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GE 103 ARTS APPRECIATION

OTHER FUNCTIONS OF ARTS

Music as an art is also interesting to talk about in relation to function. Music in its
original form was principally functional. Music was used for dance and religion. Unlike today,
when one can just listen to music for the sake of music’s sake, the ancient world saw music only
as an instrument to facilitate worship and invocation to gods. Music was also essential to dance
because music assures synchronicity among dancers. Moreover, music also guarantees that
marches, in the case of warriors, were simultaneous.

Today, music has expanded its function and coverage. Music is listened to and made by
people for reasons that were foreign to early civilizations. There is now a lot of music that has no
connection whatsoever to dance and religion. Serenade is one example. People compose hymns
of love to express feelings and emotions. Music is also used as wonderful accompaniment to
stage plays and motion pictures. Interestingly, a piece of music can mean a multitude of
meanings to different people, a proof that as an art, music has gone a long way.

Sculpture, on the other hand, is another functional art form that has long existed for
various purposes. Just like music, from the early days of humanity, sculptures have been made
by man most particularly for religion. People erect status for the divine. In the Roman Catholic
world, the employment of sculptures for religious purposes has remained vital, relevant and
symbolic.

Sculptures were also made to commemorate important figures in history. Jose Rizal’s
monument in Rizal Park and Andres Bonifacio’s Monument in Caloocan are common examples.
In the University of the Philippines, the iconic statue Oblation by Guillermo E. Tolentino has
remained a pillar to the university and constant reminder of the need to offer oneself up selflessly
for the country. Coins are also manifestations of sculpting’s function. Every coin in the
Philippines features a relief of a famous hero or personality. Recently, the Central Bank of the
Philippines produced special, commemorative coins for certain personalities like Pope Francis
and the Jesuit, Horacio de la Costa.

Another art from that readily lends itself to multiple functions is like architecture. In fact,
architecture might be the most prominent functional art form. Buildings are huge, expensive and
are not easily constructed and replaced. Unlike other forms of art like pots, furniture, poetry, or
even paintings, buildings take so much time to erect and destroy. A lot of investment is put into
making megastructures like the pyramids of Giza, the acropolis, or the great cathedrals of the
middle ages. One cannot simply dismiss taking into consideration the function of a building
before construction.

It is also in architecture where one can find the intimate connection of function and form.
In planning out an architectural structure, one has to seriously consider the natural conditions
like topography and climate of the place of erection and the social conditions such as the purpose
of the building itself. In the Philippines, climate is a huge factor in building a house. Spanish
colonial houses were designed to allow for air to circulate inside the house. Large windows were
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staples then. Capiz shells were also utilized to allow for light to enter the house even if the
windows were closed. Moreover, social conditions, such as purpose, play a huge role in
architecture. To Christians, a church is primarily a place for worship and assembly. Regular
ceremonies, where members of the church are expected to come regularly, are held inside the
church. A huge, spacious church therefore is necessitated by this social condition. Indeed,
whenever art serves a particular function, the form has to be determined by the function.

Does Art always have to be Functional?

While it has been shown that most arts are functional, still there are some which are not.
The value of a work of art does not depend on function but on the work itself. The plays of
Aeschylus and the poetry of Robert Frost and Edgar Allan Poe are still counted as examples of
great works of art despite their not having a known function. In those whose functions are
ascertained, however, it is a different story. A functional object cannot be claimed to be beautiful
unless it can perform its function sufficiently. Consider a house that cannot even protect its
resident from the nasty weather outside or a spoon that spills the food on it. Adequate
performance of function partly determines the beauty of a design in these functional art forms.

Despite these, efficiency cannot be mistaken as beauty. While it certainly determines

beauty in some works of art, an efficient functional object is not necessarily beautiful. Arts
demand so much more than mere efficiency.

Philosophical Perspectives on Art

Art as an Imitation
Plato (2000) in his masterpiece, The Republic, particularly paints a picture of artists as
imitators and art as mere imitation. In his description of the ideal republic, Plato advises against
the inclusion of art as a subject in the curriculum and the banning of artists in the Republic. In
Plato’s metaphysics or view of reality, the things in this world are only copies of the original, the
eternal, and the true entities that can be only found in the World of Forms. Human beings
endeavour to reach the Forms all throughout this life, starting with formal education in school.
From looking at the “shadows in the cave”, men slowly crawl outside to behold the real entities
in the world. For example, the chair that one sits on is not a real chair. It is an imperfect copy of
the perfect “chair” in the World of Forms. Plato was convinced that artists merely reinforce the
belief in copies and discourage men to reach for the real entities in the World of Forms.

Plato was suspicious of arts and artists for two reasons: they appeal to the emotion rather
than to the rational faculty of men and they imitate rather than lead one to reality. Poetry and
painting, the arts form that Plato was particularly concerned with, do not have any place in the
ideal state that Socrates in Plato’s dialogue envisions. First, Plato is critical of the effects of art,
specifically, poetry to the people of the ideal state. Poetry rouses emotions and feelings and thus,
clouds the rationality of people. Poetry has a capacity to sway minds without taking into
consideration the use of proper reason. As such, it leads one further away from the cultivation of
the intellect that Plato campaigned for. Likewise, Socrates is worried that art objects represent
only the things in this world, copies themselves of reality. As such, in the dialogue, Socrates
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claimed that art is just an imitation of imitation. A painting is just an imitation of nature, which
also just an imitation of reality in the World of Forms.

For Plato, art is dangerous because it provides a petty replacement for the real entities
that can only be attained through reason.

Art as a Representation
Aristotle, Plato’s most important student in philosophy, agreed with his teacher that art is
a form of imitation. However, in contrast to the disgust that his master holds for art, Aristotle
considered art as an aid to philosophy in revealing truth. The kind of imitation that art does is not
antithetical to the reaching of fundamental truths in the world. Talking about tragedies, for
example, Aristotle (1902) in the Poetics claimed that poetry, music, dance, painting and
sculpture, do not aim to represent reality as it is. What art endeavours to do is to provide a vision
of what might be or the myriad possibilities in reality. Unlike Plato who thought that art is an
imitation of another imitation, Aristotle conceived of art as representing possible versions of
reality.

In the Aristotelian world view, art serves two particular purposes. First, art allows
experience of pleasure. Experiences that are otherwise repugnant can become entertaining in art.
For example, a horrible experience can be made an object of humor in a comedy. Secondly, art
also has an ability to be instructive and teach its audience things about life: thus, it is cognitive as
well.

Art as a Disinterested Judgment

In the third critique that Immanuel Kant wrote, the “Critique of Judgement”, Kant
considered the judgement of beauty, the cornerstone of art, as something that can be universal
despite its subjectivity. Kant mentioned that judgement of beauty, and therefore, art, is innately
autonomous from specific interests. It is the form of art that is adjudged by one who perceives art
to be beautiful or more so sublime. Therefore, even aesthetic judgment for Kant is a cognitive
activity.

Art as a Communication of Emotion

The author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy, provided another
perspective on what art is. For him, art plays a huge role in communication to its audience’s
emotions that the artist previously experienced. Art then serves as a language, a communication
device that articulates feelings and emotions that are otherwise unavailable to the audience. In
the same way that language communicates information to other people, art communicates
emotions. In listening to music, in watching an opera, and in reading poems, the audience is at
the receiving end of the artist communicating his feelings and emotions.