LESSON 3.

THE SCOPE OF HUMANITIES

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, students shall be able to:
1. cultivate the individual, cultivate the citizen;
2. understand how to make choices moving forward if we choose to ignore the choices of the past
and present;
3. understand other people’s lives through deep knowledge of humanities
4. allow you to interpret the world in different ways.
The humanities give you permission to see the world through a different lens, while still
understanding facts.  They give your perspective.
The world is not black and white—it’s big, nuanced, complicated, and filled with every shade in
between.
Your education in the humanities gives you the power to understand another perspective, even if you
don’t agree with it.  It encourages you to use reason, not emotion, to arrive at conclusions.
It allows you to empathize with someone, even though you disagree—and forces you to challenge
your own beliefs.

Engage

Watch and learn on the scope of humanities by following this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfW1IiH8omI

ART ACTIVITY NO. 5 – BLACK POETRY

This art activity is performed by preparing materials like old newspapers or magazines, black pentel pen, pair of
scissors, pencil and coloring materials. This art is done by finding common or popular quotes or quotations from the
newspaper looking for words reading it from top to bottom. Do not skip from one area to another in the newspaper. The
words maybe found on specific lines which are found line after line. If you have formed quotations from the newspaper
blacken the surrounding area of the found words with the black pentel pen, appearing only the words which form the
quotation. For more details on this art, you may consult Google.

Scope of Humanities:
 1. Visual Arts
The visual arts are those that we perceive with our eyes. They may be classified into two groups;
graphic (flat or two-dimensional) and plastic (three-dimensional)

2. The Graphic Arts. Broadly, this term covers any form of visual artistic representation, especially
painting, drawing, photography, etc or inn which portrayals of forms and symbols are recorded on
a two-dimensional surface.

a. Painting
b. Drawing
c. Graphic Process. These are processes for making multi-reproduction of graphic works. All
processes involve the preparation of a master image of the drawing or design on some durable
material such as wood, metal, or stone, from which printing is done.
d. Commercial Art. This includes designing of books, advertisements, signs, posters, and other
displays to promote sale or acceptance of product, service or idea.
e. Mechanical Processes. These are developed by commercial printers for rapid, large-quantity
reproduction of words and pictures in one or more colors.
f. Photography. This is a chemical-mechanical process by which images are produced on sensitized
surfaces by action of light. Reproductions may be in black or white or in full colors of the
original.

3. The Plastic Arts. This group includes all fields of the visual arts in which materials are organized
into three-dimensional forms.
Artist: Veronica Richterova made a flower art from Plastic bottles
a. Architecture
b. Landscape Architecture. Planning outdoor areas for human use and enjoyment, especially
gardens, parks, playgrounds, golf courses.
c. City Planning. Planning and arranging the physical aspects of a large or small community.
d. Interior Design. Design and arrangement of architectural interiors for convenience and beauty.
e. Sculpture
f. Crafts. Designing and making of objects by hand for use or for pleasure.
g. Industrial Design. Design of objects for machine production.
h. Dress and Costume Design. Design of wearing apparel of all types.
i. Theater Design. Design of settings for dramatic productions.

4. Literature. The art of combining spoken or written words and their meanings into forms which
have artistic and emotional appeal.

a. Drama
b. Essay. Non-fiction, expository (descriptive or explanatory) writing ranging from informal,
personal topics to closely reasoned critical treatments of important subjects.
c. Prose Fiction. Narratives (stories) created by an author, as distinguished from true accounts.
d. Poetry. Literature of a highly expressive nature using special forms and choice of words and
emotional images.
e. Miscellaneous. History, biography, letters, journals, diaries and other works not formally
classified as literature often have literary appeal and status due to the high quality of writing.

5. Music. The art of arranging sounds in rhythmic succession and generally in combination.

a. Vocal Music. Composed to be sung. Voices are generally accompanied by one or more
instruments.
b. Instrumental Music. Music of this kind is written for instruments.

