Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BECO-NADA
2020
The art and humanities aren’t just there to be consumed when we have a free moment.
We need them as medicine. They help us live.
- Barrack Obama
Objectives:
At the end of the lecture, students are expected to:
Distinguish the humanities and the sciences as fields of learning.
Understand the Filipino notion of personhood or pagkatao.
Examine the history of art as a humanistic discipline.
Compare and contrast the concepts of art according to Western thought and
Filipino thought.
Discover the Filipino identity through the arts.
Apply the Filipino sense of art in the process of appreciating art.
Lectures
1.1. Art as a Humanistic Discipline
1.2. The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao)
1.3. The Filipino Concept of Art
Videos:
“Laura Morelli (2014). “Is there a difference between art and craft?” In https://www.you
tube.com/watch? v=tVdw60eCnJI
“Xiao Time: Damian Domingo, Ama ng PHL Painting at unang pormal na gurong Filipino
ng sining sa Pinas” (2014) in https://www.you tube.com/watch?v=3i8muLe9vss.
ANC-NCCA (2015). “Dayaw: Inukit, Hinulma, Nilikha (Iconic Symbols of the Indigenous)”
Episodes 3. In https://www.you tube.com/wat ch?v=8KlO 6_Jpd-4.
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Lecture 1.1
Art as a Humanistic Discipline
Nine days before his death, Immanuel Kant was visited by his physician. Old, ill and nearly
blind, he rose from his chair and stood trembling with weakness and muttering unintelligible words.
Finally his faithful companion realized that he would not sit down again until the visitor had taken a
seat. This he did, and Kant then permitted himself to be helped to his chair and, after having
regained some of his strength, said, “The sense of humanity has not yet left me” The two men
were moved to tears. (Panofsky, 1955)
Paradigm of Learning
What is Art?
According to Estolas, Javier and Payno (2011), art is derived from the Latin word,
ars, meaning ability or skill. In this sense, art is used in many varied ways. It covers those
areas of artistic creativity that seek to communicate beauty primarily through the senses.
Then, for Brommer (1997), art is difficult to define. He added that unlike light, though,
art isn’t one thing or single phenomenon. People create it, and that’s enough to make it
complicated and subject to many definitions. Furthermore, he said that art can be
personal, art call for social change, and art can portray human emotions as well as evoke
them. It can express harmony or disharmony, show simple and everyday in unfamiliar
ways, or be monumental, mysterious, and fantastic. Art is perhaps humanity’s most
essential universal language. While art uses visual images to communicate its messages,
we use words to describe the images, reactions and feelings we have about objects of
art.
Moreover, Martin and Jacobus (2008) defined art as something that brings us into
direct communication with others and reveals the essence of our existence. Also,
Sanchez, et al., 2012) viewed art as very important in our lives. They explained
that art constitutes one of the oldest and most important means of expression developed
by man. In this sense, Leano and Agtani (2018) also agreed to the idea that art helps us
make sense of our world, and it broadens our experience and understanding. The arts
enable us to imagine the unimaginable, and to connect us to the past, the present,
sometimes simultaneously. Then, it confirms to the idea of Sanchez et al. (2012) that
wherever men have lived together, art has sprung up among them as a language
charged with feeling and significance. The desire to to create this language appears to e
universal. As a cultural force, it is pervasive and potent. It shows itself even in primitive
societies.
ASSUMPTIONS OF ART
Panisan, Bongabong, Boongaling & Trinidad (2018) gave three assumptions
about art; art is universal, art is not nature, and art involves experience. Below is
their explanation about the assumptions of art.
There are principles and bases of appreciating a work of art since it is in art
that man can communicate one’s individuality and way of life.
Art is Universal
Art is everywhere; wherever men have lived together, art has sprung up
among them as a language charged with feelings and significance. The desire to
create this language appears to be general, and art as a cultural force can be
pervasive and potent. Art has no limit, and it rises above cultures, races, and
civilization. It is timeless because it goes beyond the time of our own existence.
