Critical examination of major developments in European, Asian, and American art from 1940 to the present. Surveys the mainstream of art production but also examines marginal phenomena (feminism, identity politics, AIDS activism, net art) that come to change the terms of art's engagements with civic culture. Visits to area art museums and writing assignments develop skills for visual analysis and critical writing.

Studies the interrelationship of theory, history, and practice. Looks at theory not as specialized discourse relating only to architecture, but as touching on many issues, whether they be cultural, aesthetic, philosophical, or professional. Topics and examples are chosen from a wide range of materials, from classical antiquity to today.

Focused on the practices of varied practitioners — film directors, artists, musicians, composers, architects, designers — whose writings relay a process of thinking and feeling integral to their forms of material production. Testing various ways aesthetic forms and their shifts — historic and contemporary — have relations to still emerging contemporary subjectivities (felt emotion in a human body), the class studies productions created by participants and case studies of varied producers, and generates new work individually and/or collaboratively via diverse media explorations. Includes reading, writing, drawing, and publishing, as well as photographic, cinematic, spatial, and audio operations and productions. Activities include screenings, listening assignments, and guest visits, in addition to readings, discussions, and presentations.

4.341 U / 4.342 G

Introduces history and contemporary practices in artistic photography through projects, lectures, artist visits, group discussions, readings, and field trips. Fosters visual literacy and aesthetic appreciation of photography/digital imaging, as well as critical awareness of how images in our culture are produced and constructed. Provides instruction in the fundamentals of different camera formats, film exposure and development, lighting, black and white darkroom printing, and digital imaging. Assignments allow for incorporation of a range of traditional and experimental techniques, development of technical skills, and personal exploration. Throughout the term, present and discuss projects in a critical forum. 

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. 

Introduces artistic practice and critical visual thinking through three studio-based projects using different scales and media, for instance, "Body Extension," "Shaping Time," "Public Making," and/or "Networked Cultures." Each project concludes with a final presentation and critique. Students explore sculptural, architectural, performative artistic methods; video and sound art; site interventions and strategies for artistic engagement in the public realm. Lectures, screenings, guest presentations, field trips, readings, and debates supplement studio practice. Also introduces students to the historic, cultural, and environmental forces affecting both the development of an artistic vision and the reception of a work of art.

Explores how human-water interactions have given shape to the built environment in the era before industrialization, focusing on architectures, infrastructures, and landscapes of water supply, irrigation, transport, energy, ritual, health, sanitation, and flood mitigation, among other functions. Introduces examples from across the globe, with an emphasis on the Mediterranean world and Europe during the Middle Ages and early modern period (ca. 1000–1750). Considers continuity and change in historical water management over the <em>longue durée</em> and its effects on contemporary cities, landscapes, and political and economic systems.

Seminar in a selected topic in the history of art, with a particular emphasis on artistic production from the 17th century to the present. The class includes visits to area art museums and collections, and requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports, varying at the discretion of the instructor. Offered for 9 or 12 units. 

Enrollment limited.

UG: 4.378 | G: 4.379

Probes the ethics and aesthetics of historic preservation through an artistic lens. Introduces a range of themes related to politics of heritage, memory and commemoration, trauma, iconoclasm, and more. Explores the agency of monuments in relation to colonialism, nationalism, social justice, and democracy. Research is conducted in groups, through which students analyze contested heritage sites through critical artistic and spatial practices addressing traumatic, troubling, or toxic memory. Lectures, screenings, readings, and discussions inform the development of individual projects. At the end of the semester, students create projects that may involve artistic tools, collective learning experiences, creative processes, and transdisciplinary knowledge exchanges that demonstrate a new way of capturing, sustaining, and developing future heritage.

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. 

Seminar connecting the arts and sciences by exploring methodological similarities and differences across the arts, architecture, engineering, and social sciences. Through targeted reading and exercises, each student develops a collaborative project that engages directly with another discipline. Projects are iterated over the course of the term. Readings, visitors, and lectures expose students to a wide range of practitioners across different fields. Students interrogate the underlying methodologies that unite and separate their disciplines. Presents best-practice models for cultivating collaboration through the use of case studies.

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version. 

UG: 4.354; G: 4.355

Examines the technical and conceptual variables and strategies inherent in contemporary video art practice. Analyzes structural concepts of time, space, perspective, and sound within the art form. Building upon the historical legacy of the moving the image, students render self-exploration, performance, social critique, and manipulation of raw experience into an aesthetic form. Emphasizes practical knowledge of lighting, video capturing and editing, and montage. Presentation and critique of student work, technical workshops, screenings, and reading discussions assist students with final project.

Additional work required of students taking the graduate version.