How Does Art Mirrors Society?

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1533

How does art mirrors society?

The Ambassadors is a painting made in 1533 by Hans Holbein the Younger. This particular painting was painted using oil on canvas. The painting itself embodies all of the elements that defines the Renaissance. This element of change that was happening in the Renaissance was captured through the painting. This element reinforced the Renaissance in terms of art and secular knowledge such as of exploring the world. The art technique that was exploited in this painting uncovers the progress of art in the Renaissance. Perspective was a technique that was only formally introduced in the Renaissance. This was a technique to represent volume and spatial relationship to a flat surface. The use of foreground was important to the artist as it direct the viewer’s attention to the prominent part of the painting that the artist wants to show. In this case, the foreground was the two ambassadors as they were painted bigger in shape. Sfumato and Chiaroscuro were created by Renaissance artists to add gradation of tone, color, light and shade which creates a more realistic painting. This can be seen from the painting above by the curtains, clothes, etc. Holbein uses symbols to show the secular knowledge of exploration in the Renaissance. People of the Renaissance started to explore the world and therefore started to create and used scientific instruments to guide them. The scientific instruments that were used were shown in the painting. There are two globes and other instruments that contribute to the Renaissance’s progress towards exploring. The advancement of technology and the art of exploring were represented in the painting that greatly expressed how the Italian Renaissance evolved. Change filled the atmosphere of life during the Renaissance. Change not only in terms of art and exploration but other aspect such as trading and banking. This driving force flourished due to people taking an interest of exploring the outside world. Since people began exploring foreign lands, they started to inquire ideas and traded with people from the foreign lands. These ideas circulate and spread in Italy which leads to further advancement of Italy. Each aspects and elements within this art described the occasions of change in the Renaissance which we can recognize how this advancement of the Renaissance was further developed into what we know today.

Driving Forces of the Renaissance.

Raphael Santi, The School of Athens Stanza della Segnatura, Palazzi Vaticani, Rome

"Which one driving force do you think was the most crucial in creating the Renaissance's explosion of ideas? Why?"

I believe that the 'rediscovery of ancient knowledge' was the most crucial driving force in creating the Renaissance's explosion of ideas due to the fact that without the knowledge of the past, the Italians wouldn't be able to make progress. Since the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages collapsed, some knowledge that was left behind such as of the human body, architecture, astronomy, literature, birth and more was rediscovered, studied and improved. The Italians was able to make progress and therefore it advances Italy. They also gained better understanding of the world around them as a result of the rediscovery of ancient knowledge.

C'est La Vie

I’m thirteen. I am no different from any thirteen year old girl. I crave for what I don’t have and everything I say or act has a meaning that goes along with it. I often get lectured and scolded from my parents for being me. The ordinary things like sleeping too late, having a messy room, horrible marks and the list goes on because you just don’t make 3 mistakes. You make countless reckless ones just because you’re thirteen, in my case that is. As I lay on the edge of my bed, arms clasped and tears rolled down my cheeks, I curled up just like when I’m in my mom’s belly. My eyes glued so tight that everything would fail to open them. I closed my eyes so tight wishing I wouldn't have done what I did. But life just doesn’t work that way. My parents were upset and fed up with my attitude. They felt that I was acting like a snob to them. This stabbed me. And When you get stabbed, it will always remain in you and you will always remember. The stinging pain lingers in my body and I can’t get it out. That night stretched long and endless and I could still taste its bitter sweetness.

Parents have a lot of worries and one thing they worry is you because their love for you is stronger than the strongest person ever lived. They want you to succeed in everything you do and made sure you’re not going to make the biggest regret. They’re your safe harbor whenever you need help and protection. But that night lead me to a different perspective of them. That night made me realized how unfair they were and how they claimed they’re always right. How can they be my parents?

As the night faded slowly and painfully, so did my pain. After all the anger washed out of my body, I went back and peeked in what I had done in the past. I saw how I acted towards my parents and the guilt came creeping in. I regret what I denied to my parents and I craved to say my sorry. But my mouth wouldn’t let me. Instead I wrote it on my wall “I’m sorry, it’s hard to say it so I wrote it”. I believe that everything in life has a cost. Everyone has to pay the cost, in my case I had to handle the truth and accept what my parents see because you can’t see how you act but other people can. If a situation like this came again, I would manage it the right way and say “C’est La Vie”.

