essay on art and media

Art and Mass Media essay

The contemporary culture tends to the shift toward mass media as the main source of cultural norms and values since it is mass media that shape, to a significant extent, views and beliefs of people, determine their cultural values and define their priorities. In contrast to the past, when visual art and literature played the leading part in shaping the cultural values, although it is still possible to trace certain correlations between the art of the past and cultural values shaped by the contemporary mass media.

The 18 th – 19 th century American art bore the footprint of the revolutionary struggle of the US for independence and American Civil War which were key historical turning points which shaped the present US society. For instance, many artists of the past paid a lot of attention to interracial relations, including H.B. Stow, F. Douglass and others. However, this theme remained relevant in the 20 th century too. For instance, Griffith’s Birth of the Nation uncovers complex interracial relations in the US society and tends to the prejudiced depiction of African Americans. Contemporary mass media promotes rather consumerist values and uncover people being overwhelmed by the consumerist attitude to their life. For instance, The American Beauty depicts the main character, who attempts to struggle against his conventional consumerist lifestyle but he eventually dies, when he is about to change his life, that implicitly means the overwhelming impact of consumerism that virtually kills people, who are not consumerists. The similar message conveys the film Wall Street where wealth and status are depicted as the primary goal of human life.

Thus, the contemporary culture becomes vulnerable to the overwhelming impact of mass media which mirror new trends, norms and cultural values.

Do you like this essay?

Our writers can write a paper like this for you!

Order your paper here .

New Media Art: The Liminal Space Between Thinking and Perceiving

• First Online: 06 September 2022

Cite this chapter

• Paola Lopreiato 4 , 5 , 6  

Part of the book series: Integrated Science ((IS,volume 7))

659 Accesses

In today’s era, we can say that art is often reliant on or intersects with technology. This close relationship has led to the development of new interactive systems that transcend the purely artistic purpose. This chapter describes how new media art, assisted by new technologies (and often in collaboration with science), implements and enhances our knowledge of thinking processes, emotions, and perception.

Different examples in new media art. It provides a different approach and point of view in the exploration of thinking and perceiving processes. The examples provided here are cases in which art can implement and enhance our knowledge of thinking processes, emotions, and perception.

“ We think in images. We thought in images before we used words. ” Harriet Wadeson

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

By Jane Grant, John Matthias and Nick Ryan.

Composed using the Neurogranular Sampler, a digital instrument created by John Matthias at Plymouth University

The “Sounding out” project and installation is a solo project, but the patch used in the project was made in collaboration with prof. Alfonso Belfiore. So, when I talk about the max/Msp patch and I mention myself I mean “me and prof. Belfiore” as this patch was created rearranging the patch of the project Quanta of Sound.

Rose F (2012) The art of immersion. W.W. Northon & Company, London

Google Scholar  

Glew A (2006) Every work of art is the child of its time, often it is the mother of our emotions. In: TATE ETC. https://www.tate.org.uk/tate-etc/issue-7-summer-2006/every-work-art-child-its-time-often-it-mother-our-emotions#:~:text=ofouremotions%22-,Everyworkofartisthechildofitstime,motherofouremotions%22Kandinsky . Accessed 20 Aug 2020

V2_ The Artvertiser. http://v2.nl/archive/works/the-artvertiser . Accessed 12 June 2016

Herber N (2007) The composition-instrument: musical emergence and interaction. http://www.hz-journal.org/n9/herber.html . Accessed 23 May 2017

Gonsalves T, Al. E (2009) The chameleon project: an art installation exploring emotional contagion. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Grau O (2003) The computer: Handtool or Thinktool. In: Virtual art. MIT Press, London

Grant J (2012) Hearing things: inside outness and ‘sonic ghosts.’ Technoetic Arts 9:2–3

Article   Google Scholar  

Grant J, Matthias, John, Ryan N (2008) Translating Consciousness into Music

London B (1987) Bill Viola: installations and videotapes the poetics of light and time. In: catalogue. http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/bill-viola-installations-and-videotapes-poetics-light-and-time . Accessed 18 Mar 2017

Manovich L (2002) Data visualisation as new abstraction and anti-sublime

Davletcharova A, Sugathanb S, Abrahamc B, Pappachen Jamesa A (2015) Detection an analysis process in speech recognition. In: Procedia Computer Science

Harpaz R (2014) NARRATIVE KNOWING Narrative and Storytelling. Art Ther Narrat Matters

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

The University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

Paola Lopreiato

Integrated Science Association (ISA), Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Plymouth, UK

via Novaro 16, 20161, Milan, Italy

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paola Lopreiato .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Universal Scientific Education and Research Network (USERN), Tehran, Iran

Nima Rezaei

Amene Saghazadeh

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Lopreiato, P. (2022). New Media Art: The Liminal Space Between Thinking and Perceiving. In: Rezaei, N., Saghazadeh, A. (eds) Thinking. Integrated Science, vol 7. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04075-7_19

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04075-7_19

Published : 06 September 2022

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-031-04074-0

Online ISBN : 978-3-031-04075-7

eBook Packages : Biomedical and Life Sciences Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

National Endowment for the Arts

• Grants for Arts Projects
• Challenge America
• Research Awards
• Partnership Agreement Grants
• Creative Writing
• Translation Projects
• Volunteer to be an NEA Panelist
• Manage Your Award
• Recent Grants
• Arts & Human Development Task Force
• Arts Education Partnership
• Blue Star Museums
• Citizens' Institute on Rural Design
• Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network
• GSA's Art in Architecture
• Independent Film & Media Arts Field-Building Initiative
• Interagency Working Group on Arts, Health, & Civic Infrastructure
• International
• Mayors' Institute on City Design
• Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge
• National Folklife Network
• NEA Big Read
• NEA Research Labs
• Poetry Out Loud
• Save America's Treasures
• Shakespeare in American Communities
• Sound Health Network
• United We Stand
• American Artscape Magazine
• NEA Art Works Podcast
• National Endowment for the Arts Blog
• States and Regions
• Accessibility
• Arts & Artifacts Indemnity Program
• Arts and Health
• Arts Education
• Creative Placemaking
• Equity Action Plan
• Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)
• Literary Arts
• Native Arts and Culture
• NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships
• National Heritage Fellowships
• National Medal of Arts
• Press Releases
• Upcoming Events
• NEA Chair's Page
• Leadership and Staff
• What Is the NEA
• Publications
• National Endowment for the Arts on COVID-19
• Open Government
• Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
• Office of the Inspector General
• Civil Rights Office
• Appropriations History
• Make a Donation

“Where Is the Public Discourse Around Art and Technology?”

By hrag vartanian.

Photo by Aram Jibilian

As the emerging field of art and technology continues to garner media attention, the critical dialogue around the work remains uneven and underdeveloped. While various academic programs profess to teach art writing, they continue to champion an old formula that has not evolved and has yet to incorporate the tools of 2st-century culture. And while artists and audiences adapt, the majority of journalists, critics included, have yet to embrace the same tools of photography, memes, audio, video, and multimedia. Foundations, academia, museums, and other institutions should embrace a broader notion of discourse driven by media and art professionals, and not only academics, dedicated to innovative approaches.

University art writing programs still privilege longform writing in an impersonal and analytic style that is largely unread by anyone but the faithful. This type of writing is reinforced by traditional writing prizes, foundation grants, and academic committees, which invalidate other forms of writing during hiring processes. This reliance on traditional print-like media, rather than more contemporary and digital forms, makes writing about these works appear staid, esoteric, and uninteresting to the general public.

While many more conventional contemporary artists have embraced the tools of technology, creators who fully integrate technology still face obstacles, one of which is a lack of art criticism and critical dialogue. Criticism serves as an arbiter of “taste,” appealing to the patron classes who buy art or visit art institutions. Today, that has shifted as audiences are more fluid and broad, encompassing a wide range of types and media consumption habits. Criticism’s slowness to adapt is exacerbated by the fact that many art market-focused or -supported print publications rely on academics and graduate students, while supplementing words almost exclusively with gallery- or museum-approved press images that show work in a noncritical light. These types of writers often idealize and romanticize art as something detached from its financial realities, while being uninformed about or uninterested in more underground and emerging forms that do not receive institutional support and approval, or challenge the orthodoxies of the field.

Online journals, even if they write extensively about art that embraces technology, have also been slow to embrace the challenge. As Charlotte Frost, Karen Elio, and Keiko Suzuki, authors of Art Criticism Online: A History , have pointed out in one of their more interesting insights, these online journals, which they curiously distinguish from blogs, “have become the establishment when it comes to art and cultural criticism. Partly this is because they have been cautious about the real benefits of web-based art discussion.”

That aversion is partly reinforced by the majority of accredited academic programs that devalue innovative forms of writing and discussion that are both accessible and public-facing. A variety of funding sources is required to encourage this while seeking a broad impact for the work. Art-focused foundations, such as Creative Capital, have attempted to support blogs and other online forums as part of their annual grants, but their funding has been limited and has either targeted small, localized projects that are clearly unsustainable or those that have reproduced the same exclusionary tactics and values of the commercial art world that is embraced by conventional arts institutions. One project, for instance, created a very long-form text-only blog with no hyperlinks, which has since been archived by Rhizome at the New Museum. Funders also often support graduate student projects, and thus reinforce the romanticized notions mentioned above. This is in contrast to more public-facing art writing projects, such as Artblog in Philadelphia and Art F City in New York, that need annual—and not one-time—support to continue efforts while sustaining themselves.

Conversations that influence society and the arts need to be sustained (and sustainable), embracing continuous and constant discourse that doesn’t lionize one-off supposedly “authoritative” articles that are more often read in grad seminars than by the public. Like technology itself, which permeates our lives, conversations that tackle art and technology need to be multifaceted, digital native, and changing, reflecting a thought process that evolves, reflects, absorbs, and synthesizes new information rather than relying solely on text-based analysis. This drip approach is what makes social media particularly well-suited to the constant stream of information many people now produce and consume, and is part of the reason social media continues to dominate information flow and networks today.

A lack of media and digital literacy is one of the obstacles, as many art writing and art programs do not support those forms of literacy. During a recent lecture at Chautauqua by Dr. Erika Wong , the U.K.-based scholar and artist pointed out that art programs often shun social media as an unreliable source rather than embracing and teaching it as part of a larger curriculum. Considering the recent role of social media in our politics and culture, this is concerning. An example of this disdain for social media was echoed by Johanna Burton — then New Museum’s Keith Haring director and curator of education and public engagement, and currently the director of the Wexner Center for the Arts. During a curatorial symposium in 2018, she shared that she has never engaged with social media and is not interested. This raises questions as to who those who shun social media are actually engaging and listening to other than the donors, curators, and administrators—who are almost all white and affluent in the United States—who dominate institutional settings.

One case study that may help illuminate the challenge is the way that critical discourse has treated the appearance of memes . While not traditionally seen as part of “contemporary art'' and culture, the emergence of memes, particularly in the 21st century, is now being embraced after years of being ignored by various elites in the mainstream. The 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign proved to many people that nontraditional media such as memes have political power.

Back in 2011, An Xiao Mina wrote about “ social media street art ” for Hyperallergic, which I edit. Riffing off the recent success of street art during the influential 2008 Obama presidential campaign, she noticed how users of the Chinese microblogging site Sina Weibo wielded images during moments of national crisis (such as national or human-made disasters) as a form of artistic dissent. During the same period, contemporary artist Ai Weiwei was actively using memes to engage in creating subversive images that evaded official Chinese censors, often using sunflower seeds, “grass mud horse,” and even images of people holding their legs like rifles with the words “京城反恐系列” (Beijing anti-terrorism series). “Grass mud horse” is a Chinese meme and symbol for defiance on the internet.

Mina was also briefly at Ai Weiwei’s studio, and she found that the art community was largely unwelcoming of writing about this type of work, particularly since it had not reached art galleries and museums and was not being taught in colleges and universities. “In the early 2010s, it was hard for me to find art world venues to write about the phenomenon of memes as political expression in China, as much of the art world was focused on Ai’s traditional sculptural and video work,” she noted in an interview for this essay. “I was interested in exploring the internet, culture, and power and found early opportunities to do this in a limited number of art venues. I then began writing about this in civic technology spaces.”

Her experience mirrors many others’ experiences around critical dialogue and new forms of art that embrace technology outside of the strict confines of the academy. In the case of Ai Weiwei, the memes have now become crucial parts of our larger understanding of his oeuvre, but the language around this work is reduced to more traditional conversations rooted in older Western art historical forms and images rather than within a larger media and social discourse.

In 2019, Mina went on to write Memes to Movements: How the World's Most Viral Media Is Changing Social Protest and Power , which was widely praised by those in a post-2016 world as a way to understand memes. Writing in the Atlantic , Megan Garber characterized Mina as a “digital-culture scholar,” encapsulating work in a manner that echoes many of the artists and projects featured in this current National Endowment for the Arts report, Tech as Art: Supporting Artists Who Use Technology as a Creative Medium . Garber wrote, “Memes, participatory and productively remixable, tap into the deep desire for storytelling—and for story-receiving—that is such a profound part of being human.” In her book, Mina wrote, “memes allow us to more quickly develop the visual and verbal language around which movements organize.” This is of particular interest to the creators in the field of art and technology, who are fully engaged in innovative approaches that respond to new realities.

Mina began her career as an artist and an innovator in social media art—she was the first commissioned artist by the Brooklyn Museum for its 1st Fans Twitter feed—and an early adopter of crowd-sourced art, such as Kickstarter. But while she has found support at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University and elsewhere, the art community has provided little support for her work. Many of these projects outlined in the report often receive press in non-art-focused publications. Most art publications, including many academic ones, focus on art market or art market-adjacent works that have established systems of circulation and commerce. This echoes their financial support structures, which can often be commercial art galleries and art foundations.

The lack of market and auction track records for most of the art being discussed in the National Endowment for the Arts’ report points to similar non-market dynamics, as these makers function outside the traditional commercial art market for various reasons. This lopsided ecosystem is certainly influenced by the current state of inequality in society, in which the wealthy institutions and companies dominate media attention through press agents and marketing departments pushing out related content, including art writing. The digital artists who succeed in the market-based gallery system are often engaged with artificial scarcity to maintain the aura of the art object and step away from the qualities that make the technology unique: its easy circulation and reproducibility.

While the commercial art system is not the only network in the art community, it tends to dominate art discourse because of its patronization of magazines through advertising and press trips, and because academics often contribute to their in-house publications and catalogues. There is a growing trend at major blue-chip art galleries to create in-house publications, such as Ursula at Hauser & Wirth and Gagosian at Gagosian gallery, that do not offer any negative reviews and support their sales priorities. A large number of writers for most of these art publications and catalogues are graduate students or academics, who often infuse their words with theoretical constructs that turn off general readers and laypeople, and raise serious questions about the independence of academia from the art market. These same people regularly appear at large corporate art fairs where sales dominate any other discourse, even if panels and talks offer an intellectual veneer to the brash commercialism of the event.

Similarly, art forms and practices such as networked photography, installations for festivals, and other projects that reject the traditional market model or system—which is often antagonistic to collectives and other non-traditional forms of art-making—suffer from the same issues. They have found support and traction in startups, corporations, or even universities (though rarely in art or art history departments). But the discourse in more traditional art media and scholarship channels doesn’t always situate the work in the dynamic history of art and technology without falling back on conventions that elevate the established canon that continues to underrepresent non-European, non-male, and non-object-based histories of art.

It is crucial that the art community expand the discourse not only to ensure that more diverse voices enter the field, but also to reflect the changing atmosphere in which art is being created. Art writers and critics must be engaged in art in order to accurately reflect the new waves of creators who often reject established forms to create new worlds that contain us all.

Hrag Vartanian is an editor, art critic, curator, and lecturer on contemporary art with an expertise on the intersection of art and politics. He is the editor-in-chief of Hyperallergic , which he co-founded in 2009 in response to changes in the art world, the publishing industry, and the distribution of information.

Stay Connected to the National Endowment for the Arts

• Subject List
• Take a Tour
• For Authors
• Subscriber Services
• Publications
• African American Studies
• African Studies
• American Literature
• Anthropology
• Architecture Planning and Preservation

Art History

• Atlantic History
• Biblical Studies
• British and Irish Literature
• Childhood Studies
• Chinese Studies
• Cinema and Media Studies
• Communication
• Criminology
• Environmental Science
• Evolutionary Biology
• International Law
• International Relations
• Islamic Studies
• Jewish Studies
• Latin American Studies
• Latino Studies
• Linguistics
• Literary and Critical Theory
• Medieval Studies
• Military History
• Political Science
• Public Health
• Renaissance and Reformation
• Social Work
• Urban Studies
• Victorian Literature
• Browse All Subjects

How to Subscribe

• Free Trials

In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section New Media Art

Introduction, general overviews.

• Virtual Art and Mixed Reality
• Computer Art and Software Art
• Telematic Art
• Performance
• Internet Art
• Game Art and Machinima
• Activism, Hacktivism, and Tactical Media
• Bio Art and Transgenic Art
• Media Concepts and Technologies Around 2000
• Early Debates
• Current Debates
• Historical Approaches (Media Art Histories)
• Curating, Restoring, and Preserving
• Online Archives and Platforms

Related Articles Expand or collapse the "related articles" section about

About related articles close popup.

