populations can people know what really drives them towards constant change and evolution. There is an insatiable need for human beings to create and learn. Curiosity drives people to invent faster ways to learn and experience.

Some topics students might consider based on trends of today include:

How the types of places we experience Art Worlds have changed over time: For example, before the use of the internet, location played a large part in how audiences experienced the arts. In addition to location, physical items were extremely important. If a person were to see a musical, theater, opera or dance production it would be a specific venue and a person would pay a specific price in order to experience this art form. A person would have to go to a place in order to experience these things with their eyes. Some audio opportunities became available with radio, records and the phonograph but before radio or broadcasting, a person had to go to a place to experience a specific Art World. People were also limited in transportation before the invention of the car and so things were experienced more locally. Even after the car it took a long time for most people to afford transportation to cities far away.

How each Art World relates to place and distribution: For instance, informal art has always been something practiced alongside of traditional rituals and this practice is still alive and healthy today because human beings feel that roots are important to understanding their place on this planet. For the visual arts, location is also extremely important. People had to go to a museum or fair or festival to see works of art. Some people did make an effort to see globalized visual art with the creation of the World’s Fairs. Transportation was expensive and slower, as were forms of audio communication. In general, life existed at a slower pace. Literary art was also distributed at a slower pace and dependent on a tangible product. In order to read a book, a person had to have access to a bookstore or library or a friend with a library. Art Worlds existed within specific public spaces and could only be done so with a commitment to travel based on a slower communication process and limited information.

How technology has affected how we experience Art Worlds: As in today, while many people still value going to a location to experience art, the option to stay at home is prevalent. The aforementioned locations have become a virtual reality in some cases. The internet allows people to move less and experience tangible art pieces in a virtual form. People can see fine art over online and watch a movie or a play while sitting at their computer. Technology has also given access to the arts in personal ways by allowing public access to art making tools. Home made videos and radio broadcasts are commonplace. Human beings can express our opinions immediately without waiting for the carriage post. People can participate and experience art with multiple audiences by sitting in one place. Some people from older generations still hold on to older practices and enjoy seeing art on the walls and seeing a movie in a movie theater, but most people also enjoy having immediate access to whatever art form they choose whenever they like. Movie production is more localized in the future and many people make their own movies and display them online for the world to view for free. Paying for the arts has become a very current issue and the world is trying to wrap their brains around free distribution versus putting a price on creativity.

2. Do you think human contact and tangibility is important to arts engagement and learning?

We chose this question for students to discuss because the 21st century has refocused energy on researching the effects of tangible experiences within Art Worlds. While technology advances and people are able to experience entertainment at home more than ever, scientists say it is biologically inherent for human beings to touch and feel. Human beings were all given five senses and sometimes a sixth for a reason. The Internet can teach a person how to relate and engage with other human beings face to face. Cell phones and the web have allowed for a different kind of human interaction. These tools make it easier for people to be less personal and sometimes less accountable for their actions. The human eye also sees things differently than a machine and experiencing a work of art or an art program engages all the senses. The Internet only really engages two. Some hospitals hire artists to draw anatomy during surgery because an artist’s eye catches things a camera does not. A machine has limitations. People are also inherently social creatures and most people find pleasure in interaction. Will sex cease to exist once scientists discover a method to make the perfect child outside the womb? Can human intimacy ever be replaced, and if so, do human beings want this? An example of why this question is an important one for our future can be found in the Saguaro Seminars created and researched by Harvard’s Kennedy School. The below is an excerpt.

Art as social event: By their very nature the arts are social activities which connect artists with spectators. Artistic exchange is a form of communication — the “making common” of an idea or emotion. As such, the arts offer a naturally fertile terrain for cultivating social capital.
Broadly speaking, there are three ways to be involved in the arts:
1) as a spectator at an art event
2) as a performer in the arts
3) as a presenter of an art event (e.g., producer, sponsor, organizer, curator, etc.)
While arts attendance in America is steadily rising, spectatorship itself is not necessarily a significant form of social capital: looking at a painting, listening to a concert, or watching a dramatic performance is at its essence an individual activity, even when it occurs in the company of others. The degree to which arts-going stimulates social capital probably depends on whether or not the spectator uses the experience to build new or strengthen existing bonds of trust and reciprocity with co-attendees, and whether the experience is structured to promote new connections and to strengthen these social bonds. In any event, it is group-performing and arts-presenting that offer the surest means of creating social capital. Taking part in a multi-person dance, concert, or drama involves social and emotional interaction, coordination and trust, as does to a lesser extent participation in arts classes or on-line discussion groups. Helping to bring art to the public can be another source of social capital. The staff of the art gallery, the theater management company, or the YMCA can come to know, rely on, and trust one another, as well as the community around them through collaborative endeavors.
In other words, the arts can yield civic engagement and social capital, sometimes while addressing pressing social concerns. But how can we maximize social capital through the arts? And are there keys to the process — certain types of art or ways of presenting them — that might bolster social capital?

