Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Arts and Humanities

Understanding Design as a Process

Design is a process to plan, coordinate, select, and organize a set of elements to produce and create visual objects intended to communicate specific messages to specific groups.

Key Visual Design Principles

Composition

The composition of a design involves adapting and arranging different graphical elements within a visual space. These elements are selected and combined to convey a clear message to the recipient.

Harmony

Harmony is the sensation that creates visual balance through the arrangement of elements in a composition.

Texture

Texture is the manifestation of significant sensory qualities of the elements we use.

Balance

Balance is the link between elements of a composition where there is a center of gravity midway... Continue reading "Visual Design Principles and Color Psychology" »

Golden Age Spanish Theater

Comedies in the Golden Age

Comedies were performed in courtyards, with townspeople standing and nobles in rented balconies. Women were segregated from men, and performances took place during daylight. Cross Pens and Prince achieved fame. Purpose-built theaters later facilitated further development of scenery.

Lope de Vega

Lope de Vega, author of New Art of Doing Comedies, was a prolific playwright and poet. His dramatic works earned him significant fame. Over 300 comedies reflect the characteristics established in his treatise, alongside 42 morality plays.

Notable Works by Lope de Vega

• National Issue Comedies: Fuenteovejuna, El caballero de Olmedo
• Invented Theme Comedies: Often focused on love, including swashbuckling comedies

Fra Angelico: The Annunciation

Artist: Fra Angelico

Composition: This scene from the life of the Virgin Mary is set within a Renaissance-style pavilion, open on both sides. The two figures, the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, are positioned under a main arch, each occupying a central part of the composition. The Archangel Gabriel leans slightly and begins his address, while Mary kneels with her arms folded across her chest, a book open on her right leg, and a downcast gaze. A beam of light illuminates the Virgin, accompanied by a dove, symbolizing the Holy Spirit. In the bottom left, the scene of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise is depicted. Three medallions decorate the pavilion; at the center, a bust of Jesus appears in an... Continue reading "Iconic Renaissance Paintings: Analysis and Symbolism" »

Classical Antiquity

The Classical era encompasses centuries BC. In the early decades, philosophy arose in the Ionian Greek colonies. Key figures include Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. This period established many major philosophical concepts of Western thought. Beyond Greece and Rome, other influential ways of thinking developed. In India, the sacred Vedas, the foundation of Hindu philosophy, were compiled. Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was a contemporary of Pythagoras. Confucius's doctrines influenced China, Korea, and Japan.

The Middle Ages and Renaissance

Medieval philosophy (4th-16th centuries) fostered dialogue between revealed faith and human reason. Scholasticism, marked by debates and encyclopedic syntheses, flourished.... Continue reading "Ancient & Modern Philosophy: From Socrates to Nietzsche" »

Argumentative Texts: Structure and Techniques

An argumentative text is one that presents certain ideas through reasoning.

Argumentar: To provide reasons to advocate for an opinion.

The ultimate objective of an argument is to convince others of our ideas about a given subject. What distinguishes an argumentative text from an explanation is, therefore, the intention of the person generating it.

Structure

Follow a logical order to ensure proper understanding of the expressed ideas:

• Introducción (Introduction): Introduces the topic and captures interest.
• Exposición de la tesis (Thesis Statement): Argumentative texts often contain an explanatory part setting out the fundamental idea.
• Argumentación (Argumentation): Justifies the thesis (main idea) with

Jorge Manrique's Coplas a la Muerte de su Padre

Jorge Manrique's fame stems from his verses on the death of his father, composed after Don Rodrigo's passing in 1476 and published in Seville in 1494. This elegy belongs to the medieval tradition of Christian asceticism: against the worldliness of life, it calls for the acceptance of death as a transition to eternal life. However, the underlying concept suggests a prelude to the Renaissance conception of the following century: besides earthly life and eternal life, it refers to the life of fame, the enduring presence in this world by virtue of an exemplary life that remains in living memory.

In terms of style, characterized by the avoidance of any rhetorical excess or scholarly display, Manrique... Continue reading "Analysis of Manrique's Coplas and Garcilaso's Poetry" »

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and its aftermath in the 1940s brought profound upheaval to all aspects of Spanish life. In the realm of literature, censorship and the country's isolation closed its borders to European literary currents. The novel emerged as the chosen genre for authors of this period, often seeking to restore realism.

The Postwar Novel: Restoring Realism and Tremendismo

Works from this era, while sometimes lacking the innovations of the 19th-century novel in terms of themes or traditional techniques, nonetheless achieved significant quality. Authors like José María Gironella, though perhaps not aesthetically groundbreaking, adopted an existential and despairing tone, reflecting the "unknown moment" of the time. Many felt... Continue reading "The Spanish Novel in Postwar Spain: Currents & Authors" »

Antonio Machado: Themes of Anxiety and Spain

Antonio Machado's poetry is characterized by a simple, anti-rhetorical style, primarily exploring themes of anxiety, melancholy, and the socio-political situation of Spain.

Education and Influences

Machado studied at the Free Institution of Teaching, a prominent educational movement in Spain inspired by Krausismo. This institution played a crucial role in educational reform by championing academic freedom and rejecting religious, political, or moral dogma in its teaching methods.

Three Phases of Work

Machado's work can be divided into three distinct phases:

• Solitudes (later extended to Galleries and Other Poems): This early phase exhibits Symbolist influences, employing poetic language and a subjective

Joan Francesc Mira: Essays on Identity and Nation

Joan Francesc Mira is a prolific author of essays. His essays are generally based on everyday life stories, aimed at the common reader, and written in a non-specialized or academic, but rather literary, language. Mira aims to make the reader understand, through conversation, that our civilization is ending and a new one is beginning.

In his works on political debate, Mira addresses crucial issues such as:

• Nationalism
• The relationship between culture and power
• The creation and evolution of identities and symbols that conform society
• The importance of language in creating collective consciousness
• The ability to manipulate these elements for specific interests

The author demonstrates his commitment to... Continue reading "Literary Perspectives: Joan Francesc Mira and Modern Playwriting" »

Synchronization and Asynchronization in Audiovisual Media

The simultaneous presence of images and sounds can produce asynchronization, a poor combination. This involves contradictory relationships between expressive systems. Therefore, we seek an asynchronous or synchronous reinforcement and expressive interaction.

Audiovisual Editing

Editing integrates and provides coherence and unity to the various expressive components: visual, aural, and written, both simultaneously and in succession. It is what constructs the definitive account of the facts and produces the meaning, the semantic value.

Theory of Double Articulation

This refers to the linkages between images and words. Two quite opposite models of developing television information have emerged:... Continue reading "Synchronization in Audiovisual Media: Editing and Information" »