Lorem Ipsum Sit Dolor Amet

Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Aliquam ligula odio, euismod ut aliquam et, vestibulum nec risus. Nulla viverra, arcu et iaculis consequat, justo diam ornare tellus, semper ultrices tellus nunc eu tellus.

• Conceptual Art and Conceptualism
• Contemporary Art
• Installation Art
• Science and Contemporary Art

Other Subject Areas

Forthcoming articles expand or collapse the "forthcoming articles" section.

• Art of the Catholic Religious Orders in Medieval Europe
• Color in European Art and Architecture
• Japanese Buddhist Paintings
• Find more forthcoming articles...
• Export Citations
• Share This Facebook LinkedIn Twitter

oxford university summer school

• Middle school essay
• Argumentative essay help
• The Things They Carried: strong topics
• Subjects for a persuasive essay
• Middle school tips: argumentative topics
• College psychology subjects for you
• Finding essay subjects on Hamlet
• Argumentative paper topic tricks
• Argumentative middle school topics
• College narrative paper ideas
• Exploratory paper ideas about music
• Informative paper topics
• Narrative paper topic suggestions
• Ideas for your paper topics
• Personal narrative paper subjects
• Reflective paper subjects
• Personal argumentative paper ideas
• Writing an essay about life
• Topics related to the New Testament
• Essay written by an expert
• Professional hints on APA format
• Be attentive when using writing services
• Why are writing services popular
• Looking for a good essay writer
• Ordering an essay from a writing agency
• Paper writing assistance
• Slavery in India paper sample
• Super Bowl paper sample
• Obesity paper sample
• Homophobia paper sample
• Fast food essay sample
• Industrialization essay template
• Child abuse paper example
• The body part to your comparative paper
• Finding the best paper writer online
• Mental Health - sample essay
• Writing a reflective piece
• Composing an essay about utopia
• Composing a short paper on music
• Creating a paper about volcanoes
• Free essay on international marketing
• Website evaluation examples
• Writing about arts & media
• Essay about Nelson Mandela
• Literature paper samples
• Free essay on size zero models
• Writing an essay in 1 hour only
• Essay outline crafting
• Writing your first essay: do your best
• Essay example on communications
• How to excel in writing a persuasive essay
• Literature paper is easy to craft
• Writing a catchy essay introduction
• Essay example on Langston Hughes
• Essay example on system security
• Polishing up your academic essay
• Strong essay writing tips
• Professional cover letter sample
• Biology IB extended essay writing tips
• Creating a critical analysis paper
• Cause&effect essay on serial killers
• Elements of a literary essay
• Crafting a definition paper
• Descriptive writing fundamentals
• Writing a cause & effect paper
• Standard essay structure
• How to make your paper read well
• Crafting a business school paper

Simple Instructions For Writing An Essay About Arts And Media

There are a lot of people who think that essays regarding the media and arts are difficult. Most of these people can actually write good essays about other topics, but when it comes to an essay on media, they just get afraid. If you are one of them, read the article below to get an idea on what things you should consider when your essay revolves around anything to do with arts or media.

Select a topic that you love

Arts is broad and full of interesting things in life. Most of the topic ideas you probably know belong to the art. Media for instance is an art, history, music, religion, craftsmanship, communication and language among so many other things can also be categorized within the arts. If you want to succeed in your essay therefore, pick a topic that you love and keep it clear.

Stay original

There are so many essay topics about the Internet and influence of digital media on youths for instance. If you feel like writing an essay related to the same topic, you will have to be very creative and authentic for your essay to stand out. And are so many ways in which you can keep your essay original and interesting, for example by using imagery, different tones, rhetoric or use of humour.

Focus on one main idea

Since the arts and media have so many ideas to write about, it is good to limit your essay to a few points. However, you will have to do good research about your few points and be able to express as many interesting ideas from your points as possible. Sometimes, many essay writers tend to fill their essays with unnecessary content with the notion that this will make their essay more informative. Instead, just focus on the topic that you chose for yourself and then write about several ideas related to it.

Keep your audience at bay

When writing about the media or any topic about the arts, writing according to your audience can save you lots of trouble. Topics such history, the influence of violent media content or media freedom when written in the wrong angle could lead to a lot of complaints and dissatisfaction from the people who read the essay. As a result, always write knowing who will read the essay and what they are bound to expect from it.

Writing Tutorials

• Sample essay on benefit plans
• Subjects on Great Expectations
• 300 word essay: writing rules
• Topics for argumentative paper
• Crafting an appropriate essay plan
• Writing a perfect expository paper
• Compare and contrast essay hints
• Process analysis paper
• Websites with paper subjects
• Art critique paper instructions
• College paper writing isn't very hard
• Avoid these business essay topics
• Technology and ethics subjects
• Writing a work-cited page
• Mastering your introduction properly
• Finding strong essay topics

Essay Related

• Dissertation made easy

If you need to write, edit or proofread your thesis you can check this thesis writing service.

© OxfordUniversitySummerSchool.com. it's time to learn more about essay writing.

• Previous Article
• Next Article

Bringing Race into the Picture

Casas as mexican american, the humanscapes of 1967, the race of mexican americans in 1967.

• Humanscape 37, October 1967
• Humanscape 38, November 1967
• Humanscape 39, December 1967

Chicano Art and the Mass Media : Mel Casas in 1967

Ana Pozzi Harris is senior lecturer of art history at the University of North Georgia, Dahlonega.

• Split-Screen
• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data
• Peer Review
• Open the PDF for in another window
• Guest Access
• Get Permissions
• Cite Icon Cite
• Search Site

Ana Pozzi Harris; Chicano Art and the Mass Media : Mel Casas in 1967 . Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture 1 April 2024; 6 (2): 65–89. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/lavc.2024.6.2.65

Download citation file:

• Ris (Zotero)
• Reference Manager

This essay explores three paintings by Mel Casas dating to 1967. I argue that these paintings communicate the artist’s critical consciousness about the social disadvantages of Mexican Americans, both historically and at the crucial period of change that led to the formation of Chicano groups in San Antonio, Texas. Casas incorporates skin tones in his painted characters, which prompts a racialized interpretation. The analysis is grounded in the dualistic picture space represented in Casas’s remarkable series, the Humanscapes, where the artist both critiqued and incorporated mass media and advertising images. To construct an interpretative context for these works, I explore sources extracted from San Antonio newspapers, tracing debates about the changing racialization of Mexican Americans and about the formation of combative political groups in this city where Casas lived and worked. The three paintings, then, engage with a politicized context and with the artist’s personal experiences, establishing a continuous narrative with his best-known Chicano-period works, such as Brownies of the Southwest .

Este ensayo analiza tres pinturas de Mel Casas fechadas en 1967. Argumento que estas pinturas comunican la conciencia crítica del artista sobre las desventajas sociales de los mexicoamericanos, tanto históricamente como en el período crucial de cambio que condujo a la formación de grupos chicanos en San Antonio, Texas. Casas incorpora tonos de carne en sus personajes pintados, lo que suscita una interpretación racializada. El análisis se basa en el espacio pictórico dualista representado en la remarcable serie de Casas, Humanscapes, en la que el artista criticaba e incorporaba imágenes de los medios de comunicación y de la publicidad. Para construir un contexto interpretativo para estas obras, exploro fuentes extraídas de periódicos de San Antonio, rastreando debates sobre la cambiante racialización de los mexicoamericanos y sobre la formación de grupos políticos combativos en esta ciudad en la que Casas vivió y trabajó. Las tres pinturas, por tanto, se relacionan con un contexto politizado y con las experiencias personales del artista, estableciendo una narrativa continua con sus obras más conocidas del período chicano, como Brownies of the Southwest (Brownies del Suroeste).

Este ensaio explora três pinturas de Mel Casas datadas de 1967. Argumento que essas pinturas comunicam a consciência crítica do artista sobre as desvantagens sociais dos mexicano-americanos, tanto historicamente quanto no período crucial de mudança que levou à formação dos grupos chicanos em San Antonio, Texas. Casas incorpora tons de pele em seus personagens pintados, o que suscita uma interpretação racializada. A análise baseia-se no espaço pictórico dualista representado na notável série de Casas, Humanscapes , onde o artista criticou e incorporou imagens publicitárias e da indústria de massa. Para construir um contexto interpretativo para essas obras, exploro fontes extraídas de jornais de San Antonio, traçando debates sobre a mudança na racialização dos mexicanos-americanos e sobre a formação de grupos políticos combativos nesta cidade onde Casas viveu e trabalhou. As três pinturas, então, envolvem-se com um contexto politizado e com as experiências pessoais do artista, estabelecendo uma narrativa contínua com suas obras mais conhecidas do período chicano, como Brownies of the Southwest .

Mel Casas (1929–2014) is regarded as an important Chicano artist who is best known for a handful of paintings that sarcastically critique the stereotyped representation of Mexican Americans. His style may be described as a variant of Pop art. His iconic work Humanscape 62 ( fig. 1 ), included in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and popularly known as Brownies of the Southwest , explores multiple meanings attributed to the word brownies . 1 Dating to 1970, this painting is generally acknowledged as the earliest in which Casas addressed Chicano or Mexican American issues.

Mel Casas, Humanscape 62 , 1970, acrylic on canvas, 73 x 97 in. (185.4 x 246.4 cm). Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 2012.37 (© 1970, the Casas Family, photograph provided by Bruce Casas)

Among Casas’s lesser-known pre-1970 works are three paintings dating to the last quarter of 1967: Humanscape 37 ( fig. 2 ), Humanscape 38 ( fig. 3 ), and Humanscape 39 ( fig. 4 ). These paintings are the focus of this article. In these works, I observe that Casas painted female figures with different skin tones: in each work, one woman is white while other women are Brown or dark. This leads me to wonder whether, in late 1967, Casas could have been responding to debates that racialized Mexican Americans as Brown. As a context to this observation, my research shows that in the second half of 1967, a series of events accelerated the organization of politicized Chicano groups in San Antonio, Texas, where the artist lived and worked. I argue that these debates and events, as well as printed visual culture from the mass media, generated a response in Casas, and that his response is visible in these three paintings. I propose that Casas’s critical consciousness about the social position of Mexican Americans deepened during this period. These three paintings I discuss may be regarded as early Chicano works.

Mel Casas, Humanscape 37 , October 1967, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 in. (182.9 x 243.8 cm). Collection of the artist’s family (photograph provided by Bruce Casas)

Mel Casas, Humanscape 38 , November 1967, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 in. (182.9 x 243.8 cm). Collection of McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Gift of Harriett and Ricardo Romo, 2019.50 (photograph provided by Bruce Casas)

Mel Casas, Humanscape 39 , December 1967, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 96 in. (182.9 x 243.8 cm). Collection of the artist’s family (photograph provided by Bruce Casas)

In his seminal book Mexican American Artists , published in 1973, Jacinto Quirarte discussed how Casas’s work up to 1970 focused on three aspects: representations of cinematic experiences, the blonde and blue-eyed female ideal, and two Chicano works, including Brownies of the Southwest . 2 As quoted by Quirarte, Casas described this painting as a series of puns where the word brownie stands for different things: cookies, a girl scout, a Native American, Mexican Americans, Xolotl, the Frito Bandito, and the “Two-Headed Aztec Serpent: represents the schizothymia and dichotomous nature of the Mexican American in the Southwest.” 3 Quirarte also documented two artists who dealt with similar imagery and comparable styles: Emilio Aguirre and Luis Jimenez. These Mexican American artists also critiqued the mainstream American ideal of the blond and blue-eyed beauty. Jimenez stated: “The Mexican American or anyone who is not blond and blue-eyed is super aware of it, because he does not fit this image.” 4 Jimenez’s The American Dream (1967–69) and Aguirre’s Instant Male (1969), both illustrated in Quirarte’s book, exemplify these attitudes. These works are comparable to contemporary works by Casas such as Humanscape 58 (1969), also known as American Beauty .

In 2013, Nancy Kelker published a monograph on Casas that richly analyzed his oeuvre based on interviews with the artist that she and others conducted, as well as a myriad of cultural references. 5 Ruben C. Cordova, who also knew the artist personally, focused on studying his most extensive series, the Humanscapes. This was a total of 153 acrylic paintings, mostly seventy-two by ninety-six inches, with their picture space structured as a movie theater, with a wide-angle screen in the top half and the audience area in the bottom half. Using this split structure, Casas explored multiple subjects for twenty-four years. Upon the artist’s death in 2014, Cordova curated the Humanscapes into four chronologically arranged themes and organized four exhibitions in 2015, each with one theme. 6 In 2011, Cordova had also published an important article on the first part of the Humanscape series, in which he first drew upon the stylistic and thematic similarities with British and American Pop artists and then analyzed each Humanscape painted from 1965 to 1967, supported by artist statements and interviews. 7 In 2015, Cordova published a second article where he focused on the Humanscapes from 1968 to 1977, arranging them into “a virtual exhibition,” divided into eight themes, each with three works. This overview discussed Casas’s overtly political paintings and their varied themes. 8 Additionally, in 2009, Cordova published a solidly documented book about the Chicano group Con Safo, characterizing Casas as the leading member from 1971 through 1973, the years roughly overlapping the period when Casas painted politicized Chicano themes (1970–75). 9 In 1996 Paul Karlstrom interviewed Casas for the Archives of American Art and Smithsonian Institution. 10 Karlstrom’s interviews left a solid record of statements and recollections that reveal Casas’s views.

Kelker and Cordova discuss the early Humanscapes in two contexts. One is the sexual revolution; that is, the period during the sixties in which attitudes toward sexual behavior became more tolerant and liberal. 11 The other concerns Casas’s ideas about the mesmerizing effects of the cinematic experience, which, according to Casas, turned spectators into automatons. 12 Cordova repeatedly quotes from Marshall McLuhan’s Mechanical Bride , following a cue in a 2008 conversation with Casas. 13 Kelker cites Theodor Adorno’s and Max Horkheimer’s theories on the culture industry as well as Carl Hovland’s theory of the “sleeper effect,” arguing that these texts informed Casas’s work through his first major in college (psychology). 14 Both writers also extensively discuss the blonde and blue-eyed female ideal that Casas attacked. 15

In 1988, art critic David Hickey attempted a short but overarching commentary on several works by Casas dating from 1967 to the late 1980s. 16 Discussing Humanscape 35 (1967), Hickey visualized “a cluster of dispossessed, dark-skinned people loitering in the shallow pictorial space before a large symbolic image of the torso of a reclining white woman.” Hickey perceived the body of the white woman as a “theatrical 19 th century landscape” and the setting of the painting as “Casas’s home town, El Paso del Norte, the pass to the north.” 17 While Hickey’s reading was original, it was underdeveloped and unsupported. In 2011, Cordova dismissed Hickey’s argument, stating that it does not incorporate the cinematic critique implied in the split pictorial space of the Humanscape. He added that the foreground characters are blue, not brown, and that they “do not look like immigrants.” 18

Though there is no question that Casas’s oeuvre includes remarkable examples that show him to be an insightful cultural critic, his significance as a contemporary American artist and his place in the history of Chicano art remain difficult to determine. His Chicano works are a mere handful, an isolated episode in his vast oeuvre. This, coupled with his uncommitted statements about the Chicano movement (“the Chicano movement, which I tried to help, is just a phase in my life” 19 ) put into question the authenticity of his status as a “Chicano artist”—even though he was included in two major exhibitions ( Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation [1990] and Chicano Visions: American Painters on the Verge [2002]). Stylistically, his works strongly recall Pop art, but it is unclear whether his Humanscapes were in any way indebted to the New York Pop artists of the sixties. Finally, the voyeurism visible in the artist’s paintings may be easily interpreted as sexism. This complicates the exploration of his work because it seemingly contradicts his politically progressive attitudes. Especially in his works of the sixties and seventies, Casas frequently integrates voyeuristic and erotic imagery with imagery that critiques the Vietnam War, Nixon-era politics, and the exploitation of minorities. 20

Scholars have responded to these issues in various ways. Kelker argues that Casas’s sexualized women often have agency (“if her nudity renders her available, it is on her own terms”). 21 She also contributes information about the artist’s support of women art students and colleagues, as well as his involvement with the San Antonio chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the seventies. 22 Cordova’s book on Con Safo detailed Casas’s seminal role as organizer of exhibitions and writer of foundational texts, cementing the artist’s connection with Chicano art in the early seventies. 23 Cordova also sought to establish Casas’s position as a Pop artist by creating stylistic and conceptual analogies with each of the New York Pop artists, while Kelker opened her book with a holistic context of Pop art as a zeitgeist for Casas’s works. 24 In 2019, the Nasher Museum’s exhibition Pop América: 1965–1975 included Humanscape 62 . Like two prior international Pop art exhibitions, Pop América amplified the movement’s geographic and ideological scope, expanding it beyond New York and Great Britain. 25

My position supports these existing viewpoints, but I seek to reinforce them using different methods. Rather than suggesting Casas’s place as a Pop artist by connecting him with New York or with holistic contexts, I explore how he responded to the mass media visual culture that he had access to locally. Disputing the perception that Casas was nothing but sexist, I argue that he represented women as rebellious and reluctant to follow the women of the big screen; thus, he politicized women while he eroticized them. Additionally, I propose that, beyond engaging in an attack on the blond ideal, Casas positioned his painted characters in a white-brown skin dichotomy as early as 1967. This prompts a racialized interpretation, which I contextualize in the late sixties’ debates regarding the race of Mexican Americans as Brown. This is a new interpretation. Finally, I further assert Casas’s place as a Chicano artist by interpreting three of his 1967 works as responses to the rise of Chicano political organizations in late 1967 in San Antonio, where he lived and worked. I expect that doing this will further our understanding of his Mexican American and Chicano experience and artistic output, while also encouraging additional focused studies of his many remarkable art pieces.

