Courses
ART 151 - Introduction to Visual Narrative
Introduces students to the use of images to tell stories. Explores different image making strategies through print and drawing media as well as simple animation and performative images. Explores narrative structure, traditional storytelling and presentation strategies. Stories bind us. Using a small set of folk tales and myths, this class will examine how storytelling can shape community, public dialogue and create agency. The class will work through oral storytelling and drawing. We learn how to shape existing stories, how to work with improvisation and apply old stories to current situations. We will discuss story structure, audience and performance as well as visual storytelling. The course will explore myriad forms including printmaking technologies, illustration, shadow puppets, stop motion animation and scrolls.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 170 - Introductory Drawing
An introduction to studio art through the processes, concepts, and subjects of drawing. Work in the first half of the semester involves the apprehension of landscape spaces and natural forms through contour, shape, gesture, and chiaroscuro, leading to the study of the human form and self-representation. The second half of the semester focuses on spatial representation (isometric projection and Western perspective, and chiaroscuro) in still life and architectural spaces. The final project is a series of eight drawings exploring a particular interior or exterior space each student has chosen. Throughout the semester there are also nontraditional assignments that involve working from memory, working from nonvisual sensory experiences, abstraction, and collaboration.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 171 - The Figure
Making an image of the human body is one of the most basic artistic acts. It involves sympathy with another body, self-identification, and empirical observation. As practiced by Western artists it serves as both the basic roots of drawing and the height of artistic facility. In this class we explore all dimensions of the studio practice of rendering the figure. The course begins with observational drawing moves through figure sculpture and finally ends with portraiture. We will create a rigorous studio practice centered on the act of drawing. Readings, homework assignments, and discussions will unpack traditions based in gender and race. Through field trips to galleries and museums we will look at the uses of the figure in art history and contemporary art. The bulk of the studio work will be done in class. An average of one to three hours outside of class per week is expected. Aside from the work of observing and sussing out the details of the figure, classes will include discussions of assigned readings.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
ART 172 - Painting I - Imaginary Worlds
This studio art class illuminates foundational painting techniques through the study of real and imagined lifeworlds. We will draw inspiration from our multispecies community to observe form and color, and to create future ecological imaginaries. We will learn introductory painting strategies for creating 2D compositions and for integrating color theory. We will develop the skills needed to conjure illusions of movement and to communicate emotion through abstraction, composition, and mark making. This class will include field trips, microscopic work, and repeated observations of a location on the Reed campus. Through this work, we will consider how an art practice can help us to imagine new futures for ecological and equitable living. Students will create multimedia paintings in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 173 - Intaglio Printmaking
An introduction to studio art through the processes, concepts, and subjects of printmaking. Intaglio printmaking includes drypoint, linear etching, aquatint, soft ground, sugar lift, and multiple tone and color processes. In the first half of the semester these techniques will be introduced and applied to thematic projects involving natural and manmade forms, landscape and architectural spaces, self-representation, relationships of images and text, etc. Two large projects will occupy the second half of the semester: a class-sized edition of a print on an agreed-upon theme, and a final project, a large, complex image or a sequence of images, involving several processes. Additional sketchbook work will study the styles and compositions of master and contemporary printmakers. The class will also study prints in the Reed College collection, the Portland Art Museum, and local galleries.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 174 - Decolonial Natural History Illustration and Printmaking
This introductory drawing and printmaking class takes a decolonial approach to natural history illustration and printmaking. We will consider how the visual histories of power and empire are embedded within natural history illustration and how can we attempt to repair those stories through a visual arts practice. Together, we will draw from our unique histories and relationships to the natural world in an attempt to rewild the archive through our art practices and illuminate new multispecies relationships. To do this work, we will consult the illuminated manuscripts and monoprints held in the Reed special collections. We will learn about the rich history of printmaking as a form of resistance to oppression. Students will use charcoal, colored pencils, and inks, to make multimedia works on paper in the studio and in the field. Students will be able to articulate the relationship of these visual works to the conceptual foundations of the class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 175 - Relief Printmaking
An introduction to studio art through the processes, concepts, and subjects of printmaking. Relief printmaking includes woodcut, linocut, stencil, nonrectangular-shaped and puzzle-piece blocks, reduction block printing, and multiple-block/multiple-color printing. We will use both hand and press printing in the making of our work. Three main projects focus on the print in different environments: the print on the wall, the print in the book, and the print in the "expanded field." Some bookbinding will also be taught. We look at a wide variety of both contemporary and historic print; host visiting artists or visit their studios; study prints in the Reed College collection, the Portland Art Museum, and local galleries. Students are required to spend 4-6 additional hours per week in the studio to complete assigned work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 176 - Beginning Bookbinding