One cannot conceive of a society without art, for art is closely related to every
aspect of social life. Social functions of art are those that go beyond personal
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada, MA 5
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature, and Humanities
intrinsic value to art’s social benefits. Individuals and their society are dynamically
related. Art communicates. Most often it is constructed with the intention of
sharing responses to and opinions about life with others. Art enriches, informs,
and questions world. When highly values, it can be both social and financial asset.
Art can have powerful transformattive and restorative effects within a society as
well.
The physical functions of art are often the easiest to understand. Works of art
that are created to perform some service have physical functions.
2. Architecture
The design of the building is determined primarily by its operational
function. What is the building for? Who are going to use it? How many are
they? The design that a building takes is also adapted to the climate of the
region. The architect must take the physical, psychological, and spiritual
needs of the family into account when he designs a house.
3. Community Planning
A community is more than just a group of buildings. It is a group of
individuals and families living in a particular locality because of common
interest and needs. Community planning involves the efficient organization of
buildings, roads, and spaces so that they meet the physical and aesthetic
needs of the community.
According to Flores (1998), humanities as it deals with the arts has to identify key
areas.
At the vital center of the Humanities is how the social person (not man or individual
or human being) encounters the world through emotion, thought, and action. No amount
of emperical natural and social science could make us abandon the wisdom that to
encounter the world is to encounter it multidimensionally and never in fragmented ways,
but always through a specific perspective. While there are distinctions built into the
relationship among the spheres of human emotions, thought, and action, we need not
delink the performative chain to celebrate false harmony. We only have to realize that, as
playwright Bertolt Brecht puts it, “to think feelings and feel thoughtfully” is to apprehend
the world in moments of contradiction and re-creation. The world in this encounter both
embedded and embodied in the body politic in the process of performance.
The concept of this encounter compels us to come to grips with the aesthetic
experience, or the manner in which makes sense of the world as we see, touch, hear,
taste, feel and intuit it. In the process, we discern the modes by which the world is
constituted and how we are constituted in relation to it, as well as the strategies by which
people transform nature or familiar convention into something different, into form which
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada, MA 7
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature, and Humanities
transcends the tedium of structure. And the thorny issue here is that the transcendence
need not be solely ascribed to artistic practice. In other words, everyday life which
supposedly lies outside the domains of the art world is very much governed by aesthetic
logic.
Gabelo (2018) identified what is an artist and an artisan. For her, artist is a person
who exhibits exceptional skills in the visual and/or
the performing arts. Unlike other people, artists are more sensitive, very perceptive and
more creative. They have the knack of interpreting ideas into an artistic form using as
their medium the words, pigments, clay, stone, musical notes or any combination that
may be best represent his image. Then, an artisan, on the other hand, is a person who is
skilled trade that involves making things by hands. He is a craftsworker who makes or
creates objects of great beauty by just using their hands. His creations may be functional
or decorative like an earthen pot or “palayok” for cooking or vase for decoration.
In the Western art, there are two classifications; major art and minor art. The former
is made by artists and primarily concerned with the form of beauty while the latter is
made by artisans and concerned with functionality and usefulness of human-made
objects. According to Leano and Agtani (2018), an artist is dedicated only to creative side,
making visually pleasing work for only for the enjoyment. And appreciation of the viewer
but with no functional value.Then, an artisan is essentially a manual worker who makes
items with his or her hands, and who through skill, experience. And talent can create
things of great beauty as well as being functional.
LECTURE 1.2
The Humanities and the Filipino Personhood (Pagkatao)
Just like a jar, you cannot see what is inside of it, unless
you try take a look at it. In knowing a person, you can not
judge him by merely looking at his physical
appearance or labas ng pagkatao(kulay ng balat,
tinidg, iling, dibdib).You need to know the person in
order to fully understand who he really is by looking
at his loob ng pagkatao o kalooban (isip, talino,
ugali) Each person has unique personality, attitude,
behavior, ability, etc. Also, similar to a jar, every person
has lalim ng pagkatao. It is the spiritual aspect of man that is why, there is maitim
ang budhi and maputi ang budhi.