3. Do you think globalization has created a homogenous culture worldwide? How has this affected local arts?

Some great impacts on the 21st century are media and communication technologies and the growth of cosmopolitan culture. Much of the arts can be produced and consumed in the home; many people contribute and learn from each other and much of what is made is considered community property. Moreover, there is now an explosion of cultural choice made possible by new technologies and a renewed mingling of high and popular arts. In context of globalization, citizens have developed skills and expertise for seeking out new experiences, learning about them and sharing that knowledge with friends all over the world instantly. But critiques argue that consolidated ownership, centralized control of content, and bottom-line pressures in public companies are leading us toward less diversity, less risk, and fewer opportunities for emerging artists or art forms to find audiences. Such trends are crowding out local and independent voice. Citizens are increasingly confronting a homogenized culture that does not speak to their unique expressive needs. In the process of globalization, one major issue is how local arts can cope with competition so as to achieve innovation in an age when global trends can control local culture. Thus, it is worthy to discuss the relationship between globalization and local arts.

4. How has technology affected our built environment (home and public spaces)?

Technology has brought a great change to affect how we use the space of life. In the past, family members shared a TV set to appreciate the same program, but now we can sit in our own rooms and watch different channels. Moreover, we can exchange our feelings of the program and discuss online. This change gradually effects the space division in the house. In the morning, the mother does the cooking in the kitchen, and she receives a message from the family members by a hand-held device and gets to know their choice of the breakfast. In the afternoon, the boy uses Google Maps to find the café in the university, opens his laptop to get in touch with his partners in the other places by a wireless network, and talk about a new idea instead of taking a long flight to go to a faraway place. On campus, we share resources and discuss with our professor and classmates not only in the classroom but also in any parts of the university. In the past, we needed to make an appointment or meeting, book a room, coordinate the different time of the attendees, but now most people are interacting with each other online, getting in touch with others, checking mailboxes, and sharing images in the network. Public meetings space may not be as important 20 years in the future. Floppy disks, Walkmans, and beepers have been replaced by USB, MP3/MP4, and smart phones. Since the widespread use of the internet, the world has become smaller; people in different places can use it to communicate. With the advent of Cloud technology, the usage of space has changed again. Judging from what we have seen so far, it is not hard for us imagine the circumstances 20 years in the future. The space of the construction will change a lot. We forecast boldly, some function of the room will fade away or be replaced by the new space.

Final Project

Students will form groups of three to four members in which to work. Each group will be assigned an unusual outdoor or indoor space—e.g. an abandoned building, church, scrap yard, orchard, barn, etc. Students will determine the community most directly connected to their space through demographic research and identify the defining aspects of their culture. They will then construct an art project around the assigned space that is designed to attract other cultures and communities not necessarily associated with it. Students will also consider the technological capabilities/limitations of their space and how they will affect and shape the project. Some spaces will be better suited for a very high-tech experience while others may pose many difficult barriers for technology, and so more archaic techniques may need to be utilized. A written proposal for each project will be summitted. It will justify the platform of the project, as well as explain the execution strategies. The proposal for the project should involve at least one transmedia element, although that one element does not have to constitute the entirety of the proposal.

The purpose of this project is to let students consider the four different modules presented in class while focusing on a smaller picture. It is designed to make students think simultaneously about how art worlds are experienced and about how human contact/interaction, the physical place in which art is experienced, and the technologies involved all influence that experience. Throughout the construct of their projects, students must consider each module and respond to them in relation to their project.

Learning Environment

The learning environment for our course is half online, half in class. We imagine that 20 years in the future, many if not most classes will be conducted online. Thus, if we are teaching a class for students whose learning environment is usually virtual, we want to break the mold and make students interact in person. This learning style will serve as a framework for our course, acting as a way to stimulate dialogue around how art functions in a society so heavily based in individual expression and technological capabilities.

This split learning environment also fits perfectly with our module questions and the final project’s focus on place. Module questions 1 & 3 will be discussed online because these questions focus on modern vs. historical experiences of art worlds and the trends of globalization. While questions 2 & 4 will be discussed in class since they deal with human contact, tangibility and how technology affects the built environment. Thus, each question matches the learning environment. Furthermore, by discussing each topic in person after having class online and vice versa, students can experience the effect place has on their expression. We hope that changing the learning environment in accordance with the modules will stimulate discussion, re-shape students’ perspective of their surroundings and prepare them for the final project.

References

Bill Ivey. , & Steven Tepper, J. (2006, May 19). Cultural renaissance or cultural
divide?. The Chronicle. Retrieved from http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/artsustainablesociety/files/2010/01/Ivey-Tepper_cult-rennaisance.pdf

Update on the seventh meeting of the saguaro seminar:. (1999). The saguaro seminar,
Santa Fe, New Mexico. Retrieved from http://www.hks.harvard.edu/saguaro/meetings/thearts.htm

jfenn@uoregon.edu

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