Introduction to the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture
HADVC 100 SYLLABUS
Introduction to the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture
Part 1. Course Information
This course will introduce the History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture to first year university students and build the skills needed for classes at the 200-level and above.
Class location: Asynchronous online, with optional synchronous sessions during original class times, ten of which you are required to attend over the course of the term for full participation marks.
Textbook & Course Materials
Required Texts
● There is one required book for this course: John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Penguin (1972). The book is available through the University of Alberta Bookstore and widely available at online vendors. If you have trouble accessing a hard copy of this text, please contact your GTA immediately. All other required texts will be provided as library links or as PDFs on eClass.
● Microsoft Word (part of Microsoft Office) is available to you as a University of Alberta student for free! It is Mac and PC compatible. You will need it for all assignments and exams in HADVC 100 and in most if not all of your other courses as well. Go to OntheHub to download. Please email IST if you encounter problems downloading.
Course Requirements
● Each week you will be provided with texts, videos, and images linked to that week’s material. You are responsible for (1) reading texts carefully; (2) watching the assigned videos; (3) looking at the assigned objects of art, design, and visual culture; (4) watching the assigned Powerpoint/Loom lectures. For all materials: take notes on key points and highlight any questions that you may have. By the end of day Friday, each week, you are also responsible for (5) taking short quizzes for each unit.
Please attend GTA-led discussion sessions to get the most out of this course. The field trips with Lisa Claypool on Wednesdays will be opportunities to put into practice what you have learned in the teaching videos, readings, and discussion sessions.
Part 2: Course Learning Outcomes
In this course you will be introduced to skills and approaches you will encounter in 200-level courses in HADVC including:
● Skills in visual analysis, including formal, comparative, iconographical, and semiotic analysis
● Enhanced skills in reading comprehension and written communication
● Ability to understand the relationship between form and content
● Ability to understand seeing and looking as historically specific and learned
● Ability to understand examples of art, design, and visual culture in their historical context
You will meet the outcomes listed above through a combination of the following activities in this course:
● Careful viewing of online videos and Powerpoint/Loom presentations
● Detailed reading of assigned texts
● Regular online quizzes
● Attending study sessions with GTA
● Attending field trips with the professor
● Completion of written assignments
Part 3: Topic Outline/Schedule
Important Note: Activity and assignment details will be explained in detail within each week's corresponding learning module. If you have any questions, please contact your GTA. The videos and texts for the following week will be released to you on Thursdays. The quiz portals will be opened to you on Mondays.
Unit 1. Introduction to Essential Skills
● Week 1: Topic Introductions
Objectives this week: To have a clear understanding of the structure of the course and the
course requirements and familiarize yourself with the technologies needed (eClass/Zoom, and to introduce you to the conceptual arc of the course and familiarize you with the online resources available to you and needed for success in this course.
Day 1: Wednesday September 6
o Read: Syllabus, assignment docs, and guidelines for engagement, and read the first four pages of De-nin Lee and Deborah Hutton's "Introduction" ("You are Invited" and "Art Matters") in The History of Art: A Global View (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021), 16-20. (eClass)
● Week 2: Topic Introduction to Essential Skills
Objectives this week: Learn how to do visual analysis.
Day 1: Monday, September 11
o Read: "Getting Started," in the essay by De-nin Lee and Deborah Hutton, "Introduction," The History of Art: A Global View (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021), 20-25. (eClass)
Day 2: Wednesday, September 13
o Read: "Give it a try " and "Our shared human inheritance" in the essay by De-nin Lee and Deborah Hutton, "Introduction," The History of Art: A Global View (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2021), 25-31. (eClass)
UNIT 2 Art History
Objectives this week: Think about art history as a discipline and learn how to do an iconographic analysis.
● Week 3: Topic History of Art 1.0
Day 1: Monday, September 18
o Read: Dana Arnold, “What is Art History” in Art History: A Very Short Introduction: 1-11. (eClass)
Day 2: Wednesday, September 20
o Read:
1. Tate Art Terms: Iconography (online resource)
2. Munsterberg, Writing about Art: Iconography (online resource)
● Week 4: Topic History of Art 2.0
Objectives this week: Consider seeing as historically and culturally contextual. Learn about codes of gender and how gender hierarchies play themselves out in art and art history.
Day 1: Monday, September 25
o Read: John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London, England: Penguin, 2008 [1972]), chapter 1.
Day 2: Wednesday, September 27
o Read:
1. John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London, England: Penguin, 2008 [1972]), chapter 3.
2. OPTIONAL Emma Allwood, “Why We Still Need John Berger’s Ways of Seeing,” Dazed (January 3, 2017). (online resource)
● Week 5: Topic History of Art 3.0
Objectives this week: Introduce students to the social history of art, and modernism in the context of art history
Day 1: Monday, October 2
o Read: John Berger, Ways of Seeing (London, England: Penguin, 2008 [1972]), chapters 5 & 7.