To fully understand the idea about kaluluwa in pagkataong Pilipino, read the
excerpt from Covar’s discourse.
Nuong unang panahon at magpahanggang ngayon, ang babaylan, baglan, katalonan, mambunong, talaytayan ang
nakapag-aalis ng langkap, o sapi sa pamamagitan ng karapatang ritwal gaya ng tawas, pagbuhos ng kumukulong tubig sa
katawan ng sinasapian na hindi ito nalalapnusan o pag-ipit ng mga daliri ng sinasapian, nagagalaw o inalangkapan.
Ibinabalik nila ang dating kaluluwa ng may katawan.
Ang pagkataong Pilipino sa konteksto ng kaluluwa ay may ilang tambalang kategorya: (1) maganda/pangit na
kaluluwa; (2) matuwid/ halang na kaluluwa; at (3) dalisay/maitim na kaluluwa. Ang budhi ay katambal ng kaluluwa. Kung ang
kaluluwa ay siyang nagpapagalaw ng buhay, ang budhi naman ay siyang humuhusga sa buhay na naganap na. Ang budhi
ay nag-uusig at siya ring umuukilkil. Ang pagsisisi at paghingi ng kapatawaran, pati na rin ang pagbabayad ng anumang
masamang nagawa ang maaaring magpatigil sa budhi sa pagpapatuloy ng pang-uusig at pang-uukilkil nito. Marahil ito ang
kalagayan ng mga kaluluwang ligaw, ligalig, lagalag kaya hindi matahimik hanggang hindi makapagparamdam at
ipinagdarasal. Sa aking hinuha, ang budhi ay hindi kaparis ng konsiyensya. Katulad ng budhi, may sapantaha akong ito’y
bagong salta sa ating wika at kamalayan. Sa aking palagay, ang lokasyon ng konsiyensya ay malapit sa kaisipan. Ito ang
nagtutulak sa paggawa ng mabuti o masama at nag-uusig kung masama ang nagawa. Ang lokasyon ng budhi katulad ng
kaluluwa ay laganap sa buong katauhan ng pagkatao, sa ilalim o kaibuturan. Tulad ng loob hindi natin maapuhap o
maipupuwesto ang mga ito sa parte ng ating katawan. Ang talaban ng kaluluwa at budhi sa isang dako; at loob at labas sa
kabilang ibayo, ang siyang kinasasadlakan ng iba’t ibang pagkatao na may iba’t ibang damdamin, isipan, kilos, at gawa…
…Aking natalos na nababago ang pagkatao ng isang Pilipino kung siya ay linalangkapan, sinasapian, o sinasaniban.
Ang paliwanag ni Bulatao sa pagbabago ng pagkatao ay altered state of consciousness. Ngunit ito ay nananatiling isang
hinuha lamang sapagkat hindi pa natin talos kung anong prosesong pisikal ang nagbabago. Kung baga, nananatili tayong
nakagapos sa mga palantandaan lamang. Ang palantandaan ay ipinahihiwatig sa pagbabago ng damdamin, isipan, kilos,
gawa, pati na ang wika. Ang mga pagbabagong ito kaipala ay itinatakda ng iba’t ibang bahagi ng katawan, at ng kaluluwa.
Sa madaling salita, may dalawang klase ng pagkataong Pilipino na pinatotoohan ng pag-aaral na ito: (1) likas na pagkatao
at (2) pagkataong may sapi. Marahil marami pang kategorya ng pagkatao ang ating matatalos sa pamamagitan ng malawak
at malalim na pag-aaral
Fr. Leonardo Z. Legazpi is the 88th rector of the University of Santo Tomas. He is also the first Filipino rector of that
institution. He was born in Meycauyan, Bulacan, and finished his philosophical studies at St. Albert’s Priory in Hong Kong
and, in 1962, his doctoral degree in Sacred Theology at the University of Santo Tomas. He was a recipient of the TOYM
Award in 1974.
