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 a range of creative processes to develop ways to connect thinking, making, and writing in an art and design context. Students will learn to contextualize projects in social, political, ecological and personal ways and engage in creative problem solving through iteration, experimentation, improvisation, and adapting to accidental discoveries as a generative part of the creative process. Through process-based learning and practice, students will experiment with interdisciplinary explorations framed by research skill development through collaborative projects, peer reviews, discussions, individual assignments, and critique-based studio sessions. Students will produce multiple versions of ideas from concept to content to creatively solve problems while determining new ways to view art + design practice overall.

Foundation Core is an introduction to a breadth of conceptual, technical and disciplinary approaches that includes 2D, 3D and 4D disciplines. Exploring different forms of conceptual and material-based inquiry, this studio course focuses on the understanding and articulation of core values shared across contemporary art, design, and media disciplines. Foundation Core emphasizes practices and concepts that provide a solid platform for any of the degree-focused studio cores offered in the second semester.

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.

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.

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.

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.