Journal Response

What does it mean to be human?  Man?  Woman?  Artist?  These are questions in which billions of answers could apply to.  Personally, being human is being alive.  There are approximately seven billion types of people on the planet.  No two of us are identical in this world.  Humans are the creatures that roam the Earth, questioning what it means to be human.  Being male or female merely depends on our genes.  Sure, there are psychological, emotional, and physical differences between genders, but ultimately, we are the human race.  We, meaning all of us: male and female.  As far as the meaning behind what an artist is, we cannot quite distinguish the difference between who is and is not.  Technically speaking, an artist is "a person who practices any of the various creative arts".  Well, who are we to define exactly what is considered a creative art?  Anyone can be an artist.  Creativity is unique to each person, and in a way, we are all artists.

As stated from The Creative Impulse text, humans may have already lost some of our ability to achieve full humanity because we are insistent upon acquiring knowledge through merely our own intuition.  The meaning behind this is that we sometimes allow ourselves to rely on our own perceptions rather than obtaining information through factual evidence.  Based on this, we are not correct as often within our understanding, therefore losing accuracy.  While observing the collage on the bulletin board in class, each student displayed their thoughts on the differences between the humans depicted.  Some of these categories included culture, race, activities, practices, class, emotion, style, time, and age.

We also discussed our observations about human beings in general.  The class came to the conclusion that we are all unique, and alongside that comes inequality.  Despite this, we all have common qualities: We are all living, and at some point (no matter our opinion of what happens afterwards) we will all die.  That is what a human being is.  A living creature that walks the Earth amongst others, and eventually deceases.  Our class synthesis concluded that there are many varying definitions of what it means to be human, but ultimately, our existence as a whole depends on each of our opinions.  This is how we create discussion and contrasting opinions.  In the end, we are driven by knowledge, reflection, and understanding, and that is how we are all connected.