ART 105: EXPLORING
VISUAL PROFESSIONS

Course Description: Exploration of the theory and practice of Art Education, Art History, Design, and Fine Arts through field trips, guest speakers, and lectures.

Pre-requisite: Declared Art major.

Course Objectives and Content: This course is designed to provide a broad orientation to the School, to the many art professions, and to the uses of art and design in the visual culture. A diverse visiting artist series, studio visits, and museum/gallery visits will provide the backbone for this course.

Required Books: Students are required to purchase a date book or planner. The university date book available at either bookstore is good. Additional references to chapters 4, 5 and 6 in Launching the Imagination: A Comprehensive Guide to Basic Design will be made; this book is already required for ART 102 and 103.

Assessment Criteria: Direct experience will be emphasized in this course. Class participation, including sketchcards, questions raised in class, and contributions to discussions, will count for 60% of your grade. Visual journals will be used for field trips and visual research projects and will count for the remaining 40%.

WEEK 1: General Orientation
Lecture: Introduction to:

Discussion of Foundations scope/sequence chart: What is the essential content of each course, and what is the overall purpose of the Program?

Experience: Roughly 1.5 hour for tours of Ahrends and Kishwaukee, lead by peer advisors or other undergrads.

Homework: Write 1-2 page biographical essay

WEEK 2: SOURCES: From Nature to Culture
Lecture: Nature as inspiration for design. What do artists and designers find in nature; how do they transform this inspiration into various forms of visual culture?

Experience: Field trip to Afton Prairie; work with visual journals.

Homework: Visual journal: draw 25 examples of natural forces, patterns, or structures in your surroundings.

WEEK 3: The Compelling Concept
Lecture: The evolution of ideas. Where does an idea start and how does it develop? What is discarded and why? What is retained and expanded?

Experience: First Friday field trip.

Homework: Visual journal: what is the compelling concept in one of YOUR current assignments? invent 10 different ways of getting the idea across.

WEEK 4: Myth, Magic, Maya
Lecture: Art and archeology presentation.

Experience: Deciphering Mayan glyphs.

Homework: Basic research for Archeology Alphabet, which is a Photoshop assignment for ART 102 course.

WEEK 5: The Variety of Visual Experience
Lecture: The visual culture perspective on Art Education will be presented, focusing on examples of art and design objects from everyday life and discussing how these objects can be used to teach "art novices" both in K-12 schooling and in museum settings.

Experience: To be determined.

Homework: A journal to be written on individual visits to stores and other settings that exemplify this approach.

WEEK 6: Criticism and Critique
Lecture: Discussion of criteria for judgment, characteristics of good critical writing, discoveries made, and conclusions reached regarding contemporary art. Field trip: First Friday or other gallery visit

Homework: An exhibition review

WEEK 7: MUSEUMS: Mission and Methods
Lecture: The role of museum in visual culture

Field trip: One bus each to Field Museum, Contemporary, Art Institute and Chicago Cultural Center. Talk with a curator and an exhibition designer. Students sign up for the trip they prefer.

Homework: Visual journal entry on some recurrent theme in objects seen, such as references to nature, mythological references, portrayal of women, the color red, etc. WEEK 8: FROM 2D TO 3D TO 4D

Lecture: Connections and idea expansion into Time Arts.

Experience: Performance workshop.

Homework: Self-reflection paper.