1.) How does one foster creativity and innovative thinking?

What habits of
mind and practice help artists grow and continue to develop?
 
Creativity and being innovative are two concepts that are interconnected with
one another. In fact, these two are one of the most important and difficult skill to
master from the cognitive domain as it requires an individual to utilize all of the other
cognitive skills for both creative and innovative processes. To create new ideas and
new concepts, we must use our imagination and creativity. However, to materialize
such idea into reality, practical application of these idea through innovation must be
critically utilized.

I have three ways in order to foster both creativity and innovative thinking to
an individual. First one, he must engage to activities that allows him to explore his
creativity and being innovative in a relevant, interesting, and worthwhile ways. For
example, here, you give a practical situation for an architecture student wherein he
has to design for a client that has a limited lot area. From there, he must explore
ways on how to address the issues within the design brief. He must be able to think
not just creatively but also critically in order to create a design that are all functional,
structurally stable, and aesthetically pleasing. Another one, honing the ability and
enthusiasm to value and celebrate creativity as well as innovative thinking is also a
way to foster these skills to an individual. For a person to truly understand and grew
a kind of love for creativity and innovation, he must learn both its significance and
important within the real world. Lastly, give them the freedom to test and dive in
through their various imaginations and let them apply it through small scale activities.
For example, in early years in architecture, students are given the freedom to
explore various ways to be profoundly creative with their building designs. Removing
the constraints for creativity and giving them a space to traverse their skills and
squeeze out their creative juices.

Anchored to creativity and innovation is the ways and habits for an artist to
grow and develop. One way for this is to learn from the other art movements or other
genres of art. Initially, when we do not like nor appreciate other forms of art, we tend
to ignore and turn a blind eye to them. However, if we just value of learning from
another art movement then maybe, it could teach us something new, and something
that would lead us to continue to grow as an artist. Another one, get inspiration and
motivation from other prominent artist. For example, as an architecture student I
drew inspiration from prominent architects and aspire to become one like them in the
future. Such practice would aid us in continuously bearing that burning passion
within our hearts. Lastly, explore the other forms of art and go outside of your
comfort zone. Learning to experiment and try out other art forms would aid you not
just to progress but would possibly lead you to have your own style.

 
2.) How does an artist choose which materials and techniques might best
communicate an idea?   How does art help us communicate about our own
experiences and understand the lives of others?
 
Materials, mediums, and techniques are the several factors and aspect an artist
must consider in order to present their ideas and arts in the most comprehensive,
effective, and successful way. There are vast means techniques and materials
wherein an artist can choose from, however, both these factors are also the one
which limits the artist either from the range of their knowledge and skills, as well as
with the availability of such material.

I believe that an artist chooses the materials and techniques they are going to
utilize just to best communicate their ideas through the materials and techniques
they are comfortable and knowledgeable enough with. For example, you wanted to
express your stand as well as the principles you uphold about a certain issue that is
relevant at the present time through an art piece. Of course, in order for you to put
across your message and for the audience to understand what you are trying to
communicate with them, you must use the medium and technique that you are
comfortable with. Maybe if you are good and knowledgeable in the field of
photography and with the use of camera then you can use such form of art to
express your idea effectively. Or if you are good in creating street art then, you can
sue that to best communicate what you are trying to express. We have varying
strengths when it comes to art, and you must leverage such strength to your own
advantage.

Art can help us to communicate about our experience by utilizing it as the

medium for us to imprint, reflect, and mirror our own experiences and our life stories.
Through this also, we are able to also witness and better understand the lives of
other people as well. For example, based on the bass reliefs from the ancient times
such as in Egypt as well as the early people in the Philippines through their early
writings and cave paintings, we are able to decipher their ways, tradition, culture,
and how they have lived during the ancient period. Through their arts, they were able
to tell their stories to us the generation of the present time.
 
 
3.) How does art and art making help us question and make sense of the world
around us?   How can we use art as a form of communication?
 
