In unit 1, we began with sharing our thoughts on what art is to us and how do we express and are able to connect to it. Art comes in all different ways and forms, from historic painting to graffiti on subways to even music and dance it is all a form of expression. Art can show viewers an artist mood and creativity, although each viewer may read any way of art in a different perspective which makes it more interesting. We were later introduced to formal analysis in art. We learned that it focuses on the elements and principles used by the artist. The elements of art include, shape, line, form, color, texture, mass and scale. While the principles of art include things such as pattern, contrast and balance in a piece of art.With formal analysis we as viewers are able to learn about the visual facts of the artists work and begin to interpret what the artist is trying to portray. Everyone has a different idea when looking at a piece of art even without referring to any outside sources, though we do use historical context of an artwork to helps understand why the artist did such and such in the piece of art. We look at elements such as color used and what mood it may represent, we also look at lines to helps tell if artwork is two or three dimensional. Overall with formal analysis we have a better understand on how to interpret artwork in a whole and what things we can point out that others may miss in order to understand what the artist is trying portray.
We also discussed the “Banking Concept of Education” by Paulo Freire which described a way of education in which the educators/teachers deposit information and “knowledge” into students as if they were actually just a bank. This concept relied on teachers just needed to teach and students are taught, they were taught just to listen and memorize without being able to express any opinion on anything they were being taught, in simpler terms “teachers knew everything.” Student memorized and repeated, which lead them to not be able to be creative thinkers but only have their thinking controlled by an educator. I believe this only holds a student who may be a genius from the future, it did not allow them to actually understand the why’s and what if’s, and it didn’t allow their opinion or expression to be heard which ruled out an creativity they may have had.
Throughout this unit I learned how to look at art differently especially ancient art, I am now able to point out things I missed before. I can tell how color and lines can change an entire perspective of a piece of artwork. I was also able to realize how much art has changed throughout the years and how every detail in a historic piece of art can have so much meaning.
