humi art ideas and values

Exercise 1

Journal exercises are all about reflective thinking. Not sure what that means? Well, reflection is a form of personal response to experiences, situations, events or new information. Think of it as a ‘processing’ phase where thinking and learning take place. College is pretty much a reflection period because you’re being exposed to new content.

In these assignments you select a prompt and respond. Each of these allows you to focus on a specific idea or example of art and then write your thoughts and reactions – essentially a reflection. Why do this? So you can see how your personal ideals and values influence the way you respond to art – which is the focus of this course.

Choose one of the following prompts:

#1: Personal Response to Buildings
Explore your personal response to architecture by viewing these links to the Qatar National Library (Links to an external site.), Museum of Pop Culture (Links to an external site.), Jean Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center, (Links to an external site.)One World Trade Center, (Links to an external site.)and a building of your choice from Great Buildings Online. (Links to an external site.)

Select one architectural example and write a brief answer in response to the questions listed below:

1. 1. 1. Briefly describe this building as you see it, using the language of the elements of art.
         Three or four sentences are plenty.
      2. Describe how you think this building affects people on the outside of it, or the inside
         of it, according to the images you see (even better if you have been there).
      3. How creative do you think designers of buildings should get?
      4. How much impact do you think these buildings have had on the skyline and in the
         debate on modern architectural design?

#2: The Visual Environment: Urban Design
The biggest human impact on the environment is in the development of our urban landscapes. Buildings and transportation routes are the most prominent. Buildings serve different roles in our lives; providing shelter, education, work, entertainment and travel. All of these can use different building designs. What constitutes a ‘good’ urban design? What makes a ‘bad’ one? Do you prefer hard-edged designs or others that use more organic components? What about the use of ‘green’ technologies? How do they enter into your ideas of good urban design?

As a resource, you can view architect Maya Lin’s discussion (Links to an external site.)of transforming a park in Michigan.

The Task:

1. Identify which prompt you selected. (5 points)
2. Compose a written response to the prompt. Be thorough and address each point or question in the selection. You can choose to do this as an essay or use a question/answer format. (15 points)
3. Your response must be at least 150 words. (5 points)

Exercise 2

There’s a whole world of creativity out there to explore. Most of us probably think of paintings and sculpture when someone asks us, “What is art?” but the reality is that art encompasses so much more. There are many mediums to investigate, so many different techniques and methods of producing objects of beauty, and there are the art forms that encompass movement, sound, and performance. For this series of exercises students are encouraged to think outside the basics. There’s a lot of creativity to explore, here’s your opportunity to share the things that you find intriguing.

Expanding on the idea that art can be culturally determined and socially constructed through public forums, this week you’ll view a film in order to identify the unique intersection of architecture and cinema. We don’t always think about how important architectural features can prove in the cinematic experience, do we?

Here are two articles to further explore this topic: How Architecture Speaks Through Cinema (Links to an external site.) and The Cinematography of Architecture (Links to an external site.). I recommend reading both before continuing.

The Task:

1. Select a film of your choosing and include the title of the film and the year of release at the beginning of your review – add a link for the IMDB page if there is one. Next, review the film by responding to the prompts listed below: (20 points)
   
   For example: Pulp Fiction, 1994.
   Describe how this film might shape public perception.
   Identify the message or theme of this film.
   Explain how architecture influenced the production of this film.

2. Your post should be a minimum of 250+ words and you should cite resources used. (5 points)

You must do these two exercises and separate them in two documents.