This hands-on course offers an introduction to the techniques, tools, materials, and processes used in bookbinding. We begin with basic box construction in order to build eye/hand skills, then follow with a variety of sewn book structures that have evolved in different cultures around the world. We end with a multisection hardcover binding. Along the way are field trips, artist lectures, and two self-directed assignments that allow students to express their own ideas within the realm of book and box structure.Four hours of additional studio time is required to complete each week's binding.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 177 - Drawing in Many Forms
Drawing is a basic building block for visual art and other creative practices. It is important in ways to develop the skill of producing an image on a page. However, it is just as important to think about how to apply the practice of drawing to other methods of making. In this class students will learn some basic methods of drafting an image and begin to apply those methods to other media, platforms, and social contexts. The class will explore traditional methods of mark making including pencil, pen, watercolor, and other media per student interest. We will also explore and or flirt with collage, digital mark making and production techniques, screen printing, and more.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 181 - Architectonic Structures
This course introduces students to the structural principles and communicative possibilities of sculpture and architecture. Each project addresses one of the three scales: the architectural, into which the body fits; the human, to which the body relates or which the body physically inhabits; and the intimate, which relates to the hand or head. We will study the fundamentals of wood and aluminum fabrication, including handcrafted joinery, lamination, steam bending, wall construction laser cutting, and 3D printing. Readings will focus on the application of craft-based architectural construction and the direct impact this has on society through communal projects, new types of housing, and personal agency. Students will be exposed to diverse, international contemporary artists and architects. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 182 - Material Objects
A crafts-based course that focuses on the form, function, and concept of handmade objects in our society. The class will learn skills in hand-built and thrown clay forms, casting and fabricating with ceramics, wax, paper, cloth and glass. The assignments will explore the poetic language of each material, fusing the analog and the digital, and will focus on cooperative and community-based works that can emerge from these mediums. Readings will focus on social practices and culturally significant, politically motivated works made for and with communities. Students will have technical workshops with studio assistant in glass and ceramics weekly. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 183 - Art and the Printed Word
This course explores text and its relationship to image as the focus of a fine art practice. Technically, the course covers page design, typography, letterpress printing, simple bookbinding, and some low-tech image-making processes. Projects explore the space of the calling card, the poster, and the book through three main assignments. We will read Robert Macfarlane's Landmarks to connect language to the natural world, and other texts that explore the social and political significance that text-based works have in society. Requirements beyond assigned studio projects include written responses to writings and videos, one research presentation, and attendance at organized field trips. Students need 4-6 additional hours per week in the studio to complete assigned work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 188 - Object and Social Context
Objectness is the nature of a tangible material or thing. Every object has a number of social contexts surrounding it. It is important to consider the social relationships within the materials we use for artworks to truly express the intention of the maker. In this class we will explore the meanings behind the materials we work with in our practices, and how teasing out and understanding the underlying contexts within those media can be used to make more visually striking and conceptually compelling artwork. To do this we will take mini-field trips around campus to harvest objects, perform white elephant gift exchanges with material, and play with different sculptural techniques with an emphasis on conceptual underpinnings in the work. Technically we will cover the fundamentals of wood and aluminum fabrication, wall construction, and laser cutting. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 190 - Art and Photography I
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of photography through both analog and digital photographic processes and investigates the use of photography in the context of contemporary art. The class will cover camera operation, principles of exposure, basic understanding of light, film development, and darkroom/digital manipulation of photographic images. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through assignments, readings, slide presentations and critiques.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 196 - Digital Video and Coding Interactivity
We will explore the use of the moving image, digital video, and interactivity as related to art. Students will be exposed to the concepts and visual strategies surrounding digital media, and techniques of nonlinear, nondestructive video editing and interactivity. We will look at the various ways in which artists employ these technologies and tools in their works through readings, class discussions, and slide presentations. First, students will deal with moving image as a medium as practiced in art and will be exposed to media software such as Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. Then, we will take apart and reexamine the moving image and the tools artist use to edit the moving image in an attempt to expand our understanding of the medium through a graphical programming environment for video, music, and data called Max/MSP/Jitter. Students will be expected to respond to assignments with technical competence and critical clarity.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 201 - Introduction to the History of Art
Basic art-historical methods and examples of recent scholarship are examined in relationship to a chronologically, geographically, or thematically defined body of art.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 251 - Making Graphic Novels