My argument relies heavily on the premise that Casas responded to and interacted with the mass media, defined by John Walker as “photography, the cinema, radio, television, video, advertising, newspapers, magazines, comics, paperbacks and recorded music in the form of disks and tapes.” 26 Walker’s book Art in the Age of the Mass Media , first published in 1983, explores ways in which post-1960 artists responded to and interacted with the mass media, and how the mass media incorporated the fine arts, cross-pollinating “high” and “low” culture. Walker’s text has been useful to conceptualize Casas’s relationship with the mass media: how, like other artists, he both criticized the mass media and its products—visual culture and consumer culture—while also incorporating them as visual material in his works.

One mass media technology cited by Walker is the newspaper. To create a context that allows for the interpretation of three Humanscape paintings, I rely on articles and advertisements published in local newspapers—that is, sources that were directly available to the artist and recorded events that happened close to him. The newspapers I use are San Antonio Express , San Antonio Light , and San Antonio Express and News . Through a close reading of news articles from these sources, I trace the changing debates about the race and social status of Mexican Americans in San Antonio, as well as the formation of politicized Mexican American groups in San Antonio in 1966 and 1967. I argue that Casas responded to the news and visual culture available in the San Antonio newspapers, and that his response is visible in these paintings.

Casas was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1929, to Mexican nationals from the state of Chihuahua. His parents had moved to Texas to escape the Mexican Revolution. In El Paso, Casas grew up in an inner-city neighborhood among Syrian, Jewish, Chinese, and Mexican immigrants. As a child, he would frequently cross the border to Ciudad Juárez with his father, where they visited locals who told him stories of the Mexican Revolution. 27 Despite his early knowledge of Mexican culture, history, and Spanish language, upon entering elementary school, Casas realized he needed to learn English and make it his first language. 28 He eventually chose a high school outside of his neighborhood, realizing that this Anglo school offered a better education. Meanwhile, from the age of fourteen he worked part time, on and off, as an iceman for the Pacific Fruit Express company, packing railcars with ice. He also worked at an Italian-owned grocery store and at his father’s small business, a Swedish massage parlor. Immediately upon graduating from El Paso High School in 1949, he went to work full time for Pacific Fruit in the same unskilled job he had previously. 29 After eighteen months, he was drafted to serve in the Korean conflict. He suffered shrapnel wounds from an exploding land mine and was honorably discharged for disability with a Purple Heart. 30

Upon his discharge and now a veteran, Casas took advantage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights, to pursue studies at Texas Western College in El Paso, entering in 1953 and graduating in 1956. With a year left in the bill’s benefits, he decided to pursue an M.F.A. and was admitted to the University of the Americas in Mexico City (formerly called Mexico City College), graduating in 1958. Having obtained an all-level teaching certificate with his bachelor’s, he worked for three years at Jefferson High School in El Paso. He was finally hired to teach in the Visual Arts Department at San Antonio College in 1961, where he worked for thirty years, becoming chairperson for the last twelve, including a short stint in 1983 as dean of arts and sciences. 31

Casas’s personal history of social advancement aligns with many other stories of Mexican Americans who became aware at an early age of their social disadvantages and actively fought them by taking available opportunities. 32 Between 1944 and 1949, as battles for school desegregation were being fought in Texas—such as Delgado vs. Bastrop Independent School District , which ended legal segregation in schools in 1948—Casas was able to get into a majority Anglo school. 33 His story suggests that attending college would not have been possible had he not been eligible for the GI Bill, which required veterans to have been in active duty for at least ninety days and be honorably discharged. 34

The artist’s adolescent years coincided with the initial period of legal changes that allowed Mexican Americans to improve their status in Texas. However, Mexican Americans carried the baggage of discrimination and prejudices that had been imposed on them since the independence of Texas from Mexico in 1836, and more so, since the annexation of Texas to the United States in 1845. Anthropologist Martha Menchaca discusses how the exclusions and restrictions posed on people of Mexican origin sprang from arguments about race. 35 The Anglo-American inhabitants of Texas deemed Mexicans inferior, which led to attempts to classify them as “free whites,” “other race,” “colored people,” and “Mexican race” at different key moments in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. 36 Attempts were made to disenfranchise and dispossess Mexican Tejanos residing in Texas at the time of annexation, alleging that they were not Caucasian but mixed race or Indian. (“Indians,” including Native Americans, were not granted citizenship even after the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1866). The arguments intended to exclude people of Mexican origin from citizenship rights never prevailed at the federal level. However, at the state and county level, where the federal government had no jurisdiction, they tainted the general perception of them as inferior, legally impacting them in the areas of education, residential zoning, and exclusion from services. 37

How were Casas and his Mexican immigrant family affected by these legal exclusions? Based on the information provided by Menchaca, by the time Casas was born in El Paso in 1929, residential zoning laws segregating neighborhoods for whites from those for nonwhites (including Mexican and Asian people, African Americans, and Jews) had been in effect for sixteen years. In 1920, Texas expanded education to all nonwhite students, but school boards used residential district plans to assign district boundaries to specific neighboring schools. This typically resulted in a triracial school segregation system—a system dating to 1884—with state funding distributed based on taxes collected, which gave minority students lower quality education. Meanwhile, exclusion laws against Jews, Native Americans, Asians, and Mexican Americans had existed since 1885, based on the principle that private businesses had the right to reject service to anyone without having to give a reason. 38

Casas grew up in a multiethnic neighborhood in southeast downtown El Paso, interacting primarily with nonwhites. He attended neighboring elementary and middle schools and was taught by dedicated Anglo teachers. 39 However, upon leaving these familiar places to escape a low-quality education at an all-Mexican high school for a better education at El Paso High School in a different neighborhood, the differential treatment and the economic gap became evident. 40 At this point, Casas experienced active social exclusions, which resulted from a long history of racial prejudice, long sanctioned by laws and policies of discrimination. His critique of the blond and blue-eyed ideal sprang from these experiences.

Late 1967 marked a period when Casas deepened his critical consciousness about his condition as a Mexican American. I use the term “critical consciousness” echoing Paulo Freire, who stated that “[f]or someone to achieve critical consciousness of his status as an oppressed man requires recognition of his reality as an oppressive reality.” 41 Casas’s recognition of the oppressive reality of Mexican Americans is visible in the three paintings I analyze here.

The three paintings that are the subject of this study were created between October and December 1967 in San Antonio, Texas, where Casas had lived since 1961. These early Humanscapes explored images projected on film and television screens as well as their audiences’ reactions to the projected images. For example, in Humanscape 16 (1966), a movie screen shows an extreme close-up of an alluring blonde woman wearing dark glasses ( fig. 5 ). Under this projected image, several other women who closely resemble each other and the projection either turn from it or contemplate it. It is unclear whether the women are part of an audience or are also projected on the movie screen—as if the audience has lost its own separate identity from the projection in the process of watching the film. 42

Mel Casas, Humanscape 16 , 1966, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 in. (152.4 x 152.4 cm). Destroyed by Mel Casas on May 5, 1971 (photograph provided by Bruce Casas)

In my paintings which I entitled Humanscape, I use the black of the movie house (anonymity) and the persistence of vision (the projected image) to probe into the most compulsive mysteries of its effects.…I so divide the picture plane of my painting formats so as to force the spectator into the role of “voyeur” thus acquiring an identity through participation.…Indoctrination through the use of the projected image can be salvation, or catastrophe. It is the trend of our time.…The fantasy machine projects a world of external calm and interior crisis. The audience looks at a situation and is simultaneously in it and living it. It makes knowledgeable automatons of its willing audience offering them a kaleidoscope of life in techniques of mass coercion-mass seduction. The result is a willing menticide. The cinematic environment isolates and depersonalizes the audience, reducing them to an anxious pause charged with a visual question. 43

As this text shows, Casas perceives the movie-viewing experience as one where viewers lose their separate identity from the images they see on the screen. He interprets this experience as a form of seduction and judges it to be a form of “mass coercion.” His negative opinion about mass media evidenced in this text offers clues to analyze the Humanscapes.

Like Humanscape 16 , the three 1967 paintings— Humanscape 37 , Humanscape 38 , and Humanscape 39 —maintain the dualistic connection between the projection and the audience. However, a change is evident from previous Humanscapes. In these three paintings, the skin color of the audience is a shade significantly darker than the skin color of the figures that loom over the audience on the movie screen. In prior Humanscapes, the skin color of the audience had a blue or gray-blue tint—a feature that has been interpreted as representing the reflected blue color of the screen on the figures’ skin. 44 Yet in these canvases there is a far more evident contrast between the light skin of the projected figure and the dark skin of the audience: the skin color of the audience is not blue, but brown.

Starting with this observation, I propose that these three paintings evidence the artist’s deepened critical consciousness about the social and political problems affecting Mexican Americans historically, but particularly in the mid-1960s. Questions about the “nationality” and the “race” of Mexican Americans began to be discussed in San Antonio exactly in October 1967, when Humanscape 37 was painted. The seeds of the notion of la raza as a mixed race that unified Mexican Americans and constituted a politicized position consolidated in the months that followed.

It was during October through December 1967, when Casas created these three Humanscapes, that the question regarding the “race” of Mexican Americans intensified, leading to the changed classification of Mexican Americans from a white group to a minority. Evidence of this may be gathered by reviewing the San Antonio local newspapers that the artist had access to. 45

The nationality of Mexican American students and teachers in San Antonio schools will be listed this year as “Other” instead of “White” on enrollment records required by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.…Forms issued to school systems by HEW have three nationality columns—“White,” “Negro” and “Other.” But this year the “Other” column heading has an asterisk which explains “Other”—Should include any racial or national origin group for which separate schools have in the past been maintained or which are recognized as significant “minority groups” in the community such as Indian-American, Oriental, Eskimo, Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Latin, Cuban, etc. 46

The article goes on to explain that the new guidelines have drawn criticism from reputed Mexican Americans, who have complained that the new classification was “‘ridiculous’ and contrary to all legal definitions that classify Americans of Mexican descent as “White.” 47

An article published in San Antonio Express and News discussed how these questions had come about. The now-established minority status of African Americans had brought attention to the suffering of other minorities. Texas Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez, for example, stated: “And if the Negro suffers, I share that suffering, because the same affliction cast on the Negro is cast on me.…For all of us are in the same society.” 48 Yet the implication that both African Americans and Mexican Americans were to be equally treated as minorities immediately led to complaints that the government was being racist toward Mexican Americans. Albert Peña, for example, complained that “Unfortunately, in this racist-oriented nation, people have to be classified. It would be simpler if we were classified as good Americans.” 49 Another agency that rejected the classification was the Federation for the Advancement of the Mexican American (FAMA), which presented a resolution attacking HEW’s new classification of Mexican Americans as Other by stating that the classification was “not feasible, prudent …nor sensible” and “racist…guilty of provoking unrest among the Mexican American citizenry.” 50

The new classification caused such unrest that it had to be suspended. An article in San Antonio Express and News dated October 21 announced that Representative Gonzalez had received a telegram from the Office of Education stating that the forms where Mexican Americans were being asked to be classified as Other instead of white would be impounded. 51

Just ten days after the confusing classifications were being officially rescinded by the US government, we find an early (perhaps the first) mention of a group called “La Raza Unida” (The United Race) in San Antonio Express , in relation to dissident Mexican American groups that had not been invited to the Inter-Agency Committee on Mexican American Affairs—a government-sanctioned event. These dissident groups had now banded together in a committee of their own and their group would be called La Raza Unida. 52 Thus, the notion of Mexican Americans as a “race” had been planted; when taken from the hands of the government, it acquired a dissident, politicized meaning.

laboring under the widespread and so popular misconception that there is a “Mexican race.” Either he has forgotten or just never realized that his race is Spanish.…Since we haven’t realized it yet, it is time we learn that “la raza” does not refer to a Mexican race but applies only to the Spanish-speaking people. 54

Mexico classifies his nationals as: Race—Mixta (mixed), and in my American citizenship certificate is written, Race: Mexican.…There is nothing to be ashamed of being Aztec, Maya, Toltec, or any other Indian Tribe, and it has never been a handicap to me.…I am a loyal North American citizen of Indian-Spanish origin. That is: I am Mexican-American by current standards and very much satisfied with that classification. 55

A sense of pride in the concept of mixed race was emerging. As 1967 ended, La Raza Unida confirmed its presence. On December 6, San Antonio Light announced: “There is a lot of talk about that conference of Latin leaders in San Antonio Jan. 6. That is why some of the ramrodders of La Raza Unida have scheduled a confab Dec. 10 at 330 N. Laredo to formulate an agenda.” 56 Another article announced that “[t]he restiveness of the chicano leaders is likely to cause a mass descent of political wranglers from the two major parties upon San Antonio when the “Conferencia de la Raza Unida” assembles on Jan. 5–6 at Kennedy High School.” 57 It is evident that a consciousness of Mexican Americans taking pride in their nonwhite roots was forming in San Antonio.

Humanscape 37 , October 1967

Casas made several meaningful choices in Humanscape 37 (see fig. 2 ). On the painting’s higher plane, where the movie screen is represented, we see a pair of white female legs displayed in a sexually provocative pose and wearing a miniskirt. On the picture plane closer to the viewer—the area designated for the audience—we see three pairs of legs wearing fashionable boots and shoes, along with one hand wearing a glove. A sign placed at the bottom right reads “entran”—perhaps short for the full word “entrance.”

The most intriguing feature of Humanscape 37 is the skin color assigned to the disembodied extremities. The contrast between the white legs on the screen and the brown and grey legs in the audience was not evident in earlier Humanscapes, but it cannot be missed here. Earlier Humanscapes showed a visual and conceptual framework where the members of the audience blindly followed the lead of the characters on the screen. In this painting, the brown bodies follow the lead of the white body by wearing similar fashionable items that recall print advertisements from the period. 58

Print advertisements from this period, especially those featuring women’s apparel, often showed disembodied legs and arms drawn in an illustration style, with linear contours and highly contrasting areas of light and shadow. Likewise, the legs and the hand visible in Humanscape 37 are coarsely modeled, with highly contrasting areas of light and shadow, and the shapes are defined by sharp color contrast. All body parts are disembodied, and the boots, shoes, and glove are diagonally oriented and tapered.

Advertisements of the period were available to the artist through San Antonio local newspapers and would have provided sources for this painting. Tall boots similar to those in Humanscape 37 are advertised by Katz Shoes in San Antonio Light and San Antonio Express . 59 Gloves with delicately extended fingers sold by Tuesday’s Treasure are advertised in San Antonio Light . 60 Low-heel shoes with round and square points resembling those in the painting are repeatedly advertised in both newspapers as sold by various stores and brands: Burts, Joske’s of Texas, and Frost Bros. 61 Short skirts and bare legs were also featured in advertisements for Marco’s Vogue lingerie, Frost Bros. dresses, Siegel’s evening dresses, and Joske’s of Texas stockings. 62 In sum, fashion ads were readily available to Casas and may have been sources for this painting.

