University of the Philippines Visayas-Tacloban College

Arts 1 Critical Perspectives in the Arts

ACTIVITY GUIDE

WEEK 1 Defining Art

Choose and answer any two of the following questions below. Your response for each item must not exceed 200
words.

1. Building on Urist Green’s explanations in the video, determine which quote deals more with “the creation of art”
and which one is more about “the experience of art”:
Marcel Duchamp: “Art is the gap.”
Bertolt Brecht: “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
Explain your answer and elaborate on Duchamp’s and Brecht’s definitions.
2. Clarify whether or not Dutton’s “naturalistic” approach agrees with Urist Green’s position that art “should be an
open and evolving concept.”
3. Based on Dutton’s essay, does something have to exhibit all 12 core items to be regarded as art? To answer this
question, compare John Cage’s 4’33” and Juan Luna’s Spoliarium.
4. Explain the core item “representation” in terms of each of the three aspects—the act of creation, the work of art,
and the experience of art.
5. Metaphors matter. Recalling Dutton’s descriptions—“core items,” “uncontroversial center,” “remote territories,”
“marginal cases”—draw a diagram which you think most effectively and comprehensively maps his ideas, Your
response for each item must not exceed 200 words. 


UNIT 1 The Art Experience: Creativity and the Human Condition