As a superficial knowledge about art is that it is a way to only create
aesthetically pleasing tangible work. However, that is not what are is, rather, there is
a vast world behind it, and more that the meets the eye. Arts is a way for us to
express our feelings, to showcase our talents and skills, and to tell our stories. But
more than that, art is a way for us to question the world around us, and to influence
and possible change and revolutionize the structures of the society and the world.

The art itself and art making help us question and make sense of the world
around us by opening our minds to various possibilities. Art gives us meaning and
help us understand the world around us. According to scientific studies, it was
proven that having the appreciation with art, does not just make us feel good and
improve the quality of our lives but most importantly, it profoundly hones our ability to
problem solve, and open our minds to new ideas. As our minds learns that we can
push through the limitations and barriers to the world around us, we are able to
broaden our attention and allows us to see further possible solutions to creative
problems. We all know that artists have various and diverse interpretations,
perceptions, and views about the world around us, and through them, we learn that
our world takes various forms and can be seen through various angles and lenses.
Because of this, we also learn to question what we know and understand and
discover more and that there are more than what we are limited to the reach and
capacity of our gray matter.

Anchored to understanding the world around us is using art to communicate

the message we are trying to put across. We can utilize art to communicate through
reflecting, mirroring, and imprinting the message we want to tell the audience. Art is
a powerful communicating tool that let us tell our message without having the need
to use structured words just to convey message. In order for us to use art to
communicate we must first learn to consider it as a language wherein symbols and
art elements are the alphabets which aids us to form words and texts. With
understanding all of this, then we can create symbols and elements, and sue various
techniques that would make sense to our audience which would lead them to be
influenced by our ideas and aspirations and grasp the message that we are trying to
communicate with them.
 

4.) How do our personal experiences and cultural background influence the

way people respond to works of art?   How are past, present, and emerging
technologies have   impacted on the presentation of artwork (such
as photographic/digital reproductions, posters, postcards, printouts,
photocopies, etc.)

As what we have learned from our lessons, we create a sense upon the art we
see or anything around us based on our habitus, cultural literacy, and cultural
trajectories. Meaning to say, we categorize and base the meanings and insights we
create from a scene or an art we see upon our experiences in life. For example, the
Magellan’s cross, while there are some who consider and would view Ferdinand
Magellan an antagonist in Philippine history, Magellan’s Cross in Cebu City serves
as a landmark that is considered as one of the most important historical markers in
Cebu City. That’s because it was established upon Magellan’s order to mark his
arrival in the country. This also serves as a reminder of the birth of Christianity in the
Philippines. We might have varying views about how we respond to such object,
maybe other might be reminded of our history and how we were colonized by the
Spaniards or others might weigh in the roots of our culture and tradition within the
introduction of Christianity as the basis on how to respond to it.

Now, moving on to the progression within periods of time. Through out centuries,
mediums, materials, and techniques in creating arts were continuously evolving and
changing through out time, in fact there are still new art forms that are still emerging
and will eventually emerging in the near future. Through the progress humanity had
made, we had been able to create more equipment and tools to create art. For
example, during the prehistoric time, the only way they know to create art is through
using the raw materials our ancestors can find in the wild such as rocks, animal
bones, plants, and many other materials. But through the progression of civilizations,
they have learned to innovate and use new materials. One example are the paintings
made in the past, where oil paints was much more prominent. Now at the present
time, since we are int eh digital world, we have now a new technology to create art.
We can now use various software’s wherein we can create structured and seamless
artworks through the use of devices. Through the movements in time, I really had
revolutionized how we translate our creative and art through various forms of media.
 
 
5.) How does knowing and using visual art vocabularies help us understand
and interpret works of art? What are ways to distinguish between relevant
and non-relevant contextual information (artist's life and times, for
instance) to support an interpretation of the mood, message or meaning
of   any artwork.