This course will examine the history of comics as well as contemporary trends. Students will study the mechanics and structure of the medium. We will also refer to other forms of visual storytelling, such as serial television, film, and art-historical references. Students will apply these directly to their own work. Each student will create a self-published comic. Discussions and lectures will cover topics such as character studies, format, size, material choice, etc. Occasional field trips to printers, comic shops, and comic companies will give students a sense of professional resources. The class will produce an anthology based on a selection of work produced in class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 270 - Experiments in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking
We will develop and articulate individual research approaches to an art making practice. By working with traditional art mediums while also creating our own experimental inks, paints, and stains, we will consider how to give form to narrative through composition, color, and materiality. The first part of the course will involve exploratory mark making and technical skill development towards a research-based project to be proposed and executed over the rest of the semester. The project might involve continued work in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, or experimental mixed media. In a weekly studio section that will include lectures, videos, discussions, and field trips, we will encounter and learn terms and concepts common to contemporary visual culture, ecology, design, and activism. Students will create multimedia works in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 271 - Painting I
The class explores color structure, interaction, and illusions (transparency, luminosity, atmosphere), through abstraction and various compositional strategies. Major projects involve creating a "shape alphabet" and a series of variations on it; paintings in which there is a close correspondence, or a tension, between image and support; paintings that focus on process and nontraditional techniques; and an independent final project that builds upon previous work in the class. Weekly slide lectures focus on color and composition in representational and abstract painting.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 274 - Painting II - Naturecultures
In this painting class, we will create work that is in conversation with the broader questions: Can we identify and follow specific naturecultures near and on the Reed campus? How might we paint, map, and story such specificities as we engage with our local environments as sites of knowledge? In this class we will use a contemporary painting approach to create alternative mapping narratives, trace our diasporic human and ecological relationships, and question what a decolonial painting approach could look like. This class will include lectures, videos, discussions, field trips, microscopic work, and developing a relationship with a tree of your choosing on the Reed campus. Students will create multimedia paintings in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 275 - Bookbinding: History and Practice
The book has evolved for 2,000 years as an extension of the human mind and body. Its various forms express unique understandings of materials, technologies, tools, and usage. Students in this course will create 4-6 book models, ranging from simple pamphlet and accordion structures to a case binding and a Coptic binding with wooden board covers. In order to develop clean and precise hand skills, we begin with a four-walled box and a clamshell box before turning to the sewing of book structures. Visits to Reed's Special Collections offer us the opportunity to view and handle many historic and contemporary examples, including the William Morris masterpiece known as The Kelmscott Chaucer. Readings cover both bookbinding history and current directions in the field of artists' books. Together with successful completion of the taught structures, there are two main assignments: a historically based structure based on independent research, and a final project responding to an excerpt from Italo Calvino's book Invisible Cities. Class time will be spent introducing, demonstrating, and beginning work on each book structure. 4-6 hours of additional studio time is required to complete each week's binding.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 276 - The Artist Book
This studio course focuses on the book as a vehicle for artistic voice. We will explore the intrinsic nature of books: that they are physical objects operating in one moment as sculpture, in the next moment as a piece of interactive time art; that they are understood in the hands of a reader who performs the book's content; and that they speak to us not only through words and images but through the weight, texture, and body language of the object itself. Students will learn techniques of ideation, model making, material manipulation, print/binding processes, and more as they create two artist book projects. The course will also delve into the history of artist books in their many iterations, from unique objects to hand-printed editions to zines and other forms of artist publications. Visits to Reed's artist book collection as well as other field trips and artist talks supplement this course. Four to six hours of outside studio time is required for this course.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 282 - Sculpture in the Expanded Field
A studio sculpture course exploring the human body as a site for transformation through clothing, performance, and architectural construction. We will explore wearable works as well as spatially dynamic and temporal art form, directly related to the human form and phenomenological experience. Readings and discussions will focus on feminist theory, queer theory, and critical race theory, and the representation of the body throughout art history, fashion, and performance art. Technically, we will focus on metal fabrication, welding, and sewing.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 284 - Craft and Culture
