Courses

Contemporary Art: Andy Warhol

Course No. ACD464.1  Credits: 3

Andy Warhol was the most influential high artist of the second half of the twentieth century. After a successful career as a decorator, he became on of the founders of pop art. He became the only pop artist who, achieving general fame, became a culture hero. Apart from painting, Warhol also made films, directed the Velvet Underground, and important innovative music group, and was involved with creative writing. And so, not surprisingly, his achievement has been hard to bring into focus. Traditional art historians have described his stylistic development, interpreting his paintings. But many other approaches to his are art possible. Arthur Danto has described the philosophical significance of Warhol's achievement; cultural historians have discussed his role as a gay artist; and attention has been drawn to the importance of his lifelong interests in religion. Warhol has become a significant subject for scholarship in part because his body of art poses significant interpretative challenges. We will do a close reading of some biographies, and also look at some of Warhol's own writings. Visual Culture Emphasis course. 3 credits.

Contemporary Art: Critical Directions

Course No. ACD493.1  Credits: 3

Traditionally art historians have focused on the history of European art. But recently there has been great interest in art of other cultures. Is a history of world art possible? And if so, what form might it take? This course explores that question. We read Richard Wollheim's aesthetic focused on European art. And then we discuss James Elkins, Stories of Art, which attempts to imagine a history of world art. We then pursue our investigation by reading recent accounts of Islamic art (Oleg Grabar, The Meditation of Ornament), Indian art (Partha Mitter, Indian Art), and Chinese art (Craig Clunas, Art in China). This class requires a good deal of reading. It does not presuppose any prior knowledge of art history or aesthetics. Three papers, two short ones and one long one will be required. There is no final exam. Visual Culture Emphasis course. 3 credits.

Contemporary Marketing & Art Direction

Course No. GDS367.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Tim Zeller

Focuses on using communication design and visualization skills to communicate ideas in print and in new media. Heavy emphasis on conceptualization. Classroom discussions along with critiques set up to mimic actual creative department environment. Offered fall. 3 credits.

Creative Resistance: Media Art in Social Sphere

Course No. IME340.1  Credits: 3

This studio course will introduce students to the process and strategies of integrating social activism with media art. Through reading and discussion, the course will establish the historical and theoretical context of tactical media, hacktivism, and other media-based protest arts. We'll look at artists' use of a variety of media--including the news media, the internet, locative media, surveillance technologies, genetic modification, gaming and more Ñ to implement social commentary and criticism. Offered fall. 3 credits.

Creative Resistance: Media Art in Social Sphere

Course No. IME440.1  Credits: 3

This studio course will introduce students to the process and strategies of integrating social activism with media art. Through reading and discussion, the course will establish the historical and theoretical context of tactical media, hacktivism, and other media-based protest arts. We'll look at artists' use of a variety of media--including the news media, the internet, locative media, surveillance technologies, genetic modification, gaming and more Ñ to implement social commentary and criticism. Offered fall. 3 credits.

Creative Writing

Course No. LLC393.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Shelley Bloomfield

This course will give students the opportunity to explore the three essential genres of creative writing in a practicum setting. Study and practice will center on basic analytic methods for reading and basic inventive methods for writing short fiction, poetry, and dramatic narratives. Course assignments will include exercises in writing the short story, including the short graphic narrative; various poetic forms such as the sonnet, the villanelle, and the free verse poem; and variants of the short dramatic narrative such as the screen treatment, the story board, and the short film script. Creative Writing can be taken to satisfy either required Junior/Senior Writing-Intensive credit or Open Elective Liberal Arts credit. It will allow students who are planning visual arts careers involving writing (i.e., illustration, film, and video) to develop the basic critical and writing performance skills necessary for their professional advancement. Students who may be considering the Creative Writing Concentration program are strongly urged to take this course during their Sophomore year. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.

Creative Writing Workshop: Dialogue & Story

Course No. LLC391.1  Credits: 3

In this course, we concentrate first on writing dialogues, looking at the ways in which conversation establishes character, creates and resolves conflict, and advances plot. We'll see how these dialogues "play" first when we stage them, and then we put them back on the page and wrap stories around them. In-class, team-writing exercises are designed to jump start your ideas and provide our working material. We'll also take a look at excerpts from narratives by master storytellers, experiment with re-telling the story just through dialogue, and see how these artistic choices inevitably shape the content itself. Fulfills Humanities/Cultural Studies distribution requirement. Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.

Creativity & Taoism

Course No. HCS300.1  Credits: 3
Faculty Allen Zimmerman

This interdisciplinary course explores the ground from which, in the Chinese Taoist philosophic view, all great creativity springs. The purpose is two-fold: first, to investigate and achieve an understanding of the Taoist world view through readings of primary texts such as the "Tao Te Ching" and the "Chuangtzu," and selected works from the Ch'an (Zen) tradition. Second, we proceed to examine the Taoist and Ch'an perceptions are applied to and affect the creation of the art object in traditional China, primarily represented by selections from Chinese poetry. Appropriate attention will also be paid to intended relationships between painting and poetry, occurring when poems are inscribed directly on paintings to create an aesthetic whole. Here the notion that "visual" and "literary" experiences are somehow mutually exclusive will be challenged. We read such poets as T'so Ch'ien, Wang Wei, Su Tung-p'o and Han Shan, and we look at paintings by such artists as Mu Ch'i, Mi Fei, Shih T'ao and Ni Tsan. Students are encouraged to connect and contrast Taoist assumptions and themes with their own knowledge and experiences as developing artists. May be applied as Creative Writing Concentration course. 3 credits.