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Undergraduate Courses 2012-2013
The Visual Arts Department at Western is prepared to offer a broad range of courses in Studio, Art History and Visual Culture. Not all courses in the program will be offered in each academic year, but we endeavour to offer a spectrum of courses to enable students to complete their modules in a timely way. If you have questions about this year’s offerings, please contact the Department.
Course Listings |
Information for Courses |
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Important Message to All VA Students regarding Art Criticism Course Requirement: Students registered in the Honours Specialization in Visual Arts, the Honors Specialization in Studio Art, the Major in Visual Arts, and the Major in Museum and Curatorial Studies are required to take 1 course in Art Criticism. Normally this is VAS2281F and VAS3381G. However, this year a FULL COURSE, VAS3380E is being offered instead. Students in 2nd or 3rd year may register for this course to fulfill their Art Criticism requirement. To view when specific courses are offered please refer to the Offical UWO Academic Timetable. For course despcriptions please see the UWO Academic Calendar.
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For a list of courses that are available for external students without prerequisites click here. |
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Downloads for CoursesApplication for Independent
Study
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ART HISTORY
Course # & Outlines |
Course Title |
Instructor |
| VAH 1040 | History of Art & Visual Culture | Barteet |
| VAH 1052G | Art and Popular Culture Thursday > 8:30-11:30 am |
Kellett |
| VAH 1053F | Picturing Science |
Gregory |
| VAH 2230F | History of the Moving Image |
Lyons |
| VAH 2235F | What (Not) to Wear: Fashion, Textiles and Art I (Fall 2012) Tuesdays > 2:30-5:30 pm |
Robertson |
| VAH 2236G | What (Not) to Wear: Fashion, Textiles and Art II (WInter 2013) –Tuesdays > 2:30-5:30 pm |
Elliot |
| VAH 2240E | Art History & Visual Culture Tuesday > 11:30-2:30 pm |
Aylen |
| VAH 2242G | History of Photography |
Bassnett |
| VAH 2253E | Romanesque and Gothic Art Wednesday > 2:30-5:30 pm |
Brush |
| VAH 2266F | Pre-Contact American Art & Architecture |
Barteet |
| VAH 3384 | Introduction to Gallery Practices |
Edelstein |
| VAH 3385E | Introduction to Museum Studies |
Robertson |
| VAH 3386G | Histories of Collecting, Museums and Heritage Studies |
Radu |
| VAH 3388G | Histories of Architecture & Urbanism |
Barteet |
| VAH 3390G | Special Topic In Art History: Gender and Sexuality |
Black |
| VAH 3392F | Special Topic In Art History: |
Villar |
| VAH 4451G | Seminar in Medieval Art: Romanesque and Neo-Romanesque: Medieval Visual Culture in Translation |
Brush |
| VAH 4478G | Seminar in Contemporary Art |
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VISUAL ARTS STUDIO
Course # |
Course Title |
Instructor |
VAS 1020 001 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
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VAS 1020 002 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
Johnson |
VAS 1020 003 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
Johnson |
VAS 1020 004 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
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VAS 1020 005 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
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VAS 1020 006 |
Foundations of Visual Arts |
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VAS 1025 001 |
Advanced Foundations |
Mahon |
VAS 1025 002 |
Advanced Foundations |
Glabush |
| VAS 2100A/B | Image Explorations | Turnbull/Moore |
| VAS 2104A/B 001 | Drawing Explorations | Farnan/Peters |
| VAS 2104A/B 002 | Drawing Explorations | Mueller/Solti |
| VAS 2204A | Intro to Drawing | Yabut/Hobot |
| VAS 2216B | Intro to Painting | Yabut/Hobot |
| VAS 2210 001 | Drawing/Painting |
Williams |
| VAS 2210 002 | Drawing/Painting |
Klassan |
| VAS 2220 | Sculpture | Hallows |
| VAS 2236A/B | Introduction to Print Media |
Johnson/Quail |
| VAS 2244A | Intro to Photography |
Kemp/Tarini |
| VAS 2246A | Digital Photography |
Myhr |
| VAS 2246B | Digital Photography | Wood |
| VAS 2250 001 | Intro to Contemporary Media | Myhr |
| VAS 2250 002 | Intro to Contemporary Media |
Sneppova |
| VAS 2274A | Art Now! I | Jazvac |
| VAS 2275B | Art Now! II | Robertson |
| VAS 2282A 001 | Honors Seminar Studio I | Moodie |
| VAS 2282B 001 | Honors Seminar Studio I | Pak |
| VAS 3300 | Advanced Drawing | Howelett |
| VAS 3310 | Advanced Painting | Glabush/Neudorf |
| VAS 3320 | Advanced Sculpture |
Jazvac |
| VAS 3330 | Advanced Printmaking | Mahon |
| VAS 3340 | Advanced Photography | Wood |
| VAS 3351/4451A | Time-based Production I: Digital Sound |
Myhr |
| VAS 3352/4452B | Time-based Production II: Digital Video |
Myhr |
| VAS 3380E | Art Criticism |
Buj |
| VAS 3382B | Honors Studio Seminar II | Moodie |
| VAS 3384 | Introduction to Gallery Practices | Edelstein |
| VAS 3385E | Introduction to Museum Studies | Robertson |
| VAS 4430 | Practicum | Howlett/Miner |
| VAS 4448 | Advanced 4th Year Studio Seminar |
Moodie |
Course Descriptions
Art History
VAH 2230F History of the Moving Image – Wednesdays > 2:30-5:30 pm
This course will explore a history of the moving image in Western visual culture from the 19th century to the present. While we will consider dominant modes of cinematic production (Hollywood, for instance) and projection (the conventional movie theatre), we will concentrate on the way in which artists and cultural producers have used film and video to analyze, oppose, critique, or parody the mainstream culture industry. This course will navigate both the changes in moving image technology in the 20th century (from film to video, from movie theatre to iPad) and the creative use of this technology by artists and experimental filmmakers.
