As registration for the Fall 2018 academic semester begins soon, I wanted to provide more information about courses I will begin teaching starting September, 2018. Please see detailed descriptions below. If you have any specific questions that are not answered here, you can contact me directly. I look forward to another rich and engaging semester with both new and familiar faces. **NOTE: Pre-requisite changes for ARTH 3100 allow for more flexibility in registration for non-Fine Arts students**
ARTH 3100: ART AND FASHION
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Wednesday's 7:00-9:50pm, Surrey Campus Fir 120). Prerequisites: 6 credits of ARTH or 18 credits of 1100-level courses or higher, and ENGL 1100, or permission of Instructor.
How does the world of art intersect with the world of fashion? Where are the real and imagined dividing lines, and why do they exist? Fashion designers like visual artists are curious about shape, line, colour, and form, and they all construct imagined worlds through creative expression to share with an audience. Spanning several eras and contexts and covering a range of artists, designers, and mediums, including a close look at recent art and fashion exhibitions held in world class museums, this course will unpack how and why the systems that define the world of art and fashion overlap and at times conflict.
*note* ARTH 3100 is being offered in anticipation of the FINE ARTS LONDON/VENICE BIENNALE 2019 Field School planned for May/June 2019. This course is a fantastic accompaniment to the itinerary and themes of the field school focused on the transformation of modern and contemporary art in connection to consumer culture, lifestyle branding, and the rise of the celebrity artist/designer.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides an introduction to the complex ways in which the world of fashion and the world of art intersect, focusing mainly on developments from the 19th through 21st century and the visual cultures of Europe and North America more specifically. Emphasis will be placed on the transformation of modern and contemporary art in connection to shifting trends in fashion, fashion design, and fashion exhibition/marketing, taking a closer look at how changes in political ideology, industrialization, rapid urban growth, global commerce, and the new media technologies of an expanding consumer culture helped redefine a wide range of overlapping visual culture. Throughout the term we will examine different “case studies” of specific designers and artists and their collaborations, exploring how and why the dividing lines between art and fashion are policed, but also at times transgressed.
Importantly, this seminar will also consider, within the context of raising questions about fashion as art, the constructed nature of the discipline of art history, challenging assumptions, both historical and contemporary, regarding the nature of art, its relation to different cultural, social, political, and commercial institutions, and issues of patronage and viewing publics.
ARTH 1130: INTRODUCTION TO FILM STUDIES
The evolving role of Hollywood studios and the emergence of the movie sequels/prequels and franchise film phenomenon is just one of many topics explored in this course.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Friday's 1:00-4:50pm, Surrey Campus Fir 128). Prerequisites: None
The ever popular film studies course is continuing to evolve and update to consider recent developments in the film industry, together with new research that links histories of cinema's past to its present. This is a course that will have you thinking critically about motion pictures long after the final exam-- it also provides an opportunity to visit and see films at the Vancouver International Film Festival (September 27- October 12).
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students will study the history and development of world cinema, and the comprehension and theory of film as a visual language and art-making practice from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the critical interpretation of the cinema and the various vocabularies and methods with which one can explore the aesthetic function, together with the social, political, and technological contexts and developments, of moving pictures. The format of this course (as a 4 hour block each class) will normally entail a one hour lecture, the screening of a full-length film, and a focused group discussion. Each film will serve as a starting point and gateway for discussion about the course’s daily theme.
ARTH 1140: INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL ART, URBAN, AND SCREEN CULTURE
This course will explore case studies in street and graffiti art, hip-hop and punk culture, video gaming, anime, new media and Internet art, urban performance art, activist art, grassroots fashion, street photography, and the world of mobile photography and filmmaking.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Wednesday's 4:00-6:50pm, Surrey Campus Fir 128). Prerequisites: None
Formulated to compliment ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies, this course extends the conversation about screen culture to the world of urban studies and public art. We begin with the question "How do we navigate and make sense of the fast-changing world of new urban visual environments and the emerging world of screen culture?" and explore case studies in street and graffiti art, hip-hop and punk culture, video gaming, anime, new media and Internet art, urban performance art, activist art, grassroots fashion, street photography, and the world of mobile photography and filmmaking.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Students will study the broad field of contemporary visual art and culture with a specific focus on the role of urban environments and the emerging world of screen culture in shaping new possibilities for global art production and circulation. Students will explore how they can become active agents rather than passive observers through engagement with the diversity of visual art and culture surrounding them. They will investigate interdisciplinary topics connecting the world of visual art with urban and screen cultures through case studies in street and graffiti art, hip-hop and punk culture, video gaming, anime, new media and Internet art, urban performance art, activist art, grassroots fashion, street photography, and the world of mobile photography and filmmaking.
CA 167: VISUAL ART & CULTURE I
Why did Beyonce choose this particular painting at the Louvre (Jacques Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon (1805-07) to feature in a recent music video? How do the themes and issues evoked in this work of art resonate with us today? Find out when you study the art history of the 19th century in CA 167.
Simon Fraser University (Thursdays 6:30-9:20pm, Vancouver Harbour Centre Campus 1700). No Prerequisites.
Offered as a core required course in SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts, CA 167 offers an introduction the visual arts of the nineteenth century, with a critical focus on the roots of modernism and the avant-garde. If you have ever wondered how Western art evolved from its more traditional, Renaissance roots to the challenging and at times difficult-to-understand contemporary art of today, this is the course that holds many of your answers.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course provides an introduction to the complex ways in which social and political change, and ideologies of gender, class, race and ethnicity, worked to shape aspects of nineteenth century visual culture in Europe and North America. Emphasis will be placed on the roles played by industrialization, political revolution, rapid urban growth, global commerce, and the new media technologies of an expanding consumer culture in defining a wide range of visual culture. Throughout the term we will also examine different representations and debates around the idea of modernity and the “modern.” Since the time period under investigation has often been called “The First Modern Century”, we will pay particular attention to shifting ideas related to labour and leisure, urban social space and spectacle, and issues bearing on Euro-American expansion of empires in relation to indigenous populations, throughout the nineteenth century to turn of the twentieth century up to WWI.