Through the Spectacles

Dada or Dadaism, is quite a topic to be discussed especially in an art or design class. In all honesty, the notion and concepts surrounding the Dada movement are still, by far, one of the most interesting art-related topics for me because it questions the way we are being introduced to art, beauty, society, and even power itself. It is also a tool not just to show the critiques of their time; I mean, the first world war, but the works linked to Dada also show the progression of the Western art scene into modernity. The movement can also be considered a part of the many art movements during the Avant-garde period. To answer the question of whether Dada is an art or a design movement, let us define the term first - for us to have a better understanding of the subject matter. According to the MoMA Learning website, Dada emerged amid the brutality of World War I (1914–18)—a conflict that claimed the lives of eight million military personnel and an estimated equal number of civilians. ...

Graphic design is a very interesting topic for me because of its impact in my personal and professional life. This is my practice and my main discipline in the creative industry and I am glad that there is a topic for it, and it helped me quite a lot because of the new learnings from the reading. I would like to start with the gist of the reading edited by Helen Armstrong entitled: Graphic Design Theory: Readings from the Field. In this book, Armstrong compiled and edited the most important documents in line with the theories and concepts encircling the field and discipline of graphic design in a scholarly and academic manner. The book discussed the timeline of the development of graphic design, cited key personalities that contributed to the development and movements of the field, and gave some examples of the important design era. It has been said in the book that during the early 1900s, the avant-garde in graphic design emerges. The designers of the old world turned their backs on ...

       I would like to share our community theater experience. In my own opinion, I can relate and consider that endeavor as postmodern art. My main aim of our community theater company is to teach, inform, and involve the young people in our area in the art of drama and performance art. We conduct workshops, seminars, and free stageplay for the residents in our community for them to appreciate art and the theater arts as well. The workshops are being conducted during the summer because this is the time when our participants are mostly free from their academic obligations – we also welcome out-of-school youth to save them from the harm of the challenging communal norms of Manila.       In teaching them, we are using a combination of talks and practicums, and since the pedagogical nature of the entire undertaking is a workshop, we are training them most of the time in the dramatic arts using staple pieces and some materials that I’ve written...