The essay which follows is the foreword to a special issue of Unitas, a UST journal dealing with the subject of the
search for national identity through the arts.
We are today going through a crucial but exciting period in our history. We are engaged in the difficult adventure of
shaping our nation’s destiny, of searching for our national identity. In this search, all the resources of our people should be
mobilized. And the arts, to my mind, are a most important vehicle by which the search can be ended.
We cannot find our national identity unless we have a clear picture of our history, our customs, our thoughts, and
aspirations. We cannot reach our goal unless we are able to identify those factors which, when synthesized, will define our
national soul and lead us to an understanding of ourselves and of our fellowmen.
Through a study of Philippine art, we get evidence of how our ancestors lived and died. Their art survives as an
imperishable record of their physical and psychological experiences, their dreams, and ideals.
Because we are a heterogeneous, polygot people with cultural differences made sharper by regional and geographic
divisions, the task of understanding becomes more complex because of the language barrier. Art, fortunately, knows no
diversity of language since it speaks directly to our senses. Therefore, understanding can be more felicitously reached
through it.
Through art, therefore, we gain notion of how the different races and cultures operated: through art, we become more
receptive to their ideas. The moment we realize that the differences are genuine, that they were not occasioned by
ignorance but by variations in background, religion, and social systems, we make an important step toward understanding
our fellowmen.
The auditive and visual arts, because of their persuasiveness and delicacy, penetrate the intelligence and the
sensitiveness of the spectator or listener. They help us become acquainted with each other or to get intuitive knowledge of
one another. And they enable us to pool our respective resources so that we can complement one another and arrive at an
authentic understanding of each other.
But if art is to accomplish its glorious mission of promoting understanding, harmony and peace, if it is to do it with
dignity and fruitfulness, it should not weigh down the soul and nail to the earth. Rather, art should lend wings to the soul so
that it can rise above trifles and paltriness, so that it can reach out to that which is eternal and true, beautiful and good, so
that it can get us to the only union that counts - union with God.
Only in this way can the splendid vision of St. Paul be literally realized. “For the invisible things of him, from the world,
are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: his eternal power also, and divinity.”
It is with these twin objectives in mind, then - to participate in the search for national identity through the arts and to
promote unity, harmony, and peace through the understanding of art - that this publication was conceived.
Queddeng, G. (2013), Philippine Literature
The Filipino concept of art has no trace of Western ideals because of the
experiences of Damian Domingo, Felix R. Hidalgo, and Juan Luna that anyone
can become artist. Also, they took advantage of the concepts and ideas that
they learned from Western education. They utilized it to enhance their talents.
Thus, other Filipino artists did the same to maximize their skills in art.
References:
Adams, L. (2011). A History of Western Art. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc.
Ayala, F. (2010). The Difference for Being Human: Morality. Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences of the
United States of America. Vol. 107 (2).
Brommer, G. F. (1997). Discovering Art History. 3rd ed. Massachusetts: Davis Publications, inc.
De Leon, F. (2015). “Defining the Filipino Through the Arts,” Philippine Humanities Review.upd.edu.ph/index. php/phr/
article/ download/4737/4273.
Devilles, G. C., R. R. Maiquez and R. B. Tolentino. (2018). Art Sense (Sensing the Arts in the Everyday.Quezon City: C&E
Publishing, Inc.
Estolas, J., C. G. Javier, and N. P. Payno. (2011). Introduction to Humanities (Arts for Fine Living). Mandaluyong City:
National Bookstore Inc.
Flores, P. D. (1998). “Theoretical Approaches to Humanities” in Humanities Art and Society. Quezon City: UP Philippine
Press, 1998. pp. 34 - 45.
Gabelo, N. (2018). Art Appreciation. Muntinlupa City: Panday-Lahi Publishing House, Inc.
Hodge, (2014). Art: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Artists and their Works. New York: Random House
Publishing.