The Battle Of Hastings 1066

The Battle Of Hastings 1066

This is a game that is designed to be the reenactment of The Battle Of Hastings 1066 by BBC. It is a strategic game meaning there's "Important or essential in relation to a plan of action" (1). To begin playing this game, you have to choose between King Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex or Duke William of Normandy. The game would start on different point of view depending of whom you chose. Basically this game goes through a series of two questions and each one contains different strategy which means by choosing one or the other, would lead to a different set of questions. I like the fact that this game is based on strategies and since I did learned about this battle, it really helps on picking what strategies to pick which makes the game easier. I learned that having strategies helps a lot in the real Battle of Hastings that happened in 1066 and also in winning this game. The strategies that Harold used was that he placed his soldiers and army on a hill making it difficult for William and his army to attack since they had to charge uphill to get them. Another one of Harold's strategies was having a 'shield wall'. This shield wall was so powerful that even when William's archers fired lots of arrows at them, it didn't harm the shield wall and still stood strong. The last strategy was having housecarls, the best mens, to be at the front that leads the army. Duke William's strategies were having large number of knights, having series attacks and trick retreats. William had a good number of knights that would surely helped but then Harold and his army was uphill which makes it hard for William to attack. Even though Harold and his army had a strong 'shield wall', it eventually break off by William's series attacks and trick retreats. In the end William's strategies of having series attacks and trick retreats beat Harold's strategies. Therefore William had won the Battle of Hastings and would be King of England. This is a valuable learning experience because it is a learning based game about the history of the Battle of Hastings in 1066 which means not only you get to learn the strategies of a battle during the middle ages but also learning some parts of what happened in 1066, England.

Source 1- www.dictionary.com

Source of Game Link.

'Catherine Called Birdy' by Karen Cushman.

One historical fiction novel, ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ by Karen Cushman, explores a knight’s daughter who battled through gender equality, powerlessness, ambitions and family restrictions, problems that is set in Medieval Times. Catherine or also called Little Bird, endured problems like gender equality that is mostly one of the main struggles in medieval time. “Instead I thought to make a list of all the things girls are not allowed to do: Go on crusades, be horse trainers, be monks, laugh very loud, wear breeches, drink in ale houses, cut their hair, piss in the fire to make it hiss, wear nothing, be alone..” -pg 66, this quote shows that Catherine wrote about having no justice and equality as a girl. This was written in many parts of the book, to emphasize the lack of gender equality during medieval times. “I have noticed lately how many male saints were bishops, popes, missionaries, great scholars and teachers while female saints get to be saints mostly by being someone’s mother...” –pg 144, This quote reveals the fact that even in religion there was a lack of gender equality. Catherine must also abide the fact that since there’s gender equality, then there must be the powerlessness for just being a woman. In medieval times there was also a caste system, which is a system of where people belong in different levels in society and where Catherine’s family is at the middle of the caste. One main problems of being a woman, in the middle caste system, is that the father arranges who the woman should marry with. “I must make a plan for I will not, of course, wed the pig…”-98, this quote shows that Catherine would always avoid being paired up with no choices or so. “I am left with a beastly father, a life of chores, no hope, no friends; no escape…is there justice in the world.” -pg 22, this quote explains how Catherine is complaining about the lack of freedom and power to do what she wants. Ambitions and Family Restrictions were also a problem that was faced by Catherine during medieval times. “Why must I learnt to walk with a lady’s…” and “…travel with them and have and experience. Mayhap…never return to old spinning and sewing manor.” These quotes represent Catherine’s family restrictions that she has to spin and sew and be a proper lady. “How I would rather go crusading like Uncle George or live with...” -pg 13 and “My mother gave me a gentle but stern lecture about behaving like a lady.”-pg 54, these quotes explains of Catherine’s ambition to go crusading rather than having to sew and spin, the second quote explains of how she always have to be taught how to be a well-mannered lady. Long ago, life in medieval time was extremely frustrating especially for a knight’s daughter that battled these challenges like gender equality, powerlessness, ambitions and family restrictions. The facts that Catherine is human and since humans grow and learn from their past mistakes, made her open her eyes and accepts her environment.

Answers to the Webquest.

1. Which country did Germany invaded first?
Germany invaded Poland in September 1, 1939.

2. Why did Hitler and Stalin able to share the Poland at first?

They were able to share Poland at first because of the non

aggression pact.

3. When was the exact day when World War 2 was started?
The exact day when World War 2 started was September 1, 1939.

4. Was Hitler successful invading France?
Hitler was indeed successful invading plans with his smart leadership and plans.

