Course Syllabus
Course: ART 1100
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Visual Art
Title: Visual Culture
Semester Approved: Summer 2019
Five-Year Review Semester: Summer 2024
End Semester: Spring 2025
Catalog Description: This course is an introduction to culture, theory, and practice associated with visual art. It will include visual arts orientation, readings, critical discussion, and research related to visual culture and meaning. Required of art majors. (Formerly Art Majors Orientation)
General Education Requirements: Integrated Exploration (IE)
Semesters Offered: Fall
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
Justification: The objective of this course is to give incoming freshman art majors a foundational understanding of contemporary visual culture. The world of visual art is vast, complex and ever changing. It is essential that students develop an understanding of visual culture, theories, and practices early in their education. In addition students must understand how visual culture is informed by and grows out of a larger cultural context. This course is designed to provide incoming majors with the necessary information required to succeed as an art student and eventually as an active, contributor to the global visual dialog. This course is offered in a similar format at other institutions in the USHE system, and is a foundation course as part of the AFA track.
General Education Outcomes:
1: A student who completes the GE curriculum will have a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world, with particular emphasis on American institutions, the social and behavioral sciences, the physical and life sciences, the humanities, the fine arts and personal wellness. Course readings, and group discussions are designed to develop a deep understanding of how art relates to, and comments on several aspect of human existence and endeavor including: history, philosophy, science, culture, and the human condition. This will be assessed through research, written assignments and oral presentations.
2: A student who completes the GE curriculum can read, retrieve, evaluate, interpret, and deliver information using a variety of traditional and electronic media. Students attend a library orientation hosted by one of the Snow College librarians, where they are introduced to a variety of research methods. Students are also taught how to verify the authenticity, and quality of a source. Using this information they write a research paper on a living contemporary artist.
6: A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively about nature, culture, facts, values, ethics, and civic policy. Class discussions and assignments are centered on educating the students how to respond intelligently to any aspect of visual culture they may encounter, whether it is historical or contemporary. This will result in the students ability to interpret the visual language and recognize its connections to the broader human experience. This will be assessed through research, written assignments and oral presentations.
7: A student who completes the GE curriculum can either (a) solve a problem using information and methodologies from more than one discipline; or (b) identify the College’s general education outcomes and explain ways in which they have achieved those outcomes. (a) Students will have daily opportunities to develop and discuss aesthetic sensibility. This course is designed to enhance the student’s ability to recognize and effectively communicate their ideas through written, verbal, and visual communication. Students will be asked to look several aspect of human existence and endeavor including: history, philosophy, science, culture, and the human condition. Student's understanding will be assessed through written assignments and class discussion. This will culminate in a more informed dialog in future coursework in the visual arts.
General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes:
1: Students will have daily opportunities to develop and discuss aesthetic sensibility as part of a team. There will also be a variety of collaborative group activities. This course is designed to enhance the student’s ability to recognize and effectively communicate their ideas through written, verbal, and visual communication. This will be assessed through a group project. Students will have daily opportunities to develop and discuss aesthetic sensibility as part of a team. There will also be a variety of collaborative group activities. This course is designed to enhance the student’s ability to recognize and effectively communicate their ideas through written, verbal, and visual communication. This will be assessed through a group project.
Student Learning Outcomes:
CREATIVE PROCESS: Demonstrate the application of the creative process Students will engage in both individual and group art projects. These projects respond to historic and contemporary trends in visual art, and will illustrate the students ability to effectively apply the creative process to the production of visual art. This outcome will be assess through a project.
CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES: Students will be exposed to a variety of contemporary visual theories. Through written and verbal mechanisms, students will develop an ability to synthesize meaning in a work of art beyond formal qualities, preparing them for success in further study in the visual arts. This will be assessed through research, written assignments, and oral presentations.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Students will be able to articulate how approaches to art have fluctuated throughout history and what influences, both historical and contemporary, are driving visual culture. Through research, written assignments, and oral presentations, students will begin to view their role in the contemporary visual dialog ultimately informing future coursework.
CRITICAL ANALYSES: Group discussions and lectures will provide a forum for the critical analyses of works of art. Feedback on formal and conceptual issues associated with visual culture, both oral and written, will assess the student's capacity to effectively analyze works of art, contributing to a rich and productive dialogue. This will be assessed through research, written assignments and oral presentations.
Content:
This course will include discussion and lecture, assigned readings, independent research, writing assignments, and collaborative activities as they apply to the following: Visual Arts Orientation: Education path, career options, exhibition opportunities, studio practice, program requirements and expectations: Visual Culture and Meaning: Aesthetics, process, influence, context, symbolism, creativity, critical thinking, audience, intention, media, formalism and concept
Key Performance Indicators:
Written assignments, oral presentations 60 to 80%
Attendance and participation 10 to 20%
Group project 10 to 20%
Research 10 to 20%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
The Blank Canvas: Inviting the Muse, Anna Held Audette, Shambhala Publications, Inc., current edition
Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design, Mary Stewart, McGraw-Hill Education, current edition. *This text is utilized in three other courses during the foundation year
Other texts, materials, and readings to be determined at the discretion of the instructor.
Pedagogy Statement:
This course will include lecture, class discussion, assigned readings, independent research, writing assignments, and collaborative group activities.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
Maximum Class Size: 75
Optimum Class Size: 50
