Blog 33: Global Spirituality, Understanding, and Wisdom

Blog 33: Due Dec. 21 by Midnight

(You will not have a blog over the break. I know this makes you sad...) 



THIS BLOG HAS TWO PARTS--PLEASE DO BOTH for full credit: 

1. Watch either the TedTalk embedded above, OR one from this playlist: 

http://www.ted.com/playlists/14/are_you_there_god.html

or this one, by Benedictine Monk David Steindl-Rast (heavy accent, beware!)

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_steindl_rast_want_to_be_happy_be_grateful.html

First, tell me which one you watched. Then, write about it reflectively: what is familiar to you about it, what is foreign? What do you agree or disagree with, on an individual basis. What does this talk tell you about a more global perspective and understanding? Was there anything that was new to you? A concept, a way of looking at things, or a piece of information about a religion/spirituality/belief different from yours?


2. We are steeped in a holiday season. Whether you see the holidays as a mass-market money-making scheme, as a reason to gather family together, or as a time of celebration and reflection of religious tradition, it is a time when those in the areas of the world influenced heavily by Judaism and Christianity give one another gifts. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a lengthy essay about gifts in which he talks about the graciousness and gratefulness he feels when given a gift, be it something he can hold in his hands, or something he can hold in his heart. Hopefully, it's the latter that makes you truly humbled.

In thinking about gifts, try to answer this question: what is the greatest gift that you have been given? (This gift can be tangible, intangible, for any reason or for a specific reason, it can be symbolic/metaphoric...think about something you are grateful to have!) Why was it such an amazing gift? Who gave it to you? What gives this gift meaning for you? How did you or do you show your gratefulness for this gift?

Blog 32: Art and the other Areas

Blog 32: Due Dec 14 by Midnight.

This week, we will be looking at various pieces of visual art; certainly not all of the visual art there is--not even close!--but you will have the opportunity to exercise your inner aesthetic philosopher. As we do, it's important that you are able to contemplate how art can inform your other Ways/Areas of knowing. 

The TedTalk this week is really engaging and witty. It dives into how leaders can use arts and aesthetic philosophy to be effective in leadership and effective problem solvers by applying the creativity necessary in art.  Towards the end of the week, we will begin our venture into religion and spirituality. I think this is an apt place to really dive in an look at how art seeps into so much of what we know or attempt to know. 

Please pick one of the following below to respond to this week:

1) One of the things that John Maeda says in his talk is that you aren't supposed to know what is going on in art; in fact, if you have no idea, than you're "doing it right." He said the purpose of art is to ask questions (can you see why I love this talk?!). Pick a piece of art that you are familiar with. You may need to provide a link or a description. Then, focus on the questions it asks its audience. What does it ask you, the individual? What does it ask the collective?

2) As we move into religion and spirituality, what is your opinion on art or creative endeavors that are commissioned, or at the very least, motivated by religion? Do you believe that art commissioned by religious leaders still fulfills your own personal standards for what qualifies as art?

3) Flipping the coin: whether you are an artist or a member of the audience, is there a spiritual experience at work when you view/hear/read a great work or a moving piece? Many have compared seeing the Russian Ballet, a performance of the opera Aida, listening to a great symphony, or viewing Michelangelo's Pieta to being in the presence of something greater than human beings. How would you explain this? Have you had this experience? Can you describe aptly through language what it was like?

Blog 31: Endangered Art

Due: Saturday, Dec. 7 by Midnight

The TedTalk will be relevant to your responses in this week's blog, so you will want to watch it. It's about 13 minutes long.


We have been talking a lot about the purpose, the value, and the motivation of art. What we haven't talked much about yet is, while human beings are perhaps the only beings driven to create in the arts, we are also capable of destroying these endeavors. To many, the arts and aesthetics are seen as frivolous, wasteful of time and energy, and nothing but entertainment. Ben Cameron (in the TedTalk) references the internet as one potential thing that stands in the way of people accessing the live performing arts, while others could argue that the internet provides a way for more people to be exposed to the performing arts.Your answer will come in two parts:

Choose one of these:

1. The arts (performing arts, industrial arts, visual arts, etc) are constantly being threatened as a way to cut budgets in public schools (K-12). Advocates say that students can access the arts in their communities and that school time should be used strictly for core academic subjects. Make a case for or against this movement.

2. Sixty years ago, a trip to an art gallery, a ballet, a symphony, a play/musical/opera, or being given a classic book of poetry or literature was considered a decadence (or at least a great move on a date!). While Ben Cameron says that the live performing arts are competing with the internet, discuss other 'roadblocks' that you see standing between the average 15-25 year old and their exposure to art (of any kind). Or perhaps you don't see much of a decline--if so, what (perhaps) could cause one?

AND Everyone respond to this:

What has been your best experience in your life thus far with being a purveyor (audience member) of performing arts? Perhaps you visited a big city where you saw a world famous production; perhaps you sat in a church somewhere and listened to Handel's Messiah one Christmas; perhaps you saw a mime performing in Paris, or maybe a play at our very own MCT that moved you). Why was this experience memorable? Do you see yourself as an adult who seeks out experiences in the performing arts?

Blog 30: Culture, Beauty, Art

Due Saturday, November 30th by Midnight

Choose one from below to answer.

1. In response to the TedTalk above, is art the only area of knowledge in which one can go through various reincarnations as "creator", or do you find that this is a trait in other areas of knowing? How does changing the way one self-expresses over a lifetime get us closer or further away from truth?