Leano, R. D. and J. M. B. Agtani (2018). Art Appreciaiton for College Students. Manila: Mindshapers Co., Inc.
Legazpi, L. (2013)”Understanding Through the Art” in Literature of the Philippines. Lucban, Quezon: Southern Luzon State
University. .
Martin D. & L. Jacobos. (2008). The Humanities through the Arts. 9th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Companies.
Panofsky, E. (1955). “The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline ” in Meaning in the Visual Arts. Australia: Penguin
Books, 1955. pp. 1-25.Sanchez, C. A., P. F. Abad, L. O. Jao., and R. A. Sanchez. (2012). introduction to the
Humanities. 6th ed. Manila: Rex Bookstore.
The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.
-Aristotle
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Objectives
At the end of the lecture, students are expected to:
Define art appreciation.
Relate the study of art to the fields of philosophy and psychology.
Examine the human faculties as basis for the appreciation of art.
Analyze works of art according to four levels: perceptual elements, representations,
emotional suggestions, and intellectual meaning.
Make an artwork that shows the four levels of analysis.
Evaluate the merit or demerit of works of art based on the concept of art as reality.
Apply the concept of art as reality to the Renaissance style of art, cubism, de stilj,
and ready-made art.
Lectures
2.1. Art and the Human Essence
2.2. The Process of Art Appreciation
2.3. Art and the Perception of Reality
Videos
“What is art for? Alain de Botton’s Animated Guide,” (2015). In https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlQOyt FCRI.
Lecture 2.1
Art and the Human Essence
If the basic question in Humanities is who am I? and the answer is I am a
human being, what is the answer in the question, what is a human being?
The essence of being a human being is based on the three human faculties;
mind, will and senses. Human beings are rational beings, capable to think and to
give reason. Also, they are able to feel various emotions. Then, they are also
capable to feel perceptual sensations using their
senses.
Man uses his faculties in understanding things
around him. He is able to react because of how he
facilitates his faculties. This implies that the nature of
being a human being is based on his intellectual,
emotional and perceptual abilities.
The Process of Art Appreciation
Before discussion of the process of art appreciation. Let us talk about first the
meaning of art appreciation.
Each type of artwork has different ways on how to apply the three levels of
analysis. In this discussion, the three levels are applied to visual art.
The sequence in analyzing the artwork must start from level of the senses. It
is basic because students will just identify their immediate observation about
the art work. For visual arts, they will identify the color, shape, texture and other
visual observations. Then, representations are also included in the analysis in
level of the senses. The representation is identifying the person, thing, event, and
other representations.
Examples:
The perceptual elements and representations will help in getting the level of
the will. Take a look at the examples, the emotional suggestion of the artwork is
determined by the color, lines, and representations.
It pertains to ideas, concepts, and symbols in art. The first two levels will help
in identifying the intellectual meaning of the artwork. In determining the other
levels, it will be easier to generate concepts, ideas and symbols.
Example:
Art has various definitions, It is talent, skill, passion, emotion, idea, truth,
reality, goodness, beauty, goodness, beauty, form, expression, representation,
power, etc. Art can also be reality.
What do you see in the picture below? You answer will probably be, it is a
chair.
In the next picture, which art is the most beautiful for the concept of art as
reality?
In the previous discussion, Mondrian’s painting is the most real among the
other paintings. The fourth painting is the White on white by Malevich.
Kazimir Malevich was undoubtably one of the most influential modernist
artists and the first one to engage fully in geometric abstraction. He marked the
start of suprematism, the Russian avant-garde movement, through his own
unique philosophy of perception and painting. (Sokolova, 2014) According to
Hodge (2014), as a devout Christian, Malevich thought along mystical lies an felt
very satisfied with representational painting. She also said that Malevich
wanted to ‘free art from the burden of object’
On the those notions, the painting of Malevich, White on white is the most
real among Mona Lisa, The Weeping Woman and Composition with Red,Yellow
and Blue because it presents art on its purest form.
At the beginning of the discussion, this question was asked, which art is the
most beautiful for the concept of art as reality?