By reviewing their placement in the cited newspapers, we may infer who the targeted audience was for these advertisements. They appeared in the social pages of the newspapers next to engagement, wedding, and travel announcements. The people listed in the announcements bore both Anglo and Spanish surnames. Upon reviewing the society pages, a pattern emerges where fashionable articles of clothing, shoes, and accessories are advertised on the same pages where Mexican weddings and social events are announced near Anglo social events. The presence of both Spanish and Anglo surnames in the society pages indicates that both groups sought social validation, or social proof, through the same media outlets—a strategy that downplays social differences between them. 63

In structural terms, the returning veterans, via the GI Bill of Rights and college degrees, formed the base of the expanding middle and skilled working classes among Texas Mexicans. The GI Bill of Rights, the compensation for WWII and Korean service, proved to be a most significant avenue for upward mobility for Mexicans and blacks…enrollment in state and private colleges increased substantially. Home ownership by Mexican Americans was facilitated by VA loans in the late forties and early fifties.…In San Antonio, the implications of a politically active Mexican American community were recognized by the reform-oriented Anglo businessmen and professionals who formed the Good Government League (GGL).…Accordingly, black and Mexican American representatives were regularly recruited to run on GGL-sponsored tickets. It was a means of allowing the minorities to have “visibility and ego input,” as one GGLer put it. 64

A snapshot of this situation becomes evident when reviewing the society pages in the San Antonio newspapers. Next to ads for tall boots from Katz Shoes ( fig. 6 ), for example, we notice an announcement where Miss Dwyer is married to Mr. Bain. Adjacent to that news, we learn that “Miss Guerra Is Honored with Pre-Nuptial Events” and that her marriage to Mr. Alberto Perez is approaching. Details of the upcoming wedding provide a long list of Spanish surnames: Garza, Perales, García, Morales, Trevino, Rodriguez, Chavez, and many others. Likewise, near the advertisement for shoes by Frost Bros. ( fig. 7 ), we find a vacation announcement regarding the “Espinozas on Trip to Monterrey.” On the same page, Anglo and Spanish surnames accompanied by photographic portraits mingle in wedding announcements for “Miss Janie Acker Bride of Glenn L. Schuh” and “Perez-Suarez Ceremony at Little Flower.” The gloves advertisement by Tuesday’s Treasure ( fig. 8 ) is juxtaposed to even more Anglo and Mexican nuptial announcements for the “Valdez, Luna Ceremony” and “Miss Agold Bride of D. J. Akers.” An advertisement for stockings by Joske’s of Texas displaying bare legs appears on the same page as the wedding announcement for Rosalinda Montemayor, the engagement announcement of Miss Tommie Cosme, and many others ( fig. 9 ). The advertisements evidence a target audience who made efforts to symbolically demonstrate social status and mobility. 65

Full page with Katz Shoes advertisement and society announcements, San Antonio Express , September 5, 1967 (© San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Press)

Full page with Frost Bros. advertisement and society announcements, San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967 (© San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Press)

Full page with Tuesday’s Treasure advertisement and society announcements, San Antonio Light , November 13, 1967 (© San Antonio Express-News/ZUMA Press)

Full page with Joske’s of Texas advertisement and society announcements, San Antonio Light , October 30, 1967 (© San Antonio Light/ZUMA Press)

The representation of disembodied legs and arms in an illustration style akin to the advertisements of the period is very likely to have inspired Humanscape 37 . However, the harmonious mingling of Anglos and Spanish-surnamed persons that is evident by reviewing the newspapers cannot be found in his painting: it is very clear that the legs visible on the screen belong to a white (and characteristically Anglo) woman, while the legs and arm in the audience area belong to dark-skinned women. By doing this, Casas breaks the illusion of social harmony and points at the subservient imitation of one group to the other group—something he would describe as “mass coercion.” 66

A South Texas first grader named Juan has less than half the chance of one named John to earn a high school diploma.…The result is a great mass of ill-educated American citizens who speak neither Spanish nor English well and who are practically illiterate in both languages. Their poor education leaves them fit only for the poorest jobs and means that their children will be economically and educationally deprived as they are. 67

The senator said that it is a fact that a large percentage of the Mexican-American population lacks an extensive formal education [and] unemployment along the Texas border rates two to three times as high for the state as a whole.…“Tuberculosis is twice as common among Mexican-Americans as it is among the Anglos,” he said. “The Mexican-American family income is only half that of the average American family.”…He said because the Mexican-American has been deprived economically, culturally, and socially, the Mexican-American in 1967 still has only half the education of the average Anglo-American. 68

Poor education and lack of access to adequate resources were to blame for the problems of Mexican Americans. When compared with the articles in the social pages, these news sources add a level of complexity to the issue of their social and economic conditions in San Antonio. While a select group had been able to advance socially and enjoyed better opportunities, most Mexican Americans experienced a pattern of discrimination throughout their lives.

Anyway, when it came time to go to high school, tremendous change happened. I wanted to go to a particular high school at that time, and that was El Paso High School. The reason I wanted to go there, I felt I would get a better education. I wasn’t wrong.…I didn’t even count on one thing—I did manage to go there—was that I was out of pocket. So I was shunned away from. I was a pariah—or something different. And I spoke with a heavy accent, so.…And so I really didn’t have any friends, because they stuck to themselves. Realizing that, I stayed away from everybody basically, and I just fumbled through high school. And I graduated with gentleman’s C’s because I didn’t drop out. In some ways I did because I could have been a straight-A student. But the environment wasn’t there for me.…Anyway, that’s important because, see, that in a sense affects how you react, and I reacted negatively up to a point. Meaning “No, I will not drop out.” 71

The high school experience left Casas bitterly marked and aware that he was perceived as different and as inferior. He may also have experienced discrimination when applying to graduate school under the GI Bill as a veteran. He applied to several graduate programs in the United States, but none replied, and eventually he moved to Mexico City to attend the University of the Americas. 72 His ambition, dedication, and talent eventually prevailed over the difficulties he experienced, but the memory of his challenges must have revived as the struggles of Mexican Americans started gaining attention in the late sixties.

With all this in mind, let us now return to Humanscape 37 , where the fashionably attired grey and brown legs follow the lead of the fashionably attired white legs. We know that Casas used the structure of the Humanscapes as a springboard for social criticism where he addressed the mesmerizing psychological effect that film and television elicited in audiences. At this juncture, during open discussions of the social conditions of Mexican Americans and the forging of a new identity based on a shared mixed race, the artist’s criticism of the ills of mass media may have shifted toward a more specific criticism of the contradictory experiences of Mexican Americans. In this interpretation, the partial word entran (“they enter”) may stand for the idea of entering a higher social status by virtue of wearing the same fashionable items: the darker legs seek to enter or access the higher status of the white legs. 73 Whereas some Mexican Americans, including Casas himself, had advanced socially and economically, entering a social milieu comparable to that of Anglos, the vast majority of la raza was left behind.

The question may be asked about why Casas chose women, or rather sexualized women’s body fragments, to articulate his critique of the social disparities between Mexican Americans and Anglos, or more generally, between dark-skinned people and white people. What if Casas was simply enticed by the scantily clad legs and provocative poses rather than intending a social critique? When asked about voyeurism in his paintings many years later, Casas stated: “[w]hen it comes to sexual intent, sometimes I’m the guilty party.” 74 He was not immune to the seduction of the screen, yet his scopophilia did not preclude his critical understanding of how the dominant culture used cinematic pleasure to entice audiences—in his own words, how it induced “a willing menticide.” 75 (In this sense, his critique of cinema is very different from that of Laura Mulvey, who equates the male gaze with male power over the gazed-upon woman. 76 ) Casas equates the cinema with “mass coercion” articulated through “mass seduction”—a seduction that induces (or coerces) imitative behavior through identification with the image on the screen—in his own words, “indoctrination through the use of the projected image.” 77 The woman on the screen imparts consumerist seduction to her imitators in the audience area, but this situation acquires an added meaning because the woman on the screen is white, whereas the women in the audience are Brown or dark. “Mass seduction” becomes racialized. The brown legs wear fashionable items to fit in, to enter the idealized realm of the white legs and of the products advertised. Casas is making a sardonic commentary about those who fell for the trap of “mass seduction” to behave like Anglos.

Humanscape 38 , November 1967

Humanscape 38 shows the usual dichotomy of the screen above and the audience area below (see fig. 3 ). On the screen, we see an extreme close-up shot of a white and blonde, blue-eyed woman. In the audience area, several women with dark hair and skin face toward the viewer and away from the screen. Their hair appears to be blowing in the wind, in disarray. We look at them from a low angle, making their stance appear heroic and even defiant. A sign on the lower left reads “emerg”—an almost complete fragment of the word emerge . The facial expressions and liberated hair of the females in the audience recalls excitement, sensuality, and elation.

The reference to the blonde and blue-eyed close-up of the figure on the screen is likely to be Barbie, the doll. From interviews, we know that Casas held a grudge against this popular toy and all its social connotations. In the 1996 interview with Karlstrom, Casas referred to an event where he undressed and criticized a Barbie doll. Casas reported: “So I gave a talk about the Barbie-doll culture, and I undressed a little doll for them, too.…Barbie dolls are basically sex machines and baby machines …if you were lucky and you were blond and blue-eyed, you were even more in, so you were guaranteed for life.” 78 This event apparently took place in December 1967—the month following the completion of Humanscape 38 . 79 Casas must have been brooding over his disapproval of the blonde and blue-eyed doll as he completed the painting. 80

Yet what is the reference for the energized and defiant women in the audience? Whose emboldened spirit do they represent? I would like to propose that they represent an idealized version of the young social and political rebels of 1967. The year was full of social rebellions and political mobilizations where a youthful counterculture fully revealed itself. These events brought audacious youngsters and adults to the fore, promoting social and political changes as well as sexual liberation. In San Francisco, thousands of hippies congregated in the name of peace and love in the summer of 1967, taking to the streets with music and sit-ins, and these events were often discussed and addressed in the local newspapers. 81 The youth also joined forces in antiwar mobilizations against the Vietnam War. In April 1967, massive demonstrations attended by hundreds of thousands took place in New York and in San Francisco. On October 16, a day of widespread protests took place in thirty cities across the nation. This was followed on October 21–23 by the March on the Pentagon. One hundred thousand protesters congregated at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and thirty-five thousand went on to the Pentagon to engage in acts of civil disobedience. 82 These political demonstrations and many more were prominently featured and illustrated with photographs in the San Antonio newspapers. 83

While not epicenters of protest, San Antonio and Austin nevertheless did have their share of youth counterculture and antiwar political protest. We learn that on October 17, “Two S.A. [San Antonio] Protestors Face Army or Jail” and that “S.A. Students Join in Protest.” 84 These protests, like many others in the country, consisted of burning draft cards, sending them back to military offices, or giving them to priests. Both San Antonio Light and San Antonio Express described antiwar rallies in Austin. 85 In the capital rally article, the accompanying photograph shows hundreds of young people sitting down on the grounds of the state capitol, listening to a speech by Prof. Charles E. Caims protesting the Vietnam War. The article cites a Dr. Larry Caroline who spoke to the press demanding “a revolution” that should follow the example of “the black people.” 86 These sources evidence the local climate of protest. Regarding hippie culture, we learn that on October 22, a “love-in” was held at Brackenridge Park in San Antonio and that it was a great tourist attraction. The article describes how “beautiful people…spread blankets on the grass, munched cucumbers and spoke of ‘The War,’ religion, and what and who ‘beautiful people’ really are.” 87 The accompanying photo shows a long-haired female surrounded by other youths sitting in small groups, celebrating love.

In Humanscape 38 , the young women facing away from the screen have their hair in disarray. The question of the long hair of the counterculture youth often caught the attention of the press in the conservative San Antonio newspapers. Though hippie hair usually received mocking commentary, the fact that long hair in disarray was perceived as a visual mark of liberated and rebellious youth culture is significant. For example, on the same day that the local love-in took place, a humorous full-page San Antonio Light article titled “A Hippie Haircut Is a Rare Happening” described hippie girls as “those girls with the long, stringy hair.” 88 A fully illustrated article published in Time magazine in July 1967 included photographs of females with long flowing hair in an ecstatic attitude, not unlike the women in Humanscape 38 . 89 In this context, the flowing hair of the women in the audience of Humanscape 38 , their elated expressions and sustained gaze, as well as the almost complete word “emerge” may all be interpreted as signifiers of youthful social rebellion, sexual liberation, and political radicalism that have a grounding in the events of the period.

Another significant feature of Humanscape 38 is the skin and hair color of the audience figures. Both are a uniform brown. With this observation, I believe that the women in the audience may constitute a triple-layered signifier: the social and sexual rebellion of the hippies, the political rebellion of the anti–Vietnam War protesters, and the increased consciousness of the new possibilities for social change that Mexican American organizations were demanding in late 1967. Casas explained that Humanscapes are “visual conundrums”; that is, complex images with multiple meanings. 90 It is thus not surprising that the women in the audience may communicate a collapsed and complex signifier of heroic and liberated rebellion—yet one that can be interpreted in a plurality of contexts.

Several important events affecting Mexican Americans took place in late October 1967, the month prior to the completion of this painting, and Casas must certainly have been aware through local news. The most salient event was the conference and cabinet-level meeting in El Paso, where one thousand representatives from various agencies were invited to communicate the need for social change regarding the situation of Mexican Americans. On October 6, San Antonio Express announced that “arrangements are moving ahead for a meeting of 1,000 officials, civic professionals, and business leaders in El Paso Oct. 26, 27, and 28, to work out plans for greater opportunities for this country’s Mexican-Americans.…Such topics as employment, poverty, housing, migration, and school facilities are among those to be discussed at the conference.” 91 This conference was particularly important because it was attended by then-president Lyndon B. Johnson, vice-president Hubert Humphrey, and four cabinet members. 92 The Mexican American conference created increased expectations that the claims of Mexican Americans might be heard at the national level and that solutions might be set in motion. 93

That steps be taken to abolish alleged discriminatory practices in hiring and promotions in federal installations by investing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission of powers such as the issuance of orders to cease and desist.…That a “Marshall Plan” be instituted to rescue 100,000 Mexican-Americans in San Antonio from poverty, substandard slums and unemployment through massive on the job training and financial assistance to undertake higher education in the case of low-income families. 94

The most radical group to attend the conference did so without being invited. According to an article in San Antonio Express , the newly formed Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) intended to picket the cabinet meeting. 95 The article also noted that MAYO had begun “a national communications network among the Spanish-speaking with an information center in Los Angeles, Calif.…[that] attracted some 1000 members representing seven states and among the purposes behind this new group were to expand the concept of ‘la raza’ (the race) in relations to other groups.” 96 Additionally, two identical photos published in two San Antonio newspapers on October 28 reveal the combative attitude shown by other groups at the conference. The photos show a protest by “A group of Mexican-Americans who identified themselves only as ‘some poor people from Laredo.’” The photographs show protesters carrying handwritten signs with the following messages: “Conferencia de Títeres! [Conference of Puppets!]: Laredo Wants Justice,” “Demonstrate Laredo We Revolt,” “Laredo Poorest City in the Nation,” “No queremos títeres para [we do not want puppets for],” and other words that are unfortunately illegible. 97 The militant and insubordinate tone of these Laredo protesters and of MAYO’s and Peña’s statements was unprecedented, and it imbued a new combative approach to the fights of Mexican Americans—one which led to the rise of the Chicano movement in Texas the following year.

Returning to Humanscape 38 , we see now that the rebellious gazes and liberated, free-flowing hair of the women in the audience is structured as a form of rejection against the blonde and blue-eyed woman on the screen. This is because she embodies the dominant standard of beauty, which was perpetuated by the Barbie doll and by the Hollywood divas of the period. 98 Meanwhile, the Brown women in the audience “emerge,” like the most radical Mexican American youth groups. 99 The Brown women turn their backs on the white, blonde beauty, proclaiming their independence from her. By late October, the concept of la raza was becoming increasingly prominent and positive for Mexican Americans. In this context, this painting acquires a political meaning: one in which youth and race become a plural signifier of heroic Brown defiance against white oppression.

Humanscape 39 , December 1967

Humanscape 39 shows a fair-skinned woman resting against a leopard skin background (see fig. 4 ). On her back, near her shoulder, we see a “USDA Choice” shield. In the audience are several women with brown hair and barely visible skin—when visible, it is grayish brown. The three women in the middle look toward the screen. The women to the left look away from the screen and toward the viewer. A third woman motions toward the right of the painting. She wears a red coat with a raised collar and her entire face is covered by hair. She follows the direction of an arrow sign that reads the half word “ladie” with a half letter s .

The mood of the painting is grim. The sensual white woman on the screen appears completely self-absorbed and indifferent to her surroundings. The three central women in the audience seem mesmerized by the woman on the screen. The two women on the left have half of their faces and one eye covered by hair, perhaps imitating the woman on the screen, whose face and eye are also partially hidden. The woman on the right appears resentful or upset. While her shoulders are humped and her head is slightly bent down, giving the impression of bitter resignation, her red coat makes her stand out and she faces forward, as if following the arrow sign.

This painting by Casas has been variously interpreted to be about women’s desire for their own sexual liberation, about the representation of women in the media as sexually desirable, and about the psychological contradictions suffered by women who become dependent on the beauty ideals promoted by the media. Cordova suggests that Casas saw women as burdened by the mass media ideals of beauty and sexual liberation that they could not achieve. 100 Kelker brings attention to the various reactions of the women in the audience toward the sultry woman on the screen, suggesting that Casas imbues some of these women with agency. 101 Still, there is no doubt that the painting offers a plurality of possible interpretations since the imagery is enigmatic and ambiguous. As a conundrum, the painting is in fact contrived to elicit a plurality of interpretations—a double or triple entendre.

In view of this, I would like to propose an additional interpretative layer for Humanscape 39 , based on the observation that Casas characterizes the women with two skin colors. Because racial identification was increasingly a signifier of social and political position in Texas in late 1967, the painting also acquires a politicized meaning. As I see it, this painting is not only about women and sexuality: it is also about race and politics—specifically, about the struggles of Mexican Americans, who increasingly designated themselves as la raza . Humanscape 39 may be regarded as the artist’s response to the politicized tensions that fermented in San Antonio in November and December 1967—tensions that crystalized between the officers who spoke for the federal government and the militant groups that confronted them, both Mexican American. Casas would have become aware of these tensions from the local news.

