Knowledge and the Arts
Blog/Journal Entry-DUE DATE Friday, April 11th
Choose one of the following questions to explore in your Blog/Journal entry. Link to respond:
Does Art enlarge what is possible for us to think and know?
Can some knowledge in the arts only be gained through experience?
Can we separate the moral character of the artist from the value of the artwork?
Remember, A journal entry should be based on a concrete, real life situation (RLS). A RLS can be a response to a personal experience, a topic learned about in school (outside of TOK), a current event, or some form of media (TV show, movie, book, artwork, etc.). This doesn’t necessarily have to be something that happened to you. Your decision about what to write about is up to you.
In your response, you should:
Briefly explain the RLS that you are responding to.
Identify the relevant knowledge question: I will provide a list for each area we are focusing on
discuss your thoughts and ideas on that question.
discuss the connections to TOK. You can discuss the implications of your thoughts or talk about perspective, culture, the definitions of truth, knowledge, or belief, or reflections on the knowledge community you are a part of. Choose a key concept to connect to.
Connect your discussion back to your real life situation.
Rubric
Some knowledge in the arts can only be gained through personal experience. At the same time, we can study and analyze artworks, literature, and music from an intellectual distance; the emotional, sensory, and sometimes physical aspects of art often can not be fully understood unless we engage with them. Art often aims to evoke something deeply human, and these responses cannot always be fully captured through second-hand descriptions. Experiencing art directly creates space for emotional knowledge, which can be considered subjective, but very real. In 3rd grade, I realized this during a field trip to a local music museum, where I saw a very dark and ominous exhibit that required you to walk down a narrow hallway that led to a set of instruments playing music. This piece of work was about navigating uncertainty and hope, according to the artist. While reading the plaque, I understood the concept, but walking up to the exhibit, experiencing it myself, feeling vulnerable and fearful, the goal of the artwork was accomplished. That experience gave me a kind of knowledge I could not have gotten by reading the description, teaching me that art can convey knowledge through emotion and immersion. This connects to our key concept of experience, and more specifically, how sense perception and emotion can shape our understanding in ways language cannot. In this case, the knowledge gained was not factual; it was personal and emotional. It also touches perspective, someone reading about this artwork from a distance could form a completely different understanding than someone who participated. If I had only read about the piece, I might have dismissed it as meaningless, but being part of it revealed something profoundly human, a kind of silent communication that is hard to describe. That experience showed me that some knowledge in the arts can not always be explained; it has to be lived, in some cases.
ReplyDeleteThis is very thoughtful Meriah! Your example is excellent. Linking the key concept of experience is a smart connection.
DeleteDoes Art enlarge what is possible for us to think and know?
ReplyDeleteI would say that art doesn't provide knowledge in the traditional sense. Much art doesn't provide information unless the artist wants us to take away something from it. However I would say that art does provide people with new perspectives and views into culture that usually informative things can't provide. Take the Mona Lina, for example, where so many people go everyday to see the famous painting in person. This could be for the significant value of the painting itself being so famous, or to provide the viewer with their own experience seeing the painting in person. There's also concerts, where this known as a great way to see live performances of music. Although they are great, seeing a performance in person doesn't provide any knowledgeable enhancement besides new experiences gained from the art. Art itself has been known to be the central point of cultures over centuries ago, like the Renaissance, where the inovation of art and ideas could be the focal point in what makes culture as we know it. In this sense, you could say that only because of the many innovations in art over centuries, culture is the way we know it today.
Art provides a window into one's innermost thoughts, a personal experience, a historical event, and more, enlarging what is possible for us to think and know. Knowledge expands beyond simple fact; it is a concept of truth, beliefs, and awareness. Human thought can be limited by a lack of experience, exposure, and open-mindedness. For example, in 1917, an artist by the name of Marcel Duchamp submitted an upside-down urinal signed, "R. Mutt 1917" to the Society of Independent Artists as a social statement. This struck up controversy amidst the artistic community and frustrated artists and critics alike. While the artwork itself was not seen as valuable, the questions and contemplations that arose after its submission was. This piece led many to question what society knew to be art, who set those parameters, and if there was something that defined a piece as "art". It was thought that art had to have intention, tell a story, and meet conventional standards. This piece enlarged what people thought something should have in order to be classified as art. It contributed to knowledge of culture and standards that define something as visually appealing
ReplyDeleteThis is an amazing example, very creative. Your proposal that art can lead to a new definition of art and what we "know" is art is very interesting.
DeleteDoes Art enlarge what is possible for us to think and know?
ReplyDeleteArt is a powerful tool in influencing the human mind. Art can create new knowledge or open us up to new interpretations of ideas or event. Prime examples of art’s influential power are war movies. Depending on the film, war will be presented differently. For example, films like Schindler’s List (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998) and All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) focus on and highlight the despair of war and explore the effects it has on those in it. Conversely, films like The Longest Day (1962) and Patton (1970) depict the triumph of war and highlight nationalism. All mentioned films focus on the same subject, however, due to their time of release or perspective they follow, they differ in their interpretation of war. These different interpretations also affect the knowledge of the viewer. It can be advantageous as they supply multiple perspectives and thus more information on both how war effects different combatants and its perception following its conclusion. Alternatively, as these contain different, conflicting views based on individuals’ interpretations, it can obscure true facts about events, as they will be depicted differently depending on the tone of the film, limiting the audience’s knowledge acquisition. This aspect is not limited to film and stays persistent through other mediums of art, whether it be poems, or paintings, or photographs. With art being “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination,” pieces exude the knowledge of the creator and reflect it back to the audience. The viewer of art receives whatever knowledge that piece displays, forming or affecting their thoughts about events. It is for this reason that art is so commonly used as propaganda; it has a strong ability to influence the thoughts of those viewing it and they’re thoughts may be shaped by what they view. If someone is only exposed to war movies that portray the event negatively, they will see only despair and suffering in war, while someone who only watches films that romanticize war will get a sense of nationalism and triumph from war.
Excellent use of key concept of interpretation and how that impacts knowledge.
DeleteDoes art enlarge what is possible for us to think and know?
ReplyDeleteArt allows us to explore complex or difficult ideas from different perspectives. Art is very subjective and often left to interpretation, allowing for different outcomes and ideas based on one piece of work. Literature is a great example of Art that can expand what is possible for us to think and know. Many authors use books as a way to comment on society around them and reflect on issues using metaphors, satire, and other figurative language. Animal Farm by George Orwell is a novel that provided a metaphor on the issue of communism in the post WW2 world. When reading this novel, you get various perspectives on communism from the characters. You create your own interpretations and gain knowledge of feelings from different conflicts. The author uses the literature to share his perspective, while the reader is able to think and expand their knowledge to agree or disagrees. Authors use literature to inform readers and give readers a medium for think and interpret. There are many viewpoints and ideas that can be created from a book and art allows us to expand and think to find those different ideas.
Good use of the key concepts of perspective and interpretation.
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