Cultivate a Deeper Curiosity MCAD’s Liberal Arts program provides students with the essential problem-solving and critical-thinking skills which all artists need. Within historical, social, cultural, and creative contexts, the liberal arts curriculum deepens your understanding of artistic and visual traditions and cultivates creativity in a wide range of fields. Instructors encourage you to articulate creative and critical ideas to a variety of audiences. Study in the liberal arts provides the skills and knowledge necessary to make insightful critiques of your creative practice. Bachelor of Fine Art Requirements for Graduation Art History (15 credits) Humanities and Sciences (24 credits) Bachelor of Science Requirements for Graduation Humanities and Sciences (30 credits) AH 1701 Introduction to Art and Design: History 1 The objective of this course is to familiarize students with the major stylistic, thematic, cultural, and historical transformations in art history from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century. This course helps students develop critical tools for the interpretation and understanding of the meaning and function of art objects, architecture, and design artifacts within their original historical contexts. Class sessions consist primarily of lecture with some discussion. Students take in-class examinations and complete short essay assignments. AH 1702 Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 This course introduces students to issues in modern art, popular culture, and contemporary art and design. Topics might include the expanding audience for art, the transformation of the art market, the impact of new technologies, the changing status of the artist, and the role of art in society. This course is taught as a seminar with some lecture. Students take in-class examinations and complete short essay assignments. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 1 or faculty permission AH 2101 Interrogating Post Modernity: The Fine Arts Since 1945 This course introduces students to global fine arts production (drawing, painting, sculpture, artists’ books, performance, public, and socially engaged) since 1945. Using a series of case studies this class examines the historical, theoretical, and aesthetic developments in and relationships between fine arts media. Students engage with a combination of primary and secondary texts, apply visual analysis skills, contextualize artworks, and investigate various political and aesthetic points of view. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 2103 Applied Arts and Designed Objects This course traces the history of applied arts and designed objects through furniture, products, packaging, and multidimensional forms of graphic design. Students examine applied arts and designed objects as part of an evolving human culture of habit, convenience, and status. Various movements and styles within the histories of design genres, as well as the processes and manufacturing of consumer objects are considered. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 2105 Print Culture, Art, and Communicati on in the Age of Mass Reproduction Since the advent of print and the printing press, text, image, graphic design, comics, and advertising have played significant roles in cultural formation. This course examines the history of mass reproduction of printed matter from the advent of modernity, including books and periodical designs, to the present. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 2107 Photography, the Moving Image, and Digital Culture The production and reproduction of static, moving, and digital images have grown from work produced by an exotic technology used only by specialists to a socially ubiquitous representational form that generates millions of images, clips, cartoons, gifs, shorts, and films daily. This course surveys the development of (re)produced and moving images from their commercial applications, entertainments, and art to the all-pervasive media in which our popular cultures and artistic cultures exist. Individual artists and makers, as well as their works and contextualized movements within changing technological, economic, and institutional frameworks, are considered. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 2108 Screenings for Photography, the Moving Image, and Digital Culture AH 3330 Art and Social Change Can art change the world? This course presents a history of artistic practice as a tool for social change. Presented both as a chronology and as a thematically organized set of forms that artists have mobilized (agitprop, activist, performance, participatory, ephemeral), students explore how artists have created new modes of life by considering the medium of life itself as that which requires change. Topics to consider: the use of art as a tool by social, civil, ecological, and economic movements; the use of art to envision futures during times of political transformation; the use of art to construct alternative ways of life and community; artists as alternative knowledge producers; the tendency of power to co-opt resistant practices; and the role of the (alternative) art school as crucible and catalyst. Students learn to contextualize art practices by considering theoretical questions regarding the artist’s role in society. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3365 History of Animation This course surveys the history of the animation medium explored through various methods and techniques, as well as through shared themes from various countries and filmmaking traditions. Central topics include propaganda, personal filmmaking, abstraction, technical innovations, and politics and social protest. Connections between animation and editorial caricature, the fine arts, the avant-garde, illustration, and media other than film are made throughout the course. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission AH 3367 Histories of the Book: From the Codex to Hypertext Faced with a digital revolution in progress, in 1992 Robert Coover famously predicted the “end of books.” Yet in recent years, the number of books published worldwide has hovered around 2 million per year, suggesting the enduring appeal of the physical, portable, and printed object. This course examines the histories of the book, globally, from its origins in the Middle Ages to the present. It covers not only bound, paper tomes, but also their 21st-century progeny, including e-books, audiobooks, and other digital formats. This course will also take advantage of local collections like those held by the Minnesota Center for Book Arts; the Kerlan Collection and the Gorman Rare Art Books and Media Collection at the University of Minnesota; MCAD; Walker Art Center; and Mia. Questions examined are: How has the book functioned as an agent of historical change, one often associated with political turmoil and social controversyff What can the study of the book tell us about the lives of those who made, illustrated, and read printed works in the pastff How have books helped communities forge shared identities, individuals achieve social mobility, and immigrants celebrate their heritageff Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission AH 3394 Focus on Film: Science Fiction Science fiction is the future talking to the present. It is the movie genre which was, at first, taken least seriously, and now is seen as not only a metaphor of where we are today but also a glimpse into the future. This class looks at science fiction films historically, artistically, philosophically, technologically, and even religiously. The class begins by looking at the earliest science fiction movies from the silent era. The course then proceeds decade by decade, from the Golden Age of sci-fi in the 1950s, to the archetypal adventures of the 1970s, to the present day with its investigations of humanity's attempt to discern an ultimate reality. Each week students examine a seminal film that has mapped out new realms, both scientifically and thematically, in a journey that can lead us into the darkest reaches of our science and our souls. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3395 Screenings for Focus on Film: Science Fiction AH 3430 Neuroaesthetics Can a particular form or set of stimuli always or reliably bring about a particular result? While there is still divided opinion as to how far an understanding of neurological functions can go in explaining “how art works,” scientists and artists alike have turned to neuroaesthetics to develop a way to explain the aesthetic experience through a science of the mind. The new awareness of how cognition builds up, how synaptic leaps are created, and how viewers notice schematic elements in a given work are all evidence that neuroaesthetics provides an interdisciplinary nexus to bridge art and science, body and mind. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3440 Curation and Conservation: Science in the Gallery This course allows students a close look at the materials and techniques used in both historical and contemporary art conservation. The class will work with conservators from the Midwest Art Conservation Center and items in local collections to gain an overview of the technical study of art history through hands-on experience studying and evaluating works of art, lab experiences, and readings and discussions of issues and debates in art conservation. Combining science, art history, and museum studies, this course seeks to explore the materiality of art-making from the perspective of both artist and audience. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission AH 3442 Curating for Artists and Designers This course introduces artists and designers to the history, theory, and diverse practices of contemporary curation. Through readings, discussions, writing, research, and field work, students consider the evolving roles of museums, galleries, and other emerging curatorial spaces, both virtual and real, as well as the history and contemporary practices of collecting and display. Throughout the course students assess the roles of curators and their audiences, paying special attention to issues of power and politics. The course provides students with the requisite vocabulary for understanding how curators produce knowledge and the ways in which aesthetics, history, culture, and society are explored through exhibition practices. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission AH 3500 Visual Perspectives Visual perspectives are systems for creating space and distance on a flat surface. Different cultures position the viewer in varied ways that condition what they see and the way they see it. Linear perspective is a seminal event in Western art history in which the position of the individual observer became an engine for the development of Modernity. This course focuses on the historical development of various visual perspective systems and their impact on conceptions of space and time. Class sessions are an equal mix of lecture and discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3519 Visual Geometry This course explores the languages, structures, and principles of mathematical systems as they relate to the visual arts. It offers a view of geometry’s pivotal role in giving form to fundamental postulates underlying the study of visual art and design, such as linear perspective, composition, the Fibonacci sequence, and the golden section. Through hands-on study supplemented by drawing and paper-folding exercises, students learn to translate geometry’s spatial concepts into visual forms, while also gaining an appreciation for this mathematical tool’s enduring utility at the hands of artists, architects, and designers since ancient times. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3570 Focus on Textiles: Global Dress and Fiber Arts This course introduces students to a global history of textiles, dress, and fiber arts, from prehistory to the present. We will explore the materiality of fibers such as wool, linen, silk, and cotton alongside specific techniques (e.g. dyeing, embroidery, felting, weaving) that makers from diverse historical, cultural, economic, political, and environmental contexts and artistic traditions makers have used to create textiles. We will consider elements of design involved in making historic textiles and dress as well as explore the work of contemporary fiber artists who draw upon rich global traditions of textile-making. within which textiles are produced and consumed. To complement our exploration of textiles and its related historiography, we will look at textiles in collections in the Twin Cities to better understand this vibrant and enduring medium. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission AH 3606 World Film: Art Film and Independents For the last half-century, the look, language, and subject matter of films have been blown wide open. This change is the work of dedicated and curious cinematic visionaries from every continent. This course explores several of their works, beginning in the 1950s and advancing to the present day. The ultimate goal is to see how these artists have challenged expectations of classical form or appropriated themes and how a globally interconnected world cinema has developed. Works by acclaimed directors are shown and compared to lesser-known filmmakers’ equally vital and influential works. Classes are primarily lecture and discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3607 Great Directors This course examines the work of expert American film directors from the dawn of the talkies to the present day and explores what made these individuals great filmmakers. The faculty may take a chronological, thematic, national, or international approach to the subject. Each week students study the work of a director and consider the technique, structure, and themes of the director’s work as well as the broader disciplinary and cultural significance of the work. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3608 Screenings for Great Directors AH 3614 Screenings: World Film: Art and Independents AH 3618 Documentary Film in Focus In this course, students focus on non-fiction cinema. Examining different modes of documentary film which may include the expository, the observational, the participatory, the performative, the reflexive, and the poetic, students investigate how these modes shape manners in which non-fiction cinema may adopt a critical stance toward the presentation of an idea. Filmmakers and works analyzed in this course include a wide variety of perspectives from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries employing differing modes of documentary film. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3619 Screenings for Documentary Film in Focus AH 3657 History of Comic Art Although comics now include a vast collection of different articulations of image and text, their shared history reflects the movement from strictly pulp publications on cheap paper created by assembly line artists to complex stories with provocative images. This course follows the global history of comic art from its origins to the contemporary moment. The development and range of image and textual forms, styles, and structures that differentiate the vast compendium of such work inform the discourse in class. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission AH 3665 Art in the Cities Art in the Cities explores the relationship between art and urban space with the Twin Cities as its primary site of investigation. This seminar-style course focuses on current exhibitions and curatorial practices in museums, galleries, artist-run spaces, and other project spaces located throughout the Twin Cities. In-class discussions examining the history and contemporary practice and politics of display in urban contexts with some emphasis on social, public, interventionist, and community-based practices is equally balanced with activities outside the classroom such as exhibition visits, artist talks, and performances. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. AH 3681 Topics in Cinema: Artists' Film and Video This survey offers an extensive history of how artists have brought various projected and moving-image practices into their work. Not just an introduction to “experimental film” or “video art,” this course presents work being produced at the border between the fine arts and film production. Students look at the work produced in relation to historical artistic movements of the avant-garde such as Constructivism, Dada, and Surrealism, then study work related to the neo-avant-garde with Pop, Fluxus, and Minimalism. The class contextualizes that work with lyrical, poetic, and structural approaches to filmmaking as discussed in the histories of experimental cinema. Students examine the relation of artists’ film and video production to larger social and cultural issues such as feminism, postcolonialism, and globalization. Screenings include works by a range of artists such as Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Hans Richter, Dziga Vertov, Maya Deren, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Richard Serra, and many others. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2. AH 3683 Screenings for Topics in Cinema: Artists' Film and Video AH 3839 The Body in Art and Visual Culture In this course students critically examine the cultural meanings of representations of the body in art and visual culture. Organized in roughly chronological order, the course comprises a series of case studies in the history of representation of the body in art, science, and popular culture. Topics that may be addressed include the classical nude in Greek sculpture, female saints, mystical visions of the body, aesthetic dismemberment of the body in modern and contemporary art, the transgender body, and cyber bodies. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission AH 3862 Bauhaus Design Even after the Nazis closed its doors in 1933, the Bauhaus remains a fascinating cultural phenomenon. This experimental design school challenged the relationship between art, technology, and industrial production, creating a design philosophy that has been emulated across the world. Simultaneously a school, an idea, and a movement, the Bauhaus embodies a complex narrative shaped by contradictory responses to twentieth-century modernism. While focusing on the major designers whose works and artistic philosophies shaped the Bauhaus in Germany, this course also examines the dissemination of the Bauhaus idea in the United States. Students follow these discussions with an investigation into the role of the Bauhaus idea today. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3864 Readings in Photographic Culture This seminar-style course explores photographic culture through focused readings in the theory and history of photography, covering the period from 1839 to the present. These texts facilitate discussions of the ways in which technological transformations and concepts like truthfulness, documentary ethics, and authorship are presented and negotiated in the work of specific photographers. This course is an opportunity for students to discuss the historical and changing philosophical nature of the photographic medium. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. AH 3867 Readings in Contemporary Art Since the 1960s, new paradigms for art, its presentation, and its discussion have emerged. In this course students consider major issues in contemporary art through reading key critical texts and engaging with a selection of museum and gallery exhibitions, while also exploring historical contexts. Class sessions consist of seminar-style discussions, some lecture, and museum visits. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. AH 3868 Readings in Contemporary Design In this course students consider major issues in contemporary design across a range of design fields as articulated through critical texts and contemporary developments. Students examine contemporary design theory along with related work and processes. This course is taught as a seminar with some lecture. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission AH 3875 Readings in the Graphic Novel The graphic novel is an art form that offers the best of both worlds. While gaining legitimacy as a literary/art form, it retains the excitement and unique properties of reading a comic book. Students in this course read, discuss, and analyze graphic novels, as well as engage in critical scholarship on and about the graphic novel form. Looking at graphic novels in genres like mystery, superhero, manga, memoir, history and politics, or works beyond categorization, students examine how these stories are structured: the forms of novel, novella, and short story help differentiate and explain the subtleties of these forms. The class focuses on social, structural, and thematic issues of these specific texts and explores the possibilities of the form itself. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. AH 4325 Native American Art Most Native American tribes do not have a word in their languages for “artist,” yet the arts are a living part of both daily life and ceremonial tradition. Focusing on the works of selected tribes, students in this course look at Native American art, architecture, and aesthetics. Emphasis is placed on the nineteenth century to the present. The impact of outside forces on continuities and changes in traditional forms is also explored. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission AH 4722 Asian Art History This course examines the art of Asia from its beginnings to the present day. It involves a regional approach, focusing on representative works from India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. While regional characteristics are emphasized, cross-cultural influences are also studied. Through a variety of media, including sculpture, architecture, and painting, students gain an understanding of the broad themes and concepts that run throughout Asian art. Students consider the role of religion, for example, and gain a basic comprehension of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, Taoism, and Shinto. The structure of the class includes lectures, large and small group discussions, and visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission AH 4725 Islamic Art This course will examine Islamic art and architecture through religious, historical, political, and cultural practices from the seventh century to the present. Combining a thematic approach (such as kingship, gift exchange, identity, etc.) with the more traditional chronological and geographical approaches, this course will trace the visual and material culture of Islam and its global influence. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission AH 4728 African American Art This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the visual art of African Americans from the Colonial period to the present. The course examines a variety of visual media from painting, sculpture, and photography to popular culture objects and mass media images. In addition, students critically examine the ways in which the constructed meanings of "blackness" intersect with representational practices of gender, sexuality, and class, as well as the training and education of artists, public and private patronage, and the history of arts criticism and art history. Class sessions include both lectures and discussions. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission. AH 4729 Art and Globalization in the Atlantic World This course examines the impact and effects of globalization on the visual culture of the Atlantic world (defined by Europe, Africa, and the Americas) from the period of the Columbian encounter to the contemporary moment. Students examine the circulation and exchange of goods, ideas, knowledge, culture, and peoples across the Atlantic world through an investigation of visual representations, performance, and collecting practices. The course narrative is guided by thematic issues of gender, race, the politics of display, and national and cultural identities, tracing the movement of visual cultures across the Atlantic through individual case studies. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission. AH 4731 Returning the Gaze: Art and Identity in the Age of Empire How did 19th-century artistic practices both support and challenge European imperialismff How did those living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America respond to, appropriate, and reuse European forms of picture-making in order to craft local, hybrid identities and resist colonial oppressionff This course examines how art served as a cultural and social arena for the crafting—and contesting—of identity for both the colonizer and the colonized. Through a series of case studies in Algeria, China, India, Japan, the Caribbean, and Egypt, students will examine how artists negotiated both modern and traditional artistic practices in their struggle to define new identities in the context of global trade, migration, and exchange. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission. AH 5913 Art History Seminar Cultural definitions of art shift from one historical moment to the next. The practice of research in art history can help make these transformations explicit, understandable, and in some cases predictable. This course introduces the practice of art history through some of the significant theories, methodologies, and key concepts that inform contemporary and historical art criticism. In completing this course, students conduct their own research in an art history topic and gain familiarity with the historical and theoretical frameworks within which to place art and artistic practice. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and one AH or one cross-listed AH/HU elective, or faculty permission AH IS99 Independent Study: Liberal Arts AHW 3365 History of Animation - Writing Intensive A Liberal Arts course prefix with a W appended as the final character indicates that the student took this course as a writing-intensive course. See the course schedule for the appropriate year and term to find the general course description for this course. AHW 4725 Islamic Art - Writing Intensive A Liberal Arts course prefix with a W appended as the final character indicates that the student took this course as a writing-intensive course. See the course schedule for the appropriate year and term to find the general course description for this course. CPW 3043 Magical Realism This class involves a close study of novels and short stories in the genre of magical realism within the context of an introductory writer’s workshop. Magical realism engages a combination of traditional realism infused with the fantastic, the mythical, and the nightmarish. Students will read novels and short fiction from different cultural contexts in order to compare the workings of magical realism around the world, examine other contemporary manifestations of magical realism in media, and create their own writing in the style of the genre. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. CPW 3045 Introduction to Poetry In this hands-on class, students read the work and advice of contemporary poets, along with selected examples from the past, to hone the crafts of sound, the line, metaphor, voice, imagery, and revision in their own poems. Through guided exercises students deepen their understanding of the creative process. By viewing live and videotaped interviews and readings and exploring the publishing process, students gain a sense of the many forms in which contemporary poets appear. Class sessions are discussion-based. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission CPW 3065 Narrative and Storytelling Storytelling is humankind's oldest art form, and in many ways we define and know ourselves best by the creation of a series of events that almost magically transform themselves into plot, characters, and themes. How we invent and tell a story is how we see the world. This class develops students’ appreciation for plot, story arc, and character development, and familiarizes students with the various techniques of sequential narrative, non-sequential narrative, and experimental narrative. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission CPW 3905 Writing for Screen and Performance This class provides powerful tools that help students understand how effective narratives written for time-based media or performances work from a range of perspectives. It teaches the basics of various film structures, writing dialogue, creating characters and dramatic situations, and experimental methodologies. Class sessions are discussion-based. Students turn in weekly assignments, starting with short scenes and problems and moving on to several short scripts. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. CPW 3915 Science Fiction and Fantasy This class combines a close study of the works of classic and contemporary fantasy/science fiction writers with a writing workshop component. The primary focus of this class is the creation of altered realities—worlds that present a reality as different, yet connected and meaningful to our own. A series of assigned writing exercises give participants in the class the chance to build their own worlds and begin the process of peopling them with appropriate characters. Class exploration focuses on developing students' own unique logic, questions, interrogations, and approaches to fantasy/science fiction genre writing. Class sessions are discussion-based. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. CPW 3920 Creative Writing This course investigates the aesthetic issues at the heart of writing as an art in itself. Course topics illuminate the kind of thinking that guides and inspires. Students develop presentations and are encouraged to explore creatively, engaging in deep investigations into the nature of communication and the role of language. The class may include trips to and possibly participation in local events to enhance the classroom experience and students’ understanding of the creative writing process. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. CPW 5910 Advanced Writing for Screen and Performance In Advanced Writing for Screen and Performance, each student develops and structures a long-form narrative, story, or script for a time-based or performative project. In a workshop setting, students orally present their ideas for feedback from the class, then write iterative drafts of their pieces to be read for class critiques. Feedback is rigorous but supportive, and each student is expected to write at a high level. It is recommended that students complete Writing for Screen and Performance before enrolling in this course. Prerequisite: Writing for Screen and Performance or faculty permission. CPW 5950 Advanced Poetry Workshop The main undertaking in this class is to discuss, create, edit, critique, and revise poetry. Members of the advanced poetry workshop hone their craft and gain a deeper sense of themselves as poets through the analysis of their own work, their peers’ work, and the work of practicing poets. Students are required to explore a variety of poetic voices and modes by writing and submitting one new poem each week and to perform in-depth, weekly critiques of their colleagues’ work. Prerequisite: Introduction to Poetry or faculty permission CPW 5960 Advanced Writers Workshop This course allows students working on short stories, novels, and memoirs, among other types of narrative types and forms, to benefit from an intensive workshop experience. (Note: Students who wish to pursue poetry or screenwriting at the advanced level should take Advanced Poetry Workshop or Advanced Writing for Screen and Performance.) The course challenges students to create publishable literary works through analysis of works on a common reading list and an intensive process of drafting and critique. Prerequisite: Completion of the Creative and Professional Writing requirement or faculty permission. EN 1500 Writing and Inquiry Key to the creative and critical growth of the engaged, successful artist is participation in a culture of writing and inquiry. Students in this course focus on the kinds of writing they will encounter and produce in their coursework at MCAD and as creative professionals. Regular writing workshops allow students to concentrate on experiential and practical approaches to writing. Students explore a variety of texts and objects through class assignments, and then develop clear compelling essays employing a variety of rhetorical and narrative strategies. HS 5010 Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Cultural Awareness Requirement, Junior standing HS 5011 LA Advanced Seminar: Craft The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Craft enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Though students from any major can enroll in this class, this seminar is especially intended to appeal to students who are interested in the history of a specific studio practice, discipline, process, exploring the state of a craft or discipline, issues of technology and artistic production, arts pedagogy, and other related fields. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Cultural Awareness Requirement, Junior standing HS 5012 LA Advanced Seminar: Creativity The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Creativity enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Though students from any major can enroll in this class, this seminar is especially intended to appeal to students who are interested in exploring the nature of creativity and creative endeavors, creative writing, performance, and other related fields. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Cultural Awareness Requirement, Junior standing HS 5013 LA Advanced Seminar: Critique The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Critique enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Though students from any major can enroll in this class, this seminar is especially intended to appeal to students who are interested in art criticism, art journalism, art history, curatorial studies, and other related fields. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Cultural Awareness Requirement, Junior standing HS 5014 LA Advanced Seminar: Community The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Community enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. Though students from any major can enroll in this class, this seminar is especially intended to appeal to students who are interested in exploring ethnography, sociology, market research, socially-engaged art, public art, and other related fields. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a public presentation. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Cultural Awareness Requirement, Junior standing HS 5015 Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Curation The Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar: Curation enables students to pursue their own research and writing goals within a seminar setting. This class is intended for juniors and seniors who have declared the Curatorial Studies Minor. Projects are student-originated and consist of both a written piece and a curation project. Class sessions are discussion-based and interactive. Group learning is emphasized. Prerequisites: Completion of Curatorial Studies for Artists and Designers, completion of the Cultural Awareness Requirement, approved declaration of the Curatorial Studies Minor, and Junior standing HS IS99 Liberal Arts Independent Study HSW 3525 History of Rock and Roll - Writing Intensive A Liberal Arts course prefix with a W appended as the final character indicates that the student took this course as a writing-intensive course. See the course schedule for the appropriate year and term to find the general course description for this course. HSW 5010 Liberal Arts Advanced Seminar - Writing Intensive A Liberal Arts course prefix with a W appended as the final character indicates that the student took this course as a writing-intensive course. See the course schedule for the appropriate year and term to find the general course description for this course. HU 3043 Magical Realism This class involves a close study of novels and short stories in the genre of magical realism within the context of an introductory writer’s workshop. Magical realism engages a combination of traditional realism infused with the fantastic, the mythical, and the nightmarish. Students will read novels and short fiction from different cultural contexts in order to compare the workings of magical realism around the world, examine other contemporary manifestations of magical realism in media, and create their own writing in the style of the genre. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. HU 3220 Media Analysis This course embraces and explores many forms of mass communication, applying theories to see how best to create, use, and understand everything from a news photo to a video game to a TV commercial to a political website. Students apply various media theories to a variety of examples, testing the abstract with the concrete. Prior knowledge of the conventions and traditions of media design, direction, and/or production is useful. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion. HU 3221 Screenings for Media Analysis HU 3302 The Twentieth Century By 1900 the world had undergone an extraordinary spread of mass industrialization, mass colonization, and mass capitalism. Over the next century, peoples, nations, and ideologies struggled to sort out what 20th-century modernity would–or should–mean, and the world witnessed breathtaking achievements in contexts of ongoing inequity, exploitation, and brutality. The legacies of this global reckoning are profound, legacies with which humanity has yet to come to terms. This course will take a case study approach to exploring the major themes of world history since 1900, including: political, economic, and cultural change; the emergence of new social patterns; imperialism and colonialism; the impact of consumerism and capitalism; the significance of technological innovation; the recurrent problems of injustice and social breakdown; the tension between individualism and collectivism; and the challenges and promises of globalization. HU 3328 Folk and Fairy Tales For generations, the transformative and magical powers of traditional folktales and fairytales have defined and shaped identities and characters. Indeed, these literary forms have become part of everyday culture. In this course students examine why these tales have had such staying power, the controversies that have surrounded them, and how they relate to the historical, political, and social issues of their times. From the bloody chamber of Bluebeard to the coming of age of Little Red Riding Hood, students trace the evolution of these folk narratives to the current retellings of these tales in both literature and film. Objectives of the class include gaining the ability to: read and analyze select, key examples of traditional folktales and fairytales; explain folktales and fairytales in relation to historical, political, and social issues; identify the ways in which folktales and fairytales reflect and influence everyday culture; understand and use the methods of literary analysis; and demonstrate an awareness of the transformation of folktales and fairytales up to the present day. Courses consist of discussion with some lecture. HU 3420 Philosophy and Art Philosophy is based on a desire to understand history, the world around us, and the human condition. By studying these ideas, students can begin to develop contemporary questions about their world and interests. This class examines the history of philosophy and current philosophies, both Western and non-Western. Students propose philosophical and historical questions to better understand themselves and the arts in the twenty-first century. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion. HU 3432 World Literature This course introduces literature from a global and historical perspective, from Gilgamesh to Gabriel García Márquez, and from the poetry of classical China to that of Stalinist Russia. In the four thousand years of literary history that this course covers, students read epic and lyric poems, religious tracts, philosophical dialogues, short stories, novels, and plays. Along with a survey of literature of the world, this course introduces students to the methods and concepts of literary studies and analysis. Class sessions are a mixture of lecture, discussion, and group work. HU 3525 History of Rock and Roll Rock and roll has played an essential role in the cultural history of the United States and much of the globe from the 1950s to the present. This course focuses on the evolution of this truly American art form and the way in which it has influenced and been influenced by cultures around the world. From its gospel and blues roots of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to its contemporary electronic and global manifestations, this course covers its history and variations including country and western, rhythm and blues, rock of the 1950s, Doo-wop, girl groups, the wall of sound, psychedelic, punk, and rap. Some of the material culture that rock and roll has produced is also examined. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion with one 3D Shop activity. Prerequisite: Foundation: 3D HU 3606 World Film: Art Film and Independents For the last half-century, the look, language, and subject matter of films have been blown wide open. This change is the work of dedicated and curious cinematic visionaries from every continent. This course explores several of their works, beginning in the 1950s and advancing to the present day. The ultimate goal is to see how these artists have challenged expectations of classical form or appropriated themes and how a globally interconnected world cinema has developed. Works by acclaimed directors are shown and compared to lesser-known filmmakers’ equally vital and influential works. Classes are primarily lecture and discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. HU 3614 Screenings for World Film: Art and Independents HU 3618 Documentary Film in Focus In this course, students focus on non-fiction cinema. Examining different modes of documentary film which may include the expository, the observational, the participatory, the performative, the reflexive, and the poetic, students investigate how these modes shape manners in which non-fiction cinema may adopt a critical stance toward the presentation of an idea. Filmmakers and works analyzed in this course include a wide variety of perspectives from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries employing differing modes of documentary film. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. HU 3619 Screenings for Documentary Film in Focus HU 3635 Making Public History Public, local, and community history are rapidly growing fields that combine the skills of historical research, community outreach, public and engaged art-making, and marketing and communications. Public, local, and community historians are deeply engaged with their communities over questions of placemaking, identity, authenticity, politics, and culture, and they are essential contributors to debates over the content and representation of our shared heritages, commemoration, and remembrance. This course will introduce students to some of the critical questions surrounding public history and commemoration such as the removal of problematic monuments, debates over appropriate commemoration and interpretation, the decolonization of US history at the grassroots level, and communities’ searches for usable pasts, while at the same time introducing students to the contemporary practices of public, local, and community historians. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry HU 3665 Art in the Cities Art in the Cities explores the relationship between art and urban space with the Twin Cities as its primary site of investigation. This seminar-style course focuses on current exhibitions and curatorial practices in museums, galleries, artist-run spaces, and other project spaces located throughout the Twin Cities. In-class discussions examining the history and contemporary practice and politics of display in urban contexts with some emphasis on social, public, interventionist, and community-based practices is equally balanced with activities outside the classroom such as exhibition visits, artist talks, and performances. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. HU 3839 The Body in Art and Visual Culture In this course students critically examine the cultural meanings of representations of the body in art and visual culture. Organized in roughly chronological order, the course comprises a series of case studies in the history of representation of the body in art, science, and popular culture. Topics that may be addressed include the classical nude in Greek sculpture, female saints, mystical visions of the body, aesthetic dismemberment of the body in modern and contemporary art, the transgender body, and cyber bodies. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission HU 3862 Bauhaus Design Even after the Nazis closed its doors in 1933, the Bauhaus remains a fascinating cultural phenomenon. This experimental design school challenged the relationship between art, technology, and industrial production, creating a design philosophy that has been emulated across the world. Simultaneously a school, an idea, and a movement, the Bauhaus embodies a complex narrative shaped by contradictory responses to twentieth-century modernism. While focusing on the major designers whose works and artistic philosophies shaped the Bauhaus in Germany, this course also examines the dissemination of the Bauhaus idea in the United States. Students follow these discussions with an investigation into the role of the Bauhaus idea today. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. HU 3864 Readings in Photographic Culture This seminar-style course explores photographic culture through focused readings in the theory and history of photography, covering the period from 1839 to the present. These texts facilitate discussions of the ways in which technological transformations and concepts like truthfulness, documentary ethics, and authorship are presented and negotiated in the work of specific photographers. This course is an opportunity for students to discuss the historical and changing philosophical nature of the photographic medium. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. HU 3867 Readings in Contemporary Art Since the 1960s, new paradigms for art, its presentation, and its discussion have emerged. In this course students consider major issues in contemporary art through reading key critical texts and engaging with a selection of museum and gallery exhibitions, while also exploring historical contexts. Class sessions consist of seminar-style discussions, some lecture, and museum visits. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. HU 3868 Readings in Contemporary Design In this course students consider major issues in contemporary design across a range of design fields as articulated through critical texts and contemporary developments. Students examine contemporary design theory along with related work and processes. This course is taught as a seminar with some lecture. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission HU 3875 Readings in the Graphic Novel The graphic novel is an art form that offers the best of both worlds. While gaining legitimacy as a literary/art form, it retains the excitement and unique properties of reading a comic book. Students in this course read, discuss, and analyze graphic novels, as well as engage in critical scholarship on and about the graphic novel form. Looking at graphic novels in genres like mystery, superhero, manga, memoir, history and politics, or works beyond categorization, students examine how these stories are structured: the forms of novel, novella, and short story help differentiate and explain the subtleties of these forms. The class focuses on social, structural, and thematic issues of these specific texts and explores the possibilities of the form itself. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission. HU 3915 Science Fiction and Fantasy This class combines a close study of the works of classic and contemporary fantasy/science fiction writers with a writing workshop component. The primary focus of this class is the creation of altered realities—worlds that present a reality as different, yet connected and meaningful to our own. A series of assigned writing exercises give participants in the class the chance to build their own worlds and begin the process of peopling them with appropriate characters. Class exploration focuses on developing students' own unique logic, questions, interrogations, and approaches to fantasy/science fiction genre writing. Class sessions are discussion-based. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry or faculty permission. HU 3918 Children's Literature In this course students have the opportunity to read and discuss a variety of examples of children’s literature and discuss the issues and theories that drive the scholarly field. Are literary genres defined by readers or authors? By tradition, critics, or markets? Students explore these questions and others while gaining a working knowledge of the critical skills necessary to articulate in writing and presentations an informed aesthetic and critical response to literature for children. HU 3919 Young Adult Literature This course offers an introduction into the study of young adult literature. Students will read and critique an array of young adult novels while assessing how the genre constructs and deconstructs gender, class, race, sexual orientation, and other identity categories. Students will also consider the ways young adult literature informs our understanding of audience, genre, format and critical issues from the perspectives of publishers. HU 4325 Native American Art Most Native American tribes do not have a word in their languages for “artist,” yet the arts are a living part of both daily life and ceremonial tradition. Focusing on the works of selected tribes, students in this course look at Native American art, architecture, and aesthetics. Emphasis is placed on the nineteenth century to the present. The impact of outside forces on continuities and changes in traditional forms is also explored. Classes are primarily lecture with some discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission HU 451 History of Jazz Duke Ellington once said, “the pull of jazz music in American culture is so strong that no one can resist it.” Jazz is truly an American treasure that has influenced other cultures around the globe. Yet most Americans know very little about its history. This class explores jazz from its roots to its most current forms. Hear the music, study its contributions, and explore the cultural patterns and trends that surround its development. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion, with some demonstrations of performance styles. Prerequisite: A 3000-level AH or HU course or faculty permission. HU 4627 Queer Media This course uses standards for information and media literacy (from the Association of College and Research Libraries and others) to explore issues related to queer identities, representations, methodologies, theoretical applications, and interpretations. Using the framework of literacy as a benchmark, students learn how to read “for and from the queer” in a variety of media. Prerequisite: A 3000-level AH or HU course or faculty permission. HU 4630 Race and Ethnicity in the United States: A History Race and ethnicity have played significant, complicated, and more often than not misunderstood roles in the United States’ history. This course surveys the ways race and ethnicity have been constructed and understood by Americans from the colonial era to the present, focusing on the ways that class, gender, culture, and politics, as well as biology, have defined race and the way race and ethnicity have supported ideologies that have been used to both empower and subordinate the peoples of the United States. Prerequisite: A 3000-level AH or HU course or faculty permission. HU 4722 Asian Art History This course examines the art of Asia from its beginnings to the present day. It involves a regional approach, focusing on representative works from India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan. While regional characteristics are emphasized, cross-cultural influences are also studied. Through a variety of media, including sculpture, architecture, and painting, students gain an understanding of the broad themes and concepts that run throughout Asian art. Students consider the role of religion, for example, and gain a basic comprehension of Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, Islam, Taoism, and Shinto. The structure of the class includes lectures, large and small group discussions, and visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission HU 4725 Islamic Art This course will examine Islamic art and architecture through religious, historical, political, and cultural practices from the seventh century to the present. Combining a thematic approach (such as kingship, gift exchange, identity, etc.) with the more traditional chronological and geographical approaches, this course will trace the visual and material culture of Islam and its global influence. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission HU 4728 African American Art This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the visual art of African Americans from the Colonial period to the present. The course examines a variety of visual media from painting, sculpture, and photography to popular culture objects and mass media images. In addition, students critically examine the ways in which the constructed meanings of "blackness" intersect with representational practices of gender, sexuality, and class, as well as the training and education of artists, public and private patronage, and the history of arts criticism and art history. Class sessions include both lectures and discussions. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission. HU 4729 Art and Globalization in the Atlantic World This course examines the impact and effects of globalization on the visual culture of the Atlantic world (defined by Europe, Africa, and the Americas) from the period of the Columbian encounter to the contemporary moment. Students examine the circulation and exchange of goods, ideas, knowledge, culture, and peoples across the Atlantic world through an investigation of visual representations, performance, and collecting practices. The course narrative is guided by thematic issues of gender, race, the politics of display, and national and cultural identities, tracing the movement of visual cultures across the Atlantic through individual case studies. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 and a 3000-level AH or HU course, or faculty permission. HU 4916 Literature of the Americas This course offers students a hemispheric perspective on the study of literature, focusing on a range of works from underrepresented, marginalized, and outsider authors in the Americas from the nineteenth century to the present. Students have an opportunity to challenge conventional categorizations of writers from across the Americas—not just in the United States—by fostering transnational and transhistorical perspectives while considering concepts including identity, race, citizenship, hybridity, and nationhood. Prerequisite: Any 3000-level AH or HU course or its transferred equivalent, or faculty permission. SO 2340 Introduction to General Psychology Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes. Psychologists use scientific methods to study the behavior and the mental activity of humans and animals. Psychologists search for the causes of behavior both within an organism (biology) and within the environment (experiences). This course introduces students to the broad discipline of psychology, focusing on theories and research explaining behavior. Major areas include, but are not limited to, motivation, sensation, perception, learning, cognition, development, stress and health, personality and psychopathology, and psychobiology. Students gain knowledge of the terminology and methods used in psychological science including fundamental principles, people, and theories important in the field while learning to analyze, synthesize, and critically evaluate ideas, arguments, theories, and opposing points of view regarding fundamental psychological principles. Prerequisite: Writing and Inquiry SO 3317 Myth, Ritual, and Symbolism By examining myth/ritual and its symbolization process, this course explores the significance of myth—spanning from ancient Greek stories to modern comics. Scholarly theories, especially from the social sciences, on the origins of mythology are emphasized. The course examines cross-cultural as well as comparative examples of myth, ritual, and symbolism from contemporary fine arts and popular culture. Class sessions are a mix of lecture and discussion. SO 3330 Art and Social Change Can art change the world? This course presents a history of artistic practice as a tool for social change. Presented both as a chronology and as a thematically organized set of forms that artists have mobilized (agitprop, activist, performance, participatory, ephemeral), students explore how artists have created new modes of life by considering the medium of life itself as that which requires change. Topics to consider: the use of art as a tool by social, civil, ecological, and economic movements; the use of art to envision futures during times of political transformation; the use of art to construct alternative ways of life and community; artists as alternative knowledge producers; the tendency of power to co-opt resistant practices; and the role of the (alternative) art school as crucible and catalyst. Students learn to contextualize art practices by considering theoretical questions regarding the artist’s role in society. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. SO 3353 Ethnography for Artists and Designers Ethnography is the primary tool of anthropologists and is a powerful method for analyzing cultural dynamics, objects, and settings. A basic understanding of ethnographic approaches enables artists and designers to work more sensitively, effectively, and ethically in the public sphere. This course introduces a variety of ethnographic methods, including traditional participant observation, life histories, interviewing, visual ethnography, and ethnographic marketing. Students achieve a basic understanding of ethnographic approaches and apply them in their own ethnographic fieldwork. SO 3442 Curating for Artists and Designers This course introduces artists and designers to the history, theory, and diverse practices of contemporary curation. Through readings, discussions, writing, research, and field work, students consider the evolving roles of museums, galleries, and other emerging curatorial spaces, both virtual and real, as well as the history and contemporary practices of collecting and display. Throughout the course students assess the roles of curators and their audiences, paying special attention to issues of power and politics. The course provides students with the requisite vocabulary for understanding how curators produce knowledge and the ways in which aesthetics, history, culture, and society are explored through exhibition practices. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission SO 3520 Current Events This course examines through various lenses the ways in which contemporary events circulate in the news, from hard-copy newspapers to online blogs, from trained journalists to eyewitness observers, and from social media venues to emerging media forms. Individuals in this course engage deeply with the local, national, and international news and explore the many sides to contemporary issues, covering a range of events, topics, and regions. Key to understanding the contemporary news is not only developing a sense of how history can repeat itself but also learning to employ strategies of critical literacy in order to examine information in greater depth and detail. How do political speeches, authority figures, media pundits, and public opinion polls influence and get influenced by contemporary events as represented in the news? What strategies and paths might help the contemporary global citizen be accurately and also critically informed about the world today? SO 3521 Practicing Local Politics In this course students examine the relationships between different levels of government, considering the particular tasks and dilemmas facing cities. Analysis of major components of American national politics includes examination of the individual's ability to affect politics and the impact of politics on individual lives. Topics include local political culture, intergovernmental grants, state parties, and state political economy. SO 3523 An Ethical Life What does it mean to lead “an ethical life”? This course covers the writings of ethicists from Aristotle to the present and helps students understand what they know and value. Students are challenged to realize and to act upon the principles of an ethical life in their personal and professional development. To these ends, individuals in this course explore the so-called enduring questions of truth, good, and beauty through close readings of key texts from the philosophical traditions of various cultures. Students at times employ a comparative approach, situating the Greeks as well as Enlightenment figures in relation to historical and emerging traditions, both in Western and non-Western contexts. SO 3530 Teaching Artist: Theory and Methods The first of a two-course sequence, this course engages undergraduate art and design students in the theory and practice of the teaching artist in schools and community and introduces professional opportunities in the field. Students explore teaching and learning theory in historical and contemporary contexts, applying theory in arts-infused peer presentations, peer teaching, classroom observation, and team teaching in K–12 classrooms. Teaching artists, arts administrators, and leaders in the art education community present models of teacher-artist collaborations, inquiry-based learning, arts-infused curriculum, arts and core content standards, organizational cultures, and teaching-artist residency opportunities. Prerequisite: Foundation-level coursework or faculty permission SQR 3233 Ecological Issues Human populations and cultures have always had an impact on land, climate, and plant and animal species, and in turn, the environment reciprocally has impacted humans and their cultures. In this course, students explore ecological anthropology, which focuses on these complex relationships. Class sessions consist of a mix of lecture and discussion. Students may also go on site visits. SQR 3352 The Five Senses The five senses are the filters through which the physical world enters the artist, but many artists have no idea how they work. This course explores the anatomy, physiology, evolution, and cultural shaping of the sense with history, science, folklore, and art as guides. Through readings, experience-oriented activities, projects, and guest experts, students develop a heightened sense of how they perceive. This class primarily consists of in-class discussion with some lecture. Students complete examinations as well as write some short and long essays. SQR 3357 The Natural World This course concerns itself with the great variety and the interdependence of species that live on this planet. Students discuss just how species evolve and grow and how they die and become extinct. Change over time in living organisms is a major theme of this course. Class sessions are primarily lecture-based with some discussion. Assignments include examinations and short essays. In addition, a biodiversity field trip gives students practical experience in observing the living and the interactive cycle of one species. SQR 3419 Science and Culture in the Arts This course introduces students to key concepts in contemporary science, with emphasis on the relationship between science, art, and popular culture. This course examines a variety of media sources and art practices and encourages a critical approach to scientific methodologies and cultural contexts. Subjects covered in this class range from issues in art and ecology to bioethics to policy analysis. Class sessions consist of lectures, discussions, and other activities. SQR 3430 Neuroaesthetics Can a particular form or set of stimuli always or reliably bring about a particular result? While there is still divided opinion as to how far an understanding of neurological functions can go in explaining “how art works,” scientists and artists alike have turned to neuroaesthetics to develop a way to explain the aesthetic experience through a science of the mind. The new awareness of how cognition builds up, how synaptic leaps are created, and how viewers notice schematic elements in a given work are all evidence that neuroaesthetics provides an interdisciplinary nexus to bridge art and science, body and mind. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. SQR 3440 Curation and Conservation: Science in the Gallery This course allows students a close look at the materials and techniques used in both historical and contemporary art conservation. The class will work with conservators from the Midwest Art Conservation Center and items in local collections to gain an overview of the technical study of art history through hands-on experience studying and evaluating works of art, lab experiences, and readings and discussions of issues and debates in art conservation. Combining science, art history, and museum studies, this course seeks to explore the materiality of art-making from the perspective of both artist and audience. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design: History 2 or faculty permission SQR 3500 Visual Perspectives Visual perspectives are systems for creating space and distance on a flat surface. Different cultures position the viewer in varied ways that condition what they see and the way they see it. Linear perspective is a seminal event in Western art history in which the position of the individual observer became an engine for the development of Modernity. This course focuses on the historical development of various visual perspective systems and their impact on conceptions of space and time. Class sessions are an equal mix of lecture and discussion. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission. SQR 3519 Visual Geometry This course explores the languages, structures, and principles of mathematical systems as they relate to the visual arts. It offers a view of geometry’s pivotal role in giving form to fundamental postulates underlying the study of visual art and design, such as linear perspective, composition, the Fibonacci sequence, and the golden section. Through hands-on study supplemented by drawing and paper-folding exercises, students learn to translate geometry’s spatial concepts into visual forms, while also gaining an appreciation for this mathematical tool’s enduring utility at the hands of artists, architects, and designers since ancient times. Prerequisite: Introduction to Art and Design History 2 (may be taken concurrently) or faculty permission.