# Love of History of Art



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

Nonsense said:


> Maybe _some _do, but... I don't get the impression that it's the norm.


No, I'm pretty sure no one likes the task of rote memorization. Those who do memorize massive amounts of facts/data do it because it ultimately serves a greater purpose. 

IE: It impresses others, it's faster to memorize and be able to recall them than looking at references, etc. 

As an engineer, it's very useful and very practical to know things like all of the basic conversions, how to quickly make estimations of complex calculations, etc.

Savants are another matter though.


----------



## d e c a d e n t (Apr 21, 2013)

MNiS said:


> Savants are another matter though.


Don't they count?^^;


----------



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

Nonsense said:


> Don't they count?^^;


Well I'm saying maybe there're a few savants out there who memorize facts because they genuinely like to memorize them.


----------



## aniso (Aug 14, 2013)

@MNiS Ehh... I maybe gave you the wrong impression of what I thought when starting this discussion. (or maybe now i'm thinking something else than that horrid night studying history of art, but whatever  ) ... I don't think that people - of any type - love to just learn plain facts for the sake of learning them... I was thinking that maybe those with Ti as their strong side / value had less of a struggle to memorize history facts than, for example, I would have...or maybe they don't get so emotional about stuff they don't like (but still has to) do...they just push their emotions, likes and dislikes to the side and do it without whining?  Or am I terribly wrong?


----------



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

osina said:


> Ehh... I maybe gave you the wrong impression of what I thought when starting this discussion. (or maybe now i'm thinking something else than that horrid night studying history of art, but whatever  ) ... I don't think that people - of any type - love to just learn plain facts for the sake of learning them... I was thinking that maybe those with Ti as their strong side / value had less of a struggle to memorize history facts than, for example, I would have...or maybe they don't get so emotional about stuff they don't like (but still has to) do...they just push their emotions, likes and dislikes to the side and do it without whining?  Or am I terribly wrong?


Yeah, I think Art History is definitely taught with Si/Ti in mind so it can be a bit difficult. However, I took a course in European Art in college and frequently received the highest grades in a class of several hundred. I dunno, I actually thought the class was the easiest "for fun" course I took compared to my engineering courses. >.<

Seems childish and elementary but I used flash cards and quizzed myself repeatedly until I had memorized everything perfectly. There was nothing more to it than that.


----------



## aniso (Aug 14, 2013)

MNiS said:


> Yeah, I think Art History is definitely taught with Si/Ti in mind so it can be a bit difficult. However, I took a course in European Art in college and frequently received the highest grades in a class of several hundred. I dunno, I actually thought the class was the easiest "for fun" course I took compared to my engineering courses. >.<
> 
> Seems childish and elementary but I used flash cards and quizzed myself repeatedly until I had memorized everything perfectly. There was nothing more to it than that.


Haha, I believe if I tried engineering courses, then History of Art could seem like a child's game, too.  I dunno. I'm an IEE who hasn't cheated much during school tests (I believe...like...2 times? And I'm in university now) and always had somewhat normal to good grades. I liked math and learning foreign languages, but I liked psychology and ethics more. And I like to do something creative the most...as for now: to create something that looks beautiful (hopefully) and that can be useful or at least make someone feel better.  (ok, that's offtopic, but I wanted to say it anyway, lol)

And hey, thanks for giving an idea how to get ready for exams.  What I usually do is that I read some stuff that i've written in my notes, I go through all the topics, reading a little from each, and write down short (preferably - humorous) descriptions of pictures I need to memorize. Quizzing could help but there just is too much visual material to test myself on that I'd get confused 

P.S. Can you, please, explain - in what way is Art History taught with Si in mind?


