Visual Culture 1: Gateways to Art and Culture

This class will address the history of visual communication and the changes that visual culture has undergone up until the 18th century across geographical boundaries, while providing tools to understand the visual culture of the present. We will address formal analysis, the study and history of materials, techniques, and genres. Students will also learn the semiotic language of visual culture and the socio-cultural contexts framing the history of art, past and present.

This course will help students understand how visual objects reflect the cultural context in which they were originally produced and consumed, and how the meaning assigned to them changes over time. This will create bridges for the students to connect to the present visual culture while understanding that images are fluid signs which help create and maintain cultural, social, and political discourses.

According to the Getty Research Institute's Art and Architecture Thesaurus, visual culture is "The total of images, objects, and other visuality that has been built up by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to another. It includes:

• art media such as painting, drawing, prints, and installations;
• architecture and design;
• utilitarian artifacts of a culture such as tools and apparel;
• media such as photography, film, television, and digital media, covering topics of news, popular culture, advertising and consumerism, politics, law, religion, and science and medicine."

In other words, visual culture comprises all of the visual forms and practices of a group of people. Further, it is believed to be useful in understanding the collective identity of a group since elements of visual culture reflect and embody aspects of how people live.

When studying visual culture, you should consider an item's production, reception, and intention. (How was it made? Where would it be seen, and how would it be interpreted? Why was it made?) It is also relevant to consider economic, social, and ideological aspects and impacts.