6. Drama and Theater. A story re-created by actors on a stage in front of an audience.

a. Tragedy. A drama of serious nature in which the central character comes to some sad or
disastrous end.
b. Melodrama. The emphasis is on action rather than on character. The action is sensational or
romantic and usually has a happy ending.
c. Comedy. Generally includes all plays with happy endings.
1. The romantic comedy is a light , amusing tale of lovers in some dilemma which is finally
solved happily.
2. Farce is a light, humorous play. The emphasis in a farce is on jokes, humorous physical
action, ludicrous situations and improbable characters.
3. Comedy of Manners sometimes called “drawing room comedy” is a sophisticated, sometimes
satirical. Situations have little to do with real life. The emphasis here is on witty dialogue.
4. Dance. Involves the movement of the body and the feet in rhythm.
 a. Ethnographic. Associated with national and cultural groups.
b. Social or Ballroom dances. Popular types of dancing generally performed by pairs.
c. The Ballet. The formalized type of dance which originated in the royal courts of the Middle Ages.
Dances may either be solo or concerted dances with mimetic actions. These are generally build
around a theme or a story.
d. Musical Comedy. Dances performed by soloists, groups and choruses in theaters, night clubs,
motion pictures and television. It combines various forms of ballet, modern, tap and acrobatics.

Explore & Explain

Read and understand all the texts. Give/cite other examples for each theory by researching these theories.

THEORIES OF ART

1. Formalism
The formalist theory of art asserts that we should focus only on the formal properties of art--the
"form" not the "content". Those formal properties might include, for the visual arts, color, shape, and line,
and, for the musical arts, rhythm and harmony. Formalists do not deny that works of art might have
content, representation, or narrative-rather, they deny that those things are relevant in our appreciation or
understanding of art.
Philosopher Plato developed a "Theory of Forms" based on the idea of eidos, roughly translated
to mean "stature" or "appearance." Plato applied the term broadly in his various dialogs to suggest a
rudimentary universal language. Every earthly object, he posited, whether tangible (like a chair) or
abstract (like human virtue), shared one aspect: they all had a form.
Art, it can be argued, is not a window upon the world: it is on the artwork itself that
appreciative attention must primarily be focused, particularly on its distinctive structure, its
design, unity, form. Discrete episodes of expressive intensity are not enough: "Does the
work hang together?" is always a relevant and surely a vital question, a question that shows the
primacy of formal unity. Concepts of form and of unity applicable to works of art have been
developed over the centuries from suggestions first made by Plato and Aristotle.

2. Representational Theory
It states that art is a copy, image, appearance or reproduction of humans, places or events
Ways of representing nature:
- Physical alteration. Making a sculpture out of marble
- Selective modification. Making a garden out of a forest
- Interpretation. Imitating nature according to the style of the artist.
By "the representational theory" is meant here a historically persistent complex of views
which see the chief, or essential, role of the arts as imitating, or displaying or setting forth
aspects of reality in the widest sense.
A typical representational account sees art as portraying the visible forms of nature,
from a schematic cave drawing of an animal to the evocation of an entire landscape in
sun or storm. The particularity of individual objects, scenes or persons may be
emphasized, or the generic, the common, the essential. The scope of representation can
involve perspectives, slants on the world, ways of seeing the world--perhaps as created
and sustained by an all-good, fecund deity, or as grimly devoid of any divine presence or
glory.
 A representational artist may seek faithfulness to how things are. He or she may
dwell selectively on the ugly and defective, the unfulfilled; or on the ideal, the fully
realized potential. The artist may see the ideal as reached by extrapolating from the
empirical, "correcting’ its deficiencies; or by contemplating the alleged idea or form to
which empirical objects approximate and aspire. As this suggests, a representational
theory may derive its account and evaluation of the arts from a metaphysic.
Representational theories thus give the arts a distinctive cognitive role. The artist opens
our eyes to the world’s perceptual qualities and configurations, to its beauties, uglinesses
and horrors.

3. Institutional theory. By George Dickie and Arthur Danto.

Art is an institution – "Artworld."
The artworld is composed of artists, art critics, art historians/educators, art patrons/curators, art
museums/galleries, schools/clubs, art awards, recognitions/popularity, art journals, TV/newspapers

How to be considered as an artist in the artworld.

