The Arts
The Intention Criterion, Canonisation, Aesthetics
and YOU!

‘I was living in Nepal back in 2002
when this photo became famous.’ (Mr Wi#iamson)
‘Bahini’
Very famous photo...highlighted
lack of protein in the diet of the
subject who died shortly
a&erwards thereby making it
internationa#y famous.

Intention & Context
Like Nachtwey’s work, this photo had an intention,
namely to raise awareness about poverty.
BUT, the context (e.g. The death of the girl transformed
this photo into a widely discussed and analysed example)

Context
In pairs, can you think of
an example of ‘art’ which
was transformed by the
context? (e.g. Toscani’s
work for Benetton on
this page)
Or, think of ‘art’ you
have created and
explain what the
intention was.(Think
WOK)

Musical Clip...
Double click on the icon above. Students to
have a nice rest. You deserve it! Close your
eyes and use the sensory perception of
sound. For those of you who don’t understand
the language, does this change your ability
to evaluate it as a piece of art? What do you
think the intention was?

European Unification
The piece of classical music was written by
Zbigniew Preisner, a Polish composer, for the
Kieslowski film, Three Colours: Blue.
It was intended (Intention criterion) to
represent an anthem for the unification of
Europe. Does this extra piece of information
change the way you view this text? Does
this make it more likely for you to consider it
art?

Canonisation...
FR Leavis created a canon of great literature
back in 1932. Most of it was specific to
British literature and included ‘artists’ such
as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Tennyson,
Chaucer etc.
Forest Whitaker won an oscar for his role as
Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Are we
persuaded when the critics tell us that a
piece of work is art? John Ruskin (Art) and
Barry Norman (film) were both highly
influential critics but were not artists? So
what?

Journal Task
Journal: Name 5 pieces of art (art, music,
film, TV, literature, advertising etc) which you
think should be canonised...(Individual task)
Why? Here are my examples (Mr Williamson)
Art- Capella Sistina (Michelangelo,
1508-1512)
Music- Bach (Toccato & Fugue in D Minor)
Film- Bicycle Thieves (d. Vittorio de Sica,
1948)
Literature- The Silmarillion (JRR Tolkien)
Advertising- ‘Surfer’ (d. Jonathan Glazer,
1999)

Ms Wilson
Art- David (Michelangelo)
Music- ACDC: ‘Thunderstruck’
Film- Terminator (d. James Cameron, 1984)
Literature- Shakespeare
Advertising- British Airways ‘Face-Aria’

Advertising & art?
Does selling a product through advertising
invalidate art? Jot down your reaction to the
following three adverts in your journal. (We
will revisit later)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC-wPteyl6 U
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=qY1T4YAzs14&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Uj6G1C6c0uw

Ms Wilson- ‘20 years later and I can’t
get this ad out of my head’
How do we make meaning *om audio-visual stimulus
like this? From emotion, sensory perception, reason or our
aesthetic appreciation of beauty?

British Airways (1989)...introduced idea
of global village