This is a studio art course covering the craft of ceramics and glass, their historical and cultural context, and contemporary culture's engagement with these craft forms. The course will focus on how and why artists have explored materials, methods, and strategies of craft over the last seven decades. Many have chosen to expand on their own cultural histories of craft while others have been experimental. In all studio work, the labor and process will be focused on with an eye to training and practice as the core of the craft. Projects will be both utilitarian and conceptually based. Students will advance their skills in hand building, throwing, glazing, glass casting, and 3D ceramic printing. Discussion will cover crafts subversion of the so-called "fine art" and the political stance that the works take. New perspectives on subjects that have been central to artists, including popular culture, feminist and queer aesthetics, and recent explorations of identity and relationships to place will be explored. All students will keep a research notebook/sketchbook in which they will respond to all readings, research artists, and design projects.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 288 - Engaged Objects
Much of the material culture in the arts is poised towards the creation and sale of objects. While this practice is valuable in and of itself, there are other ways to apply skilled craftwork. What if the objects one made were designed for application and use? Beyond a cup or a plate, artists have the ability to design unique creations that serve uncharted ends. In this course we will imagine new potentials for the work we make, merging studio practice with interactivity as an additional medium for consideration. We will consider particular audiences and design artistic objects for integration into their lives. To do this we will think about site, participant engagement, and material design solutions that tie these ideas together. Technically, we will focus on metal fabrication, welding, and sewing. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 291 - Art and Photography II
The course will introduce advanced topics such as color, large-format, and medium-format photography. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities of photography are explored through projects, readings, slide presentations, lab work, and critiques. Class time will be spent in lecture, slide presentations, lab work, critique, and occasional field trips. Students will be expected to respond to assignments with technical competence and critical clarity.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 293 - Internet Literacy, Culture, and Practice
Students will develop an understanding of the technology and the issues surrounding the internet and the web through studio activities, readings, and online and/or physical fieldwork. Students will gain literacy in web development languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). We will cover the history of the use of computers and networks as a tool for empowerment and for creating art. We will explore topics such as hypertextuality, nonlinearity, interactivity, authorship, web as archive, net neutrality, and the open-source movement. With the newly acquired literacy in hand we will investigate how the convergence of the web/social media with social practice/activism reconfigures the ways in which artists and citizens view, participate in, understand, and narrate real-world issues.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 301 - Ecocritical Art Histories
While open to all students who meet the prerequisites, this course is required for all declared art history majors in their junior year. Juniors will have additional assignments that will serve as the junior qualifying exam in art history.
Ecocritical Art Histories
What perspectives and methodologies can art history contribute to ongoing debates and research on climate change, ecological crises, and the Anthropocene in the humanities and natural sciences? This course will introduce students to innovative examples of recent art historical scholarship that postulate ecologically conscious approaches to the study of visual and material cultures. As a discipline, Art History takes objects produced by humans as its loci of analysis. By engaging with new theoretical frameworks such as postcolonial ecocriticism, new materialism, posthumanism, and critical animal studies, we will confront established art historical paradigms that have privileged the human as the primary agent of history. Rather than focusing on specific geographical places or temporal periods, we will explore the interrelation of human cultural production and ecological systems through different thematic points of inquiry, ranging from water, air, and fire to animals and eco-activism. In doing so, we aim to challenge the binaries between human and non-human to advance non- hierarchical approaches to the study of art. While open to all students with the prerequisites, this is also a required course for all declared art history majors in their junior year.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 305 - The Camera in South Asia
The paradox of photography is such that photographs reveal and conceal, obscure and illuminate, mutate and remain static. How do we read a photograph? What does it transmit? This course will investigate the development and reception of photography in South Asia, from the introduction of the camera in the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We will explore photography's diverse iterations, including its role as an apparatus of colonial surveillance, a transcript of historical knowledge, a material technology, and a performative practice, to investigate how photographic practices evolved in response to shifting social, political, and aesthetic concerns. We will examine a wide range of case studies, including the works of nineteenth-century British and Indian photographers; vernacular uses of photography in local studios; the translation of the aesthetics of photography into painting (and vice versa), panoramas, stereographic views, early seminal films such as Raja Harishchandra (1913), and the works of contemporary photographers such as Dayanita Singh, Raghubir Singh, and Pushpamala N. We will also delve into photographic theory by reading Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes, and Christopher Pinney's writings. The aim of the course would be to develop the analytical tools for the evaluation of photography that take seriously the protean nature of photographic technology.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 313 - Art and Life in Renaissance Florence
