NEW COURSE OFFERINGS FOR SPRING, 2009
Art 270 Topics: Islamic Art (An Introduction to Islamic Art and Architecture from the Prophet's Death to the Present). T/Th 9:30/9:35 – 10:50/11, Spring '09. Professor Venu Maddipati
In this course, we will examine how Islam has succeeded as a religious and cultural force in part through the flourishing of aesthetic practices and forms across time and vast geopolitical distances. Beginning with an examination of the Prophet's house in Medina and proceeding through the growth of Islamic Art and Architecture under the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Fatimids, the Timurids, the Safavids, the Mughals, the Ottomans and British and French Colonial rule, we will explore how continuing collective memories of the early Islamic world and the pre-Islamic world created fertile terrain for the "pragmatic" re-articulation of "idealized" proto-types. The course will examine how such items as ivories, textiles, miniature book-illustrations, miniature paintings, metalwork, which have enjoyed a high degree of mobility and visibility through the medium of trade and exchange in times of peace and war, have served the purpose of transmitting information about proportion and iconic orthodoxy. This information, as we will observe, has also constantly informed vernacular forms of art and architecture, providing Islamic and Islamicate societies with new political stratagems. In this course, we will approach material geographically and chronologically while at the same time exploring how material history, geography and chronology in the Islamic world are vitally integrated into a single but mobile and constantly changing continuum. This will be a seminar course. Students should have some knowledge of art history and/or Islam.
Art 228 Interactive Image
T/Th 11:45/12:45 – 2:45/3:45, Spring '09. Professor Dave Ryan
This course provides an introduction to the computer as a tool for creating interactive imagery. During the semester, students utilize digital painting, drawing, scanning, image manipulation, digitized sound,video to produce interactive images. Class projects include websites, Flash animations and games. Relationships between traditional and electronic art forms are explored. Prerequisites: Art 104, 117 or permission of the instructor. Materials fee. Offered bi-annually.
