Week 1
Reading Reflection
The Creative Process by James Baldwin from Creative America
I totally agree with how the author sees the role of artists. As I have also thought about the question: “Why are arts important? Why does humanity need art?”, and the answer I got for myself is that art is the thing humans created for other people to simply enjoy their existence. Unlike other kinds of human creations, such as science and literature, which are always created for some purpose, art can be created without a purpose. However, while art reflects the artists’ view of the world, it can unintentionally change people in society. People in different eras produce different kinds of art, which reflects back on people and reshapes the next generation. This article further explores this idea and talks about how these art happen - by the artists diving deep into their inner selves and exploring the "darker forces" of themselves and society, and points out how American society should better deal with arts, especially those that are rather “harsh” to face, as these kinds of art can change the future of America. That idea resonates with how I see the role of art, so I was truly happy to read this article. By the way, I love the tone of the article, as I can tell the author is an artist themselves. :)
Everyone Is A Creator & Tuning In (Chapters 1 & 2) from The Creative Process by Rick Rubin
I like this article because it discusses the definition of art and creativity in a rather philosophical way: what is the boundary of it, and in fact, is there any boundary at all? I do agree that, as human lives, art and creations will be produced, and I also agree that if one sees things in a broad and penetrating perspective, everything can be seen as, or perceived as, some kind of art. However, that also makes me think about the question: then what about the “art” themselves? Or in other words, the “art art”? When everything is defined as art, where will the traditional, classic kind of art go? Can this possibly make them lose their purpose to exist?
What Is Design? from Design For The Real World by Victor Papanek
I generally do not like articles that are mostly about the author teaching how they think people should be doing things, but I generally agree with how the author thinks about what makes a good design. However, I still disagree with some aspects of this article, as to me, many factors of a “good design” can be quite subjective. Although design is often considered something to serve people instead of self-expression, I still think the same design can be a good design in some people’s eyes and a bad design in others. Therefore, I do not think it is a good idea to set a standard for all designs. In addition, I do feel the difference in tone between the previous two articles, which talk about art, and this article, which talks about design. I can see that there is a huge gap between the mindset of artists and that of designers, and I find that rather interesting.
