Art and Philosophy

• Engels
• WO
• Studiejaar 4

Art and philosophy

Assignment overview

To attract more teenagers to the museum, the museum has asked you to make something that connects a piece from their collection with a philosopher. 

The final product of this assignment is a video in which you interview someone about your chosen philosopher and your chosen work of art.

Assignment details

• Choose a philosopher from the list, or if you want to choose another, please ask your teacher. 
• Pick a piece of art to explore for your assignment. Every student picks a different piece. 
• You can visit Stedelijk Museum (admission free for under 18s), but only if you go there alone. No pairs or groups: the museum doesn't accept groups of students which show up unannounced.
• The alternative is to do your interview on a philosopher and a self-chosen piece of public art. Take a selfie with your chosen object. This should end up in your final product. 

Requirements final product

• Interview someone who you encounter when you visit your chosen piece of art (not a classmate). Ask them what they think of the piece of art. 
• Then share the ideas of your philosopher and ask them if they can relate those ideas to the artwork. 
• Comment on the other person's response.
• Hand in a 5 minute video in which your teacher can see you having the conversation on art and philosophy as described above.

Art: Getting started

Karel Appel

Made for the former restaurant of Stedelijk 

Learning to look at art

Philosophy: Getting started

Exploring philosophy

• What am I doing here?   Nihilism & existentialism
• Go with the flow                Stoicism and Taoism
• Clear-headed                     Rationalism & logical positivism
• Where's the party            Hedonism and Marxism
• That depends...                 Relativism
• That's not fair!                   Ethics
• So ugly...                              Aesthetics

Research a school of philosophy

• Form pairs. Choose one of the two schools of philosophy.
• Go here and read the general description of the schools of philosophy. 

Research a school of philosophy

• Then use any means necessary within the confines of your laptop to find accurate and reliable information on your school of philosophy. 
• Make sure to include a philosopher whose work is part of the school of philosophy. Put text and images in Padlet to share your findings with the class.

Now analyse this:  De Muur

Use your assigned school of philosophy to analyse, praise or criticise De Muur. 

Let 's practise in some wold famous museums

Let's visit Tate Modern or Moma

• Explore the museum's collection online.
• Choose an art work that speaks to you (this doesn't have to be the piece that you are going to use in your video).
• Write a short text in which you explain your your opinion on your chosen piece of art.
• Present your piece of art and your opinion to your group.
• Pick one of the four art pieces and dicuss it with the four of you. Then report the discussion back to class.