Photography and Art

1. In the 19th century, the camera was a revolutionary invention. Did the invention of the camera change the arts? Why or why not?
Is there a relationship between movements such as realism and impressionism and the camera?

Imagining a world without modern technology

2. The reason it's good to pay attention to the course objectives is that they tell you what goals for the student are most important to the institutions and teachers that create the class. Therefore, they present obvious clues as to what will be tested, and the priorities by which papers are graded.

This week is a great example. One of the course objectives covered this week is, "given a significant technological advance (such as the printing press or camera), assess the effects of the technical breakthrough on culture and art."

Imagine what people and cultures were like without photography, recorded music, television, film, music videos, or anything electronic whatever. Much of what we take for granted would seem absolutely miraculous to them. Also, the whole nature and use of the human imagination has changed significantly.

You may want to use considerations such as this in responding to this particular discussion question. Or, take it in your own direction.

3. This is probably the kind of thing that only a Humanities teacher would be interested in, but the history of the development of color media for humanity's creative use is really a quite fascinating one - involving charred wood from ancient fires, naturally occurring vs. manufactured pigments, finishing a painting quickly before plaster dries, and even an essential creative use for eggs. And of course, much more.

Technological advances in the arts are not a recent phenomenon. They have been going on since the beginning:

Writing (ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt)

The tuba and the organ (Classical Rome)

The printing press (the 15th Century - one big reason the Protestant Reformation succeeded after several failed starts in previous centuries)

The modern piano (the 18th Century - a big part of the great emotion of Romantic music, like Beethoven)

Electronics (Think for a moment about how your experience of the arts - music especially - is affected by relatively recent advances in electronics)

There could be a whole course in history studying just such things.

4.Realism and Impressionism (graded)

For this week's discussion, choose realism or impressionism as a basis for your posts and discuss how your choice is manifested in any area of the humanities (i.e., painting, sculpture, literature, music, etc.), and give an example from any discipline in the humanities to illustrate how realism or impressionism influenced the work of art. Please be sure to give an analysis of how the work of art was influenced by the movement.

Here we go again. We get to look at more highfalutin academic words: Realism and Impressionism.

B. As I wrote before, though it's OK when you look up definitions of such words and provide those definitions in your posts. But when you post these, please add your own thoughts, opinions, insights and potential insights.

And remember this important point: in these discussions, it is more important that you have a significant and satisfying experience with the content and creative works than it is for you to be "right" or "correct" in your viewpoint. Be bold and audacious. Ask yourself the question, "what does this have to mean in order for it to be exciting, useful, or relevant to me?" Then proceed as if it means exactly that. I know it's a great challenge for most, because we are all trying to be smart and competent.

Of course, we DO need to demonstrate our intelligence and knowledge in tests and assignments. But these discussions offer a little more freedom, and the humanities often provide opportunities for adults to return to what was best and most healthy about childhood. Use your imaginations, have some adventures.

C.Clearing up "Realism" vs. "Naturalism"

There is usually some frustration and confusion over the subject of "Realism" vs. "Naturalism"

I'm going to do my best to clear it up here.

First of all, like many words, each of these words has more than one meaning. Some of the confusion here is over those different meanings of these words.

If you would like to know what these words mean in general philosophy, ask me and I will tell you. But for this class, we are dealing with the meanings of these words in relation to aesthetics and creative works. As simply as possible, here is what they mean in that context:

Realism means representing something as it really is, or as the artist really sees it. Think of it as the opposite of abstract art which doesn't look like anything in the world that we recognize. Realism usually also carries the sense that the artist portrays, more than just reality in general, realities that people do not want to face because they are unpleasant.

In this sense, one of the great realist writers in English is Dickens. And a famous photographic example is by Walker Evans - the family of Bud Fields. Do a search on Walker Evans Bud Fields and you'll find it easily.

Naturalism tends to emphasize scenes from NATURE rather than the human or man-made. Even when a naturalist painter represents things like a cityscape, technology, or of people showing great emotion, s/he tries to do so in a way that emphasizes natural processes.

Hope that helps a bit.