ARTH 348/FMST 348 - Special Topics in Art & Film: Visual Culture: Themes, Methods, Debates

• Thursdays, 9:00-11:30
• EV-1-615
• Instructor: Dr. May Chew

This course is designed as an introduction to visual culture as an interdisciplinary field. Drawing on historical perspectives and contemporary debates, it asks: How do images shape the ways in which we understand and move through the world? Our exploration of the extended field of visual culture will take us through examples drawn from world fairs, museums, early cinema, television, print media, installations, new media, and material and virtual architectures. We will also consider how embodiment informs the ways in which we make, share, and engage with visual media. Dispensing with the assumption that looking is “neutral,” we will probe how a critical understanding of visual cultures must be attended by considerations of race, gender, class, Indigeneity and decolonization.