5. How did Hitler led Germany to become the strongest country?
Hitler led Germany by rebuilding the German military and going against the treaty of Versailles. He built a new airforce, tanks, submarines and ships. Basically, Hitler try to regain Germany back into power and scheming his way to greater power that led the Germany to become the strongest country during World War 2.

6. Was Switzerland able to survive in World War 2?
Since Switzerland did not participate in World War 2, it did survive.

7. Did Soviet hated the Jews?
The Soviets did not hate the Jews although it allied with Germany.

8. Is the former Germany the same size of the modern Germany?
Germany invaded and conquered other countries in Europe and so the size of it must have changed. But the Soviets fought back and so did other countries, this resulted that the size of Germany changed again.

9. Why did Hitler told the Germans that Arians are the most superior race?
I couldn’t find this answer.

10. Give two reasons that Hitler hated the Soviets..
I couldn’t find this answer too.

Webquest, Questions, Holocaust.

Begin the web quest by opening this website: http://www.ushmm.org/education/forstudents/

Click on Introduction to the Holocaust and start reading on this article.

1. Explain what the holocaust is.
The Germans decides who’s in and who’s out. Why did they decide this? Who were in and who were out? What happens to those who are out?
2. Read paragraph 3 and 4. What were the Nazis plan to take out the Jewish population?
3. What happens in the aftermath?

Click on antisemitism and read this article.

4. Explain the term ‘propaganda’ and ‘genocide’.
5. The Nazi party that was led by Adolf Hitler gained popularity for their theories of racism? How did they do it?
6. In the illustration drawn by anti-Semitic children, why were the people (Jewish) drawn strangely and looked dumb while the people that past the post, were looking lively and rich?
7. “Millions bought Hitler's book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), which called for the removal of Jews from Germany.”
What does this text from paragraph 4, says?

Next go to "Jewish life in Europe before the Holocaust"

8. Before the Holocaust happen, Europe is a vastly wide populated with Jewish people and culture. Why would the Nazis want to take the Jewish population and cultures away?

Go to "Nazi rise to power"

9. Read the article and explain how Hitler came into power. Was this the start of Hitler’s power?
10. Hitler was obviously a smart leader. How did he manipulate the public’s minds and brainwashed them into thinking that eliminating the Jews was a “good” idea?

Band Blog Post.

Part Onee.

ISKL misson statement: The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides an exceptional education that [SILENCE] challenges each student to develop the attitudes,

skills, knowledge and understanding to become a highly successful, spirited,

socially responsible global citizen.

In this ISKL mission statement, adding the silence after "that" creates the tension and curiosity. When a reader reads this out-loud to a bunch of people, the effect of the silence adds the tension and curiosity. The people would start to ask questions to what the reader is about to say next and what is the ISKL mission statement is. The curiosity in this would come from the people asking the questions. The tension would be from the atmosphere that forms when the reader uses the silence.

Part Two.

Composers can create tension in their music by using an unexpected silence (void). Also by taking elements of music to create the silence. When composers takes away elements of music and add silence (void), this makes people start to ask questions. The release is when the composer gives back the elements of music that was taken away and stops the silence. This would give the people the answer and the release they needed.

The Black Spot

The Power of the Void- Band Assignment
I would call the title of the story “The Black Spot”. It gives an insight to the story and it creates tension and questions on people’s minds. This is like the beginning of the suspense and tension as well as the start to the story. “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot…” this quote from the text is when the Hutchinson family opened up their papers to see if any of them has the black dot on their papers. I taste that everyone of the villagers was curious of who got the black spot; this was the moment when the intensity of the villagers was high. But after the villagers found out that Tessie got the black spot, a release occurred. There was no more suspense or curiosity and it turned into a relief. When I found out the end of the story was not given, questions starts to twirl in my head. Questions to what the ending could be. The mystery paper made me curious but since there was no ending to the story, I predicted that the mystery paper holds the ending. “Do not open until 5p.m and follow the instructions” I did not open the mystery paper at 5 because of the curiosity that makes me open it afterschool. By writing this, I am following the instructions on the mystery paper.

THE BLACK BOX. THE BLACK SPOT. THE BLANK PAPER.

