Time for another blog post on a recently completed unit! We have been learning about history, and how it has impacted us today, but specifically we learned about the renaissance. While reading about each topic, which I will go through, we had 13 questions to answer in total. But before we learned about anything more we had to know what exactly the renaissance is.

What is the Renaissance?

  If you didn’t already know what the renaissance is it can pretty much be summed up in the question we had to answer first which is:                                                  “What is meant by the term ‘renaissance’?” My answer is short and simple but pretty much sums up the definition of the renaissance. “Renaissance basically means rebirth, or reawakening, as the cultural rebirth happened in Europe based on the rediscovery of Greece and Rome literature.”

  After learning what the renaissance is we still had 12 more questions to answer, that we would read about and maybe even do some further research about.

Why did the Italian City States Flourish?

  This is the second question and basically we had to give a total of four reasons (with pictures.)

1. The first reason is that the climate was perfect for growing crops. 

2. The second reason being the location of Italy as it was great for trade being in the middle.

3. Thirdly they had great leadership allowing control. 

4. And the last reason being social organizations created business and politics. 

Making Money

  The third question is “What do you think the reading shows about the First Nations’ worldview at that time? How might that conflict with a Western worldview?” Now this one was a bit of a longer one and we had to think for ourselves, as well as research beyond the reading. This answer also had to be a bit longer, as we had to right a paragraph. “The First Nations didn’t have what we know as a bank today. Instead of giving money and the person expecting more in return, if they have everything needed to survive and more they give the extra to people in their town. Expecting nothing in return just the happiness it brings to you that you helped someone out, and that if you are in a similar situation someone would help you out. This may cause conflict as they would probably disagree with the fact that you must give more money back and its expected, because they believe it should just be done out of kindness.”

Patronage 

  Question number four is more about artists, and the field or art or entertainment today. “Artists in the Renaissance were able to express their talents because wealthy individuals like Lorenzo Medici paid them for their artwork. ‘Patrons of the arts’ like Medici can still be found today. Identify an individual, group, or organization that finances people or projects in the field of entertainment today. Explain what they have done and how it has helped the arts.” Which I chose Steve Jobs “Steve Jobs has helped the arts in so many ways, as he is so creative and talented at many things. His inventions have helped the arts grow and expand in so many ways, his invention of the iPhone and iPad have allowed people not only to draw on paper but to have digital apps making even so people who can’t have options liking tracing etc. The art industry really wouldn’t be the same without Steve Jobs, and despite his death he still has changed the way we do things today. He also financed huge things like Pixar which is a large part of the movie industry today.”

Changing Ideas

  For changing ideas we researched about different people in the renaissance (the thinkers, the artists, and the scientists and mathematicians) which we had to answer one question for each catergory. We started off with the thinkers which the question was “Which ideas about the individual from humanism do you think still apply to our worldview today? Why? Explain in a well written paragraph.” We had to read into the ideas from humanists point of view and see if they still apply today. Which this is definitely a longer answer “I think all four do have some part in our worldview today. The first one “Human beings can use the power of reason, that is, thinking to find the truth for themselves” still applies to our worldview as different people can have their own thoughts and find their own truth about something. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and they can use there thoughts to find what they believe to be true or false. On to the second idea “It is important for a person to have an open, curious and questioning mind” which is a big part of worldview. As if no one asked any questions and never learned more about something then they could never gather their own thoughts on it. They would simply know what was told and nothing more on if the statement is true or false and why. “People can achieve great things through learning” is another idea that is still apart if our worldview today. As the more you know about something, take a sickness like cancer for example, then you can start to search for a cure, as if you knew nothing about it then it would be much harder to find a cure. Finally the last idea “Individuals should be skilled in many different areas. They should develop not just their minds but also their bodies and spirits” is definitely part of worldview today. As if are only good at what you do for a living and have no hobbies it may effect your future, etc.”

Now onto the artists “How does art today (painting, sculpture, literature, architecture) reflect our Western worldview? What do you think it says about us? Why? Explain in a well-written paragraph.”  This was definitely interesting to read about as art is a big part of the western worldview today. “Architecture reflects on each place and their culture. Showing the traditions and style of that city, town or country. Whether they use wood, or concrete it may show what materials are easier retrieved, or which material is preferred. The shape of the building, and structures within the building are usually showing the style and maybe even some art pieces that represent their country. Each place has their own style for architecture making it unique and showing some cultural traditions to represent where they live.”

