Finishing Up The Course

This will be our final week in Humanities 220, so we have been asked to give an overview of what we have learned throughout the class. Overall, I have learned a lot! I came in knowing near to nothing about poetry and art. It was rough at times, but I have enjoyed learned about something that was out of my comfort zone.

So here are some of the things that I learned:

1. What we bring to the conversation of a piece of art work is based on our background.

Throughout our class we were asked several times to give our opinions on the poems we read and the paintings that we looked at. Throughout our conversations it became very evident that looking at a picture would bring several different views and opinions of what was going on separate from what we all saw visibly in front of us.  An example of this came up when we discussed "I Saw the Figure Five in Gold" by Charles Demuth, or any of the paintings we looked at during this class for that matter. What I saw in this painting was just a bunch of number 5's while others could pick out specific things they thought the picture was representing. At the end of the class it became evident that everyone is going to bring a different view to the discussion based on their background of the topic and things that they have experienced in their lives.

2. I learned how to describe a poem and painting based on the characteristics.

More than once we were asked to give a visual description of a painting or describe a poem based on its characteristics. By using John Blosser's powerpoint, I learned how to give a visual description using words such as line, mass, texture, value, color and space and describe each of those elements based on the piece of art that I was looking at. I also used the powerpoint 'How to Read a Poem' and was able to describe a poem based on the characteristics and what I read. Examples of both of these can be found on my blog and in my final project.

3. Objectification of women in mass media is viewed different based on gender

It was obvious based on our conversation in the class about objectification of women that there were very different views. Our discussion tried to differentiate what is appropriate and what is not. Do women have the right to walk around in what they want with out being judged based on what they are wearing, or does that make them more 'vulnerable' because of it. Also, who is to decide what makes a women 'beautiful' or 'vulnerable'? Or what is 'appropriate' and 'not appropriate'. Several things that were discussed in that conversation I did not agree with, but I value the opinion of what others think and it was nice to hear the opinion of someone of the opposite sex.

Overall I learned a lot in this class about a subject that I had absolutely no background in. It was nice to take a step back from what I am comfortable with and discuss something completely different. I think that from now on I will take a closer look when I run into artwork or poetry.