Dear Comrades in Critical Perspectives in the Arts (aka ARTS 1),

Yes, I made that cat+quote "meme" just for you! Also, your exam questions are HERE (please right-click and open in new tab or window). Links to the reference readings are at the left sidebar. Thank you for a most loving-kind sem!

xoxo,
Sofia

On Frida Kahlo, etc.

Dear Comrades in Art Studies,

Our last class meeting, Comrade Mike discussed "cultural (mis)appropriation" with examples from Coachella style. You know, accessorizing with American Indian feathered warbonnets and Hindu bindi, etc. This isn't really such a serious matter unless one thinks about globalization and its homogenizing effect on culture and promotion of historic ammesia regarding oppression. (Even genocide--because we're all happy now enjoying the same things, aren't we?) I remembered Mike's report yesterday when I saw a lifestyle advertorial on Frida Kahlo, described as "[a] stylish woman who makes choices that are no one else’s but her own." And, wow, you can now buy her look at Cinderella!!! Appropriation alert, comrades.

Frida Kahlo, as we discussed her in class, is an example of how important some artists' lives are in understanding their work. Yes, she was a "style icon" who made it to the cover of Vogue 1937 but it was also because she was "discovered" while accompanying her husband Diego Rivera in New York. He got fired from the Rockefeller mural for his politics but she was a breath of exotic fresh air. Frida was a strong and brave woman who, like many great artists, appropriated all over the place. Her style was a personal negotiation of the things that shaped her life: her European and Mexican heritages, the indigenous culture Diego espoused, the childhood polio (hence the long skirts), the terrible bus accident at 18, etc.

Style can be a great thing as a form of self-expression. But it doesn't do Frida justice to ignore the things that went into hers. She was also an activist whose last public appearance in July 1954 (she died July 13 that same year) was at a rally condemning CIA involvement in Guatemala. The advert also failed to mention that beneath all her finery, Frida had to wear a plaster corset to support her spine for most of her life. On it, she drew monkeys and streetcars and fetuses etc.--images she employed in her deeply personal work--as well as, consistently, a hammer and sickle. Now THAT you can't buy.

It's been a wonderful sem, me hearties, and I'm sorry that it has to end with the inevitable exam (see below).

Love,
Sofia

Philippe Halsman, Dali Atomicus (1948)

Dear Comrades in Art Studies,

This famous portrait of Salvador Dali was made before Photoshop was invented. So, how'd Halsman do it? "Assistants, including Halsman's wife and young daughter Irene, stood out of the frame and, on the photographer's count, threw three cats and a bucket of water into the air while Dali leaped up. It took the assembled cast 26 takes to capture a composition that satisfied Halsman." Twenty-six takes?! I don't know whom to feel more sorry for: the cats for being tossed about like that or the hoomins tasked with tossing them about.

Anyway, I miss you all to bits and really wish we didn't have to do this. Your exam question are below. All the readings you need are at the sidebar.

Love,
Sofia

[Source: http://100photos.time.com/photos/philippe-halsman-dali-atomicus]

NSTP Common Module Syllabus

Course Title: Service to the Nation through Empowerment and Servant Leadership

Course Code: NSTP 1 (CWTS, ROTC, LTS)

Course Description: The course sets the basic framework of service to the Filipino people and the community as the basis for all NSTP courses. It will involve discussions on basic ideologies of service to the nation, attitudes in community organizing and the prescribed topics in the NSTP Act of 2001/NSTP IRR of 2009 – NSTP Orientation, Citizenship Training, Drug Education, Disaster Awareness Preparedness and Management, Environmental Protection and National Concerns.

Course Objectives:

(1)   To establish an NSTP framework that is anchored to the university’s goals of academic excellence and service to the Filipino nation

(2)   To give an overview and understanding of the Philippine condition

(3)   To impart basic competencies in community service including disaster preparedness, environmental care, necessary to serve the AFP Reserve force (for ROTC graduates) and the National Service Reserve Corps or NSRC (for CWTS and LTS graduates)

Course Duration: Minimum of 25 hours

I.  The UPD NSTP Orientation

• Review: What is NSTP?
• NSTP History, Law and IRR
• Introduction to the UPD NSTP Common Module and the Tatak UP Framework
• History of UP as Public Service Institution

II.  Understanding the Self and Others

• The Individual, Community and Society
• Being and Becoming
• Citizenship Training: Responsibility to the Self and Society

III.  Philippine Society and Culture

• Philippine History and Condition
• Philippine Society and Culture
• National Situation (including Drug Situation and Education and National Concerns)

IV.  Citizenship and Nationalism

• Nation, Nationalism and Nation-building
• Citizenship Training
• Individual and Collective participation in shaping society

V.  Human Dignity and Rights

• The history and concept of rights
• Libertarian rights and the Common Good
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Human Rights Situation in the Philippines

VI.  Gender Sensitivity

• Basic Concepts of Gender Education
• Gender Situation and Key Issues
• Trends and History of Gender Movements
• Gender Advocacy

VII.  Environmental Advocacy

• Basic Concepts in Environment Studies
• Environmental Situation and Key Issues
• Advocacies

VIII.  Disaster Risk Reduction and Management

• Basic concepts and perspectives of disaster
• Key issues
• Programs and preparedness (including First Aid)

IX.  Community Service

• Fundamentals of Community Service
• The concept of Service and Servant/Participatory Leadership
• Approaches and methods in Community Organizing
• Basic attitudes in Community Work

X.  Towards a Meaningful Transformation

• Evaluation and assessment
• Debriefing
• Summary and Conclusion

Traumgarten by Henri Rousseau

Dear Comrades in Art Studies,

How is playing the ukulele while riding a tiger like taking an exam? Find out while answering THIS, hehe. Thank you all for being wonderfully heroic this midyear term! Stay happy and see you around! 

Love,
Sofia

Exam questions up!

Dear Comrades in Art Studies,

Clickety-click on the links and go be like Fabulous Cat! :3

Art Stud 1
Art Stud 2

Love,
Sofia

Final exam

Dear Comrades in Art Stud 1,

As some of you might have noticed, this site was down for a few days and so I posted your exam questions HERE. I'm truly sorry for the bother.

Love,
Sophie