The conference and cabinet-level meeting attended by then-president Johnson and held in El Paso in late October created great expectations among Mexican American activists and representatives. One month after the conference ended, new officers of Mexican descent were named in key positions to speak on behalf of Mexican Americans before government agencies. San Antonio Express reported that a Mexican American had been newly appointed as Director of the Equal Opportunity Project of the Civil Service Committee to represent Mexican Americans’ demands regarding job discrimination. 102 Vicente Ximenes, organizer of the October conference, stated that “the speed with which the commission has moved to ensure equal opportunity for Spanish-surnamed Americans in federal employment is indicative of their true commitment and sincerity and deserves commendation.” 103 According to another article, Ximenes again stated that “recruitment programs for Mexican-Americans have begun in Agriculture, Health Education and Welfare, and Post Office Departments.” 104 Ximenes was also quoted stating that Mexican Americans were “on the move.” 105

Youthful Mexican American militant groups, however, did not so readily accept that the opportunities for minorities were improving. Members of the Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASO) and MAYO made vivid accusations of discrimination and disenfranchisement at the local and state levels. Charges of discrimination in the City Public Service Board in San Antonio were rampant. Data requested by the Community Relations Commission showed that out of the 220 Mexican Americans recently hired, 195 hires were for the lowest classification: the position of laborer. 106 In view of this, Mexican American militant groups made aggressive accusations of employment discrimination. In December, Mario Campean of MAYO stated: “We will tolerate this discrimination no longer. We want better homes, better cars and homes on the north side. The gringos want to keep the salaries for themselves but we are here to see that changes will be made.” 107

The greatest challenge for Mexican Americans was their lack of representation in the state government, and the culprit was the voting registration law. The San Antonio Express in December reported that citizens who wished to register to vote experienced many hindrances, of which the most detrimental was the requirement to register every single year. PASO “estimate[d] that 600,000 Mexican-Americans of voter age [were] not registered in Texas.” 108

It’s the Gringo’s establishment—it controls all activity in our schools, our jobs, politics, at the local, county, and state levels. We are forced into unnatural situations in that we live lives which are imposed on us—and which are not of our choosing. It syphons off our leaders by getting them to compromise the interests of the Mexican-American. The Establishment is overwhelming in its drive to impose its values on the Mexican-American. It represents moneyed interests—neglects the Mexican-American. It exploits the Mexican-American. The Establishment uses law enforcement agencies as instruments to intimidate the Mexican-American. The Mexican-American was not consulted in the imposition of the laws, i.e., the anti-riot law, the draft law. 109

Soon after the publication of this statement, MAYO declared that they would join other groups at the upcoming conference called “La Raza Unida,” to be celebrated on January 6, 1968, at John Kennedy High School in San Antonio. 110

With this context in mind, and the understanding that Casas cannot have been aloof because he himself was a Mexican American who had experienced discrimination and diminished opportunities, let us now return to Humanscape 39 . Besides the skin color of the women, three additional signifiers must be examined: the USDA shield, the arrow bearing the half word “Ladie,” and the woman with humped shoulders wearing a red coat.

The USDA Choice was a well-known symbol in 1967, publicized in advertisements like one appearing on November 27 for the supermarket Piggly Wiggly, which informed consumers about the quality of the American meat they purchased ( fig. 10 ). In 1941, the US Department of Agriculture had established the mandatory grading of beef according to seven standards: prime, choice, good, commercial, utility, cutter, and canner. In 1965, the standards were revised to determine three grades for ribbed cuts (prime, choice, and standard), leaving all other lesser categories as “commercial.” 111 Bearing this in mind, the shield stamped on the woman’s body shows that she is of a high grade or category. It places her grade (“Choice”) relative to the quality of other unnamed grades—most of which are inferior. More importantly, I would argue that the use of the word “choice” is a play on words—a conundrum—suggesting that this woman is the choice of the United States, since the USDA is a federal government agency. 112

Advertisement for Piggly Wiggly supermarket, San Antonio Light , November 27, 1967 (© San Antonio Light/ZUMA Press)

The second signifier is the arrow sign pointing toward the right. This sign bears a strong resemblance to the One Way traffic sign. It seems like an amalgamation of the two One Way sign designs that were in use in the sixties ( fig. 11 ). 113 In the painting, the sign reads “ladie” as if it were pointing at the ladies’ restroom in a movie theater. 114 Yet I would argue that the resemblance of the sign in the painting to the traffic sign is meaningful because it implies that going in this direction—away from the screen—is the only way to go and that one cannot turn back.

One Way signs of the 1960s, “One Way Signs: An American History” (reproduced with permission from RoadTrafficSigns.com)

The woman aiming in the direction of the sign bears an enigmatic demeanor. She has dark, long hair in disarray, which appears flat and lifeless. Her head is lowered, as if she were looking to the floor, and her shoulders are humped. The raised collar of her coat further suggests that she is ashamed or rejecting the situation that she is leaving from. Her demeanor is one of bitter resignation. And yet, the color of her coat is bright red, contrasting with all other colors in the painting and creating a dissonance with the sensuality of the alluring woman on the screen.

Casas must have chosen the color red with a meaningful intent. Red is the color of most revolutionary flags, and especially of the flag of the United Farm Workers Union ( fig. 12 )—a flag closely associated with the plight of Mexican Americans that the artist would have seen just the year prior, during the Minimum Wage March of 1966. 115 The Minimum Wage March started as a strike, commonly known as “ la causa ,” which took place on June 1, 1966, when melon field workers led by California labor organizer Eugene Nelson demanded the rise of the minimum wage to $1.25 an hour and recognition of the union as a bargaining force. The strike led to multiple arrests of Mexican American farmworkers, so eventually the organizers decided to take their case to the state capital. The Minimum Wage March set off on foot for Austin on July Fourth, and press coverage increased as the marchers passed through several Texas cities, eventually arriving on Labor Day. 116

United Farm Workers Flag (image in the public domain; photograph obtained from Wikipedia)

Upon passing through San Antonio on August 26 and 27, the march received significant coverage in local newspapers, with photos of marchers being drenched by rain, accompanied by nuns, received by Bexar County politicians, and attending mass at the cathedral. 117 A photo from August 24 shows marchers walking by US Highway 181 carrying two flags, those of the United States and the United Farm Workers, suggesting that the latter flag was closely associated with la causa . 118 Casas would have been aware of this most significant symbol—the red flag with a simplified black eagle in the center—which in this context was closely associated with protest. The eagle’s wings feature a zigzag pattern, not unlike the hair ends of the woman wearing the red coat in Humanscape 39 . These added nuances further point at a politicized interpretation influenced by the late 1967 events described above.

In Humanscape 39 , Casas may be referring to the conflicting reactions of Mexican Americans to the lure of “gringos.” In late 1967, while some Mexican American leaders accepted the federal government promises, these fell short when it came to combating discrimination and disfranchisement. The militant Mexican American groups regarded the government’s promises with disbelief and resentment, and they put pressure to unite into a confederation in the name of la raza . In this painting, the sensual white woman on the screen—the “choice” of the United States—lures the dull Brown women in the audience with her promises of beauty and exciting sexuality. Casas shows that some of the Brown women in the audience fall for her allure, fully or partially—not unlike some Mexican Americans who chose to believe and defend the presumed efforts of the federal government to improve the conditions of Mexican Americans. Only the woman to the right, wearing red—the color of revolutionary flags—and bearing a bitter stance, walks away from the seduction and follows the “one way.”

Painted at the precise moment of the formation of the Chicano movement in San Antonio, the three works that I have analyzed convey Casas’s deepening critical consciousness as a Brown, nonwhite Mexican American. This critical consciousness would later find its full articulation in his allusions to “brown vision” in the Brown Paper report of December 1971 and in the painting Brownies of the Southwest . 119

In Brownies of the Southwest ( Humanscape 62 ), the Humanscape dichotomy of the screen/audience continues, as does the dichotomy of white and brown. Even if called “brownies,” the pastries on the big screen represent white culture. (Brownies were being marketed as a sweet snack for wholesome white children as early as 1969, as demonstrated by the original packaging of Little Debbie Fudge Brownies, which featured a blonde and blue-eyed girl with rosy cheeks.) 120 Meanwhile, all the figures in the foreground represent marginalized figures that are Brown: the Native American (a nonperson in American history), a Brownie girl scout (a girl scout of the lowest rank), figures wearing serapes (Mexicans portrayed as stereotyped Indians), the double-headed serpent breastplate (the schizotypal Mexican American), the god Xolotl (an Aztec god associated with many negative traits), and the Frito Bandito (a stereotyped violent Mexican from Frito-Lay advertisements). All these figures are the audience subordinated to the seductively advertised brownies on the screen. 121

Like Brownies of the Southwest , Humanscape 37 , Humanscape 38 , and Humanscape 39 divide the picture plane separating the seductive, white, blonde woman (representative of white culture and dominant mass media) and the Brown, dark women, who react to the white woman with varying attitudes (engagement, elation, bitter rejection) in response to the events that transpired in 1967. As such, the three 1967 paintings are clearly politicized antecedents to the artist’s Chicano paintings of the 1970s and constitute early examples of Chicano art.

See Smithsonian Museum of American Art, “Episode 1: Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art,” YouTube video, 3:47, September 30, 2013, https://youtu.be/9brKfjJMi2s .

Jacinto Quirarte, Mexican American Artists (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1973).

Casas, quoted in Quirarte, Mexican American Artists , 85.

Jimenez, quoted in Quirarte, Mexican American Artists , 120.

Nancy Kelker, Mel Casas, Artist as Cultural Adjuster (self-pub., CreateSpace, 2013). See also Nancy Kelker, “Mel Casas: Redefining America,” in Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology , ed. Jennifer A. Gonzalez, C. Ondine Chavoya, Chon A. Noriega, and Terezita Romo (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2019), 183–93.

“San Antonio Celebrates Mel Casas with a Series of Citywide Tribute Exhibitions Honoring the Late Artist,” artist’s website, www.melcasas.com/mel-casas-c1h79 .

Ruben C. Cordova, “The Cinematic Genesis of the Mel Casas Humanscape, 1965–1970,” Aztlán 36, no. 2 (2011): 51–87.

Ruben C. Cordova, “Getting the Big Picture: Political Themes in the Humanscapes of Mel Casas,” in Born of Resistance: Cara a Cara Encounters with Chicana/o Visual Culture , ed. Scott L. Baugh and Victor A. Sorell (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2015), 172–89.

Ruben C. Cordova, Con Safo: The Chicano Art Group and the Politics of South Texas (Los Angeles: Chicano Studies Research Center, University of California, 2015).

Paul Karlstrom, “Oral History Interview with Mel Casas, 1996, August 14 and 16,” Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Kelker, Mel Casas , chaps. 2 and 3; Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis.” See also David Allyn, Make Love, Not War: The Sexual Revolution, An Unfettered History (New York: Routledge, 2001), 10–40; Eric Schaefer, ed., Sex Scene: Media and the Sexual Revolution (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2014).

Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 63; Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 2.

Casas’s statement is in Ruben C. Cordova, “Conversation with Mel Casas and Ruben Cordova,” in Baugh and Sorell, Born of Resistance , 162.

Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 2.

Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 58–60, Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 3.

David Hickey, “Mel Casas: Border Lord,” Artspace: Southwestern Contemporary Arts Quarterly 12, no. 4 (1988): 28–31.

Hickey, “Mel Casas,” 30.

Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 71.

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 41.

For examples, review the artist’s website, www.melcasas.com , under “Collection.”

Kelker, chap. 3.

Cordova, Con Safo , 35–46, 63–71.

Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 53–56.

Esther Gabara, ed., Pop América: 1965–1975 (Durham, NC: Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, 2019). The other exhibitions were The World Goes Pop , held at the Tate Museum in 2015–16, and International Pop , organized by Walker Art Gallery in 2015. Casas was not included in either of those.

John A. Walker, Art in the Age of the Mass Media (London: Pluto Press, 2001), 9.

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 18–21; Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 4.

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 15–18.

Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 5.

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 21–23 and 26, and Mel Casas, “Vitae,” artist’s website, www.melcasas.com/vitae .

See, for example, Carlos B. Gil, We Became Mexican American: How Our Immigrant Family Survived to Pursue the American Dream (self-pub., XLibris, 2012).

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 15.

Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin, The G.I. Bill: A New Deal for Veterans (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 118.

Martha Menchaca, The Mexican American Experience in Texas: Citizenship, Segregation, and the Struggle for Equality (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2022).

Menchaca, Mexican American Experience , 49–52, 125–28.

Menchaca, 75–149.

In Texas in the sixties, Anglo was used for persons of European origin who spoke English and were not Mexican or Mexican American. For a discussion of the role of Anglos and Mexicans in Texas history and the broader definition of those terms, see David Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas, 1836–1986 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010).

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed , 30th anniversary ed. (New York: Continuum, 2000), 174n49.

Kelker analyzes Humanscape 16 in similar terms, as does Cordova about Humanscape 17 , from September 1966. Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 3; Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 67.

Mel Casas, “Artist’s Statement,” in Mel Casas Paintings (San Antonio, TX: Mexican Art Gallery, Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexican American Cultural Exchange, Consulado General de Mexico, April 1968), n.p.

Regarding the debates during this period about the whiteness of Mexican Americans, see Laura Gómez, Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism (New York: The New Press, 2020), 99–132.

“HEW Nationality Guidelines Change,” San Antonio Express , October 13, 1967. All cited articles from San Antonio Express , San Antonio Express and News , and San Antonio Light can be obtained as digital facsimiles through the online database Newspaper Archive ( https://newspaperarchive.com ).

“HEW Nationality Guidelines Change.”

“Gonzalez Praises Negro Progress,” San Antonio Express and News , October 7, 1967.

“Lunch Program Lack Rapped,” San Antonio Light , October 14, 1967.

“FAMA Raps Race Listing,” San Antonio Light , October 15, 1967.

“Census Forms Withdrawn: New Papers to Be Used, Gonzalez Says,” San Antonio Express and News , October 21, 1967.

“Grievances Born from Conference,” San Antonio Express , October 31, 1967.

Frank J. Gonzalez, “Racial Identification,” San Antonio Express , November 16, 1967.

Jake Rodriguez, “Lo, the Poor Spaniard,” San Antonio Light , November 26, 1967.

“Race Doesn’t Worry Him,” San Antonio Express and News , December 9, 1967.

Frank Trejo, “Federal Lunch Program Discussion Planned,” San Antonio Light, December 6, 1967.

“The Signs Mount,” San Antonio Express and News , December 17, 1967.

In his interpretation of Humanscape 37 , Cordova notices that disembodied body parts resemble nylon and pantyhose commercials. Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 23.

Katz Shoes advertisement, San Antonio Light , July 16, 1967; Katz Shoes advertisement, San Antonio Express , September 5, 1967.

Tuesday’s Treasure advertisements, San Antonio Light , April 24, 1967 and November 13, 1967.

Burts Fashion Shoes advertisement, San Antonio Light , October 8, 1967; Joske’s of Texas advertisement, San Antonio Express , January 11, 1967; Frost Bros. advertisement, San Antonio Light, October 22, 1967.

Marco’s Vogue advertisement, San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967; Frost Bros. advertisement, San Antonio Express and News, July 8, 1967; Siegel’s advertisement, San Antonio Express and News , August 27, 1967; Joske’s of Texas advertisement, San Antonio Express, October 30, 1967.

This idea is inferred from Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (New York: Collins Business, 2007); Leon Festinger, “A Theory of Social Comparison Processes,” Human Relations 7, no. 2 (May 1954): 117–40.

Montejano, Anglos and Mexicans , 280–81.

See also Douglas Monroy, “Our Children Get So Different Here: Film, Fashion, Popular Culture, and the Process of Cultural Syncretization in Mexican Los Angeles, 1900–35,” Aztlán 19, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 79–108.

Casas, “Artist’s Statement,” in Mel Casas Paintings , n.p.

Ernest Morgan, “Teaching the Latin Child,” San Antonio Express , November 7, 1966.

“Senator Praises Seminar,” San Antonio Express , October 17, 1967.

In 1968, his “local residence” is given as: “702 Inspiration Drive, San Antonio, Texas” in the biographic information section published in Casas, “Artist’s Statement.” This address on Inspiration Drive was in the northwest side of San Antonio, in an area of the city primarily inhabited by Anglos. For a discussion of San Antonio neighborhoods and the ethnic groups that inhabited each in 1966, see David Montejano, Quixote’s Soldiers: A Local History of the Chicano Movement, 1966–1981 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010), 17. In 1967, Casas participated in multiple regional exhibitions every year and had received one award. Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 37.

Karlstrom, 16.

Karlstrom, 15–16.

Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 4.

Cordova proposes another reading of the word entran . He states that this is a partial word for “entrance,” signifying “an opening that one can enter or something that captivates and puts into a trance.” Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 72. He suggests that this word leads viewers to contemplate the disembodied limbs as an invitation to sexual acts, while also alluding to the mesmerizing power of sexualized images in cinema.

Cordova, “Conversation,” 163.

Casas, “Artist’s Statement.”

Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen 16, no. 3 (Autumn 1975): 6–18.

The quotes in this paragraph come from Casas, “Artist’s Statement.”

Karlstrom, “Oral History,” 37. Casas spoke when he was selected as Artist of the Year by the San Antonio Arts League but was stripped of his award a few days later because of the content of the acceptance speech.

Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 58.

Contemporary sources evidence the ascendancy of Barbie in the sixties. A Barbie advertisement showing the Twist ‘n Turn doll with light hair and long legs was published in San Antonio Light , November 5, 1967.

Claude Burgett, “Hippies Prepare Summer of Love,” San Antonio Express and News , April 30, 1967; Samuel Davenport, “Make Love Not War,” San Antonio Light , May 6, 1967; Mavis Bryant, “Hard Rock,” San Antonio Express and News , August 5, 1967; Bill Slocum, “People in Cages No Tourist Attraction,” San Antonio Light , August 6, 1967; “Hippies Hold Three Day Wake for Movement,” San Antonio Express and News , October 7, 1967; Patricia Chapman, “Hippie Talk from Acid to Zap,” San Antonio Light , November 5, 1967.

