AA100 – The Arts Past and Present

The character of a place is influence by many factors, such as human activity and religious perspective of a monument such as Stonehenge and the desire for leisure at Blackpool’s resort. However, many argue that it depends on what the place is used for that determines what it becomes. For example, Stonehenge is a prominently used as gathering for Druids and Pagans and tourists, so it is assumed that it is a religious side, more so than an archaeological or perhaps a tourist site. This can also be said for Blackpool, without the industrialisation of the train age, Blackpool may not have become the recognised holiday resort it is today. The controversy behind both Blackpool and Stonehenge is that both places have depended on human activity, without such they would not be the recognised establishment they are today. Assessing the types of human activity and their influence on both Stonehenge and Blackpool, from the religious perspective of the sacred quality of Stonehenge and the influence of the working-class and their desire for luxury which caused Blackpool to become the pinnacle of British resorts, both places characteristics will be addressed by examining its human activity.

Stonehenge, entwined in social interests such as tourism and with economic, political and religious conflict behind its meaning, it is dependent on human activity to support its sacred quality. David Chidester and Edward T. Linenthal state that sacredness is never found from any divine involvement; it exists from the ‘product of human efforts’. (Harvey, 2008, p. 40) Places only become sacred through human interaction, such as performing rituals in buildings or on landscapes. These places were not initially holy, unless built for spiritual practice. However...

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...forms to the stereotypical understanding of life at the seaside. It is a ‘costume painting’ (Harrison, 2008, p. 123), it demonstrates a clear summer’s day with a light breeze from the sea and with people of all ages and backgrounds enjoying their holidays. We are given a sense of what a beach lifestyle is meant to portray and this characteristic is how we depict a holiday resort.

However, Frith’s painting has an illustration of Charles Dicken’s story; the Tuggses at Ramsgate, its composition and conception are an understanding of what modern life is at a beach. ‘[it is] clearly compatible with that of the novelist’ (Harrison, 2008, p. 124). The characteristics of beaches or resorts are sometimes derived from other people; Friths interoperates from his own encounters of Ramsgate and of Dickens story, and other people gain their interpretations from Friths painting.