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Ashley Mok
Professor Goldsmith
HUM001 - #76128
14 December 2020
Arts and Humanities: The Effects of Past and Present into the Future
Humanists throughout history have sought to gain a deeper understanding of the way our
society functions and develops. Art, a discipline of Humanities, has been a creative and
culturally diverse practice that has advanced over the course of time. Both subjects have led to
the evolution of our current day in society. The arts and Humanities serve as records of the past
and present for society to utilize this knowledge as a foundation for developing the future.
By utilizing humanistic knowledge, humans learn from their past mistakes and are able to
avoid those in the future. This concept of identifying what failed in the past and using what
works now in the present for the future can be seen as early as the ancient Greeks. Our first
discussion, "The Greeks" episode 3, had introduced us to the core humanistic beliefs that the
ancient Greeks utilized to keep their empire prosperous. They had realized and learned through
historical victories, such as the Battle at Marathon, that democracy was their key to success for
their civilization. According to PBS’s documentary, Chasing Greatness, “ordinary people
rejected tyranny and instituted a radical new form of government: democracy” (PBS, Chasing
Greatness), because tyrants previously in power had failed as a system that did not provided
prosperity and power to its people. This supports my argument as they had acknowledged with
experience from the past that their civilization would flourish in the future by allowing normal
citizens in positions of power. We see this idea referenced in the documentary here that,
“Athenians recognized that by empowering individuals, from the wealthiest landowner to the
lowliest foot soldier, they could be far greater than the sum of their parts” (PBS, Chasing
Greatness). Athenians had also recognized from their past mistakes of allowing kings and tyrants
ruling that power could corrupt anyone, thus they implemented a system which would avoid
corruption. This system allowed the ancient Greeks to carve names of wrongful politicians that
resulted in their banishment, as discussed here in the documentary, “if enough votes were tallied,
the official was ostracized, banned from the city for ten years” (PBS, Chasing Greatness). This
supports my argument as the Greeks had developed a system from their past humanistic views to
combat repeating mistakes in the future, as it prevented citizens from corruption much like their
past leaders. The ancient Greeks were able to bring about positive change through their past
political human views, but we also see this idea of past wrongs recognized and changed in the
future through artifacts represented as artworks.
From an artistic standpoint, Fred Wilson’s “Mining the Museum” exhibition had
provided a change to traditional art museums by highlighting past mistakes and to ensure they
are not repeated. This exhibition displayed historical African and Native American artifacts
obtained from the Maryland Historical Society in ways unorthodox to standard museum display.
Wilson presented separate artifacts together to represent statements that left a striking impression
on audiences, for instance “Cabinetmaking: 1820-1960” with chairs facing a worn-out whipping
post and a Ku Klux Klan robe in a baby carriage used as unnerving representations of racism
(Houston, How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World). Kerr Houston of Baltimore-based
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art newsletter, Bmore, notes that Wilson’s depictions of slavery and criticism of unnamed slaves
in paintings led the museum “to learn from its past and to embrace Wilson’s critique” (Houston,
How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World). This attributes to my point as Wilson’s
ridicule of the museum’s mistakes and failures lead to impactful change that helped the museum
change their ways for the future. The museum utilizes this information 25 years later, according
to Houston, he notes that “the museum’s accompanying label has evolved, reflecting Wilson’s
work” (Houston, How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World). By providing a proper label
to the slave in the artwork of Henry Darnall III—his name changed to label “the painter Justus
Engelhardt Kühn” (Houston, How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World), was a direct
influence of Wilson’s words that educated the museum on improving representation of African
Americans in artworks for the future. Wilson’s exhibition presented a knowledgeable
understanding of African American culture that brought upon awareness and accelerated change
to the practices of museums. Acknowledgement of past errors lead to the prevention of them in
the future, but they can also lead to new impactful ideas that benefit society as a whole.
Realization of the elements of art and humanities can lead to inspirations towards updated
concepts on outdated past ideas for the future. Original concepts of the past must be revised to fit
the needs of present-day society. This is evident in our reading of Roland Barthes’s Myths
Today, where he discusses the idea of myths—a form of speech with a meaning—to develop a
new revised message of current society onto an object or entity (Barthes 51). In our Semiotics
class lecture, our professor Meredith Goldsmith elaborates on this idea of myths, giving a
example of how the peace sign originally represented a “v for victory after winning World War
II, then it was taken by anti-war protestors against the Vietnam war to indicate “no war” and
peace” (Goldsmith, Semiotics). This example signifies my reasoning as a concept once from the
past is influenced and altered by society for a more suitable meaning in that time period. As
further mentioned in the lecture, the peace sign has yet another updated meaning to fit future
needs of the society. The original meaning has been “emptied of its political meaning in our
modern society as a thing to do for taking pictures” (Goldsmith, Semiotics) which shows that the
peace sign itself has not changed as the past of it is recognized by society to be important, but
now carries a meaning to represent future needs. This is proven also by Barthes’s Myth Today,
where he discusses the purpose for myths as, “an historical reality, by the way in which men
have produced or used it; and what myth gives in return is a natural image of this reality”
(Barthes 58), following the idea that myths, or ideas, are updated to align our present time that
still is built upon from past humanistic views. Reflection of our past and present in humanities
has the ability to change ideas towards the future, but also can impact future beneficial
inventiveness for a society.