For a detailed analysis of the antiwar protests, see Klaus Fischer, America in White, Black, and Gray: The Stormy 1960s (New York: Continuum, 2006), 170–211.

See “Tentative Pact for Protest Made,” San Antonio Express and News, October 15, 1967; “Thousands Protest the Viet War,” San Antonio Express , October 17, 1967; “Draft Protest Mob Routed by Police,” San Antonio Light , October 17, 1967; “Mob Protests Draft” and “Baez in the West,” San Antonio Light , October 17, 1967; “America’s Gratitude…and a Hostile World” San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967; “Thousands Protest around the World,” San Antonio Express , October 22, 1967.

“Two S.A. Protestors Face Army or Jail,” San Antonio Light , October 17, 1967; “S.A. Students Join in Protest,” San Antonio Light , October 17, 1967.

“Revolution Asked at Austin March,” San Antonio Express and News , October 22, 1967; “Capital Rally: Austin Sees 800 March,” San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967.

“Capital Rally.”

Barry Browne, “S.A. ‘Love-In’ Big Tourist Attraction.” San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967.

Herbert Kupferberg, “A Hippie Haircut Is a Rare Happening,” San Antonio Light , October 22, 1967.

“The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture,” Time 90, no. 1 (July 7, 1967): 18–22.

Cordova is quoting Mel Casas, “Human Scapes,” Mel Casas Humanscapes , exh. cat. (Houston: Contemporary Art Museum, 1976), 1. Cordova, “Conversation,” 173.

“Mexican American Conference Slated,” San Antonio Express , October 6, 1967. See also “Texans to Testify at Ethnic Hearings,” San Antonio Express , October 19, 1967.

Johnson and Humphrey attended as part of a visit to Texas that they made on the ceremony of the repatriation of the Rio Grande territory known as “El Chamizal” to Mexico. Gladys Gregory and Sheldon B. Liss, “Chamizal Dispute,” Handbook of Texas Online , Texas State History Association, 1976, updated September 5, 2022, by Alana de Hinojosa, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/chamizal-dispute .

President Johnson’s presence at the conference was of utmost importance as it represented his acknowledgement of Mexican Americans’ claims, following Texas Governor John Connally’s public refusal to listen to the marching Rio Grande farmworkers in 1966. Julie Leininger Pycior, “From Hope to Frustration: Mexican Americans and Lyndon Johnson in 1967,” Western Historical Quarterly 24, no. 4 (1993): 469–94.

“Pena Group Set to Offer Eight Resolutions,” San Antonio Express , October 27, 1967.

“MAYO to Picket Cabinet Meeting,” San Antonio Express , October 26, 1967. For the history of MAYO, see Montejano, Quixote’s Soldiers ; Armando Navarro, Mexican American Youth Organization: Avant-Garde of the Chicano Movement in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995). See also James B. Barrera, “The 1968 Edcouch-Elsa High School Walkout: Chicano Student Activism in a South Texas Community,” Aztlán 29, no. 2 (Fall 2004): 93–123.

“MAYO to Picket.”

“A Group of Mexican-Americans,” San Antonio Light , October 28, 1967; “Protest,” San Antonio Express and News , October 28, 1967.

Kelker discusses how the “blonde goddess” ideal was deeply rooted in the fashionable Hollywood actresses of the sixties and before. See Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 3. See also Jessica Hope Jordan, The Sex Goddess in American Film: Jean Harlow, Mae West, Lana Turner, and Jane Mansfield (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2000).

Cordova proposes that “emerge” could instead be a partial word for “emergency exit,” in reference to the ubiquitous exit signs in public venues. He then analyzes the word “emerge” as “an emblem of social rebellion and sexual liberation. The long, flowing hair—in conjunction with ‘emerge’—serves to signal ‘a coming out.’” To support his argument, he cites Casas’s words and concludes that “in this painting, their long, billowing heads of hair serve as banners of defiance and independence.” Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 67, 74.

Cordova, 74–76.

Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 3.

“New Romero Post Pleases Ximenes,” San Antonio Express , December 7, 1967.

“New Romero Post.”

“Mexican-American Report Nearly Ready for LBJ,” San Antonio Express , December 15, 1967.

Jim Moss, “Mexican-Americans ‘On the Move,’ U.S. Aide Says,” San Antonio Express and News , December 16, 1967.

“CPSB ‘Bias’ Charge under Probe,” San Antonio Express , December 15, 1967.

Sam Kindrick, “CPSB Again Accused of Bias by Speakers at CRC Meeting,” San Antonio Express , December 29, 1967.

Nicholas Chriss, “Texas Liberals Hit Registration Law,” San Antonio Express , December 25, 1967.

Richard Jasso, “Gringo Rule,” San Antonio Light , December 3, 1967. Richard Jasso’s role in MAYO is discussed in Montejano, Quixote’s Soldiers , 60.

Frank Trejo, “MAYO Plans to Help Group,” San Antonio Light , December 27, 1967.

J. J. Harris, H. R. Cross, and J. W. Savell, “History of Meat Grading in the United States,” Meat Science , Texas A&M University, 1996, https://meat.tamu.edu/meat-grading-history/ .

Kelker explains how the USDA shield placed on the white woman’s body in this painting has been perceived to signify that the woman is “marked as a cut of meat,” and how this reading has led to perceiving Casas as a misogynist who painted objectified women—an interpretation she does not share. Kelker, Mel Casas , chap. 3. Cordova suggests that the USDA shield indicates the artist’s attack on the blond ideal standard of beauty. He provides further context by connecting it with a 1968 feminist demonstration against Miss America in Atlantic City, where a protester rented a sheep, crowned it “Miss America,” and paraded it down the Atlantic City boardwalk. Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 74–75.

“One-Way Signs: An American History,” Road Traffic Signs , www.roadtrafficsigns.com/one-way-signs-an-american-history ; “One-Way Evolution. One Way Sign over the Years,” Forgotten New York , September 27, 1999, https://forgotten-ny.com/1999/09/one-way-evolution-one-way-signs-through-the-years/ .

Regarding the partial word “ladie” in Humanscape 39 , Cordova states that “it presumably stands for the restroom within the cinema in the painting, it is also meant to address the women who are situated in the foreground of this painting, as well as the women who view the painting.” Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 76. He supports his argument by citing Casas’s 2008 interviews with him, where the artist stated that “the ladies sign puts pressure on the spectator,” alluding to the “state of flux” in the expected behavior of a lady during this period. Casas, “2008. Interviews by author, by telephone and in San Antonio,” cited in Cordova, “Cinematic Genesis,” 76.

Chad Creech, “Color Meanings in Flags,” www.allstarflags.com/facts/color-meanings-in-flags/ ; P. J. Heather, “Colour Symbolism: Part I,” Folklore 59, no. 4 (1948): 165–83.

Richard Bailey, “Starr County Strike,” Handbook of Texas Online , Texas State History Association, June 1, 1995, updated June 24, 2015, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/starr-county-strike .

“March Gains Rain, Support,” “Marchers in S.A.,” “March Leaders Berate Booing,” “Bexar Politicians Greet Valley March Participants,” and “Marchers at Cathedral,” all published in San Antonio Express and News , August 28, 1966.

Tom Shelton, “Rio Grande Valley Farm Workers March in 1966: Images from the San Antonio Express and News Collection,” The Top Shelf: A Blog about Special Collections at the UTSA Libraries , UTSA Libraries Special Collections, September 16, 2013, https://utsalibrariestopshelf.wordpress.com/2013/09/16/rio-grande-valley-farm-workers-march-in-1966-images-from-the-san-antonio-express-news-collection/ .

See Mel Casas and Con Safo, “Brown Paper Report,” in Baugh and Sorell, Born of Resistance , 168–69.

“Little Debbie: The History of America’s Sweetheart,” LittleDebbie.com , n.d., https://littledebbie.com/291.798/little-debbie-history . See also Jackson Lears, Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America (New York: Basic Books, 1994).

Most interpretations and commentaries on Brownies of the Southwest resonate with my reading. However, Cordova describes the painting as an enumeration of stereotypes associated with the word brownie . Cordova, “Getting the Big Picture,” 178.

Recipient(s) will receive an email with a link to 'Chicano Art and the Mass MediaMel Casas in 1967' and will not need an account to access the content.

Subject: Chicano Art and the Mass MediaMel Casas in 1967

(Optional message may have a maximum of 1000 characters.)

Citing articles via

Email alerts, affiliations.

• Recent Content
• Browse Issues
• All Content
• Info for Authors
• Info for Librarians
• Editorial Team
• Online ISSN 2576-0947
• Copyright © 2024

Stay Informed

Disciplines.

• Ancient World
• Anthropology
• Communication
• Criminology & Criminal Justice
• Film & Media Studies
• Food & Wine
• Browse All Disciplines
• Browse All Courses
• Book Authors
• Booksellers
• Instructions
• Journal Authors
• Journal Editors
• Media & Journalists
• Planned Giving

About UC Press

• Press Releases
• Seasonal Catalog
• Acquisitions Editors
• Customer Service
• Exam/Desk Requests
• Media Inquiries
• Print-Disability
• Rights & Permissions
• UC Press Foundation
• © Copyright 2024 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Privacy policy    Accessibility

This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

(Stanford users can avoid this Captcha by logging in.)

• Send to text email RefWorks EndNote printer

Opera in the Media Age : Essays on Art, Technology and Popular Culture

Available online.

• EBSCO Academic Comprehensive Collection

More options

• Find it at other libraries via WorldCat
• Contributors

Description

Creators/contributors, contents/summary.

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The Business of Opera: Opera, Advertising and the Return to Popular Culture (Paul Fryer)
• Making Culture Popular: Opera and the Media Industries (Sam O'Connell)
• Opera Criticism: State of the Art and Beyond (Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe)
• Gods and Heroes or Monsters of the Media? (Trevor Siemens)
• Opera and the Audio Recording Industry (Robert Cannon)
• Opera Singers as Pop Stars: Opera Within the Popular Music Industry (Christopher Newell and George Newell)
• Cross-Cuts and Arias: The Language of Film and Its Impact on Opera (Kevin Stephens)
• Opera on Optical Video Disc, or the Latest (and Final?) Avatar of the Gesamtkunstwerk (Pierre Bellemare)
• Wunderkammer: Light as a Scenographic and Dramaturgical Tool in Opera (Hansjörg Schmidt)
• Opera, Art and Industrial Production: Lighting at the Royal Opera House, London (Nick Hunt)
• After The Twilight of the Gods: Opera Experiments, New Media and the Opera of the Future (Michael Earley)
• About the Contributors

Bibliographic information

Browse related items.

• Stanford Home
• Maps & Directions
• Search Stanford
• Emergency Info
• Terms of Use
• Non-Discrimination
• Accessibility

© Stanford University , Stanford , California 94305 .

Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas Essay

Expressing the idea, the choice of the art media, conclusions, works cited.

Art can be compared to writing a story. Mittler and Raggans agree that an artist, similar to a writer, “starts out with an interesting idea, event, or thought. He or she then captures this idea and expresses it in a way that often communicates strong feelings or emotions as a visual statement that communicates an idea, expresses a feeling, or presents an interesting design” (4). Consequently, art media are like words and sentences in literature. They are diverse and serve to express ideas or feelings. Common or unusual art media make people look at the same piece of art differently. Thus, there exists a trend to recreate famous paintings applying non-traditional art materials. For example, The Scream of Munch was recreated with the help of thousands of colored pencils, and the famous Marilyn Monroe’s portrait was made of gummy bears candies (Nyberg par. 2, 8). Thus, an artist does not have limits in his or her creativity and freedom to choose the media, which helps transfer ideas, feelings, and emotions.

When I was thinking of an idea for my art pieces, I decided to depict something that many people lack in modern life. They hurry to work and back, are in chase of success, but they forget to stop and dream. Thus, the presented pieces illustrate dreams and freedom. The balloon depicted on them is a symbol of secret wishes which can come true. A balloon in the blue sky flying to the sun, as high as only birds can reach, embodies a free person’s way to something good. Bright colors symbolize light, joy, and happiness, which accompany a person who follows the dream.

The choice of art media determines its final look. The art media is a tool which allows the artist to express the idea of the piece of art, and disclose its content. I support Lazzari and Schlesier, who state that “It is easy to think that the idea is all that matters in a work of art, but in fact, the physical embodiment of the idea is important as well. When artists choose the best medium to support their ideas, their art is stronger” (56). I also like the idea expressed by a social commentator Marshall McLuhan (qt. Mittler and Raggans 67), that “the medium is the message.” I had used those principles when I was thinking of the media to express my idea.

The first sketch is a drawing, which is a two-dimensional piece of art. I have used an ordinary pencil to make it. Thus, it combines two traditional media, a pencil, and paper. I believe it symbolizes that a dream can be freely modified the same way as this drawing of a balloon can be changed or just erased. I think I could have used a pen or ink for the sketch. However, I prefer pencils due to the opportunity to make a quick drawing or change something in case of necessity.

The second piece is using traditional media and is two-dimensional as well. This time, it is a painting on the same piece of paper. I have chosen a watercolor technique because of the opportunity to use transparent colors. I think transparency is significant for the expression of the idea of dreams and freedom. Gouache or oil paint, which is also used in the painting, would have made it too solid, which does not suit my intention. The choice of colors is no accident as well. A bright balloon in the sun’s colors in the light blue sky perfectly represents my initial idea.

Finally, a piece using non-traditional media is my experiment. It is a kind of modeling. The experiment’s essence is that not a single piece used for this work was bought, especially for the project. It is a balloon model made of waste or materials found in a closet. The model consists of a small balloon, some threads, scotch tape, and a shaving foam cap. I have tried to follow the selected concept of bright colors here too. I wanted to use a light bulb for the balloon first, but it was white and did not suit my idea. Unlike two previous pieces of art, this one is three-dimensional. It is presented outdoors in the bright sun, which supports my idea of following a dream.

Overall, I suppose I managed to express the idea of a dream and the feeling of freedom in these pieces of art. This project is one more proof that an artist can convey the idea and send a message to spectators using different art media. The choice of the art media is only limited by the desire and the opportunities of an artist. Although art media have a significant role in the creation process, they are only tools that can become something meaningful in the hands of an artist.

Lazzari, Margaret, and Dona Schlesier. Exploring Art: A Global, Thematic Approach. 4th ed., Cengage Learning, 2012.

Mittler, Gene, and Rosalind Raggans. Exploring Art. Glencoe, McGaw-Hill, 2005.

Nyberg, Jeanette. “Famous Paintings Recreated Using Non-Traditional Art Material.” Craft Whack, Web.

• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2020, August 31). Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas. https://ivypanda.com/essays/art-media-choice-in-expressing-artistic-ideas/

"Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas." IvyPanda , 31 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/art-media-choice-in-expressing-artistic-ideas/.

IvyPanda . (2020) 'Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas'. 31 August.

IvyPanda . 2020. "Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas." August 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/art-media-choice-in-expressing-artistic-ideas/.

1. IvyPanda . "Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas." August 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/art-media-choice-in-expressing-artistic-ideas/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Art Media Choice in Expressing Artistic Ideas." August 31, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/art-media-choice-in-expressing-artistic-ideas/.

