ART-255 Living in a Material World: Unexpected Art Objects

This course will examine works of visual and material culture that fit within the art historical discourse in unexpected or untraditional ways. Beginning from the interdisciplinary tactics of material culture studies, students will gain a more expansive view of what constitutes an art object. As both markers and makers of cultural systems and narratives, the visual and material worlds intersect through their agency as objects. Students will explore the vibrancy of “stuff” and how the mechanisms of thinking about “things” differ across time. In examining humanity’s conspicuous consumption and the physicality of the visual world, students will learn the ways that we create our worlds, but also the ways those same worlds create us. 4 credits