The fifth image is the artwork of Marcel Duchamp entitled, Fountain.
According to Adajar et al. (2018), Duchamp’s Fountain in 1917 was considered
as the first conceptual artwork. Hodge (2014) said that it was a urinal and he
turned it upside down and signed it with the pseudonym, R. Mutt.
His revolutionary ideas, and his invention of the concept of “ready-made” - in
which ordinary everyday objects already in existence (usually manufactured) are
Maria Gloria R. Beco-Nada, MA 23
Southern Luzon State University
College of Arts and Sciences
Languages, Literature, and Humanities
exhibited as art - have caused considerable controversy, but they have opened
our eyes to new possibilities. (Vaizey, 1989)
The Fountain by Duchamp is is the most beautiful for the concept of art as
reality because art seen as the object itself.
Read Art and Illusion an excerpt from Adam’s book. This will explain how art
can deceive the eyes of the viewer of the artwork.
Before considering illusion and the arts, it is necessary to point out that when we think of illusion
in connection with an image, we usually assume that the image is true to life, or naturalistic. This is
often, but not always, the case. With certain exceptions, Western art was mainly representational
until the twentieth century. Representational, or figurative, art depicts recognizable natural forms or
created objects. When the subjects of representational pictures and sculptures are so convincingly
portrayed that they may be mistaken for the real thing, they are said to be illusionistic. Where the
artist’s purpose is to fool the eye, the effect is described by the French term trompe l’oeil. The nature
of pictorial illusion was simply but eloquently stated by the Belgian Surrealist painter René Magritte in
The Betrayal of Images. This work is a convincing (although not a trompe l’oeil) rendition of a pipe.
Directly below the image, Magritte reminds the viewer that in fact it is not a pipe at all—“Ceci n’est
pas une pipe.” (“This is not a pipe.”). To the extent that observers are convinced by
the image, they have been betrayed. Even though Magritte was right about illusion falling short of
reality, the observer nevertheless enjoys having been fooled. The pleasure conveyed by illusion is
embedded in the term itself; it comes from the Latin word ludere, meaning “to play” as well as “to
mimic” and “to deceive.”
Adams, L. (2011). A History of Western Art. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc.
Adajar, C. C. et al. (2018). Art Appreciation. Malabon City: Mutya Publishing House, Inc.
Adams, L. (2011). A History of Western Art. 5th ed. New York: McGraw-Hills Companies, Inc.
Broomer, (1997). Discovering Art History. Massachusetts: Davis Publications, inc.
Devilles, G. C., R. R. Maiquez and R. B. Tolentino. (2018). Art Sense (Sensing the Arts in the Everyday.Quezon City: C&E
Publishing, Inc.
Gabelo, (2018). Art Appreciation. Muntinlupa City: Panday Lahi Publishing House, Inc.
Hodge, S. (2014). Art. New York: Quercus Editions Ltd.
Leano, R. D. and J. M. B. Agtani (2018). Art Appreciation for College Students. Manila: Mindshapers Co., Inc.
Panisan, W. K., M. C. Bongabong, C. C. Boongaling & M. A. Trinidad. (2018). Art Appreciation. Mandaluyong City: Mutya
Publishing House, Inc.
Sokolokova, A (2014). SuprematistComposition:WhiteOnWhite.(1918) By Kazimir Malevich.
https://www.academia.edu/10913495/SUPREMATIST_COMPOSITION_WHITE_ON_WHITE_1918_BY_KAZIMIR_
MALEVICH
Vaizey, M. (1989). 100 Masterpieces of Art. London: Peerage Books Michelin House.
Objectives:
At the end of the lecture, students are expected to:
Lectures:
3.1 The Field of Aesthetics
3.2. Aesthetics Terms
3.3. The Filipino Aesthetic Worldview
Lecture 3.1
The Field of Aesthetics
LECTURE 3.2
Aesthetic Terms
Sensorial Experiences
Sensorial experiences in art refer to how a person experience art using his
senses. Although there is specific sense for every type of art, but there may be
not only one senses that a person may utilize in appreciating the artwork.