• How a Mechanical Pencil Is Made
• The Relationships Between the Various Manufacturing Aspects of a Pencil and the Purchasing of the Final Product by the Ultimate Consumer
• Exotic Pencils: Marketing Communications Plan
• The Use of Quality Tools
• Hot Air Balloon's History and Principle of Operation
• Writing Great Research Papers
• Final Product Launch: Exotic Pencil at Target Corporation
• Public Art: "Balloon Flower (Red)" by Jeff Koons
• Carver’s “The Cathedral” & Barthelme’s “The Balloon”
• The Black Balloon: Character Analysis of Jackie
• Shakespeare’s "King Lear" Adaptation by Ian Pollock
• Chapters 7-9 in "Understanding Comics" by McCloud
• Beaton Institute Archive Collection
• Chicano Mural in Los Angeles
• Underworld in Cerberus, Blood Meridian, Scenes in Hell

• CBSE Class 10th
• CBSE Class 12th
• UP Board 10th
• UP Board 12th
• Bihar Board 10th
• Bihar Board 12th
• Top Schools in India
• Top Schools in Delhi
• Top Schools in Mumbai
• Top Schools in Chennai
• Top Schools in Hyderabad
• Top Schools in Kolkata
• Top Schools in Pune
• Top Schools in Bangalore

Products & Resources

• JEE Main Knockout April
• Free Sample Papers
• Free Ebooks
• NCERT Notes
• NCERT Syllabus
• NCERT Books
• RD Sharma Solutions
• Navodaya Vidyalaya Admission 2024-25
• NCERT Solutions
• NCERT Solutions for Class 12
• NCERT Solutions for Class 11
• NCERT solutions for Class 10
• NCERT solutions for Class 9
• NCERT solutions for Class 8
• NCERT Solutions for Class 7
• JEE Main 2024
• JEE Advanced 2024
• BITSAT 2024
• View All Engineering Exams
• Colleges Accepting B.Tech Applications
• Top Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in India
• Engineering Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Engineering Colleges Accepting JEE Main
• Top IITs in India
• Top NITs in India
• Top IIITs in India
• JEE Main College Predictor
• JEE Main Rank Predictor
• MHT CET College Predictor
• AP EAMCET College Predictor
• GATE College Predictor
• KCET College Predictor
• JEE Advanced College Predictor
• View All College Predictors
• JEE Main Question Paper
• JEE Main Mock Test
• JEE Main Registration
• JEE Main Syllabus
• Download E-Books and Sample Papers
• Compare Colleges
• B.Tech College Applications
• GATE 2024 Result
• MAH MBA CET Exam
• View All Management Exams

Colleges & Courses

• MBA College Admissions
• MBA Colleges in India
• Top IIMs Colleges in India
• Top Online MBA Colleges in India
• MBA Colleges Accepting XAT Score
• BBA Colleges in India
• XAT College Predictor 2024
• SNAP College Predictor
• NMAT College Predictor
• MAT College Predictor 2024
• CMAT College Predictor 2024
• CAT Percentile Predictor 2023
• CAT 2023 College Predictor
• CMAT 2024 Registration
• TS ICET 2024 Registration
• CMAT Exam Date 2024
• MAH MBA CET Cutoff 2024
• Download Helpful Ebooks
• List of Popular Branches
• QnA - Get answers to your doubts
• IIM Fees Structure
• AIIMS Nursing
• Top Medical Colleges in India
• Top Medical Colleges in India accepting NEET Score
• Medical Colleges accepting NEET
• List of Medical Colleges in India
• List of AIIMS Colleges In India
• Medical Colleges in Maharashtra
• Medical Colleges in India Accepting NEET PG
• NEET College Predictor
• NEET PG College Predictor
• NEET MDS College Predictor
• DNB CET College Predictor
• DNB PDCET College Predictor
• NEET Application Form 2024
• NEET PG Application Form 2024
• NEET Cut off
• NEET Online Preparation
• Download Helpful E-books
• LSAT India 2024
• Colleges Accepting Admissions
• Top Law Colleges in India
• Law College Accepting CLAT Score
• List of Law Colleges in India
• Top Law Colleges in Delhi
• Top Law Collages in Indore
• Top Law Colleges in Chandigarh
• Top Law Collages in Lucknow

Predictors & E-Books

• CLAT College Predictor
• MHCET Law ( 5 Year L.L.B) College Predictor
• AILET College Predictor
• Sample Papers
• Compare Law Collages
• Careers360 Youtube Channel
• CLAT Syllabus 2025
• CLAT Previous Year Question Paper
• AIBE 18 Result 2023
• NID DAT Exam
• Pearl Academy Exam

Animation Courses

• Animation Courses in India
• Animation Courses in Bangalore
• Animation Courses in Mumbai
• Animation Courses in Pune
• Animation Courses in Chennai
• Animation Courses in Hyderabad
• Design Colleges in India
• Fashion Design Colleges in Bangalore
• Fashion Design Colleges in Mumbai
• Fashion Design Colleges in Pune
• Fashion Design Colleges in Delhi
• Fashion Design Colleges in Hyderabad
• Fashion Design Colleges in India
• Top Design Colleges in India
• Free Design E-books
• List of Branches
• Careers360 Youtube channel
• NIFT College Predictor
• UCEED College Predictor
• NID DAT College Predictor
• IPU CET BJMC
• JMI Mass Communication Entrance Exam
• IIMC Entrance Exam
• Media & Journalism colleges in Delhi
• Media & Journalism colleges in Bangalore
• Media & Journalism colleges in Mumbai
• List of Media & Journalism Colleges in India
• CA Intermediate
• CA Foundation
• CS Executive
• CS Professional
• Difference between CA and CS
• Difference between CA and CMA
• CA Full form
• CMA Full form
• CS Full form
• CA Salary In India

Top Courses & Careers

• Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com)
• Master of Commerce (M.Com)
• Company Secretary
• Cost Accountant
• Charted Accountant
• Credit Manager
• Financial Advisor
• Top Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Government Commerce Colleges in India
• Top Private Commerce Colleges in India
• Top M.Com Colleges in Mumbai
• Top B.Com Colleges in India
• IT Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• IT Colleges in Uttar Pradesh
• MCA Colleges in India
• BCA Colleges in India

Quick Links

• Information Technology Courses
• Programming Courses
• Web Development Courses
• Data Analytics Courses
• Big Data Analytics Courses
• RUHS Pharmacy Admission Test
• Top Pharmacy Colleges in India
• Pharmacy Colleges in Pune
• Pharmacy Colleges in Mumbai
• Colleges Accepting GPAT Score
• Pharmacy Colleges in Lucknow
• List of Pharmacy Colleges in Nagpur
• GPAT Result
• GPAT 2024 Admit Card
• GPAT Question Papers
• NCHMCT JEE 2024
• Mah BHMCT CET
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Delhi
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Hyderabad
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Mumbai
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Tamil Nadu
• Top Hotel Management Colleges in Maharashtra
• B.Sc Hotel Management
• Hotel Management
• Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology

Diploma Colleges

• Top Diploma Colleges in Maharashtra
• UPSC IAS 2024
• SSC CGL 2024
• IBPS RRB 2024
• Previous Year Sample Papers
• Free Competition E-books
• Sarkari Result
• QnA- Get your doubts answered
• UPSC Previous Year Sample Papers
• CTET Previous Year Sample Papers
• SBI Clerk Previous Year Sample Papers
• NDA Previous Year Sample Papers

Upcoming Events

• NDA Application Form 2024
• UPSC IAS Application Form 2024
• CDS Application Form 2024
• CTET Admit card 2024
• HP TET Result 2023
• SSC GD Constable Admit Card 2024
• UPTET Notification 2024
• SBI Clerk Result 2024

Other Exams

• SSC CHSL 2024
• UP PCS 2024
• UGC NET 2024
• RRB NTPC 2024
• IBPS PO 2024
• IBPS Clerk 2024
• IBPS SO 2024
• Top University in USA
• Top University in Canada
• Top University in Ireland
• Top Universities in UK
• Top Universities in Australia
• Best MBA Colleges in Abroad
• Business Management Studies Colleges

Top Countries

• Study in USA
• Study in UK
• Study in Canada
• Study in Australia
• Study in Ireland
• Study in Germany
• Study in China
• Study in Europe

Student Visas

• Student Visa Canada
• Student Visa UK
• Student Visa USA
• Student Visa Australia
• Student Visa Germany
• Student Visa New Zealand
• Student Visa Ireland
• CUET PG 2024
• IGNOU B.Ed Admission 2024
• DU Admission
• UP B.Ed JEE 2024
• DDU Entrance Exam
• IIT JAM 2024
• IGNOU Online Admission 2024
• Universities in India
• Top Universities in India 2024
• Top Colleges in India
• Top Universities in Uttar Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Bihar
• Top Universities in Madhya Pradesh 2024
• Top Universities in Tamil Nadu 2024
• Central Universities in India
• CUET PG Admit Card 2024
• IGNOU Date Sheet
• CUET Mock Test 2024
• CUET Application Form 2024
• CUET PG Syllabus 2024
• CUET Participating Universities 2024
• CUET Previous Year Question Paper
• CUET Syllabus 2024 for Science Students
• E-Books and Sample Papers
• CUET Exam Pattern 2024
• CUET Exam Date 2024
• CUET Syllabus 2024
• IGNOU Exam Form 2024
• IGNOU Result
• CUET PG Courses 2024

Engineering Preparation

• Knockout JEE Main 2024
• Test Series JEE Main 2024
• JEE Main 2024 Rank Booster

Medical Preparation

• Knockout NEET 2024
• Test Series NEET 2024
• Rank Booster NEET 2024

Online Courses

• JEE Main One Month Course
• NEET One Month Course
• IBSAT Free Mock Tests
• IIT JEE Foundation Course
• Knockout BITSAT 2024
• Career Guidance Tool

Top Streams

• IT & Software Certification Courses
• Engineering and Architecture Certification Courses
• Programming And Development Certification Courses
• Business and Management Certification Courses
• Marketing Certification Courses
• Health and Fitness Certification Courses
• Design Certification Courses

Specializations

• Digital Marketing Certification Courses
• Cyber Security Certification Courses
• Artificial Intelligence Certification Courses
• Business Analytics Certification Courses
• Data Science Certification Courses
• Cloud Computing Certification Courses
• Machine Learning Certification Courses
• View All Certification Courses
• UG Degree Courses
• PG Degree Courses
• Short Term Courses
• Free Courses
• Online Degrees and Diplomas
• Compare Courses

Top Providers

• Coursera Courses
• Udemy Courses
• Edx Courses
• Swayam Courses
• upGrad Courses
• Simplilearn Courses
• Great Learning Courses

Access premium articles, webinars, resources to make the best decisions for career, course, exams, scholarships, study abroad and much more with

Plan, Prepare & Make the Best Career Choices

Essay On Media

Keeping up with the most recent developments is critical in today's society. People can get the most recent and important news through the media. The media is the most commonly used medium for receiving information from north to south or east to west. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Media’.

100 Words Essay On Media

200 word essay on media, 500 word essay on media.

The media has an impact on the reputation of a political party, organisation, or individual. Media keeps people informed about current happenings in politics, culture, art, academia, communication, and commerce. Different forms of media help modern civilization in remaining in touch with the world in the shortest amount of time.

The media is all around us; we are immersed in it even when we are not aware of it. It is seen in newspapers, television, and technological gadgets such as cell phones. We perceive it as a tool for speeding time or distancing ourselves from what is going on in other people's lives.

Social media is a tool that has become immensely popular among all ages due to its user-friendly interface. The youth are the most prevalent social media user demographics, which is both remarkable and concerning.

Imagery from the media abounds in today's culture. We know this since we may see posters advertising well-known brands and the latest products almost anywhere we go, such as while driving on the highway. When we are drawn to advertisements, we may begin to imagine or visualise ourselves using them.

The media can tell us about a product, service, or message. Today, media influence is so powerful that it may easily influence public opinion both positively and negatively. We also live in a society that is heavily reliant on the media for entertainment and information. Indeed, pictures in the media have an effect on both people and society, especially women, men, teenagers, and young children.

Simultaneously, media such as television, broadens our perspective by providing us with access to facts from all around the world. Television may also provide us with a wide range of news and current happenings. It can also be a useful learning tool, guiding future generations in the proper direction.

The media has a large influence on our lives. We educate ourselves on a regular basis by staying up with the latest events. The news serves a crucial role in keeping us informed about current affairs and global happenings. For example, because of globalization, you can read about current happenings in the United States of America even if you live in India.

The media is the most significant communication tool. It aids in the delivery or dissemination of news. Although the media is also associated with spreading fake news, it also plays an important role in informing us about reality. We cannot deny that this world is filled with so many social problems that we require the media to spotlight these concerns so that the government or other individuals can take action to resolve these social issues.

Role Of Media

When it comes to the media, it is regarded as the fourth element of democracy. It's the most comprehensive repository of information on the globe. Everyone hope and expects the media to provide us with the most complete and accurate news in any situation. As a result, the media plays an important role in balancing all areas of our society.

It is crucial for teaching and informing global citizens about what is happening around the world. As a result, supplying readers with truthful and authentic news is vital for societal growth. The case of Aayushi Talvaar is a good illustration of how the media works.

Advantages Of Media

Education | The media educates the public. The mob learns about health issues, environmental preservation, and a variety of other relevant topics through television or radio programming.

Keeps Us Informed | People obtain the most recent news in a timely manner. Distance is not a barrier to providing knowledge to people from anywhere on the planet. People receive the daily latest news from media sites, which keep them current on the latest trends and happenings throughout the world.

Knowledge | The media can help you learn more about a variety of topics.

Amusement | It is a great source of entertainment. People are amused by music and television shows.

Disadvantages Of Media

Individualism | People spend far too much time watching or binge-watching stuff on the internet. As a result, their relationships with friends, family, and neighbours may suffer as a result.

Fraud and Cybercrime | The Internet is lurking with imposters, fraudsters, hackers, and other predators with the opportunity to commit criminal acts without the victims' knowledge.

Addiction | For most children and adults, some television shows and internet media can be quite addictive, resulting in a decrease in productivity.

Health Issues | Prolonged television viewing or internet bingeing can cause visual difficulties, and prolonged exposure to loud noises via headphones or earphones can cause hearing impairments.

Malware and Fake Profiles | Anyone can set up an anonymous account and pretend to be someone else. Anyone with access to such profiles might use them for malevolent purposes, such as spreading misinformation, which can harm the image of any targeted people or company.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Information Technology

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

Applications for Admissions are open.

Aakash iACST Scholarship Test 2024

Get up to 90% scholarship on NEET, JEE & Foundation courses

SAT® | CollegeBoard

Registeration closing on 19th Apr for SAT® | One Test-Many Universities | 90% discount on registrations fee | Free Practice | Multiple Attempts | no penalty for guessing

JEE Main Important Chemistry formulas

As per latest 2024 syllabus. Chemistry formulas, equations, & laws of class 11 & 12th chapters

TOEFL ® Registrations 2024

Thinking of Studying Abroad? Think the TOEFL® test. Register now & Save 10% on English Proficiency Tests with Gift Cards

Resonance Coaching

Enroll in Resonance Coaching for success in JEE/NEET exams

ALLEN JEE Exam Prep

Start your JEE preparation with ALLEN

Everything about Education

Latest updates, Exclusive Content, Webinars and more.

Download Careers360 App's

Regular exam updates, QnA, Predictors, College Applications & E-books now on your Mobile

Cetifications

We Appeared in

Why Indigenous Artifacts Should Be Returned to Indigenous Communities

DuVal is a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America

I n January 2024, the American Museum of Natural History in New York closed its Hall of the Great Plains and Hall of Eastern Woodlands, and visitors to the Field Museum in Chicago and other museums across the country are seeing covered display cases and signs explaining that these exhibits “have been covered in consideration of ongoing legal and ethical reviews.” These closures are overdue corrections by museums that have long misrepresented and misused Indigenous history. But more than a subtraction, they are a sign of an important shift in where and how Americans learn Native American history.

It’s easy to see covered cases and closed exhibits as a loss, even if an understandable one. Most of the news coverage has explained the shift as an unavoidable sacrifice for Native rights and sensibilities, a zero-sum game in which museum-goers and school field trips are the necessary losers. Headlines proclaim closures and removals and show pictures of empty cases or the final rush of visitors before the items were taken from public view. Stories quote disappointed visitors who interpret the closures as keeping them from learning about Native Americans.

Yet this focus misses the fact that there has never been an easier time to learn about Native American histories and cultures and to see Native American art and artifacts. A field trip that may be diminished by the closures at the American Museum of Natural History can simply head to lower Manhattan to visit the NYC branch of the National Museum of the American Indian. It’s time to stop expecting Native history at museums of “natural history” and start learning it from museums and cultural centers that are run by any of the hundreds of Native nations in the United States or with their collaboration. And it’s time to start learning the quite different stories that they tell.

Until recently, exhibits about Native Americans were in museums of “natural history” because white Americans saw them as part of archaeology and anthropology rather than history. At its opening in the 1960s, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History had nothing about Native Americans, who instead were in the National Museum of Natural History alongside early primates and dinosaurs. The message was clear: Native Americans—perceived of as a monolithic culture—were primitive and destined for disappearance, fitting more with displays of animals than with the American History Museum’s message of technology and progress. In the early 20th century, the Yahi man known as Ishi was displayed as a living exhibit at the University of California Museum of Anthropology following the genocide of his people. In 1968, a group of Miwoks (Yosemites) visited the National Museum of Natural History and read in one of the exhibits that their tribe had gone “extinct” in the 19th century. And until the closures that happened in January, visitors at the American Museum of Natural History could see generic mannequins of Native men and women stoically conveying timeless primitiveness.

The latest changes are responding to new federal rules on the implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) regarding the rights of Native nations over sacred and funerary objects of their ancestors. The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, D.C., founded as part of implementing NAGPRA, was a way to responsibly deal with the large collection of Native American skeletal remains and sacred burial objects held by the Smithsonian. But the NMAI has become far more than that. Its Indigenous designers, curators, and administrators, in part with funding from Native nations, have built a public space with locations in D.C. and Manhattan where everyone can learn about Native peoples—in all their diversity—as continuing nations with living cultures, as real human beings in the past, present, and future.

The return of objects, funds from casinos and other tribal businesses, and an ongoing renaissance in tribal politics and culture have enabled Native nations across the country to build and renovate their own museums and cultural centers. In spite of their fraught histories with museums, some Native nations have embraced and changed museology. As Native scholar and founding director of the Chickasaw Cultural Center, Amanda Cobb-Greetham, explained to me , Native peoples have “turned an instrument of colonization and dispossession … into an instrument of self-definition and cultural continuance.” They portray their own specific peoples as a living history. Executive Director of the Museum of the Cherokee People Shana Bushyhead Condill explains of her museum, “We preserve and perpetuate the history, stories and enduring culture of the Cherokee people.”