2 What knowledge of art can be gained by focusing attention on its social, cultural, or historical context? To what extent to power relationships determine what or whose art is valued? Is all art essentially a product of a particular place/time? Is art understood more fully by emphasizing what all cultures have in common rather than by stressing what is unique to each?

3. If art has the power to influence how people think, does this mean it should be controlled? Should art be politically censored? If a monetary value is placed on art, who should determine that value? (example: the open market? The artist? The audience? The government? Explain!)

4. In all the various art forms--literature, poetry, sculpture, painting, photography, dance, theater, music--there are common threads. What, to you, are some of these common threads? What are your "aesthetic standards" when it comes to the giant body that is the Arts? And finally, do you believe works of art in any/all of the categories above are static and maintain their meaning over time, or are they fluid and change their meaning? What is the use of art that constantly shifts in meaning and art that remains static in its meaning?


5. Explore: "Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth--at least the truth that is given us to understand." --Pablo Picasso

6. Explore: "Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it." --Edward Albee

7. Explore: "The essential function of art is moral." --DH Lawrence

Blog 29: Stumbling Upon Art

Blog 29: Due Nov. 23 by Midnight

American Beauty--Plastic bag scene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qssvnjj5Moo

Objects of beauty come to us from all corners of our worlds. Sometimes, all it takes is slowing down and recognizing that something we normally walk by, barely notice, or are used to is actually aesthetic in its own way. Alexa Meade discovered her art form by noticing shadows (TedTalk above). In the youtube clip above, a plastic bag floating in the wind becomes a hypnotically rare piece of art through the lens of a video camera. This is what is referred to as 'found art'.

1. Describe something out of what we ordinarily label as "art", that you have noticed as aesthetically pleasing--try to describe in as much detail as you can so that by reading your post, we can easily understand why this object, moment, sound, sight, etc caught your artist's eye.

2. Is 'found art' really art? If there is not motivation behind it (as you posted about last week), or if there is not a human instigator creating it or setting it into motion for the purpose of art, does it qualify? Explain.

Blog 28: Art in Exile

Blog 27: Due November 16, 2013 by Midnight



More information on exiled artists: http://www.ac-grenoble.fr/comenius/berges/Documents/France/Travaux/Italie/ExiledArtisit.pdf

Essay: "Imaginary Homelands" by Salman Rushdie http://philosophy.ucsc.edu/news-events/colloquia-conferences/Rushdie1992ImaginaryHomelands.pdf

In the above Essay, Rushdie explores the meaning of "Home" from the point of view of someone who was forced away from the place he called Home. He uses this platform to philosophically contemplate that which we tie ourselves to and the reasons, sometimes worthy and sometimes not, for untying ourselves. It is a short read--I highly recommend. (Hemingway wrote of his craft as a "moveable feast", one that he could do from anywhere in the world--he could gorge himself on his artworks. It makes me wonder, do many artists feel this way? As though they 'trick' those in power by taking their platform with them, even in exile?)

This week, we barely brushed the very controversial surface of the purpose of art, the motivators of art, and why we create. For this week's blog, I want you think about the motivator of art being a voice for the silenced. Many artists, once their art is made public, are seen as threats to the government, to the state of "calm" (or control) perceived by those with power, or as a threat to power. Perhaps this is why the marginalized are not the ones recording History.

Pablo Picasso (painter, Spain), Salman Rushdie (Essayist/Novelist, India), Shirin Neshat (Photographer/artist see TedTalk above, Iran), Azar Nafisi (novelist Reading Lolita in Tehran), Eugene Ionesco (writer), and many, many others have  been forced away from their homelands due to the art they create. The question we want to ask them: Was it worth it? Was being able speak through your art worth being kept from 'home'? 

We can't help but think that there must be another reason motivating these artists to produce this kind of art--but what is that motivation?

In your response ruminate on the concept of artists in exile. Feel free to find an example if you like, or just write in general:

• What is their motivation? 
• Why do they create art despite the horrifying consequences? 
• Is the art they produce more/less important than the art someone who isn't faced with such consequences made?
• What work does this kind of art do in the making of meaning? How does it contribute to the collective/individual knowledge spheres? 
• What truths, if any, does this kind of art hold? 

Blog 27: Moving from History to Art

Blog 27: Due November 9, 2013 by Midnight

The TedTalk above is kind of a fun transition from History to Art, as areas of knowledge; although, many would argue that there is no transition to be made--they are limbs of the same tree--but, as we are seeing, we could say that about every area of knowledge!

There is certainly a connection between Art and History that is special, it cannot be denied. Many of you wrote about Artists in the last blog as having a great influence upon history.

Remember, as we begin to talk about Art as an area of knowledge this week, that we include: literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, photography, film, dance/movement, theater, music/lyrics, etc. Try to think beyond the canvas, so to speak, when contemplating Art.

Question Options: Choose one of these
1. If you could spend a day with any artist, living or deceased, who would it be and what would you ask him or her?

2. Do you think archaeologically discovered artifacts, such as clay pots and hieroglyphics, belong in a Museum of Art or a Museum of History? Explain or answer.

3. What makes art..."Art"? What gives a piece of art credibility and how does one differentiate between "good" and "bad" art? (Don't simply quote your textbook...I'm curious what you think!)

4. Some argue that Art, creativity, and the ability to express ourselves for no other reason than to be creative, is what ultimately separates human beings from the rest of the mammals. Do you agree or disagree with this?

AND (everyone answers this)

What is your preferred mode of creativity? Notice, I'm not asking you what you are best at doing...I'm asking what you like to do as a creative outlet. What is your most creative time of day?