The black box is the key to the ritual/lottery. This ritual or “lottery” is done every year by Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers. They made the papers and placed a black dot, then stuffed them in the black box. Whoever receives the paper with the black spot will receive the consequences.
The black ‘deadly’ spot sits on a paper and the unlucky villager that takes this paper will receive consequences. That unlucky villager happens to be Tessie Hutchinson. As a result of this, the villagers threw stones at her. This was the ritual/lottery that takes place every year as a tradition to this village.
The blank paper shows the other villagers luck of receiving a blank paper instead of the paper with the black spot. I predicted that nothing happens to those villagers and that they are safe.


After reading the ending to the story, there was still some tension and curiosity because the ending still seems mysterious and left unexplained. Instead of having the release of tension and curiosity, the author ends the story unexplained. My predictions were somewhat correct and somewhat wrong. 50-50. I feel the need to re-read parts of the story to get the mood of the story and try predicting something with that. Knowing other information’s about the story would have helped me make better predictions. Leaving voids in the story and exaggerating it makes the story mysterious and readers would ask more questions because of the unexplained voids. No title or author leaves the reader wondering more of what the author did to the story. His or her flavors and writing choices is unknown which gives the readers no information on what the author’s impact on the story. No ending cause a greater tension and curiosity as people are predicting that they would know the whole story. Text clues and foreshadowing gives excellent small voids that add up to the whole void of the story. The mystery paper that contains the ending made the final touches to this whole void assignment.

"A good picture makes us curious and makes us want to know more”

“If we look at the photographers whose work we admire, we see that they’ve found a particular place, theme, or subject, dug deep into it, and carved out something that’s become special. That takes a lot of time and a lot of work; it’s not for everyone. A great photograph really needs to say something about a person or give some insight into their life or how their life is different than yours and mine. A good picture makes us curious and makes us want to know more.” -Steve McCurry,

Steve McCurry is a photographer regignized worldwide from Philadelphia. He kick started his career in photography while working for a newspaper, then moved on to freelancing. Not only is McCurry a freelancing photographer, but a traveler as well. India was the country that touched McCurry’s heart. "If you wait," he realized, "people will forget your camera and the soul will drift up into view."- Steve McCurry. McCurry’s photos are famous for having connections with the chosen subjects and the people viewing the photos. Through his photos, I could see that McCurry has a passion of capturing the human nature as well as having connections. Human nature like the struggles, pain, joy and more that would appear in his photos. The connection of his subject’s eyes attracts people’s attention to look deep within the surface. A good example of this is the photo of the green-eyed Afghan Girl that stood out from all of his photos, and most likely one of the causes of his great success. What makes this photo so breath taking is the simplicity of the image. There isnt much of an expression on her face, so the viewer's attention is automatically drawn to her eyes.



On the photo:
Steve McCurry shoots such abrupt photos that leave viewers hanging around to dig into the meaning of the photos. When you first look at photo that there’s a young boy, holding a gun that is pointing at him. This would be the surface of this photo but there are lots of hidden things that I have to dig in order to read what’s hidden. The young boy’s face is the first step to find what’s hidden. Tears pouring out of the young boy’s eyes made me feel the need to comfort him and rub his tears away. The tears and the crying, for me, symbolize a lost hope. The gun in his hand captures my eyes and it is the second step towards finding the hidden meaning. This made me think that the young boy is having a hard time and this photo capture the moment when he’s about to give up on life. The gun symbolizes of losing faith. The young boy in this photo symbolize of all human beings (humanity). All these three things, the gun, tears and the young boy add up and equals to the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that all human beings (the young boy) have moments when their eyes would be pouring out with tears and a gun would stand along beside them. This type of moments is when human beings lose hope and faith in their lives and that the gun is the key to end the painful moment. I think McCurry wants people to look at this photo so that when this type of moments comes along, they shouldn’t lose their hope and faith. And that people should continue on their life rather than ending it and having regrets. After all we as human beings have one life to live.

Understanding McCurry’s works; travels, photography and personal life gives me an insight of digging beneath the surface to find the other side of life that hasn’t been noticed or touched. His photography made me connect with that other side of life of people whom I have never noticed. I learned that his photos make people around the world connect with each other and learn to understand of the difference and similarities with people living in different cultures. From learning this, I gained an understanding of how a great photograph tells a story of the people living in different cultures. It’s difficult to find that story as it is hidden beneath the photo. That is what a great photograph should be; digging up the surface to find the hidden meaning/story. A great photograph also attracts people’s curiosity to look for that too. These are some of the factors that makes great photos endure and last for decades.