Art is just like a language we use to communicate, just like with words, in order
for us to create meaningful sentence, paragraphs, and statements, we have to first
be literate enough on how to properly choose and use words to best convey our
message. This is like art, for us to create insights and sense of a meaning with
various form of art then we must be literate enough and use the extent of our
knowledge about visual art to be able to deeply understand interpret them through
the lens that sees beyond. More to this, most of the art are made with deep
meanings behind it, and stories that the author or the artist wants to put across to us
as the audience, and we are only able to grasp them if we are able to have the
knowledge about the visual arts vocabulary. More tot his also, visual art vocabulary
enables us individual to better understand what plays in the mind of the author as he
was creating the art, what was he is feeling at the moment he was creating it, and
what message he had embedded within his work.

I believe that, in order for an individual to distinguish between relevant and non-
relevant contextual information within artworks is through first having the knowledge
with visual art. In order for you to instantly see the relevant and non-relevant cues
within the work of art is having a deep understanding of the visual art itself. In that
way, you will be ablet to put aside the irrelevant ideas about the art and only focus
on the concepts that are vital when we try to interpret and understand artworks.
Another way to segregate non relevant information is through isolationism.
Isolationism is about considering the knowledge that you have about the artist’s
biography, historical background, and other factors is irrelevant to an appreciation of
the work of art and understanding that it is harmful in that it gets in the way, tending
to substitute a recital of these facts for the more difficult attempt to come to grips with
the work of art itself. Another one, to also distinguish irrelevant and relevant context
to an art is through viewing, hearing, or reading it again and yet again. Constant re-
exposure to it, so that the recipient is totally absorbed in and permeated by it, is the
way to maximum appreciation.

6.) How did the people from different historical periods think and feel about
art?   What unique characteristics/themes can be identified in works of art
from different cultures?  · What unique characteristics/themes can be
identified in works of art from different historical periods?
 
As long as we humans have been able to use our hands, we have been creating
art. From early cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, human artistic
expression can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who create it. To fully
appreciate the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you
need to be aware of the broad art history timeline. Over the period of time, from the
ancient period up to the present time, art has been here to move the human life to a
progressive state. We have the cave houses made during the prehistoric period, the
classical columns during ancient Greece, and the technological devices we have in
this modern time, all of them are products of art, and they have made the peoples
lives easier.

Anchored to this progression is the culture. Culture is the coding practiced by

societies through a series of manifestations that have been the basis of human,
environment and material relationships and designs a path of each culture's
evolvement based on its own social history and experiential knowledge. As all the
senses contribute the progress of it, art itself is also a part of the same progression
being a human cultural practice. Any art you take into consideration, is a result of this
human cultural progression or evolvement, in response to its own environment or
context. I mean, any art is an example of influence of culture, be it folk arts with more
clearly visible signs of this relationship or modern art that address to a complex city
or metro cultural societies.

The common themes of arts through the history are Romanesque, gothic,
renaissance, mannerism, baroque, rococo, neoclassicism, and many other more.
Many of the art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more recent eras
occurring at the same time. Some eras last for a few thousand years while others
span less than ten. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent
periods grow out of existing ones.
 
 
7.) How can art influence our understanding of other disciplines?   How can
other disciplines influence our understanding of art?

Art has always been there within the ancient time. It has been deeply rooted
within the humanity, not just a way of communication but most importantly, a
documentation of the history and the periods that had passed. With this, art becomes
our way to decipher and deeply understand the various disciplines and field within
past and the present time. One great example of this is on how art enable us to
understand history. Art history doesn’t consist in simply listing all the art movements
and placing them on a timeline. It is the study of objects of art considered within their
time period. Art historians analyze visual arts’ meaning such as painting, sculpture,
and architecture at the time they were created. Also, another of art history’s mission
is to establishes authorial origins of artworks, such as discovering who created a
particular artwork, when, when and for what reason. Iconography is a major part of
art history. It consists in analyzing the symbolism of works of arts. For instance, art
historians identify the visual elements of a painting and interpret its meaning. Art
historians are interested in what the works of art represented at the time they were
created. It is a way to learn about the civilizations of the past. Another example of
this is mathematics and art, mathematics isn’t always evident in art, unless you
discover it.  But there’s plenty of symmetry, geometry, and calculation involved in
creating beautiful art. Often, many artists benefit from mathematical observations,
such as the golden ratio, to make their artwork realistic and breathtaking. 
Mathematics can also explain angles and perspective. Thus, there is a large amount
of math involved in art. Another one is, English and art, we have various poetry and
literature, and all of them are forms of art. We better understand these various forms
of writing as we are influence and learn to understand art.