Finally onto the scientists and mathematicians, “How do the Renaissance scientific worldview ideas about direct observation and experimentation carry through in science and math today in the Western worldview? Explain in a well-written paragraph.” Which it was cool that some things invented in history are still used today. “Today we still use the same scientific method created back then. As it is proven to work so we continue to learn and teach with it. However looking at the astronomy aspect of science at first was very different from what is actually the place of the earth in space. But later on back then when the telescope was invented we learned what space looked like and it was later confirmed when rocket ships were created.”

Spreading Ideas

   Now we knew what ideas changed we need to know how exactly did they spread? “Considering how the printing press and the personal computer both brought great change to society, write a statement summarizing how communications technology can be a powerful force for change.” This question definitely required some thinking as there was so many reason how technology allowed ideas to spread. “The printing press and the computer were major inventions and affected society in many beneficial ways. For example the printing press allowed not only rich people to own books, but middle class people could buy and learn how to read books as larger quantities were able to be created. The computer allowed more people to gain knowledge as before they learnt as much as one copy of a news paper. Which we can learn about that much in a minute using the computer.”

  For the last few question I won’t go to in-depth as they aren’t as important and we still haven’t gotten to the main project:)

Religion 

  Religion was obviously going to have caused atleast a few conflict in the renaissance so the question was “What conflicts do you think will arise between a Renaissance worldview and the feudalism worldview when it comes to religion? What changes do you think people might demand to the Church as a result of the Renaissance?” “The two different religions would have many conflicts as one believes that no one should have higher power as we are all equal and human. As the other believes there should be a leader, and they follow God. People might start questioning the church, then stop giving the church money as they don’t know if what they are telling them is accurate.”

A New Way of Thinking: About Religion

  We were to “Examine the map that shows the spread of Protestantism in Europe. Find a modern map that shows the distribution of religions in Europe today. Copy and paste it into the Pages document. Then compare it with this map. What conclusions can you make?” “The difference between these two maps is definitely clearly shown just at first glance. You can see the growth in religions throughout time, as many more are on the most updated map.”

The next question was “Using one of the religions we studied in our unit, explain how that religion attempts to address one of the concerns that the reformers had about Christianity (the Catholic Church) in this time period. What does that religion do to ensure the same problems don’t occur?”       “A concern was that they would lose money as people would stop paying the church if they are suspicious. Buddhism wouldn’t have many problems like this, as it is more spiritual as you have to look within yourself, so you would be more independent and not depending on someone to tell you and maybe it not being true.”

Impact of Ideas

  After doing the change of ideas, and the spread of ideas what impact did those ideas have exactly? “With all these humanist ideas and education coming about and being spread through the new technology of the time, what changes do you think might be made to the feudal system? How do you think those changes might be received by the people in power?” “The people that are less fortunate would demand to attend school and get an education, so everyone no matter the wealth, gender, or race can learn. Also they would demand democracy and more freedom of choice. People in power may feel as though only people with the money to learn should be able to.”

There was also a compromise made “Elizabeth I managed to make a church that made neither the Catholics or the Protestants happy, but balanced between the two. Research and read about the Anglican Church today. Does it still exist? How successful is that church today?” Which “The church still does exist today, and seems like quite a few people still attend, and there are many services that run. So it is a church that some people chose to attend still just like any other church.”

Now that all I have went through all the question, you would probably think this blog post should be over as its been a long one already. But I still have the project itself which we had to complete.

How the Renaissance Influenced the Western Worldview

  For our overall project we were to create a triptych (“a picture or relief carving on three panels, typically hinged together side by side and used as an altarpiece, also a set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together.”) But before making that there was a fee things we would need to do to prepare and in the end would make the triptych easier to make as we would already have all our ideas. To start off we had to make a triple vent diagram, we were to chose a person for each circle, one that is an artist, one that is a thinker, and one that is a scientist, or mathematician. We then had to research their similarities and differences and basically fill out the diagram.

 

 

 

 

We then had to complete another diagram which was the spreading ideas blossom. Where we would right the cause and effect of things or ideas that were invented.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally before we could make our triptych we had to do the impact of all those ideas, which this chart took and little longer and definitely required a lot of thinking.

After complete it all three charts we were ready to begin designing our triptychs, and I’ll Explain why exactly we needed these charts. For the three images on the triptych the middle has to show the impact of ideas, the right has to show the spread of ideas, and the left has to show the change of ideas. So these charts would make it easier to come up with ideas on what the images could be. After trying a few diffrent things I made my first draft.

Once that was completed we decided to get some anonymous peer critique to help us create another draft.

 

Well that’s about it for this blog post on our this changes everything unit, which this was a longer post but a very interesting topic! Until next time

– Paisley