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Museum Visit Report
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Museum Visit Report
I have always been excited about history and particularly museums. I once did a class assignment where our teacher required us to visit a historical monument and write a report. I had just visited the Rubin Museum the previous week and enquired whether I could include that in the report, it was difficult to go down to Manhattan and I was just there less than a week past on 3rd February, 2019. The Rubin Museum is one of the most underrated historical places in the country. There was information about the Tibetan history with breathtaking displays. The Tibetan culture is fascinating because of the pursuit of enlightenment, which is quite an interesting phenomenon. This is a report on the visit to the Rubin Museum including additional information on the historical context inspired by the artifacts in the building and the history about it.
Getting to the Museum, the entrance was blocked by joyous groups with various artists playing live sounds and one had to squeeze between the many people to get to the door and into the building. Apparently, I had gone on a day when an annual block party was in progress. It was beautiful and cultural with dancers shaking their body to the live music and various treats spread all over. The entrance was exciting and no one would mind the commotion. It was my plan to go in and then come back to the party. I was still excited about finding a little history of the Buddha with figures and all. A six-story staircase led to an exhibition area. There were several guides that showed people around but I wanted to do the tour alone and maybe join a group later. I had one intention and that was to begin at the Tibetan exhibition area.
The Tibetan culture was particularly important to me because it is currently under threat from restriction to express the culture by the Chinese, the gradual loss of national identity, and mass Chinese immigration. A particular piece that I came across that was interesting in terms of cultural significance and the display was something titled the “Four-Armed Avalokiteshvara in His Pure Realm of Potalika.” It looked like pigment on canvas placed between walls and people walked up to a frame and placed their arms against the glass, a gimmick that was confusing until one got their turn. One was supposed to lean against the glass, touch the wall, and like sorcery you could hear the chants of monks and the vibrations of the sound could be felt on the hand. It was as if the sound of some invincible soul that made the chants came to life.
The Tibetan people live by Buddhist principles with nuns and monks playing a crucial role in providing guidance and education (Pauls). The Tibetan people work hard to protect their religion and culture, which makes it unfortunate that the Chinese are undermining this beautiful culture with an important place in history.
At the museum, I moved to a section that had a little history of Buddha called the Tibetan shrine room. Here I gathered information that Buddhas were lifted from the earth when they achieved enlightenment. Not all Buddhas, however, left the earth and one group called the Bodhisattvas remained with the people to provide guidance and help them achieve their own enlightenment. The museum had displays of Buddha himself, Shakyamuni, who was named after the religion because of his role in founding it. Alongside him were different sculptures and paintings illustrating different expressions and gestures.
The experience at the museum augmented information that was provided in history books. For a person that has almost as much interest as me, this was a particularly an enriching experience. Walking out of the museum challenged an individual to research more on particular topics, like for my case was the Buddhist theory of evanescence and the Tibetan sky funeral. Be it a documentary, a visit to an exhibition, or a museum, augmenting class work with an external activity kills the monotony of always being in class provides students with the opportunity for additional information not covered in the syllabus.
Works Cited
Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. “Tibetna People .” 2019. Encyclopedia Britannica . Website . 29 February 2020
Museum Visit Paper
Paper #2
Museum Visit Paper
(200 points)
Overview:
Take a virtual tour of a major art museum from the list provided and identify one artwork to describe and analyze.
Describe the work and how it is displayed.
Identify the style of the work.
Analyze the work by describing and applying commonly used approaches and criteria for analyzing works of art (basic elements and principles of art).
Include a photo of the work.
Requirements:
Length: Minimum of 1500-words, double-spaced, not including title page and works cited page.
Tutoring though Tutor.com is required for this paper
Outside research requirements—at least 2 sources, and textbook
Use MLA Citation format (cite in-text and on a citations page at the end)
Submit a reflection paragraph in a separate document (about 100 words)
Objectives:
The objective of this assignment is to write a four-page paper:
Describe using all of the art elements
Analyze an artwork using all of the art principles
Identify the style
Due Dates:
Submit your paper as a Word document by uploading it on Blackboard
No other submission method or file type will be accepted!
Sun. 3/21Museum Paper Topic due–identify the Museum and the artwork
Sun. 4/18Rough Draft due—send it to Tutor.com
Sun. 5/2Final Draft due—include comments from Tutor.com Reflection Paragraph due—submit it in a separate document along with your paper
References:
Internet materials—you may use websites, and periodicals for research
Please do not use Wikipedia or Encyclopedias
Resources:
Tutor.com: a free online tutoring service available to all PCCC students
Find the link at the bottom of your Blackboard “My PCCC” page
Course LibGuide: http://pccc.libguides.com/ae-101EasyBib — Citation management software to help you create citations
Details:
Choose a major museum to take a virtual tour of from the list provided. The list is posted on Blackboard.
