Here are the possible articles you can write your next extra credit assignment due on Wed. April 28th.
For a possible 2 grade points added to your final average, you can read one of the following articles, and in a minimum 500 word essay I would like you to write a response to the issues presented in the article you have read. Each article has a set of questions I would like you to address in your response. Make sure to receive full credit that you give reasons/evidence to support your opinions and that you address each question. Avoid recapping the article - I've read it, I know what it's about. You can introduce it with a few sentences, but then you must frame your essay by addressing the questions assigned to each article. Please email me with any questions - I will not except any extra credit articles after the due date.
Caravaggio, master photographer? by Jonathan Jones
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2009/nov/09/caravaggio-photography
1. In your opinion, do you think Caravaggio's work resembles modern/contemporary photography?
2. Does it cheapen the work for you that scholars/historians think he may have used a camera obscura?
3. Does it seem like "cheating" to use a camera obscura or is it a tool that helped him make better paintings?
4. Would the use of a camera obscura give his work a greater sense of immediacy - a sense of being in the moment that makes him stand apart from other painters of his time period?
The Best Art is Meaningless by Jonathan Jones
1. What do you think of the idea that the best art is meaningless? Do you agree/disagree and why?
2. Do you value a message over an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of forms, colors, and shapes? Would you like both to be present in works of art?
3. What do you look for or respond to more in art - content or style?
Thought Experiment No. 1 and More Inappropriate Alarm Clocks by Errol Morris
1. What do you think the author is talking about when he says, "Photographs provide evidence of a world behind appearances."?
2. Can a photograph lie? Can it tell the truth?
3. As a consumer of images, do you feel easily persuaded by captions on photographs or do you find yourself skeptical of them?
4. Do you agree with Morris that the answer is in the eye of the beholder - that we believe what we want about images we see?
Destroying art for art's sake by Lawrence Pollard
1. Is there ever a good reason to destroy a work of art, even if people find it offensive?
2. What do you think about art that is designed to destroy itself? Can it be a celebration of life, as Tinguely suggested, or is it just senseless destruction?
3. Is it crazy to destroy all of your worldly possessions, as artist Michael Landy did, or do you think it can be freeing - given how materialistic our culture is?
