Al-An deSouza
This class focuses on multiple approaches to thinking and writing about art in the context of key debates that have emerged so forcefully in recent years, particularly around political divisions, climate change, race, gender, and sexuality, and ideas around freedom. We consider what roles art plays in these times, and its capacities for resistance, healing, and imagining different futures.
Students practice identifying and translating their own experiences, emotions, and opinions into language, and gain familiarity with the aesthetics and histories of a broad range of media and disciplines. We examine different terminologies used for discussing art, questions of who speaks, whose voice is heard, objectivity and subjectivity, how to address “controversial” subject matter, and so on.
We examine what values and expectations are assigned to and expected from art, including what constitutes “good” and “bad,” ugliness and beauty, and to what extent these values are politicized. Assignments emphasize first-hand experience of interviews and in-person looking at art during field trips.