In Lives of the Artists Giorgio Vasari describes how "the arts were born anew" in Renaissance Florence. The city's streets and piazzas, palaces and churches, paintings and sculptures all give visual form to the cultural and social changes that affected Florentine life. In its study of artists such as Brunelleschi, Botticelli, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, this course concentrates on the 15th and 16th centuries as a period of innovation, in terms of both artistic theory and practice. Through an examination of Florence's public, ecclesiastical, and domestic spaces, we will consider how visual and material culture served as markers of civic identity and social distinction.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 321 - Moving Pictures: The Migration and Manipulation of Images in the Early Modern Period
Images in the early modern period moved further and more regularly than at any other time in history up until that point. While scholars have increasingly taken an interest in the movement of early modern images in recent years, we still lack a study that takes into account the many different ways in which images were understood to move. This class is an attempt to understand and synthesize the early modern concept of movement in its many forms, and by extension the role and status of images. We will explore movement from the micro to the macro, and both literal and figurative. Topics will include the transportation of images between Europe and the rest of the world, representations of travel and movement, translation and mistranslation, prints that were meant to be altered and interacted with, automata, affective and miraculous images, and works of art that were meant to make viewers move in particular ways.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 323 - Global Early Modern Visual Culture
This course explores art produced around the world during the sixteenth through the mid-eighteenth centuries, a period of intense contact between cultures with widely varying ideas about what constitutes art. Out of this contact came a myriad of strange works of art that speak to the pressures of often violent colonial and economic encounters. We will look at the impact on European art of contact with Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas, as well as the ways in which European art and culture changed the local traditions of art making in the rest of the world. We will consider what happens to culturally specific forms and styles when they cross cultural, geographical, ideological, political, and theological boundaries. Among the topics we will discuss are the Italian Renaissance nude, miraculous images in New Spain and Peru, Mughal miniatures, African ivory carvings, one-point perspective, Protestant European printed representations of Native Americans, Japanese iconoclasm, and chinoiserie.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 325 - Appropriation and Transformation in Early Modern Art
This course will explore the myriad ways in which early modern European artists took forms, media, materials, and subjects from other cultures and transformed them into something different. These acts of transformations could be violent, ignorant, admiring, relatively benign, or even unintentional. We will consider what was at stake in these transformations, what was changed, how and why they happened, and what role they played in the broader context of cultural contact in the early modern period. We will analyze the terminology of these "transformations," and focus in particular on the term "appropriation" and its relationship to power. The latter part of the semester will be devoted to looking at how early modern European art has been commented upon, transformed, remade, and translated by curators and contemporary artists.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 327 - Colonial Pasts, Decolonial Futures: Museums and the Global South
This course will trace the histories of displaying and interpreting the art of South Asia from the nineteenth century to the present and explore new possibilities for curating South Asian art in the future. While focusing on shifts in the display of South Asian art, we will also interrogate the political and theoretical stakes of curating non-Western art more broadly. A study of the history of the museum from its colonial inception to its postcolonial iterations will foreground the ways in which museums were mobilized for imperial and nationalist aspirations in and beyond South Asia. We will examine key exhibitions including the 1984-85 "Primitivism" in 20th Century Art show at the MOMA, the 1985-86 Festival of India, and the 2014 Yoga exhibition at the Freer Sackler Museum. A speaking Shiva sculpture will open for us the arguments for and against the repatriation of stolen antiquities. We will conclude with a reflection on museums' varying roles in the present and an invitation to imagine new ways to transform museums into spaces of diversity, inclusion, social justice, and anti-racism.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 328 - Nonextant Art and the Early Modern World
What do we learn from objects, images, texts, and performances that no longer exist? How do we write histories of things that have been violently destroyed, involuntarily lost, or deliberately left to decay over time? What is the role of the conservator in recreating lost works of art? What do nonextant things tell us about trauma and collective memory? In this course, we study works that can no longer be experienced firsthand to explore how nonextant art informs our understanding of the past. This course is a team-taught collaboration between the art departments at Reed College and Lewis & Clark College
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 332 - Art and Archaeology in Early China
This course will explore artifacts excavated in China from the height of the Neolithic period (c. 4000-2000 BCE) to the end of the eastern Han dynasty (25-220 CE). Excavated objects from these periods rarely have accompanying textual explanations. Instead, we rely primarily on archaeology, which provides the raw material for understanding the distant past and constructs temporal narratives that account for the categorical differences between artifacts. With the rise of material culture studies in the field of art history, enigmatic objects that fell within the domain of archaeology may now have art-historical explanations. The course is organized chronologically by archaeological site. Secondary textual sources and comparative studies with other sites will be used to refine our understanding of artisans and their craft and the social and cultural functions of objects. What types of training did artisans undergo? What sources (manuals, tacit knowledge, guild practices, etc.) provided the necessary skills for artisans to work? How was labor divided and what were the social structures in place that dictated artisans' modes of production? How were these objects used and circulated by the living and the dead?