- Having talent or ability
- Studied at an art school
- A degree in fine arts
- Member of an art organization
- Won awards, prizes or recognition
- Have artworks at museums/galleries
- Become popular
- Started an art revolution

The art world is defined as an informal institution which embodies and

encompasses the various formal and informal institutions within particular “art world
systems,” each of which fosters and supports the production and appreciation of a
particular kind of art.

Members of the art world include artists, audiences, curators, museum

directors, docents, Sotheby’s agents, collectors, art teachers, art professors,
philosophers of art, critics, government funding agents, and quite generally anyone
who is interested in art.

4. Existentialism
The philosophy of Existentialism was an influential undercurrent in art that aimed to explore the role of
sensory perception, particularly vision, in the thought processes. Existentialism stressed the special
character of personal, subjective experience and it insisted on the freedom and autonomy of the
individual.

Elaborate
Watch / learn and complement your readings through this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOOvIHVOIcU
The Institutional theory (Art World) - Extract from "What is Art"
 Evaluate

Activity 1. Identify what theory represents each picture. Explain the picture that you have chosen.

ART ACTIVITY NO. 6 – AN ART EXAMPLE OF THEORY OF ART.

Identify /choose any one of the theories of art and its example and draw it on your activity paper.
Activity No. 2. Explain in 5 sentences this statement, “The study of art is the study of mankind”. Send
your answer in the Google classroom or at the messenger
SUMMARY:
The term humanities generally refers to art, literature, music. Architecture, dance and the theatre – areas in which
human subjectivity is emphasized and individual expressiveness is dramatized. The importance of the human being and his
feelings is the main concern of the humanities. The humanities are therefore, the records of man’s experiences, his values ,
his sentiments, his ideals and his goals. The humanities are ultimately the expression of man’s feelings and thoughts. The
humanities are important in the development of the complete social being, ready to take on his responsibilities in this rapidly
changing world and enjoy life.
The arts constitute one of the oldest and most important means of expressions developed by man. Art has been
created by people at all times; it lives because it is liked and enjoyed. Sometimes we use the word “art” as an opposite to the
word “craft”. We call making something that is beautiful rather than useful, art, and making something that is useful more
than beautiful, a craft. The great thing about art is that it enables to express ourselves not only by writing a poem or a story, but
also by painting a picture, carving a statue or composing a piece of music.
To the layman, art may have little function. To find meaning in art, it must have or serve a utilitarian purpose and be
capable of serving the purpose for which it was designed. It may be inferred that all arts have functions for man since they
satisfy a particular need for them.
The word “artist” is generally
defined as an art practitioner,
such as a painter, sculptor,
choreographer, dancer, writer,
poet, musicians, and the like,
who produces or creates
indirectly
functional arts with aesthetic
value using imagination. Thus,
artists provide us with
paintings,
sculptures, dances, music, literary
pieces, and so on, as a means of
provoking our thoughts, ideas,
and
emotions that are necessary to
discover ourselves and our being.
An artist paints, draws, sculpts, makes a film or is skilled with something involving perception and
the use of their hands. Because writing used to be done by longhand, writers and poets are also known as
artists. An artisan is a skilled worker that uses his hands to make something often functional or that will
enhance something else; furniture, gold leafing, decorative arts (like faux finishes), jewelers, upholstery,
embroidery, glassblowers, leather workers (like shoemakers), potters, weavers. A formal study would be
an advantage but not a requirement to practice art. acquiring or learning art is not just taught and learned
in a formal art school but also acquired informally.

Most artists feel free in making their art. they develop an artwork regardless of potential market
and how people would respond to its message – it will be honest. The real artist touches the her and soul
of the viewer…an artist takes something out of his or her heart and soul and paces it on that page, canvas
or song.

People have different perceptions on the importance of artists and artisans in our society. They
are the same in the sense that they both develop works of art; hence, they are also different since they
address different needs of human beings.
Like the artists, artisans' works are also noticed and valued in different ways and levels. The
relevance and usefulness of the artisans' works make them seesential in our everyday living. The
utilitarian function of artisans' works give us comfort, convenience, ease and happiness in living everyday
lives. From our basic needs to our wants, artisans are there to facilitate easy living.
The Scope of Humanities include the visual arts, graphic arts, plastic arts, literature, music ,
drama, theatre and dance.