VISST 2000 - Introduction to Visual Studies

(crosslisted)
(also AMST 2000, ARTH 2000, COML 2000) (LA-AS)

Spring. 4 credits.

Requirement for undergraduate concentrators.

C. Finley.

Provides a broad introduction of modes of vision and the historical impact of visual images, visual structures, and visual space on culture, communication, and politics. The question of “how we see” is discussed in terms of (1) procedures of sight (from optical machines to the psychology of vision and the philosophy of aesthetics); (2) spaces of vision (from landscapes to maps to cities); (3) objects of vision (from sacred sites to illuminated books to digital art); and (4) performances of vision (race, sexualities, ethnicities, cultures). Of importance to the course is the practical and conceptual relation of 20th-century visual technologies (photography, cinema, video, and computing) to their historical corollaries in the arts. The course draws on the visual traditions of both Western and non-Western societies and study texts that have defined the premises and analytic vocabularies of the visual. Through viewings, screenings, collaborative writing, and art projects, students develop the critical skills necessary to appreciate how the approaches that define visual studies complicate traditional models of defining and analyzing art objects. Guest lecturers occasionally address the class. Requirements: two objective midterm exams; occasional listserve postings; two five-page papers.