----------



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

osina said:


> Haha, I believe if I tried engineering courses, then History of Art could seem like a child's game, too.  I dunno. I'm an IEE who hasn't cheated much during school tests (I believe...like...2 times? And I'm in university now) and always had somewhat normal to good grades. I liked math and learning foreign languages, but I liked psychology and ethics more. And I like to do something creative the most...as for now: to create something that looks beautiful (hopefully) and that can be useful or at least make someone feel better.  (ok, that's offtopic, but I wanted to say it anyway, lol)
> 
> And hey, thanks for giving an idea how to get ready for exams.  What I usually do is that I read some stuff that i've written in my notes, I go through all the topics, reading a little from each, and write down short (preferably - humorous) descriptions of pictures I need to memorize. Quizzing could help but there just is too much visual material to test myself on that I'd get confused
> 
> P.S. Can you, please, explain - in what way is Art History taught with Si in mind?


lol, funny you mention math. Now that I'm out of school I hate math. I'll use a calculator or computer for everything. Yeah I enjoyed psychology, philosophy in addition to science the most. You like creative work? Have you considered advertising? Lots of people suggested I learn as much about advertising as possible so maybe that'll be useful for you?

I just study everything.  I had a few professors who would include some really obscure material on exams just to keep people on their toes or would sometimes include bonus points if you studied well.

I was kind of surprised to hear that some pieces can't be fully appreciated unless you feel the canvas and feel the texture of the paint as the way it was textured may have been deliberate in addition to the way a piece can smell may also have been deliberate and has to be taken into account. How am I doing?


----------



## aniso (Aug 14, 2013)

MNiS said:


> lol, funny you mention math. Now that I'm out of school I hate math. I'll use a calculator or computer for everything. Yeah I enjoyed psychology, philosophy in addition to science the most. You like creative work? Have you considered advertising? Lots of people suggested I learn as much about advertising as possible so maybe that'll be useful for you?


But did you like math at school? (I suppose you did - at least kind of - if you wrote 'now that i'm out of school') Yes, I also use a calculator for arithmetic stuff, but when I still had math lectures, I really enjoyed those  maybe I was lucky to have good teachers!
It's funny you mentioned advertising!  I don't know, maybe it would be interesting and I'd like it. I generally like talking to people and sharing (hopefully useful) information. I was one day to a lecture where an art director told his career story and said that 'design and advertising are the complete opposites'. That lecture I thought 'nope, I won't study advertising...', but what can you know. 

I think I could, at least for some time, work as a teacher - maybe not at school but...you know, some workshops or smth  But right now I am studying textile art, maybe art or design could happen to be my profession 



MNiS said:


> I was kind of surprised to hear that some pieces can't be fully appreciated unless you feel the canvas and feel the texture of the paint as the way it was textured may have been deliberate in addition to the way a piece can smell may also have been deliberate and has to be taken into account. How am I doing?


You're doing great, I believe.  Also, I believe that it could be true - about the textures and maybe even the smells. Since I can recall myself going to exhibitions, I remember always thinking: 'oh, it'd be so much better if I was allowed to touch the artwork' - this especially is true about textile art. It looks great anyway but the different materials are just inviting to touch them.  Too bad it's not allowed in the most exhibitions and museums


----------



## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

It is all in the presentation.
If the presentation sucks then I don't like it.
You have to have a story. I guess I like history so much cause I manage to make a story in my head.
I just sit there and imagine how it would have been back then, or how it might be in the future.
Then I remember the story, the facts are in the story ready to be collected.

If the facts are just a list of random dates, gee that is where it gets boring.
If you tell me the story about a war, I might actually remember it.
I remember the dreadful moment I realized that they didn't care about teaching us anything interesting in school.
Made me want to run away.


----------



## MNiS (Jan 30, 2010)

hornet said:


> It is all in the presentation.
> If the presentation sucks then I don't like it.
> You have to have a story. I guess I like history so much cause I manage to make a story in my head.
> I just sit there and imagine how it would have been back then, or how it might be in the future.
> Then I remember the story, the facts are in the story ready to be collected.


I agree, how you present the product or how you tell the story is more important than the thing itself. History has proven repeatedly that a technically better design fails because the designer couldn't manage the business or couldn't advertise it effectively.


----------

