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Overview of the Pilot Curriculum General Education Requirement
Current Pilot Curriculum General Requirement Course Descriptions
This course fulfills Category II of the General Education Requirement.
Faculty:
| Renata
Holod Faculty, History of Art 301 Jaffe/6208 898-8714 rholod@sas.upenn.edu |
Meeting Times:
| LEC | VLST 101 001 | T & R | 10:30 - 12:00 |
| REC | VLST 101 201 | F | 11:00 - 12:00 |
| REC | VLST 101 202 | F | 1:00 - 2:00 |
| REC | VLST 101 203 | F | 2:00 - 3:00 |
| REC | VLST 101 204 | F | 10:00 - 11:00 |
Course
Description:
This course provides an introduction to a variety of approaches to understanding
the nature of seeing, with attention to visualize its physiological,
environmental, and cultural basis. As part of this, the course will attempt
to compare and contrast the way that artists, art historians, philosophers,
and scientists consider the same broad set of issues. The course will
typically be co-taught by two faculty whose expertise represents two
of these different approaches, and whose lectures will attempt to make
explicit connections between different styles of intellectual endeavor.
In this sense, the course is a microcosm of the visual studies major.
The topics include:
- The eye, light and visual system, including both our modern understanding and a discussion of how this understanding developed over time.
- The eye and culture, with particular emphasis on artistic depictions and conceptions of the role of vision in society.
- How perceptual abilities are measured in the lab, and the relationship between seeing and measurement and science.
- Perception and depiction of scenes, including depth, color, and motion.
- How culture endows visual attributes (e.g. color) with meaning.
- Depicting the body; seeing the self.
- Visual memory and visual cognition.
- Philosophy of seeing and science. What does it mean to see? How do we know what we see? Is seeing believing?
Students must register for both a lecture and a recitation.
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