Aspects of Humanities such as performance, music, and arts expand creativity of
individuals, ensuring the positive growth of society. When society is experiences productive
change through humanistic elements, this provides building blocks for a better future for all. We
have seen this creativity presented and supported by the ancient Greeks creation of theaters and
Augusto Boal’s Forum Theatre. The ancient Greeks, according to the PBS documentary,
originated theater with actors, narrators, and choruses that lead to the “invention of comedy,
tragedy and all of Western drama, confronting themes we grapple with to this day” (PBS,
Chasing Greatness), showing that this creative form had an impact which lasted to our current
society and continues to ensure an expressive way of engaging with others in our society. In
Doris Sommer’s Cultural Acupuncture chapter of her book, The Work of Art in the World, she
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examines the work of playwright Augusto Boal, who developed the Forum Theatre. The Forum
Theatre allows for audiences to personally participate in the play and subjects these non-
professional actors to scenarios and tragedies that occur in real life (Sommer 55). Sommer also
mentions that the actors performing “would sympathize in an interchange of feelings between
spect-actors and their tormented representations” (Sommer 55), referring to the empathy and
creativity the non-professional actors use to develop solutions in the play. Despite the
performance is set in a theater, the actors are placed into situations mimicking real-life scenarios,
which the actors are inspired to work together towards a favorable ‘future’ in that creative space
with each other. Actors are allowed to stop tragedies from occurring and creatively develop
solutions on how to fix them, contrasting to the humanistic knowledge they have acquired of the
past utilized towards the better development of the present and future. Aside from performances
in the theater, we also witness this expansion of creativity towards helpful societal growth in art
and music.
The study of art and music are also methods of Humanities in which creatively affect
individuals towards a better future. In the instance of an artist named Pedro Reyes, he developed
artworks which inventively used melted down firearms to create artworks which turned
something used for violence into a spectacle of positivity for all to enjoy. As Sommer indicates
in her book’s chapter, Art and Accountability, she regards one of his works “Imagine (2012)”
(Sommer 82). Imagine is noted to be “a series of fifty eerily beautiful and hauntingly musical
instruments constructed from identifiable hulks of almost seven thousand weapons” (Sommer
82), which emphasizes this creative transformation that weaponry that Reyes formed into a piece
of art capable of playing music. It is a message of expansive creative that gives a solution to
repurpose and reshape the message of an object into a new, non-threatening means for society
and the future to enjoy with a different human perspective. This has the ability to inspire
individuals to see differently as well towards the benefit of the future.
Humanities, emphasizing the study of arts, performance, and music, has the ability to
make us reflect on past and present to give us a better understanding of the future and what to do
to ensure the best society that we can create and contribute to as individuals. This class has
introduced me to elements of Humanities in a different light than to what I have previously
known. I have a clearer comprehension of Humanities in the sense that aspects such as art and
music, can play a large role in the society we reside. The works we have studied this semester
highlighted on the power of creativity and how it leads to change in society, for instance, how
one hand gesture can go through stages based on human views over the years to have a new
meaning. As someone with a passion and admiration of music, I have always hoped that the
music I create in the future would help people who have been in similar situations—a voice that
makes someone feel heard and understood. I plan for my first album’s theme to be recovery and
self-healing. After this course, I realize that my album could also be a voice of encouragement
and hope to abuse victims in similar situations to leave their abusers and act as a catalyst for
advocacy on the issue so that possibly less cases of abuse occur in the future. Emotional abuse is
not as regarded as physical abuse, but from experience I can say that it is just as equally horrific.
With what I have learned, I want to take more time to truly understanding the humanistic
values and views in all aspects of Humanities—art, music, and performance—applying that to
my creative process in song-writing, listening to other artists, and engaging in live performances.
I hope to also develop my critical skills of reading, note-taking and analyzing material that I have
acquired in this class to my other classes as I found it helpful to color code my notes and record
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everything I read for easier access. I learned that pacing myself and truly taking the time to look
over all material has helped me understand the context better. The most important lesson I have
realized out of Humanities is that our past mistakes and views do affect our present, but we have
the ability to reflect and ensure that they do not happen again for the sake of ourselves and the
world we live in.
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Works Cited
Barthes, R. (2013). Myths Today. New York: Hill and Wang.
“Chasing Greatness: Full Episode: The Greeks.” PBS LearningMedia, PBS LearningMedia, 1
Dec. 2020, ca.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/thegreeks_ep3_full/thegreeks_ep3_full/.
Duncan, Carol. Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums. London: Routledge, 1995. Print.
Houston, Kerr. "How Mining the Museum Changed the Art World." BmoreArt. 03 Mar. 2020.
Web.
Sommer, Doris. “Art and Accountability”. Duke University Press. 2014.
Sommer, Doris. “Press Here Cultural Acupuncture and Civic Stimulation”. Duke University
Press. 2014.