12/13/2009
A. What was the importance (or infamy) of Bunce Island?
Bunce Island was one of many slave castles and trading posts on the West coast of Africa. This slave route was in place during the Atlantic Slave Trade.
B. Who was Edward Hopper and why was he important?
Edward Hopper is a famous American realist painter who placed his views on the way of life and in reference to what was going on day to day. He painted most of his work during a war era and provided some of the most distinguished pieces of work.
C. Who was Telemann?
Telemann was a German composer whose music was played while we sat in the Chicago Symphony.
D. What was India's Great Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage?
The Kumbha Mela Pilgrimage is a mass Hindu pilgrimage which occurs four times every twelve years. Within this pilgrimage, people perform a mass ritual bathing in the closest river or body of water to the gathering.
E. What is the Great Rift?
The Great Rift Valley is a 6,000 kilometers long of eroding land which could later separate a piece of Africa from Syria to Mozambique.
F. What's a savanna?
A savanna is grassland located in tropical and subtropical areas.
G. What is Porte de L'Afrique?
Porte de L'Afrique a painting/poster that shows the port or gateway to Africa. A translation of this means the door to Africa. This port is located in Marseille, France which borders the area of Africa.
H. Identify 3 ingenius innovations of the people of MesoAmerica.
1. Irrigation System – stretched all around the land of crops
2. Way of Farming – planting and gathering crops
3. Tools for killing animals, working on the farm, and basic living. (Arrowheads, fish hooks, stone plow, bowls, utensils, and spears)
Discuss in correct grammatical prose two of the following:
1. Anthropologists, cultural historians, geographers, and archeologists often look to the arts and mores of countries as a clue to the behavior, beliefs and practice of a people. Use your first-hand experience these four days to discuss. Example: Buddhist/Hindu art/sculpture as reflective of society - religion, culture, etc.
We must look to arts for the fact that many works show the way of life of people. This could be the same way those artists now and from the past, and how they would show their emotions to the economy or just their individual lives. Art is a symbol of peace and a visual language we all could soon understand. Historians can look at artifacts and tell when they were found and what animals they match up with. This is all the same for a piece of art work. Not everyone has the ability to sing, write, or talk so pieces of art can persuade or just show a visual to get a point across.
While in the Art Institute of Chicago I got to see some of the ways art can be ways of history or language to everyone. In the African exhibit we noticed a sculpture that had nails in it, this was a symbol to take away the demons that had possessed the people who came to confession. Also on this sculpture was a mirror box that allowed the people to see the demons that were hiding within them and could be fought away. We also came across sculptures that looked like dragons and dog, which could have been put in a tomb with man to keep the evil away from him. Spears and other sorts of weapons could have been placed within the tomb as well. One thing that stuck out to me was the miniature sized farms and utensils that were placed in ones grave with them to be carried to the next life. If one person were to have great lands and farming, then his land and farm were sent to his grave with him. There are all types of weird concepts, such as the doors with attached knockers. If the knockers were attached, then that place a for sure knowledge that people weren’t allowed in.
We must look upon our ancestors to find out what there was in the past but along with this comes artifacts and ways of art. Once again there are creatures being discovered each day from fossil finding but we must note that every day there are at least twenty-seven species going extinct. I thought about this the other day and wondered how it was possible but then realized there are more creatures out there than I know facts/knowledge about. This kind of moves me into wondering about the religion of human beings. We can look at science and history to put facts and theories together but must realize they are acts that could be changed from scientists to scientists.
As I move away from the history and sciences, our class had the opportunity to sit in on a prayer session at the Islamic Center. Each Islamic person of belief prays five times a day and can come to this facility and practice along with fellow believers. At this time prayer is faced towards the North-East towards Mecca. As for the Holy Quran it’s presumed by the Islam to be much greater than the Bible considering it holds less mistakes and easier to memorize word for word. In this book there are different colors on certain words to symbolize a different sound that must be made by the nose.
2. How do you think art is a reflection of a society's fundamental beliefs and actions? Reference your experience at the Art Institute, the Islamic Center, the Spertus Museum and the DuSable Museum?
Art is a great reflection on society and fundamental beliefs because it must be interpreted. We could sit back all day and watch television and hear politicians criticize one another but if we were to sit back and stare at a painting we may not get the same concept. Pieces of art work symbolize a new beginning to the way of life and how we can express ourselves. It is easy to say that artists from the past have already used art as a symbol of communication but in today’s society there are many different types of art. If you were to ask someone from the early 70s who was their favorite artists or sculptor, their answer would most likely not match the view of someone from today’s era.
In the Art Institute of Chicago there was a modern art selection that included a u-shaped set of ultraviolet lights hovering over broken ground. Many of us, including myself wouldn’t call that art but we still buy and use the same pieces every day. Another example of what I saw in modern world was a selection of chairs. These chairs were made of Iron or strong steel but still had the comfort as a chair with a cushion. Also in the same exhibit was a huge circular chair made of iron or steel but the bottom of the chair where people would sit on was made of rubber from car tires. By looking at different types of chairs and not sitting on them, I would have never guess the steel chair with rubber on seating would be the most comfortable.
We may wonder where this may fit in with the society’s fundamental beliefs or actions, but it is clear and simple. People of the United States are easy to please and if it takes a little bit of extra money most people would pay for it as long as it suited them. The United States is made up of all cultures and beliefs, so it is hard to narrow the lifestyles down but art can put any group of people together. Art is divided into all groups such as; religion, history, art pieces, life, and everything around us. The DuSable Museum is a great point of all of everything we are living for in the United States. It placed us back in history to see where African Americans came about and how different people had changed the world beyond what could be learned in a textbook. We know of all the greats but we never take time to see how their arts could evolve the way we live today. One person that is famous to us all is Martin Luther King Jr. but we must step back and see all the facts on how his speech changed the world. Next time you get the opportunity to look around you, take the time to see the freedoms that are available to us because of the history of such a great man.
Life is being taken advantage of every day because we choose to be lazy. I am one to say that I can’t read art but could see my own personal meanings behind the paintings and sculptures. That is the same for history, I figured all the information from my textbooks covered the main pieces but the main pieces aren’t always the most important. It’s the little things in life that can change the whole perspective on how we view one another and each place we visited while in Chicago gave me personally a different perspective on the way of life. We must note that art is everything around us every day, whether or not it moves it’s a way of expression.
Posted at 11:18 PM by Ryan Burns