ART APPRECIATION

Description

This course is a 3-unit course for second-year students that will be taken for 18 weeks or 54 hours for a lecture course. This course aims to provide students the opportunity to observe, participate in, or otherwise experience works of art in order to appreciate their role and purpose in life. Students will be exposed to various works of art, ranging from classical art forms to modern art installations, performance art, indie films, enhanced e-books, and multi-media aesthetics.

These works of art will be examined from an aesthetic point of view and also as reflections or critiques of the societies that produced them. The course will thus build upon and hone the skill of understanding, critical appreciation, and expression of one’s views.

At the end of the course, the students must be able to approach a work of art from a perspective informed by the history and tradition of art and the social milieu in which it was produced as well as the perspective of aesthetics. Such an approach would require a written appraisal of the meaning and value of the works of art taken up in class and possible some within the immediate vicinity of the student’s experience. The written essays must clearly demonstrate not only understanding and appreciation of a specified work of art, but also a sense of the work’s importance in life, culture, and history.