On the other hand, we all know that how we understand, interpret, and make
sense of the art we see is also through the extent of knowledge we have. With this,
through various disciplines, and through the literacy they have inculcated within us
then, we can utilize them on how we interpret various form of art. For example, in
history, we have learned how the Spaniards have colonized our country and we have
felt the depths of its impact to our present time thus, seeing the writings of Dr. Jose
Rizal, teaches us its significance and importance to both of our history and
patriotism. Another one, in mathematics, we have learned various forms of
geometry, and even the use of golden ration, with this, we can view various art forms
through the lens of ana individual with literacy to math. We can be able to see
various parts of a work of art with its relation to mathematics. Another one in science,
architecture is where science and arts meet, and through the discipline of science we
better understand that architecture are not just about aesthetically pleasing building
forms and envelope but rather, there are more than what meets the eye. Behind
beautiful buildings are structural designs that are deeply analyzed based on physics,
materials that were critically chosen, and spaces considered to be more functional
and be able to support and accommodate users’ comfort and activities.

 
8.) How do life experiences influence the way you relate to art?  How does
learning about art impact how we perceive the world?    What can we learn
from our responses to art?

As what we have learned from our lessons, we create a sense upon the art we
see or anything around us based on our habitus, cultural literacy, and cultural
trajectories. Meaning to say, we categorize and base the meanings and insights we
create from a scene or an art we see upon our experiences in life. For example, you
felt exuberance when you saw a photo of a sunset upon the horizon. That maybe
because you have an experience wherein you felt happiness and enjoyed a moment
wherein there was a sunset upon the horizon. Of course, on the other hand, people
do have differences with experiences, other people might feel uneasy or would feel
blue when they see sunset on the horizon maybe because they have a bad memory
of it. Art is just like relating to people, if we felt something in common with other
people then we can easily relate to them, but if we do not have even an inch of
similarity to them whether it is on experiences then, we are barely able to create a
certain connection with them.

Learning art impact us upon how we perceive the world by teaching us that the
world around us takes various forms, and that we can perceive it through various
views, angles, and lenses. Many people are well aware of the feeling motivated by a
piece of artwork. Art has the power to move people and offer new experiences. Be it
painting, drama, song, poem, novel, or any sculpture, art may motivate people to
think about life positively or differently. Art offers way of understanding the meaning
of life and how beauty and pleasure could be parts of existence. It combines
imaginary world with reality and reveals how an artist is see people and places. It
motivates people to attribute new meaning to life and existence. As a consequence,
the individual become aware of a feeling that he may not have focused on before.
9.) What conditions, attitudes, & behaviors support creativity & innovative
thinking? What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative
risks?  How does collaboration expand the creative process?

There are various attitudes, behaviors, and conditions that supports creativity and
innovative thinking, and there are also behaviors that counteract such skills. The first
one here is curiosity, learning to ask how and why about things and being inquisitive
about what is happening around is a way for you to explore and discover more that
can add up and aid you to develop creativity and innovative thinking skills. Another
one, seeing problems as interesting and acceptable, many would see problems as
an obstacle and a hurdle to our journey, but if you are able to see problems as a
challenge to give a room for development and growth and you see them as
opportunities to improve then that can hone your creativity more. Problems aren’t
there just for us to feel difficulty and burden but most importantly, they are there to
teach us and be better. Always remember that diamonds are polished by friction and
men are perfected by trials. Lastly, a behavior that support creativity is
perseverance, creative people who actually see their ideas come to fruition have the
ability to stick with their ideas and see them through – even when the going gets
tough. This is what sets apart the great from the good in this whole sphere. 

