AoK: Art- ToK Assessment

AoK: Art- ToK Assessment

"Art is a lie that gives us the truth, at least the truth we are given to understand"

- Picasso

This is a famous quote by Picasso, when questioned about the arts as a whole. This quote is very interesting because it contridicts arts as a area of knowledge, suggesting that arts as a area of knowledge is flawed and unreliable, but yet tells us this "truth" which is a "lie".

Knowledge claims made by quote:

1. Art conveys meaning

- Picasso implies that all art convey some sort of meaning and idea

2. Art is subjective

- Picasso says "we are given to understand" in the quote. The most important word here is "given". This suggests that the artist's bias plays a big part of conveying the truth

3. The art as an area of knowledge is unreliable

- Picasso uses 2 distinct antonyms, "lie" and "truth", to describe the arts in the same sentence. This itself is contradictory since something cannot be a lie and still be truthful. This suggests Picasso's definition of the art is still vague, but since the quote does not talk about absolute truth or common truth, the arts is a unreliable area of knowledge

This piece of artwork was painted by Rene Magritte in the late 1930s. The picture appears to be a picture of a cigar pipe, however underneath, Magritte has written in french "This is not a pipe." This begs the question, is the painting of a cigar pipe or not, or is it some sort of abstract representation of a pipe from Magritte with a deeper meaning? Why did Magritte paint what seems to be a perfectly stereotypical cigar pipe, but then state that this is actually not a cigar pipe?

"This is not a pipe"

What is Art?

- One of the AoK in ToK

Comes in many different forms:

- Visual art

- Literature

- Theater

Art is not confined to any specific/ absolute criteria, however there are 3 simplified guidelines to decide what is art and what is not art. This will be developed further on in the presentation

- Oxford Dictionary Definition:

"the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power."

Interpretation of the artwork

"The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture 'This is a pipe', I'd have been lying!"

- Magritte

What constitutes as Art?

Personal Response

As I said before, the interpretation of what is art and what is not is not absolutely bounded to rules, but instead is up to personal interpretation. However, there are some sort of guidelines on what we perceive as art, instead of just random brush lines or white noise. These 3 guidelines are just vague guidelines, and they reflect on my personal interpretation of what is art.

1. Intention of the artist

- The intention of the artist must be to create artwork, and also to invoke a response from his/her audience. This gives them a specific intention.

My Definition of the Arts:

- A medium to express emotion and meaning

- Artists usually convey their personal knowledge through artwork, and hopefully it will turn into shared knowledge; a medium for meaning

- The main ways of knowing in arts is sense perception and emotion. Emotion drives the arts , and sense perception is used to perceive the artwork to turn it into meaning.

2. Quality of work

- We expect an artist to be highly skilled and talented. Therefore, artwork should be of a high quality, a work of art should not be something that a person with low skills and no talent or training could have made.

- I think art is a very interesting area of knowledge

- It doesn't give concrete facts or specifics, but it gives emotion

- Art is a very personal area of knowledge, since it is up for individual interpretation and reason

- Art takes up many forms, so it is a very vague AoK

I think this piece of artwork perfectly describes and explains the meaning behind Picasso's quote. In here, Magritte makes a crucial differentiation between arts and reality; the reality that this pipe will never be filled with tobacco, and never will be lit and smoked. This painting is clearly just a representation of the pipe, not a pipe itself. Even if the best artist came a drew a super realistic drawing of a pipe, it will never become a pipe, since it is a 2 dimensional entity on a piece of paper.

2. Response of spectators

- A work of art requires an appreciative audience to complete it. This is evidence for the 2 points above and clearly defines the work as a piece of artwork

This painting of a cigar pipe is only interpreted as a cigar pipe due to the "absolute" truths we have succumb to believe. These "absolute" truths are truths that come from our shared knowledge, and dominates personal knowledge, our personal interpretation of the truth

Knowledge Claims from Artwork

Knowledge Questions

Here are some knowledge questions about the arts. These have been developed through this presentation, and I will try to answer them in the following few slides

What "truths" does this artwork convey to us?

- Magritte shows us that art is just a representation of the artist's truth; in other words, the artist's interpretation of reality, a convention of the artist's personal knowledge.

- Artists use shared knowledge to influence the meaning and shape the different parts of the artwork. Here Magritte is using our shared knowledge to make a pun, that art should conveyed through personal knowledge, and less based on shared knowledge

1. To what extent can art give us knowledge?

2. Is there good art and bad art?

3. How does prior learning and experience influence our interpretation of art?

Answers to Knowledge Questions

Is there good art and bad art?

Claims:

- There are universal guidelines on what is art and what is not art, and there are certain expectations that we have when we judge what is art and what is not art.

- These guidelines can be transferred into judging one's art ability, whether this piece of art is good or bad

- This can be also reflected on the price tags of many famous artworks, fetching up to millions of dollars per piece

Counterclaims:

- However, these price tags are not an absolute measure of the quality of art. The interpretation of art is purely subjective, so each person has their on measure of the quality of art. There is not absolute scale or differentiation from a piece of good art from a piece of bad art

- Each person's emotion also plays a big part of the judging. If the artwork invokes strong emotion in one's mind, one would think that the artwork is worth a lot, as there is sentimental

Implications:

- This implies that art can be bad. What does it mean when art is bad? In a ToK presepective, this means that it does not convey knowledge or it conveys partial truth. However, this is completely subjective.

Conclusion:

- Good and bad art are all up for personal interpretation. This is due to the fact that art is a very different area of knowledge compared to others such as Mathematics or Natural Sciences.

To what extent can art give us knowledge?

Claims:

- Art can convey emotion and meaning. It gives us understanding of the social and historical context of the artist and the painting.

- This can be shown in paintings in the past, where there were no cameras and the only way to keep a self portrait was through painting. It conveys to us reliable information about the person, such as their status, wealth, and basic information about them.

Counterclaims:

- However, the artist may have deformed the artwork or modified it somewhat to distort the truth

- The artist may have hid some features in the self portrait so that they appear more taller or with better attributes so the artist can be paid more

- These changes can also be influenced by the current beliefs in the world, such as religion and other universal beliefs (the Earth is flat). This will distort the "truth" perceived by the artist and is an unreliable source of knowledge

Implications:

- This implies that art conveys "truth", but this "truth" is rarely "absolute" truth. It conveys some sorts of "truth", mixing it up with their personal knowledge and the shared knowledge of that time. The main knowledge it conveys through the arts is the personal "truth" of the artist. The arts as an area of knowledge cannot be 100% relied upon

Conclusion:

- The arts as an area of knowledge do convey knowledge to us, but it is very different to knowledge derived from other AoKs, such as Mathematics or Natural Sciences. This knowledge convey to us is shaped heavily by personal knowledge, and shows us more about the artist's intention and emotions, rather than truths and facts about the world around us.

Ways of Knowing used:

- Sense perception: we use our senses (eyes) to interpret and visualize the artwork

- Emotion: we use emotion to feel and empathize with the artist through the artwork

- Language: language is used in this piece of art to convey a different texture of emotions and meaning. This is a mix of both visual arts and words used.