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 334 - Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art
This course focuses on twentieth- to twenty-first-century Chinese visual culture and will be organized loosely around four phases of art production during the past hundred or so years. It begins with the major transition from the imperial Qing dynasty to the tumultuous Republican period in 1911, paying close attention to discussions on Western and Chinese artistic practices that arose at this critical political junction. We then turn to art production under Mao Zedong beginning in 1942, with his famous Talks on Literature and Art presented in Yan'an, in which art became an integral part of his social and political platforms. From there, we examine the visual objects produced during and shortly after the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Finally, the rapid pace of China's economic growth has also greatly affected its visual material. In the last half of the semester, we will seek to critically examine the process in which China has become one of the most exciting geographic regions for thinking about contemporary art, and the ways in which artists have chosen to depict and negotiate their changing realities.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 335 - (Trans)Nationalism and Indian Cinema
Described by author Salman Rushdie as "Epico-Mythico-Tragico-Comico-Super-Sexy-High-Masala-Art," popular Hindi cinema-or "Bollywood"-brings to mind song and dance, epic melodrama, romance, violence, pastiche, or pandemonium at its chaotic best (Rushdie, 1995). Yet films have also served as significant cultural artifacts in the building and maintaining of a national consciousness in and beyond the nation-state of India. The question of an "Indian identity," as we shall see, takes myriad forms in relation to shifting contexts of colonialism, postcolonialism, and globalization. In this course, we will consider how films like Lagaan (2001) both posit idealized visions of a collective national identity and, simultaneously, reinforce exclusionary attitudes toward minority religious, regional, and caste groups. Keeping in mind that the Hindi film industry remains one of the many constituents that make up Indian cinema, we will view Indian films that extend beyond the sphere of Bollywood, such as Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala (1991) and Mani Ratnam's Roja (1992) to interrogate the version of the imagined nation as articulated through popular Hindi cinema. Taking into consideration the transnational histories of Indian cinema, we will also analyze representations of homeland, migration, and diasporic identity with films such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Bhaji on the Beach (2002). By combining the formal analysis of popular Hindi film-its narrative structures, cinematography, songs, dances, and other distinctive formal conventions-with critical insight from race, gender, sexuality, class, and caste studies, we will think, discuss, and write about the politics of Indian cinema.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 336 - Art and Cartography
This course explores the intersections of art and cartography across a variety of time periods and geographic regions. Rather than being organized chronologically or geographically, the course will proceed in thematic units that transcend the disciplinary boundaries that often divide the study of art and maps, such as landscape, travel, urban planning, diagrams, and grids. While the course will not provide the technical skills of mapmaking with modern technologies such as GIS, it is nonetheless especially interested in how attention paid to the processes involved in mapmaking reveal different ways of visualizing data that are commensurate with the more common forms of artmaking in art history. The goal of the course is to use cartography as an entry point for further exploration into the relationships between art and science, more broadly.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
ART 337 - Queer Arts After Stonewall
What did queer art become when the closet was no longer the dominant structure of queer life? In this class, we will study how queer art practices re-imagined artistic modernity as well as the social and political values that structured heteronormativity. In this framing, we will think together about technology and modes of production; race and racialization; public spheres, counter-publics and other models of collective life; sex and sexual practices; and other experiments with sex, gender, embodiment, and personhood. Some of the artists and writers we discuss include: Douglas Crimp, John Paul Ricco, Andy Warhol, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Zach Blas, Susan Stryker, Jonathan Flatley, Homay King, Sadie Benning, Cheryl Dunye, David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Samuel Delaney, Sharon Hayes, Tavia Nyong'o, Vaginal Davis, Jacolby Satterwhite.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 346 - Introduction to Media Studies
See FMST 302 for description.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 350 - Oceans, Rains, Rivers, Pools: Histories of Water
Why did artists from the regional courts of India paint poetic visions of rains, lakes, and rivers during periods of drought? How can the ocean serve as an archive, metaphor, and method for thinking about early modern and colonial material cultures, trade, and mobility? How do media images of environmental catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina make visible, and invisible, the ocular tactics of biopolitical racism? How do our current water crises demand a wholesale rethinking of how we write and think about art? This class will focus on water as a subject and a methodology for studying early modern, colonial, and contemporary visual cultures. We will study a range of case studies, including regional Indian paintings, early modern hydro-architecture in South Asia, material cultures shaped by the Manila galleon trade and Indian Ocean trade networks, media images of environmental catastrophes, recent museum exhibitions on climate change, and more. Our studies will be supplemented by writings in art history, environmental humanities, anthropology, and new materialism. We will also consider the emergence of an art historiography of water that has been shaped by the ecological turn in the humanities
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 351 - Making Space
