Assignment Task:
Learning Outcomes:
- Investigate relationships between formal elements in art and their thematic, historical, cultural, and/or ideological context.
- Demonstrate a basic understanding of art historical terminology.
- Apply visual evidence to support ideas about artwork in various media through discussion, written, studio, and other assignments.
- Recognize common currents and contrasting characteristics of different periods and art movements.
Assignment Description:
You will write a short essay to increase your ability to form connections between the art/design of the historic past, the present, and the future, expressing your own opinions and conclusions.
Assignment Brief (specifics):
- Research either social/moral concerns or the aesthetic concerns of contemporary design that were also reflected in historical art styles.
- You are assigned a current (within the past 25-30 years), specific example from your design discipline that expresses that concern (for example, the lobby of a hotel; a designer's couture collection; a line of décor from a design firm).
- In your short essay, you will compare and contrast the concerns of the past with current trends and concerns as seen in your example.
o Tell the reader how that concern is still relevant today.
o Examine how the artist/designer of the 21st century interacts with history and what our responsibilities or debts are to the art/design of the past.
- Don't write a review about the historical style/period. If you do, you'll get a failing mark.
- Your writing should be your opinions, conclusions, and/or reflections, expressed in your own words. You must defend your opinions and assertions with the current real-world example of design.
- There is no need to quote any other source.
- If You Do Not Write About The Assigned Topic, You Will Get A Mark Of Zero (0).
Pick one of the following concerns: AESTHETIC or SOCIAL/MORAL
- The Superficial (Rococo): excessively decorative surfaces; luxury, decadence, entertainment, frivolity
- The "Greater Good" (The Enlightenment; NeoClassicism): moral design to improve life and humanity.
Write 1-2 pages that clearly and completely express and explain in detail
- A concise description of your chosen contemporary design (creator, title, date, location, etc.)
- A summation of the aesthetic or social/moral concern this design reflects.
- How this concern is expressed in your chosen contemporary design.
- Why you believe this concern is important in your creative discipline today (important to the designer, the audience, the consumer or end-user, the discipline itself)
- How that contemporary design is similar to and/or different from examples from the historical period (appearance, material, use, audience, etc.).
- Import 3 or more images onto the second page of your essay that illustrate your assertions. Cite your source(s) for these images in captions (URL is fine).