There are hundreds of examples, including the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in Mashantucket, Connecticut; the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska, Oklahoma; and the Himdag Ki: Tohono O’odham Nation Cultural Center and Museum in Sells, Arizona. These museums all teach the diverse histories of their peoples, from the distant past to the present, to Native and non-Native visitors. As Mohawk scholar Scott Manning Stevens puts i t, in these Indigenous cultural centers, “living cultures are as much a part of the fabric of the institution as the artifacts still displayed in exhibits.” Many have research centers too, where tribal and non-tribal scholars can work on a more respectful and accurate study of the past.

Read More: Without Indigenous History, There Is No U.S. History

Beyond tribal museums, other museums are being built or creating exhibits with participation by Native Americans. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, has become a leader in incorporating Native artists and curators into its definition of “American Art.” The Penn Museum at the University of Pennsylvania does not need to cover artifacts in its “Native American Voices: The People — Here and Now” exhibit because tribal representatives helped to create it. At the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City, funded by the Chickasaw Nation in addition to Oklahoma City and the state of Oklahoma, Native nations collaborated on the architectural design, the exhibits, and the programming. And wherever you are, you can access online exhibits and teaching resources created by hundreds of Native nations on their own past and present.

Some of the items that have now been taken out of view may come back once they have gone through the NAGPRA consultation process, but much more important is the shift away from anthropological museums being the place to see Native American historical artifacts. Native American histories are not being lost or papered over, but the location as well as the style of their presentation is shifting to a more human, forward-looking one. This is a gain for everyone. Ideally, the covered cases and closed halls will prompt visits to new places and spark new understandings of the long and continuing history—and future—of Native America.

More Must-Reads From TIME

• Exclusive: Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel
• Jane Fonda Champions Climate Action for Every Generation
• Stop Looking for Your Forever Home
• The Sympathizer Counters 50 Years of Hollywood Vietnam War Narratives
• The Bliss of Seeing the Eclipse From Cleveland
• Hormonal Birth Control Doesn’t Deserve Its Bad Reputation
• The Best TV Shows to Watch on Peacock
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

model essay ARTS AND MEDIA 2

Some museums and art galleries charge admission fees, while others have free entry., do you think the advantages of charging for admission outweigh the disadvantages.

Comments about the task:

• An opinion Essay
• The question is asking whether the advantages or disadvantages are stronger.
• art and the arts have different meanings:

Art means, fine art such as painting, drawing and sculpture. the a rts represent subjects such as commerce, economics, philosophy, history and other such non-science subjects.

https://www.usingenglish.com/forum/threads/177861-art-vs-arts

Plan: advantages

• maintaining costs
• fund expansion

disadvantages

• poor members of society are unable to afford to visit these places Model Answer:

With the increasing popularity of museums and art galleries, whether they should be free of charge or not has drawn much discussion amongst the general public. Personally, I am inclined to the view that the merits of charging for entry outweigh the drawbacks .

One of the cogent reasons for charging fees is that the building and the maintenance costs of major museums and art galleries are tremendous . Undoubtedly, by charging a reasonable entry fee, it can help cover the cost incurred as a result of day-to-day activities such as utility bills , maintenance costs, renovation , and staff costs. If these costs were not covered the state of the facilities would deteriorate and be less attractive.

An additional benefit of entrance fees is that they allow these places to expand quicker and they can buy in more exhibits to attract more people. The facilities will also be able to hire famous international artefacts and artworks; thereby enabling them to provide variety so that they can attract greater patronage.  Consequently, charging an admission fee seems very utilitarian to creating better museums and galleries.

However, there are downsides associated with admission fees, one of which is that it may preclude some members of the community from entering the facilities. This is particularly the case if poor members of society are unable to afford to visit these places. It seems a great pity if children and economically disadvantaged people are unable to benefit from the cultural experiences these venues provide.

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that the benefits of an entry fee, in terms of funding maintenance and expansion  prevail over the downsides such as limited access for the poor.

Language : advocate =   recommend or support merits = advantages drawbacks = disadvantages cogent reasons =clear and logical reasons tremendous = incredible, wonderful utility bills= bills for things like power and water utilitarian = functional, practical renovation = repair and decorate admission fees =entrance fees reiterate = repeat or restate prevail = overcome, succeed

IELTS Writing Correction

12 thoughts on “model essay ARTS AND MEDIA 2”

First of all, I thoroughly appreciate your efforts to help ielts-takers.

Im a bit confused. In the conclusion of the essay above it is mentioned it is recommended….. 1. The Question doesnt ask to give a solution/suggestion; 2. This suggestion is mentioned in neither introduction nor body larts of the essay; therefore , it is a new idea, which is atypical for conclusion writing requirements in IELTS?

How much am I right?

Thanks for your reply.

It’s not wrong for the concluding paragraph of an opinion essay to summarise the key points from the essay and then make some kind of final statement or even solution based on the summary. This is something that can distinguish a level 8 from a level 7writer… If you have my e-book it explains it in there. Anyway, I decided to delete the sentence to avoid confusion and keep things simple on my website

How long will it take for one essay to be corrected?

A maximum of 24 hours. Usually, it is much quicker.

The question prompt does not mention anything like “many advocate that ” or “many argue that ” … So, the first two sentences in this essay should just be a paraphrased form of the question right ? Something like ” While some museums and art galleries admit people free of cost, some others do collect an entry free.” Please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes, correct. And I would write it the way you did and then follow with a statement of my opinion about which side outweighs the other. The way this person has written this model essay is not wrong though and many people choose to write this way.

okie… Thank you so much for the clarification 🙂

Thank you for this useful resource. We really adore your humble.

Hmm.. Something’s wrong here with the essay. Do I understand the question correctly? It asks “the advantages of free admission” versus “the disadvantages of free admission”, whereas the essay concludes with the not matching phrase “the benefits of an entry fee”. I suppose the Task Response would be low because of that. Please, correct me if I’m wrong.

Thanks, and you are correct that essay has problems! I have changed the task instructions and also the essay to reflect the point you made.

I think there are lack of examples. Do you think it is enough for the exam?

You don’t need to have any examples. Examples are just one way of developing main ideas..other ways are explaining and adding details. Now the task instructions mention “use examples from your own experience” but this is not a requirement.

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

About Mike I’m Mike Wattie from Australia. I have been teaching IELTS for over 20 years in Asia and Australia.

I have written IELTS books and this enables me to be an effective tutor. This is because I understand the main problems that students have taking the test and also the ways to overcome them.

Maybe you would like me to teach you the necessary skills and strategies to pass your test.

IELTS is a registered trademark of University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia and they jointly manage the IELTS test. This website is for test preparation only and has nothing to do with the administration of IELTS tests This website is not affiliated, approved or endorsed by the University of Cambridge ESOL, the British Council, and IDP Education Australia.

• Presidential Search
• Editor's Pick

WNDR in Photos

The WNDR museum recently opened a branch in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. Take a look at some of the diverse, one-of-a-kind installations WNDR has to offer on its mission to disrupt and transform the traditional museum experience.

1. “The Wisdom Project” - WNDR Studios

WNDR Guests can participate in this ever-growing installation that draws wisdom from its visitors.

2. “Speak Up!” - WNDR Studios

The medium is technology. Digital telephones retrofitted with a Teensy microcontroller are the conduits. You are the receiver.

3. “MPO-1 (Time Machine)” - Joshua Ellingson

Explore the reflection of “Pepper’s Ghost” as you hover near a theremin in this retro illusion.

4. “Magnetic Symphony” - WNDR Studios

Electromagnetic wires are the locks, and their tin cans are the key to this audiovisual symphony.

5. “Flex” - Austin Watson, Pedro Neves

This pressure-reactive flexible fabric bends to the touch. Ignited by computer programming, this exhibition is a tactile exploration.

6. “We Are All Artists” - Brad Keywell

“Who decides who is an ‘artist’?” is the question Keywell poses in this exhibit. Perhaps, for the first time, the answer is all of us.

7. “Color & Light” - WNDR Studios

The change between monochrome and rainbow happens surprisingly fast in this room. Explore colors in an ever-changing dimension.

8. “Let’s Survive Forever” - Yayoi Kusama

This exhibit is an exploration of reflection. The mirrors, LED lights, and reflective orbs form a mirage that interact in “a form of self-obliteration.”

9. “Fortune” - WNDR Studios

Ask this animatronic oracle to riddle you a fortune, and you may just be rewarded for your curiosity. —Staff writer Alisa S. Regassa can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @alisaregassa .

2024 Ethics Essay Contest winners announced

Claire Martino , a junior from New Berlin, Wis., majoring in applied mathematics and data science, is the winner of the 2024 Ethics Essay Contest for the essay "Artificial Intelligence Could Probably Write This Essay Better than Me."

The second place entry was from Morgan J. Janes , a junior from Rock Island, Ill., majoring in biology, for the essay "The Relevant History and Medical and Ethical Future Viability of Xenotransplantation."

Third place went to Alyssa Scudder , a senior from Lee, Ill., majoring in biology, for the essay "The Ethicality of Gene Alteration in Human Embryos."

Dr. Dan Lee announced the winners on behalf of the board of directors of the Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics, sponsor of the contest. The winner will receive an award of $100, the second-place winner an award of $50, and the third-place winner an award of $25.

Honorable mentions went to Grace Palmer , a senior art and accounting double major from Galesburg, Ill., for the essay "The Ethiopian Coffee Trade: Is Positive Change Brewing?" and Sarah Marrs , a sophomore from Carpentersville, Ill., majoring in political science and women, gender and sexuality studies, for the essay "Dating Apps as an Outlet to Promote Sexual Autonomy among Disabled Individuals: an Intersectional Approach to Change."

The winning essays will be published in Augustana Digital Commons .

The Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics was established to enrich the teaching-learning experiences for students by providing greater opportunities for them to meet and interact with community leaders and to encourage discussions of issues of ethical significance through campus programs and community outreach.

Dr. Lee, whose teaching responsibilities since joining the Augustana faculty in 1974 have included courses in ethics, serves as the center's director.

If you have news, send it to [email protected] ! We love hearing about the achievements of our alumni, students and faculty.

Advertisement

What Solar Eclipse-Gazing Has Looked Like for the Past 2 Centuries

Millions of people on Monday will continue the tradition of experiencing and capturing solar eclipses, a pursuit that has spawned a lot of unusual gear.

• Share full article

By Sarah Eckinger

• April 8, 2024

For centuries, people have been clamoring to glimpse solar eclipses. From astronomers with custom-built photographic equipment to groups huddled together with special glasses, this spectacle has captivated the human imagination.

Creating a Permanent Record

In 1860, Warren de la Rue captured what many sources describe as the first photograph of a total solar eclipse . He took it in Rivabellosa, Spain, with an instrument known as the Kew Photoheliograph . This combination of a telescope and camera was specifically built to photograph the sun.

Forty years later, Nevil Maskelyne, a magician and an astronomy enthusiast, filmed a total solar eclipse in North Carolina. The footage was lost, however, and only released in 2019 after it was rediscovered in the Royal Astronomical Society’s archives.

Telescopic Vision

For scientists and astronomers, eclipses provide an opportunity not only to view the moon’s umbra and gaze at the sun’s corona, but also to make observations that further their studies. Many observatories, or friendly neighbors with a telescope, also make their instruments available to the public during eclipses.

Fredrik Hjalmar Johansen, Fridtjof Nansen and Sigurd Scott Hansen observing a solar eclipse while on a polar expedition in 1894 .

Women from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and their professor tested out equipment ahead of their eclipse trip (to “catch old Sol in the act,” as the original New York Times article phrased it) to New London, Conn., in 1922.

A group from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania traveled to Yerbaniz, Mexico, in 1923, with telescopes and a 65-foot camera to observe the sun’s corona .

Dr. J.J. Nassau, director of the Warner and Swasey Observatory at Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, prepared to head to Douglas Hill, Maine, to study an eclipse in 1932. An entire freight car was required to transport the institution’s equipment.

Visitors viewed a solar eclipse at an observatory in Berlin in the mid-1930s.

A family set up two telescopes in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1963. The two children placed stones on the base to help steady them.

An astronomer examined equipment for an eclipse in a desert in Mauritania in June 1973. We credit the hot climate for his choice in outfit.

Indirect Light

If you see people on Monday sprinting to your local park clutching pieces of paper, or with a cardboard box of their head, they are probably planning to reflect or project images of the solar eclipse onto a surface.

Cynthia Goulakos demonstrated a safe way to view a solar eclipse , with two pieces of cardboard to create a reflection of the shadowed sun, in Lowell, Mass., in 1970.

Another popular option is to create a pinhole camera. This woman did so in Central Park in 1963 by using a paper cup with a small hole in the bottom and a twin-lens reflex camera.

Amateur astronomers viewed a partial eclipse, projected from a telescope onto a screen, from atop the Empire State Building in 1967 .

Back in Central Park, in 1970, Irving Schwartz and his wife reflected an eclipse onto a piece of paper by holding binoculars on the edge of a garbage basket.

Children in Denver in 1979 used cardboard viewing boxes and pieces of paper with small pinholes to view projections of a partial eclipse.

A crowd gathered around a basin of water dyed with dark ink, waiting for the reflection of a solar eclipse to appear, in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1995.

Staring at the Sun (or, How Not to Burn Your Retinas)

Eclipse-gazers have used different methods to protect their eyes throughout the years, some safer than others .

In 1927, women gathered at a window in a building in London to watch a total eclipse through smoked glass. This was popularized in France in the 1700s , but fell out of favor when physicians began writing papers on children whose vision was damaged.

Another trend was to use a strip of exposed photographic film, as seen below in Sydney, Australia, in 1948 and in Turkana, Kenya, in 1963. This method, which was even suggested by The Times in 1979 , has since been declared unsafe.

Solar eclipse glasses are a popular and safe way to view the event ( if you use models compliant with international safety standards ). Over the years there have been various styles, including these large hand-held options found in West Palm Beach, Fla., in 1979.

Parents and children watched a partial eclipse through their eclipse glasses in Tokyo in 1981.

Slimmer, more colorful options were used in Nabusimake, Colombia, in 1998.

In France in 1999.

And in Iran and England in 1999.

And the best way to see the eclipse? With family and friends at a watch party, like this one in Isalo National Park in Madagascar in 2001.

Recommended

Npr reportedly in turmoil after editor accuses outlet of liberal bias in bombshell essay.

• View Author Archive
• Email the Author
• Follow on Twitter
• Get author RSS feed

Contact The Author

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

NPR has reportedly been thrown into turmoil after a bombshell essay penned by a veteran editor claimed the broadcaster allowed liberal bias to affect its coverage — with the editor-in-chief telling furious staffers she did not want him to become a “martyr.”

Uri Berliner, a Peabody Award-winning journalist who has worked at NPR for 25 years, called out journalistic blind spots around major news events, including the origins of COVID-19, the war in Gaza and the Hunter Biden laptop, in an essay published Tuesday on  Bari Weiss’ online news site the Free Press .

The senior business editor also said the internal culture at NPR had placed race and identity as ”paramount in nearly every aspect of the workplace.”

Berliner’s essay sparked a firestorm of criticism from prominent conservatives — with former President Donald Trump demanding NPR’s federal funding be yanked — and has led to internal tumult, the New York Times reported Friday.

The essay was brought up at what was described as a “long-scheduled meet-and-greet” with the hosts of NPR’s biggest shows on Wednesday, where NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin reportedly said she did not want Berliner to become a “martyr,” according to the Times.

Others took to the internal messaging system to rail against Berliner’s assertions.

“Mr. Berliner’s essay also sent critical Slack messages whizzing through some of the same employee affinity groups focused on racial and sexual identity that he cited in his essay. In one group, several staff members disputed Mr. Berliner’s points about a lack of ideological diversity and said efforts to recruit more people of color would make NPR’s journalism better,” the Times reported. 

Start your day with the latest business news right at your fingertips

Subscribe to our daily Business Report newsletter!

Thanks for signing up!

Please provide a valid email address.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy .

Never miss a story.

NPR managing editor of standards and practices Tony Cavin disputed Berliner’s assumptions and claimed the essay will likely make it “harder for NPR journalists to do their jobs.”

”The next time one of our people calls up a Republican congressman or something and tries to get an answer from them, they may well say, ‘Oh, I read these stories, you guys aren’t fair, so I’m not going to talk to you,”’ Cavin said.

NPR did not immediately return calls for comment.

Berliner told the Times on Thursday that he didn’t regret publishing the essay, saying he loved NPR and hoped to make it better by “airing criticisms that have gone unheeded by leaders for years.”

Calling the broadcaster a “national trust” that people rely on for fair reporting and top-notch storytelling, he said: ”I decided to go out and publish it in hopes that something would change, and that we get a broader conversation going about how the news is covered.”

Berliner said he hasn’t been disciplined for writing the essay, but he did get a note from his supervisor reminding him that NPR requires employees to clear speaking appearances and media requests with standards and media relations teams.

Some former NPR staffers defended Berliner’s essay.

Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, NPR’s former ombudsman, said Berliner was ”not wrong.” Chuck Holmes, a former managing editor at NPR, called Berliner’s essay ”brave.”

After the essay was published, Berliner said, he received “a lot of support from colleagues, and many of them unexpected, who say they agree with me.”

“Some of them say this confidentially,”  Berliner told NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo on Tuesday.

Chapin had pushed back on Berliner’s claims of a liberal bias, saying: ”We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories.” 

Share this article: