Weekly Schedule of Readings and Discussion Topics -- Spring 2013

Additional materials such as study questions, handouts, supplementary readings, etc. will be made available online through the links below.

Required readings and videos are due on the class meeting listed below. Projects and exercises are due for discussion the following week.

Week 1 (Jan 31) -- Visual Studies and Visual Culture

Required Reading
> Timothy Quigley, Course Introduction [PDF]

Assignment for Next Week
> The Familiar and the Unfamiliar [PDF]

Week 2 (Feb 7) -- Eye and Mind: Scientific Perspectives

Required Reading
> Oliver Sacks, “The Mind’s Eye: What the Blind See” [PDF]

Required Viewing
> What is Time?, Episode 1, Michio Kaku [HTML—Mobile Version]
> What is Time?, Episode 1, Michio Kaku [HTML—Computer Version Playlist (all 6 sections)]

Optional Viewing/Listening
> Oliver Sacks, Short Videos Discussing Visual Phenomena [HTML]
> Radiolab discussion between John Hull and Zoltan Torey [HTML]

Supplementary Material
> Timothy Quigley, Short Summary of the Discussion [PDF]
> Historical Excerpts from the Philosophy of Perception [PDF]

Assignment for Next Week
> Something that Matters [PDF]

> Class Presentation — Midterm Assignment [PDF]

Week 3 (Feb 14) -- Visuality and Active Seeing: Philosophical Perspectives

Required Reading
> Alva Noë, “Experience and Experiment in Art” [PDF]
> Alva Noë, Excerpt from Action in Perception [PDF]

Required Viewing
> Fabric: What is Space?, Episode 1, Brian Greene [HTML]

Supplementary Materials
> Slide Presentation: Perception [HTML]
> Video illustrating Change Blindness [HTML]

Week 4 (Feb. 21) -- Seeing and Knowing, Mystification and Objectification

Required Reading
John Berger, Ways of Seeing [7-81]

Week 5 (Feb 28) -- Class Cancelled

Week 6 (Mar 7) -- Power and Commodity

Required Reading
John Berger, Ways of Seeing [83-155]

Supplementary Materials
> Kenneth Clark, Civilisation: A Personal View, Episode 1 (beginning - 7' 24") [HTML]
> John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Part 1 (beginning - 7' 24"; 20' 55" - conclusion) [HTML]
> Kenneth Clark, Civilisation, Episode 4 (5' 15" - 9' 20") [HTML]
> John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Part 2 (3' 00" - 13' 55") [HTML]
> Sylvia Sleigh, The Turkish Bath, 1973 [HTML]
> John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Part 3 (7' 02" - 11' 53"; 18' 56" - 24' 02") [HTML]
> John Berger, Ways of Seeing, Part 4 (conclusion 27' 00") [HTML]
> Kenneth Clark, Civilisation, Episode 13 (45' 15") [HTML]

Required Reading
> John Berger, "Appearances" [SocialBook]
Our reading and class discussion this week will take place on the SocialBook website.
> Introduction to SocialBook [HTML]

Week 8 (Mar 21) -- Another Way of Telling

Required Reading
> John Berger, "Appearances" [PDF]

<< Spring Break — No Classes — March 28>>

Week 9 (Apr 4) -- Into the Digital, Of Pixels and Paradox

Required Reading
Fred Ritchin, After Photography, Chapters 1 & 2

Presentations
Into the Digital
Of Pixels and Paradox

Week 10 (Apr 11) -- From Zero to One, Mosaic Connections

Required Reading
Fred Ritchin, After Photography, Chapters 3 & 4

Presentations
From Zero to One
Mosaic Connections

Week 11 (Apr 18) -- Image, War, Legacy; Beginning the Conversation

Required Reading
Fred Ritchin, After Photography, Chapters 5 & 6

Presentations
Image, War, Legacy
Beginning the Conversation

Week 12 (Apr 25) -- The Social Photograph, Toward a Hyperphotography

Required Reading
Fred Ritchin, After Photography, Chapters 7 & 8

Presentations
The Social Photograph
Toward a Hyperphotography

Week 13 (May 2) -- Of Synthetics and Cyborgs, A Quantum Leap

Required Reading
Fred Ritchin, After Photography, Chapters 9 & 10

Presentations
Of Synthetics and Cyborgs
A Quantum Leap

Week 14 (May 9) -- Final Projects

Required Reading

Week 15 (May 16)--- Final Projects

Required Reading

Last Update: 19 Mar 13