Space isn't an empty, neutral vehicle in which artworks simply appear for public consumption. While an artwork makes the space for its own display, spaces do their own work to determine the range, impact, and execution of an artwork within them. But when all space is necessarily coded as real estate, all but the most famous and privileged artists will struggle to make space not just for their own work, but to support other artists and build various forms of community. In this, present-day Portland is both an exemplary and a distinctive case. This art history class will visit a number of art spaces that are commonly understood as small, alternative, or experimental, although this in no way predefines their relationship to institutionality. Each week we will spend time with and, most weeks, in a different space around Portland, talking to the people who established and run those spaces. In these conversations, we will ask about their engagement with their communities, why and how they established their space, the uses and valences of institutionality, and the relationship between art's attempts to make space and the ongoing processes of gentrification in and around Portland. Participating spaces/collectives include home school, Physical Education, Pochas Radicales, Portland Museum of Modern Art, Sunday Painters Group, The Residency in the Garden, and more. We will meet once per week, in the evening, for 3 hours in order to facilitate travel.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 354 - Performing Mediation (Video Art, 1960-2000)
Video art began with artists turning the camera on their own bodies and their own studios. But far from being a privatized art form, the video medium implicates various popular media, including home video, cinema, television, and, more recently, webcams and online video. We will study the aesthetic precursors of video art as well as the histories of the popular media with which video art is historically and technologically enmeshed. Central to our discussions will be questions of media as well as questionings of embodiment, focusing particularly on gender and race. We will look at a wide range of video practices (analog, digital, closed-channel, broadcast, networked). We will watch videos together in class, but students should also expect to spend time each week watching videos outside of class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 365 - Intersection: Architecture, Landscape Sculpture
This advanced studio sculpture course explores architectural and landscape-based works. Reading and research will focus on artists and architects from the 1970s to the present who use public process and sustainable materials to design and build innovative forms within urban spaces. The class will create a set of potential design solutions for a site in Portland. Studio training will include drafting, drawing, and planning strategies and building scale models in wood and metal. Knowledge of Google SketchUp and or Photoshop desired. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 368 - Image and Text: The Book as a Sculptural Object
This course explores the significant role artists' books have played among the avant-garde of eastern and western Europe and the United States from the turn of the twentieth century to the present. The structural format book works take and their social and political functions will be viewed, discussed, and fabricated. The course will cover binding both codex and accordion books, reproducing images using palmer plates, and setting and printing type and images using a Reprex letterpress. Reed's special collections will provide a spectrum of professional artists' books, including magazine works, anthologies, diaries, manifestos, visual poetry, word works, documentation, albums, comic books, and mail art. We will read and discuss essays relating to each studio problem. Students are required to attend workshops and do studio work outside of class times.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 370 - Environmental Art
This studio art class focuses on species entanglements under climate change. Working from a multimedia art practice, we will consider the ways that power structures shape the environment. How do the hauntings from ongoing species extinctions impact us and what can we do about it? To do this work, we will draw on BioArt, feminist science, community ecology, and environmental policy to develop our individual and collective artistic research practices. We will consider the material histories involved in our art making and how those materials and practices can interrogate changing ecologies. We will expand our understandings of animism and kinship with the more-than-human world and question if artistic collaboration is possible with non-humans. We will research, germinate, and caretake plants and other beings, focusing on those that have histories resisting oppression or as biomedicines. By expanding our ecological research as artists, we can illuminate new and vibrant ways to work within the environment.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 371 - Intermediate Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking I
The first part of the course will involve exploratory drawing toward a project to be proposed and executed over the rest of the semester. The project might involve continued work in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, or two-dimensional mixed media. The course serves as a junior seminar with weekly discussions of critical essays and articles, and short papers. Past readings have focused on modernist art and theory from 1940 to 1970; postmodernism and critical issues in art since 1970; nineteenth- and twentieth-century aesthetics; notions of beauty in contemporary art; pictorial representations of irony; and artist self-representation and intentionality.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.);
ART 372 - Intermediate Experiments in Painting, Drawing, and Printmaking
We will develop and articulate individual research approaches to an art-making practice. By working with traditional art mediums while also creating our own experimental inks, paints, and stains, we will consider how to give form to narrative through composition, color, and materiality. The first part of the course will involve exploratory mark making towards a research-based project to be proposed and executed over the rest of the semester. The project might involve continued work in drawing, painting, printmaking, collage, or experimental mixed media. In a weekly studio section that will include lectures, videos, discussions, and field trips, we will encounter and learn terms and concepts common to contemporary visual culture, ecology, design, and activism. Students will create multimedia works in the studio and the field, and thoughtfully discuss their own and each other's work.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 374 - New Media/Old Media-Experiments in Optical Media and Computation