As an opposing view to the behavior that supports creativity, apathy, doubt,

indetermination, and seeing problems as merely burden to our way are just some of
the mindsets which lead us to be creative nor innovative enough. Apathy is when we
do not care for the world around us, it is as if we remain and adhere only to the
standards imposed by the society rather than questioning them. If apathy is about
showing no care then it implies that we only follow what has been there already
rather than going outside of our comfort zone and become creative and innovative
enough to offer more to the betterment of the world around us. Another one here is
doubt, doubt is another way of having no confidence about ourselves. If we are not
confident enough about our capabilities then we will not be able to discover and
hone our potentials. Lastly, seeing problems as mere burden, if we are pessimistic
enough for us not see problems as an opportunity to grow, then, we will never learn
how to be creative enough in solving other problems in the near futures. Problems
will not become a platform for us to be better but rather they will only become a way
for us to stay incompetent and unimaginative.

Creative collaboration is all about bringing people together, viewing a challenge

from different perspectives and then combining that knowledge and insight to,
together, create a solution. A solution which can then be strategized, planned and
implemented effectively. This sort of collaboration can only thrive when you create
the right environment to do so. An environment which allows cross-functional groups
of people to lock themselves away, for a specific amount of time with zero
interruptions and can focus on a single business challenge. Being creative is also
drawing inspiration from others, and we can develop such skills through collaborating
with other people and by being influenced with their ideas, opinions, experiences,
and their emotions.
 
10.) What methods & processes are considered when preparing artwork for
presentation or preservation?    What criteria are considered when
selecting work for presentation, a portfolio, or a collection?
 
There are many ways, methods, and processes we must consider when
preparing for artwork presentation. First here, you must include a capture system of
your creative process, meaning to say, you must document every process or
progress you have made with your work. You can either take photographs of them or
even create journal that tells the stories of how you created the piece. Another one,
you must review and reflect from the artwork you had made. You can ponder of
where you have sourced or referenced the artwork you have made, what technique
and concepts you have applied, and what have motivated you to do the piece.
Another one, decide on what medium to use on how you would present your work,
for example you can either use sketches or scrapbooks about your work or you can
use a presentation which aids you to share your artwork to large audiences. You can
include with the presentation the background, the focus or scope of the work, the
inspiration, the materials used, and processes made, and the goals you have set
when creating the artwork. Lastly, what you need to prepare is yourself, you must
prepare on how you are going to communicate and engage the audiences with your
artwork. This is the most critical and crucial part as such stage can be considered as
the concluding phase of artwork presentation.

As part of the art presentation, there are various criteria that must be
considered when selecting work for presentation. The first one here is the intent,
wherein we question if the work make an expressed commitment to achieve certain
exceptional ends. Another one is focus, wherein we ask if the work highlights certain
features of the world over others to separate the important from the trivial. Prior to
this, we have skill, wherein we question whether the artwork demonstrate mastery or
virtuosity in critical aspects of their work; do they possess a foundation for
understanding people, communities, and the way work is created Moreover, another
criterion is form, if whether the artwork combine their aesthetics, structures, politics,
etc. into a unified, coherent whole. Another one, representation, if the work of art
conveys meanings, in nonobvious and captivating ways, as opposed to giving simple
directives and making straightforward declarations of fact. Prior to this is imagination,
if whether the work make surprising and unconventional departures from the ordinary
that create a new sense of awareness or understanding. Another one is authenticity,
do the artwork present a stylistic distinctiveness that is an honest expression of their
individuality and personal beliefs. In addition to this is engagement if whether the
artwork offer complex and challenging information that stimulates intellectual effort
and imaginative contemplation. Another one is pleasure, if whether the art provide
emotionally rewarding experiences that are shared among members of an audience,
promoting stronger bonds and fostering personal fulfillment. Another part of the
criterion is its human significance, whether the art facilitate personal reflection about
who one is, what is most important, what is culturally valuable, and what is possible.
Moreover, context is another criterion of whether the art create work that is in
conversation with other practices, customs, and artists, and communicate in a style
that is understandable and appropriate. Lastly, the criterion for criticism, if the work
of art welcome discourse and evaluation from others regarding how well they have
performed and the amount of appreciation they should be afforded.