According to Stewart (2005) as cited by Devilles, Marquez,&Tolentino (2018)
sensorial experiences are complex in a way that hearing sometimes gives way to
smelling or seeing becomes a haptic experience. They are dynamic that these
sensorial experiences both emanate from and produce the forms of articulation
and expression in art, popular culture, and the everyday.
In the book, Art Sense: Sensing the Arts in the Everyday of Devilles,
Maiquiz,&Tolentino (2018), they discussed how the various senses are being
utilized in appreciating art. Here is the summary of how each sense works in
seeing, listening, feeling (touch), tasting, and smelling the arts in the everyday.
Our sense of hearing is primodial and resonates to the core of our existence,
which is why meditation is often done with eyes shut and and active listening
and feeling.
Our sense of hearing helps us perceive depth and scope and know our place,
figuratively, between the earth and sky. Our ears make reality rich, complex,
and sensorial.
In listening, we learn a little more about ourselves and the world we live in.
The social basis has trained the brain to make our body respond to the smell
it detects, e.g., if the smell is good, then it relaxes and makes the object or
surrounding smelled as something desirable; and, conversely, if the brain
recognizes the smell as bad - with recognition based on social perception -
then the object or surrounding is deemed undesirable.
The power of the smell emanates from the body’s likely acceptance of what
society deems desirable or not, smell and the experience that goes with
olfaction.
Digestive enzymes in saliva begin to dissolve food into base chemicals that
are washed over the papillae and detected as tastes by the taste buds.
Seeing is not just a response to visual stimuli but rather involves a gamut of
emotions, then to appreciate and interpret visual arts in terms of symmetry,
color, balance, and form is a disservice.
Visuality can consider a variety of its aspects or elements that make up art.
Elements then can be the form, shape, color, value, space and texture
Human beings are endowed with five keen senses, and even more. We have sensory acuity which
make us aware of the body position and movement in relation to a given space (kinesthetic). We have
thermal receptors which record warmth and cool feelings. We have visible as well as involuntary
micro-muscular responses that scientist have recorded when we get excited as we look at beautiful
paintings (haptic muscular sensitivity). It is said that we human beings have a “third eye” (intuition). It is in
the interaction of all our senses that we feel our architecture as environment. We not only see architecture
to experience it. We should feel architecture. When we feel architecture, we should not only ask the
questions: How does it look? How much is it? How does it work? But, also how does it relate to us?
LIGHT
People must know how to make use of mood and environment as elements of design. Let us take the
dimension of light. It has direction. Light can be directly beamed, or indirectly cast, dispersed and filtered.
Natural light is time-bound. It is affected by weather. Light can have the quality of warmth and coldness.
Recently, behavioral scientists recorded that a room with daylight flooding in from windows set at right
angles to each other will increase secretion levels and in many cases provide its occupants with a more
positive attitude. The thermal messages brought by sunlight hitting the skin, either coldness or warmth,
comfort or irritation, will trigger endocrine messages and will involve galvanic responses from the skin.
TACTILE SENSES
What do we mean when we say the “touch of class”? When we see an unfamiliar thing we tend to like
to touch the material. We pass our fingers over it, press it, caress it. Market vendors fresh goods will often
utter to skeptical buyers: walang pindutan, tingin at amoy lang. Jeepney drivers will admonish their make
riders: walang chansing, walang sampal!
Buildings and their materials evoke different feelings when touched. Bricks feel different from marble;
changing the thermal properties of metal cannot compare with the warmth of wood. Glass feels different
from plastics even both transparent. We feel exhilarated when walking barefoot on freshy mowed grass or
over woolen carpet.
When we smell the brewing of coffee or the fried tuyo, what feelings do these bring out in us?
Immediately our senses relate to an activity of nourishment, but with a proper setting, a place, our taste
buds to begin to act. Our mental faculties coordinatively react to a well-designed eating place.
