Questions About Art

What is a work of art?

There is no one singular definition for a work of art. Something becomes art when someone finds value or beauty in it. Art is art as long as someone thinks of it as art. To attempt to delineate art is to defeat the purpose of art. Art is a fluid concept, ever-changing and evolving.

What should an artwork provide to both the maker and the viewer? 

Art should make you feel something. If both the maker and the viewer come away from a piece, having felt love or disgust or joy then the art has achieved its purpose.

Why do people make art?

Everyone makes art for different and unique reasons which don't fall into any certain parameters. Sometimes we make art to feel something, or not to feel something, or to make others feel something. People make art because art makes us human.

Where does one encounter art?

Art can be typically found in art shows or museums or galleries but art can also be in your home or outside. Since art can be anything, art can be found anywhere.


What is the role of the artist?

The artist makes the work of art. The artist is responsible for putting their art out in the world for others to observe.

MoMA and Dada

World War I and Dada:

What is Dada and why did it come into existence? The concept of Dada art sprung from the disillusionment of World War I-era artists who wished to rebel against conventional art by questioning what makes something art. Dada did not come from a desire to create art, but rather to criticize art and the world. 

Marcel Duchamp and the Readymade:

Discuss Duchamp's notion of Readymades. What are they? Duchamp wished to question what constituted art and how it should be made by presenting typical everyday objects as works of art. 

How do they change your expectations of what art can be? Readymades defied the previously held notion that art should be beautiful and that art should be special and unique. 

Chance Creations: Collage, Photomontage, and Assemblage:

Dada artists turned to non-art making strategies...

                     What did they embrace? Chance, accident, and improvisation.

                     Why did they take this approach? A form of personal protest and a tool for critiquing the                                                                             world they lived in.

Artist Collaboration: 

What is the value of art made by Dadaists? Not the work produced, but the act of making and collaborating with others to create.

Word Play:

How and why did Dada artists work with words? To free text and speech from conventional rules of spelling, grammar, and punctuation, artists would turn words and letters into abstract forms.

Dadaist Poem

"Until the world explodes and there's no one left.""World left until explodes there’s one and the no."

Social Issue PSA

Billboard

Poster

The social issue I hope to bring attention to was police brutality. This is an issue that I find often occupies the news for a short period of time when a major incident occurs, but is quickly forgotten before any serious legislative action can be taken. Police brutality is caused by many things, but one of the reasons many cases are not taken seriously by courts of the law is a lack of concrete visual or auditory evidence, and that is the specific issue I wanted to discuss in my ads. Very few police departments have police cameras on their officers and their cars and even fewer have a mandatory policy on keeping the cameras on during a confrontation. This has led to guilty parties being let free and innocent officers being sent to jail and it can be fixed so easily, if someone takes the initiative, which is why I want to bring more attention to this often neglected issue.

I hope to raise awareness for the cause of ending cases of police brutality and I want to start a movement aimed at getting body cameras on police officers. It has been proven that a change as small as that can make a huge difference in saving lives and I think that is an important cause to fight for.

My target audience is people who are fairly unaware of issues of police brutality and the negative impact a lack of body cameras on police has on the public and police officers. By leaving the middle of the picture blank, it allows the viewer of the ad to imagine the possible scenarios of what could be occurring and how it can affect anyone, even them.

My Unique Selling Proposition is that my ad is not focused on the picture, but rather what is not in the picture. The audience can see that is an average street one might find anywhere but what's important about the picture isn't what is happening, and instead what isn't happening. The ad gives the audience cues for what they could be seeing, but the audience's imagination fills in the rest.

My slogan/tagline is #endpolicebrutality, because at the end of the day, that is what I am fighting for. Even bigger than putting body cameras on police for me is ending the ceaseless unnecessary violence by those in a position of power against others.

I'm proud of this assignment turned out because I think it looks like an ad I might see on the internet or on an actual billboard and that was very important to me. I had difficulty deciding if I wanted my picture to be in color or in black and white and I ended up selecting black and white because it created a higher sense of unity between the images and lent a more severe look to the ads.

Some advice I'd give to someone else creating this project would be not to go too complicated. It is important to make the ad compelling and interesting to look at, but if it's too complicated the audience might not be able to comprehend it or it might become too chaotic and not aesthetically pleasing.

I like how I designed the ads, but the hardest thing was definitely taking a picture where I had to focus more on creating a photo that had interesting and nicely composed edges, but not paying nearly as much attention to the content of the center of the photograph.

Jab Jab Jab, Right Hook

• Make ad visually compelling with only minimal text

• Make people who view the ad feel the 'right' emotions- the emotions that make them become invested in the subject of the ad

• Logos are very important for brand recognition!

• Make text intriguing

• Make slogan catchy and memorable!

• Most important thing is to make consumer identify with the product and not feel estranged from it

Ad Analysis

a. This ad is targeted towards those who are frequently surrounded by bugs.
b. It uses humor to show the effectiveness of their product.
c. Comedy
d. 'No insects left.'
e. 'Will work for food.'

a. This ad is targeted towards people who like chocolate and would want to give it to someone as a s gift.
b. People can print their own messages onto the candies.
c. Hunger. The candy makes you hungry, which makes you want to buy it.
d. 'Communication just got sweeter.'
e. The letters/words printed on the candies.

a. The target audience is people who drink alcohol and/or drive vehicles.
b. They are showing a possible future of someone who drinks and drives.
c. Fear.
d. 'Don't Drink and Drive.'
e. 'Spare parts for humans are not as original as those for cars.'

a. The target audience is girls with long, easily tangled hair.
b. They over-exaggerate the scenario by making it seem larger than life.
c. Humor.
d. 'Hair power.'
e. There is no text and copy.

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