Focusing on issues and modes of literacy and visual/textual analysis, this course helps students to develop the tools necessary for reflective and engaged looking, reading, thinking, and writing about art, media, design, and text. Analysis of both visual images/objects and texts from a variety of historical periods, from ancient antiquity to the 15th century, will be emphasized through shared case studies (from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe), keywords, and themes. Throughout, an integrated approach to the humanities will be prioritized, involving the development of critical thinking, writing skills, and class participation and engagement. Combining weekly lectures and smaller breakout seminar sessions for art, design and media, students will be exposed to the specificities of a Humanities curriculum (drawing from Art Media + Design History, Visual Culture, English, Composition and Rhetoric, and Cultural and Media Studies), and to the conceptual and practical skills necessary for further courses in Critical + Cultural Studies. Art from the past and present will be grounded in a broader context, with emphasis placed on processes of perception and the cultural meaning of images and objects. The point is to interrogate how representation, both through its production and reception, becomes politically activated, and to develop the critical and theoretical tools to begin to deconstruct and acknowledge this process.

This course explores creative process, the realms of imagination, and art and design practices within a social, cultural and personal context. Various media and methods of practice will be introduced. Group projects, individual assignments, critiques, discussions, research and studio sessions will provide students an opportunity to work through issues and ideas in producing as well as reading and viewing art.

This studio course expands on the foundational vocabulary, materials, and techniques of contemporary visual art with a specific emphasis on drawing, painting, and sculpture. Through interactive presentations, group discussions, and constructive critiques, students will delve deeply into the essential concepts and materials that underpin artistic practices. Through critical analysis and reflection, students will explore the utilization of these artistic concepts and principles, contextualized within social, historical and contemporary frameworks.

Continuing with the development of modes of literacy and visual/textual analysis initiated in HUMN 100: Academic Core I, this course will prioritize how representation makes meaning, and how art, media, design, and textual practices participate in a broader social and political sphere. Analysis of both visual images/objects and texts from a variety of historical periods, from the 16th century to the present day, will be emphasized through shared case studies (from Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and the Americas), keywords, and themes. Throughout, an integrated approach to the humanities will be prioritized, involving the development of critical thinking, writing skills, and class participation and engagement. Combining weekly lectures and smaller breakout seminar sessions for art, design and media, students will be exposed to the specificities of a Humanities curriculum (drawing from Art Media + Design History, Visual Culture, English, Composition and Rhetoric, and Cultural and Media Studies), and to the conceptual and practical skills necessary for further courses in Critical + Cultural Studies, as well as their subsequent studies as a whole. As students persist in building the skill set necessary for critical and contextual inquiry, emphasis will be placed on processes of visual perception, the cultural meaning of images and objects, and their many intersections with knowledge, power, and technology. Throughout, students will be encouraged to situate their own practice in relation to a broader history of representation, in order to articulate their own perspective on what it means to participate in cultural production.