There is a strong physiological and psychological connection between taste and smell. Of all our
senses, smell gives us a direct link with the environment of architecture.
A wet brick in the dry season will smell differently during rainy days.
Bamboo or pinewood has an aroma.
The fragrance of rain-washed pebbles and the champaca shrub will indicate the boundary of a
house.
Smell of some fruit preserves like spiced apples or candied mangoes can bring down the blood
pressure.
Freshly cut wood sets pulses racing.
RESPONSES TO SPACE
Remember how your body muscles acted differently when you looked up the ceiling of the
Agustinian Church in Intramuros, or the paintings on the vaults of the San Beda Abbey?
Was your body not engaged when you stooped low in entering a rural kubo, or when you had to
hop over the threshold? These are kinesthetic expressions intended by the architect.
Our sense of hearing also helps us to understand spaces and the environment. Echoes,
reverberations, acoustic effects, pitch, resonance, and volume are feature architects over the ages
have used in their buildings. The chirping of birds, the dripping of water, the flow of winds are sounds
and ryhthms efectively used in design.
The shape of a room, besides creating various kinds of resonances, also provides the kind of
fluidity for the movement of energy in a particular pattern. Since energy flows in streams, spirals and
circles, a rectangular space tend to accumulate stagnant pools of energy trapped in the corners.
There are several more responses that we may have felt in buildings. Recording or
documenting these are important for society to know about architecture. Some responses may be
culturally biased and will be unuseful in the development of designs unique to that culture.
Gabelo, (2018). Art Appreciation. Muntinlupa City: Panday Lahi Publishing House, Inc.
Icagasi, R. M. (1998). “Philippine Painting and Society” in Humanities Art and Society. Quezon City: UP Philippine
Press, 1998. pp. 62 - 79.
Jocano, Landa F (2001). “Aesthetic Dimension,” in Filipino Worldview, Quezon City: PUNLAD Research House,
2001. pp.135-144.
Leano, R. D. and J. M. B. Agtani (2018). Art Appreciation for College Students. Manila: Mindshapers Co., Inc.
Osborne, H. (1985). The Twofold Significance of “Aesthetics Value” Philosophica. p. 5-24.
https://www.philosophica.ugent.be/wp-content/uploads/fulltexts/36-2.pdf
Panisan, W. K., M. C. Bongabong, C. C. Boongaling & M. A. Trinidad. (2018). Art Appreciation. Mandaluyong City: Mutya
Publishing House, Inc.
Miller, E. (2004). “Introduction to Aesthetics” Retrieved in
http://users.rowan.edu/~millere/Introduction%20to%20Aesthetics.htm.
Manahan, G. (1998). “The Teaching of Architecture: A Framework for Educating Society about Architectural Concerns”.
Humanities: Art&Society Handbook. p.132-147.
Directions: Choose one native Philippine product (work of art) (such as basket,
bracelet, hut, rags, textile, sandals, etc.) that you can find inside your house.
Then, take a photo of it then write a documentation.
Make a documentation of the artifact: Where did you buy it? How much? What is
its local name? What is it made of? Its color, size? and other information Write an
essay answering the question: How does the product or artifact express the
Filipino concept of art?
Philippine Art
Content and The essay The essay A large part of The essay
Substance answers the partially answers the essay does not answer
question the question incorrectly the question
completely and correctly. answer the at all.
correctly. question.
Language and The essay The essay is There are many The essay has
Comprehension abides with all understood mistakes in many mistakes in
the rules of although there language, and language, and it
language, and it are some the essay is hard is totally not
is easily mistakes in to understand. understood.
understood. language
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Directions: Listen to the song Magkaugnay by Joey Ayala. Provide an illustration to show
the perceptual elements using the different representations that are present in the song.
Then, write an essay that will describe its emotional suggestion and intellectual meaning.
Use the space below for your drawing and the next page for your essay.
Directions: Make an horror vacui painting that shows the Filipino concept of
space and beauty. Use the space below for your artwork.