Objectives
- Learn about public funding for the Arts.
- Examine public art’s role in capturing history and place-making.
- Explore the relationship of cultural values to civic dialogue, beautification and identity.
Original Post
ART AND HUMAN VALUES
This week I went to saw the Runquist Murals, and the feeling I got was very different with what I got from watching them online in front computer. It was not only about the size, and of course the real murals are much bigger than I thought, but also about the inspiration. There were two parts of the murals called “Development of the Arts”, and “Development of the Sciences”. I found it was really a good idea to put the development of the history into an analogy of tree. Like the description on website said, “mother earth provides the materials for the arts exemplified here by gems and precious stones, and inspiration in its infinite forms and growth represented by flower”, and in the development of sciences part, “figure at base of tree represents humanity rising to erect posture of thinking being”. To be honest, I am very interested in the history of these things, but I still think I am an outsider for such things because I am not from this country. So I think it will be interesting to make a Chinese version of it.
I searched a lot on Internet trying to get right information, and here is my version of “Development of China”.
Panel 1: Xia (First Dynasty) and Shang Dynasty (2000BC)
Panel 2: Tang and Qing Dynasty, golden age, women foot binding, firstly have paper money, the Great Wall constructed
Panel 3: Chinese Revolution (1911)
Panel 4: Communist take-over (1949)
Panel 5: One-child policy (1979)
Panel 6: Hong Kong transfer to China (1998)
Panel 7: China’s first space traveler, Liwei Yang (2003)
Panel 8: Beijing Olympics (2008)
Reflection
I found this unit is the other one that I really enjoy to learn because I like public arts very much. I think public arts are things that give people positive energy. I didn’t pay much attention about it before but I really enjoy finding and watching public arts now. After I read the essay “Public art controversy: Cultural expression and civic debate” by Doss, I agree that “public art was a form of civic improvement and could help generate a shared sense of civic and national identity” (Doss, 4). We see public arts every day, and most of the time they are just stands there and here, and it seems nobody really cares them. But its hard to imagine that a city with no public arts, that would be so boring. So I think public arts are silent energy, which means they are always there when people needs them.
I really like this idea of “before I die”, and it basically allow people to write or draw things on it under this topic. I think it is nice because it makes people to stop few seconds and think about life. One people only lives once, and many people in the world lost themselves. This public art allow people to set at least one goal before the life ends, and it is really powerful tool to get start to plan ahead.
http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/hDrwvOXKPeb/Public+Chalkboard+Art+Installation+Encourages/hZ-DV9DXkSg/Kate+Schaefer
Just like my post shows, China has very long history, and different people in different time period has different life to live. It seems easy to make a timeline or time tree to express the history, but every piece of it could be very long in terms of one life for one person. In my post “Life Values Assessment”, I listed top twenty values I have in my life, and I think it was very meaningful as well.
It is so interesting to think about things in different level. For example different gender sees things differently, people from different country has different value. There are so many things affect people in different matter, and I think that is what creates possibilities and connections.
Future Goals
I like to know more about public arts so I plan to pay more attention on them. I will go to LA this winter break, and I think I could compare public arts there and public arts in Eugene. Maybe there would not have much huge difference because these two cities are pretty close. But I still think it could be some differences because the feeling of these two cities is different. Eugene is quieter whereas LA is more like modern. I can not wait to see how this plan will go, and I will enjoy doing this.
Bibliography:
Table of Contents
Artifact 1: Life Values Assessment
Artifact 3: Food As Art Research
Artifact 6: Creative Spirituality