Yes, it’s for homework, but please, I am not asking you to do it for me. I would like to bounce some ideas off people, if possible.
I am not an Art Person. That doesn’t mean I don’t like art, or don’t appreciate art, but put it this way: I’m going back to school and I have to fufill an art class for my general education - I never took one.
So this is an independent study, which means it’s pretty darn independent. The major project at the end of the class is an 8-12 page paper. The professor however won’t even give us ideas for a term paper; we have to come up with it from scratch.
The class itself is a look at Japan in the Edo period through its art. So a couple of term paper ideas I have come up with are:
Poetry and its significance in the Edo period.
When I look through the art and especially the scrolls I see a ton of poetry. I was thinking I would start with listing examples of poetry, their meanings, and possibly extrapolating from there into a allegorical view of poetry in everything in the culture - all of their artifacts, surroundings, right down to their lives.
The problem with this is, while interesting to me, I’m not really sure I can get a 12 page paper out of this. Besides, what am I trying to say? What’s my ultimate point? Maybe I could talk about how (relatively) regimented their poetry was, and what the significance of that is?
2-dimensional art and what it says about the culture.
So a lot of Japanese art from the period is very 2-dimensional and in our last class we discussed how it’s a factor of the culture - a strict, regimented culture often makes for strict, regimented art. At the same time European art was making HUGE leaps and bounds in perspective and Japanese art is very flat. I like this one a lot, and I was planning to compare it to other arts of the era; not European but specifically Indian, which also has a lot of “flat”" art.
My problem with this is we just discussed it in class and I am a) afraid lots of people will pick it and b) will it seem like I have no thought of my own, since we talked about it in class? but I participated a lot in the discussion…
Any input would be welcome, including “Those are crazy ideas for a paper”. I would even love input like “In MY art history class, here are some things people wrote about…” and I could go from there. I’m really starting from scratch here, people!
If I were you, the first thing I’d do is take this OP and go visit with the professor. I know how you feel. I always hated open-ended “Go wow me” projects. I need structure, dammit! See if they’ll let you see an example or two of what they might be looking for.
As for the actual assignment, it sounds to me like you need to find your thesis statement. Is there anything that has jumped out at you based on your studies? Something like, “When compared with more westernized contemporary art forms, the japanese art of the Edo period is notable for its preference of non-perspected/reverse perspective/vertical perspective techniques. These techniques were popular because ______” and then fill in the blank. You’ve probably already got that far but it was what jumped out at me.
You say term paper, which to me implies a traditional research paper but if it’s truly as open as you suggest, it’s possible you could do an informational paper where you trace the course a piece of art might follow from the creation of the canvas, the pigments and dyes to the brushwork and techniques used in the actual creation of the piece focusing on those aspects that are unique to japanese art of the period.
I forget, sometimes, about going to the professor. :smack: He’s a little distant, sometimes, so he doesn’t seem all that approachable, but I think he likes me and likes my ideas. I suppose I’ll broach these ideas to him via e-mail (office hours are difficult and hard to come by in an independent study).
He has said before that he doesn’t want ground that’s been tread too many times before, and being the only non-art person in the class, I’m pretty sure i’m going to end up on some ground that’s already been tread before.
I like structure, too. What I’m beginning to think now - we’re supposed to have a possible idea for a term paper next class. Who says I need to walk in with it ready? I’ll walk in with a couple-three ideas and throw them out to the class and see what we can do.
I’m assuming it’s an intro to art class? (At my school the intro to art classes were almost always Non-western art. I don’t know why but that’s the way they did it.) If the professor wants untrod ground simply because he’s bored with the regular stuff, well, that sucks, go find some majors to teach. If he’s trying to keep people from defaulting to safer ground covered in class, then I think he’d understand how a non-art person might want or need a little more of a foundation under their paper.
This era produced art available for the urban masses: ukiyo-i (if I recall correctly!).
Maybe a paper on how art become available to the “Everyman” and the effects?
Additionally, this time period was rich in the handcrafted arts: metal work, clay, textiles.
That’s an idea, too, as mostly we have been talking about the daimyos and the shoguns and their level of art. It might be good not just to talk about the ukiyo-e but also compare the two levels of art and the culture behind them. Thank you!
Tension between the tea-culture wabi-sabi aesthetic with the over-the-top aesthetic that the daimyo class prefers otherwise?
The sub-culture satirical use of zen imagery?
Reception of western-style linear perspective (Okyo etc)
Censorship of New Years prints
Use of prints in marketing for individual actors/ brothels/ etc.
Those nice inset narrative backstories in the Shunga porn prints (“the pizza guy rings the doorbell…”)
The great images of Dutch sailors and merchants at Deshima
Tosa school purposefully retro Yamato-e Japanese styles
Prints relating to the four seasons
Or, if you have an interest in Indian art-- trace stylistic continuity from Indian Buddhist art (like the murals at the Ajanta caves) to some place like the Kondo at Horyu-ji, via Dunhuang (if you can go back that far, timewise). Is it an Edo class, or looser than that? (the Shingon art is a hoot and worth checking out if you’re into Buddhism)
Remember, it’s 8-12 pages, which is a huge difference. Don’t feel like you need to do 12 just to look good. If the last three pages are just filler you’re hurting your grade, not helping.
While you will definitely need a thesis, at the start of all of my projects I like to begin with a vague research question. What do you want to find out?
Ex: How did the 2D art compare with Indian art? One had dragons and shit and the other was lameWhy was it so different/the same? *It was different/the same because of the 16diggety 2 revolution * What effects did this have? It made certain people have wings
Thesis: Due to the 16diggety2 Social Revolution’s influence on art in this period, this art enabled certain aspects of society to have wings, which differentiated it from this other thing.
I think for this kind of thing, your original topics are kind of broad - capybara’s examples have more specificity, which is good.
It’s an area of interest to me, and if I were to do that sort of thing, I’d go with something like “53 Stations - Recreating The Tokaido In Mythic Form”, and do something about how this popular subject served as a vehicle for virtual tourism for the urban-bound (but newly wealthy) classes, and a sort of mythologizing of travel, with actor inserts and the like.
Ok, good advice all, especially Rand McNally’s on how to come up with a term paper. I am a little intimidated, I suppose, it being on ART and not something I am more familiar with.
I have a few books at the library I’m going to go pick up tonight that might help me narrow it down a bit further and I should know by tonight what direction I want to go in.
I love capybara’s examples, especially 1) wabi-sabi vs. bling and 2) shunga.
Another idea to go along with MrDibble’s suggestion would be to look at the influence of Hizakurige by Ikku Jippensha on art. If you haven’t read it, it’s a travel narrative about two bozos named Yaji and Kita who travel the Tokaido from station to station and get into hilarious adventures on the way-- sort of a “mock guidebook”.
Censorship of ukiyoe. This was a battle between the ruling class and the masses. As an aside, because the government required a stamp on the ukiyoe, and these guys were artists, they would forge the stamp causing the government to come up with a new one. This allows us to date the ukiyoe.
Satsuma porcelain or ware:
Noh masks and carving. Noh was appropriated by the Shogun government and was not for the common people.
So I ended up writing my paper on the significance of rules and law on the art of the upper classes, the shoguns and daimyo, and how that differed in the art of the merchant classes, considering they had a whole different set of rules and laws and were so low class. I had a good section on ukiyo-e, and the development thereof, as well as many examples, in pictorial form, of pieces of art. With the pictures included the paper was about thirteen pages but it was probably around ten in actual words.
I got an A in the class! So thank you all for your help!