Day 2: Wednesday, October 4
o Read: Entirely optional: Peter Burke on the Social History of Art, The Historical Journal 33, no. 4 (1990): 989-992. (eClass)
● Week 6: Topic History of Art 4.0
Objectives this week: To review and deepen understanding of different modes and styles of art history writing and to prepare for the midterm exam
Day 1: Monday, October 9 THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Day 2: Wednesday, October 11
o Read: Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art, 9th ed. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, 2008), 47-58 & 135-141 (pp 59-134 are optional, but recommended). (eClass)
UNIT 3 Design
● Week 7: Topic Key Issues in Design 1.0
Objectives this week: To introduce students to design as a way of thinking and feeling.
NO MONDAY DISCUSSION SESSIONS THIS WEEK
Day 1: Monday, October 16
FROM MONDAY Oct 16 11 am MDT to WEDNESDAY Oct 18 at 11 am MDT: Midterm exam. The midterm exam will be accessible to you from Monday, October 16, at 11 am through Wednesday, October 15 at 11 am MDT. It will cover all course material through Week 6. It is a 60-minute multiple-choice exam (like the weekly quizzes), closed-book. There are 30 questions.
Day 2: Wednesday, October 18
o Read: Louise Schouwenberg, "A Cabinet," in BEYOND the NEW on the Agency of THINGS, eds. Schouwenberg and Hella Jongerius (London: Koenig Books, 2018), 24-37. (eClass)
● Week 8: Topic Key Issues in Design 2.0
Objectives this week: To continue our exploration of ecological thinking and the interconnection between ecological and design for social and environmental justice.
Day 1: Monday, October 23
o Read:
1. Buckminster Fuller, reproduced from Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth (1969), The Design History Reader (Bloomsbury, 2010), 223-225. (eClass)
2. Ezio Manzini, “Introduction,” Design, When Everybody Designs: An Introduction to Design for Social Innovation, tr. Rachel Coad (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2015), 1-6. (library online resource)
3. OPTIONAL: For those of you who want to learn more about Bucky Fuller, read Calvin Tomkins, "In the Outlaw Arena," The New Yorker (Jan 1, 1966) read first 2 1/2 pages. (eClass)
Day 2: Wednesday, October 25
o Read: Jason F. McLennan, The Philosophy of Sustainable Design: The Future of Architecture (Kansas City: EcoTone, 2004), pp. xix-xxiii, and pp. 1-8. (eClass)
● Week 9: Topic Key Issues in Design 3.0
Objectives this week: To introduce students to design thinking and activism in an age of war, ecological crisis, and COVID
Day 1: Monday, October 30
o Read:
1. Diana Budds, “Design in the Age of Pandemics,” Curbed (March 17, 2020). (online resource)
2. Priya Khanchandani, “Pandemic Production: When Design is a matter of life or death,” The Guardian (June 6, 2020). (online resource)
3. Harriet Constable, “How do you build a city for a pandemic?” BBC (April 26, 2020). (online resource)
4. India Block, “Designers “deeply worried” as pandemic slows move away from single-use plastics,” Dezeen (June 19, 2020). (online resource)
Day 2: Wednesday, November 1
o Read: Paola Antonelli, Jamer Hunt, "Design and Violence," in Design & Violence, eds. Paola Antonelli and Jamer Hunt (New York: MoMA, 2015), 9-middle of page 15. (online resource)
UNIT 4 Visual Culture
● Week 10: Topic Visual Culture 1.0
Objectives this week: To introduce students to the museum as an institution. Learn about the museum as an instrument of colonial power.
Day 1: Monday, November 6
o Read: Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London: Routledge, 1995), 1–20. (library online resource)
Day 2: Wednesday, November 8
o Watch: The Couple in the Cage (eClass/Kanopy)
● Week 11: READING WEEK
● Week 12: Topic Visual Culture 2.0
Objectives this week: To introduce students to activist art. Think about race, racism, and how racial hierarchies play themselves out in art and art history.
Day 1: Monday, November 20
o Read: Rosemarie Buikema, “The Arena of Imaginings: Sarah Bartmann and the Ethics of Representation” in Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture, Routledge: London, 2009, 70-85. (library online resource)
Day 2: Wednesday, November 21
o Read: Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to See the World: An Introduction to Images, From Self-portraits to Selfies, Maps to Movies, and More (New York: Basic Books, 2016), read pp. 48-62, though I strongly recommend reading the entire chapter. (eClass)
● Week 13: Topic Visual Culture 3.0
Objectives this week: To discuss the political potential of art, design, and visual culture in an age of intersecting crises.
Day 1: Monday, November 23
o Read: Nicholas Mirzoeff, "Introduction," How to See the World: An Introduction to Images, From Self-portraits to Selfies, Maps to Movies, and More (New York: Basic Books, 2016), 1-27. (eClass)
Day 2: Wednesday, November 25
o Watch The Yes Men Are Revolting (Kanopy). This is a 90-minute documentary. Please watch at least 15 minutes so that you can gather some sense of how and why the Yes Men are revolting.
● Week 14: Topic Examination Preparation
Objectives this week: To prepare students to take the final exam (a take-home exam, three essays, open book). Final exam will be distributed Wednesday, December 6 at 12: 30 pm MDT and is due to eClass on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 5:00 pm MDT
Day 1: Monday, December 4 review of previously assigned course materials
Day 2: Wednesday, December 6 review of previously assigned course materials
The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages, and cultures of the First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and all First Peoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.
Copyright: Dr. Natalie S. Loveless and Dr. Lisa Claypool, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta (2020)