Course Description: Utilizing a range of analytical and practical frameworks this course includes an intensive examination of the methods, production, values, philosophies and theories surrounding art and design.
Instructional Goals
Analyze and evaluate the range of theories of art and design.
Synthesize and evaluate methodology for the creative process.
Evaluate the value of art and design and examine how “value” is determined.
Contextualize art and design within a cultural system.
Understand that interpreting art and design is interdisciplinary.
Critically evaluate and assess art and design.
Required Methods
Exposure to a survey of prevailing theories of art and design
aesthetics
representation and realism
expressionism, formalism
spiritualism
psychoanalysis
documentary/biography/autobiography
iconography
marxism
feminism
structuralism and semiotics
deconstruction: modernism and postmodernism
community and commodity
Examination of art and design with regards to theoretical aspects
art, design and identity: race, class, gender, memory & artifacts, spirituality, post colonialism
art, design and ethics: sustainability, authorship, social networking & collaboration, globalism
art, design and business: art vs. design vs. craft, entertainment, protest & persuasion, commerce & consumerism, art as cultural capital, public funding
Evaluate art and design from a synthesis of interpretive methods: structure; production; interpretation and reception; function, meaning, and response
Effectively synthesize a methodology of analysis-research-iteration and evaluate its effectiveness
Course Outcomes
Analyze a range of theories as they apply to specific works, historical movements, and modes of production in Art & Design
Formulate a methodology for the creative process which includes analysis-research-iteration and evaluate its effectiveness
Critically evaluate and assess art and design via written criticism
Critically evaluate and assess art and design via verbal assessment