The course will examine and experiment with various forms of old and analog media combined with new and speculative twenty-first-century media technology to see if they can be productively remade and integrated into contemporary art practices. Our goal is to defamiliarize photography and new/digital media by finding alternative uses, or by revisiting a time when they had not separated themselves into distinct and different discourses looking at historical devices, methods, and tools that shared common aspirations and limitations. Technical, aesthetic, and conceptual possibilities are explored through studio workshops, projects, readings, slide presentations, lab work, and critiques. Students must be highly self-motivated and will be expected to design independent projects.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 376 - Photography as Daily Practice
Photography as Daily Practice builds upon the foundational engagements with photography, emphasizing independent work alongside structured exploration of photo books, narrative, and serial photography. Through independent projects, students will deepen their practice, exploring the daily act of photography as a medium for expression and social engagement. This course fosters a critical and creative environment, encouraging students to develop a significant body of work that showcases their individual perspective, supported by regular critiques, workshops, and discussions.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 382 - Installation/Participation
An advanced sculpture/multimedia course investigating research-based and social art practices including the intersection of art, science, and society. Students may make work in any 2D, 3D, or time-based medium they are comfortable with, including performance and electronic media, to create installation-based works that inform and immerse the viewer. All sculpture construction shops and tools are available, including laser cutting, 3D printing, and casting. Weekly readings will include contemporary art theory, feminist theory, and critical race theory, and will center on artists working directly with social and political issues at the intersection of art, science, and society.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 388 - Socially Engaged Art Forms
Socially Engaged Art Forms, also referred to as social practice, are rapidly developing areas of the contemporary art world. Much of this work is embedded within the contexts from which the works are derived-a distinctive component of how this work functions. This can also be described as the creation of space for conversation, sharing of experiences, and information, or connections to people and places for specific and/or exploratory purposes. This is all conducted with consideration for each of the underlying elements as individual artistic and creative decisions. In this course we will explore projects that center specific people and communities as well as places, things, and events. Students who are excited to engage with other classmates and collaborate to do work in the Reed community and beyond using an equitable and social justice-informed lens make strong candidates for this class.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 390 - Realism and Its Discontents in Contemporary Chinese Visual Media
See CHIN 390 for description.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 393 - Art of Writing
This course is a survey of the history and aesthetics of Chinese calligraphy from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE) through the Qing dynasty (1644-1912). In addition to familiarizing students to the calligraphy of this period, this course also seeks to bring into conversation early Chinese theories on writing and contemporary art historical literature on the relationship between words and images. Some questions that will guide the general theoretical arc of the course include how the origins and development of the Chinese writing systems inform its later incarnations as an inextricable part of literati art; what it might mean to emphasize the look of writing more than its linguistic characteristics; and how an everyday skill (writing for the sake of communication) and medium (brush and ink) become an art.
- Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
- Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
- Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).
ART 414 - Appropriation and Transformation in Early Modern Art
This course will explore the myriad ways in which early modern European artists took forms, media, materials, and subjects from other cultures and transformed them into something different. These acts of transformations could be violent, ignorant, admiring, relatively benign, or even unintentional. We will consider what was at stake in these transformations, what was changed, how and why they happened, and what role they played in the broader context of cultural contact in the early modern period. We will analyze the terminology of these "transformations," and focus in particular on the term "appropriation" and its relationship to power. The latter part of the semester will be devoted to looking at how early modern European art has been commented upon, transformed, remade, and translated by curators and contemporary artists.
ART 470 - Thesis
ART 481 - Independent Projects or Independent Reading
Independent courses are usually offered only to students already admitted to the division as art majors.
ART 537 - Queer Arts After Stonewall
What did queer art become when the closet was no longer the dominant structure of queer life? In this class, we will study how queer art practices re-imagined artistic modernity as well as the social and political values that structured heteronomativity. In this framing, we will think together about technology and modes of production; race and racialization; public spheres, counter-publics and other models of collective life; sex and sexual practices; and other experiments with sex, gender, embodiment, and personhood. Some of the artists and writers we discuss include: Douglas Crimp, John Paul Ricco, Andy Warhol, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Zach Blas, Susan Stryker, Jonathan Flatley, Homay King, Sadie Benning, Cheryl Dunye, David Wojnarowicz, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Samuel Delaney, Sharon Hayes, Tavia Nyong'o, Vaginal Davis, Jacolby Satterwhite.
ART 551 - Theories of Visuality
Theories of visuality are central to debates in the humanities. Interdisciplinary approaches to art have changed the parameters of our objects of study. Such changes have resulted in new relationships of words to images and objects, as well as innovative conceptual tools available to interpret all three. In this course we will examine the phenomena of cultural production and consumption of a range of media, asking how images and objects function and how they mediate what we see and experience. Through shared readings, student presentations, and written projects, we will consider issues of form, representation, and knowledge, and the politics of ascribing meaning and value.