Take a self-guided tour–wander around a bit to get used to the atmosphere.
Now you’re ready to choose a single work of art. It can be a painting, print, sculpture, drawing, installation, etc. Feel free to pick whatever piece seems to “speak” to you.
After gazing at the piece for a significant amount of time, and taking notes, you are ready to do some research and begin writing.
Minimum of 1,500 words, double-spaced, that include the following:
Introduce your topic and identify the work by artist, title, date, medium, and size.
Include a Photograph of the work with your paper.
Describe how the piece is displayed. Include information about how it is framed or installed and what artworks are displayed next to it. Be specific!
Discuss the technique–Briefly describe how the work was made.
Research and discuss the Art Style. Identify the Art Style, such as Renaissance, Impressionism, Surrealism, etc. and describe an aspect of the work that indicates the art style.
Describe the work using all of the art elements listed below. If the work does not relate to an element in any way, you should say so. The description should be detailed enough so that a viewer unfamiliar with the work might be able to get a mental picture of it and give the reader a sense of what the work looks like. You can begin with what is depicted, who or what is represented.
Art Elements
Line
Shape
Space
Value
Color
Texture
Analyze the work. You should analyze how the artwork relates to each of the principles of design. If the work does not relate to a principle in any way, you should say so.
Principles of Design
Balance
Repetition and Rhythm
Scale and Proportion
Emphasis (focal point)
Movement
Harmony/Variety/Unity
In conclusion, and based on your research and all the careful examination of this work, did you reach any new conclusion or ideas about the work that weren’t obvious to you at first? Has your interpretation changed?
Reflection Paragraph–In a separate file, write a reflection paragraph, about 100 words. You should write about your experience in researching and writing this paper. You can include what you expected, and what you learned.
Chapter Two Human Nature
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Chapter Two: Human Nature
Chapter two of the book discusses human nature. It opens through coming up with the issue, “who and what am I.” According to this chapter, how individuals typically view themselves has been intensely subjective by the traditional theories of human nature which includes; the Western religious view as well as the rationalist view. There exist several approaches that tend to explain more about the concept of human nature like the existentialism and Darwinian theories. However, some of these views like the traditional ones have met a lot of challenges. For example, the notions of uniqueness and purpose have been met with some difficulties, for instance, the Darwinian evolution. On the other hand, the concept of human nature has also been challenged by existentialism. Feminists have also raised some questions regarding the role of gender in the formation of human identity. The traditional theory assumes that humans tend to be enduring themselves and they are obligated to be self-sufficient. Among all these theories, it is hard to determine the correct and wrong ones, but it is vivid that humans regularly tend to interpret the aspects of their lives from the views arising from these theories.
According to this chapter human nature denotes to what precisely a human nature is, and what makes human to be different from anything else. Therefore some crucial matters have been raised by the individual’s views of human nature and some of them include questions of whether humans have some spiritual characteristic or they are only material. Also, the questions of whether they are self-absorbed, cooperative plus being aggressive are raised. These questions result typically in some arguments that can only be solved through deductive or inductive, whereby deductive reasoning is valid if the evidence is true; thus, the conclusion is correct. The traditional Western theory adopts that human nature is the same among all humans. An excellent example version of a traditional western view is the ancient Greek outlook that regards humans as exceptionally rational creatures with some special purpose. This view purports that human desire should be controlled by reason over their aggressiveness and desire. There is also the Judeo-Christian religious opinion that humans resemble the image of God, who has gifted them with the aptitude to love as well as lucid self-consciousness.
However, some scientists challenge the traditional opinion of human nature. Darwin, a renowned philosopher, argues that human underwent what is called evolution. According to Darwin, humans evolved from the earlier species through undergoing random variations and also some natural selection that fitted only the strong to survive. His main point is that human nature lacks some purpose and therefore it is not exceptional. The existentialist tends to deny the fact that human possesses similar fixed nature, but each usually creates his or her specific nature. They suggest that humans have the power of choosing and creating the kind of life that they want.
The Feminists outlook is that human’s notion of reason, body, minds, and emotions are centered in favor of the male against the female gender. However, this theory has been proven by scientists to be wrong and sexist. There is also the Descartes dualist that also explains the notion of human nature. It argues that humans are material bodies who possess immaterial minds. Descartes contends that the enduring soul in humans is a soul while Locke explains that it is the memory that typically creates the enduring self. Contrary, Hume, and Buddhism claim that there exists no enduring self. Moreover, there exist several other theories with different opinions regarding human nature such as identity theory, behaviorism, and functionalism.
As seen above all these views hold different opinions although there exists some that overlap. Although nobody can decide for any individual to which theory to incline to, it is vivid that the rejection or acceptance of any of these theories will have a significant influence on individuals’ lives and how they tend to live it.
Works Cited
Velasquez, Manuel. Philosophy: A text with readings. Cengage Learning, 2016.