Students who may be uncomfortable viewing explicit content should contact the instructor prior to enrolling in the course.
VAH 2235F What (Not) to Wear: Fashion, Textiles and Art I (Fall 2012) - Tuesdays > 2:30-5:30 pm
This course looks at convergences between art and fashion from the 19th century to now. From the catwalk to the sweatshop, this class investigates how clothing ends up in our hands, and asks what we can learn from its passages across the globe. How the making, wearing and disposal of fashion impacts the world? From the high fashion scenes of designers such as Alexander McQueen and Hussein Chalayan to the lesser known world of prison couture, and from low-tech hand-knitting to the high-tech world of intelligent textiles, smart fabrics and wearable technologies, this class will introduce students to the many layers and wide expanse of the fashion industry, particularly as it intersects with the art world. Please note that this course complements VAH 2236G but can also be taken separately.
VAH 2236G What (Not) to Wear: Fashion, Textiles and Art II (WInter 2013) – Tuesdays > 2:30-5:30 pm
This course looks at convergences between art and fashion from the 19th century to now.
It will consider the work of artists like Sonia Delaunay and Issey Miyake who have designed textiles and clothing as well as more popular cultural icons such as Lady Gaga and Madonna whose distinctive styles reference the art world. We will trace the complex histories of textile production with its patterns and fibres such as paisley and felt, not to mention particular items of clothing like the corset and saree. We will also examine how subcultural styles -- from skinhead and goth to rapper and steampunk -- have been defined, mixed and mashed. Central to all of these topics is the way fashion has been exhibited in museums, films and the media as well as on television and the internet. Finally, the everyday art of DIY refashioning and retrochic will set the stage for studying antifashion and ecofashion. Please note that this course complements VAH 2235F but can also be taken separately.
VAH 2240E Art History & Visual Culture – Tuesday > 11:30-2:30 pm
An introduction to historical and contemporary theories, methods, and practices for the study of art history and visual culture.
VAH 2242G History of Photography – Monday > 11:30-2:30 pm
This course takes a thematic and generally chronological approach to the history of photography. We examine the social and cultural role of photography in order to consider how photography has been mobilized to advance particular political agendas and how it has influenced ideas about people from various classes and cultures. We also investigate the field of art photography, where our focus is on stylistic movements from pictorialism to postmodernism. Throughout the course, we look at the work of key photographers, we read the work of important theorists, critics, and historians, and we consider some of the recent theoretical debates about photography and its history. The learning outcomes for the course will be achieved through lectures, readings, discussions, films, in-class activities, tests, and written assignments.
VAH 2253E Romanesque and Gothic Art –Wednesday > 2:30-5:30 pm
This course investigates the art and visual culture of medieval Europe from the eleventh through fifteenth centuries. It will examine the sources, “invention,” and varied manifestations of the visual languages now termed “Romanesque” and “Gothic,” and will engage with works in all media, including architecture, sculpture, stained glass, manuscript illumination, ivory carving, and metalwork. Emphasis will be placed on consideration of the cultural and historical contexts of the objects/buildings, and on study of the wide-ranging purposes and audiences for which they were made. Discussions of such issues as monasticism, religious pilgrimage, the building and decoration of cathedrals, devotional practices, and mysticism will further help students to gain an understanding of the originality and complexity of medieval visual culture, and its continuing relevance today.
VAH 2266F Pre-Contact American Art & Architecture – Wednesday > 11:30-2:30 pm
This course will introduce students to the arts of the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America from the Prehistoric times until the early colonial era. Relying on a thematic organization, we will consider how artworks, whether weavings, baskets, ceramics, sculptures, paintings, or architecture, reflect the worldviews of the indigenous Americans who created and use them. By using an interdisciplinary approach, we will study these cultures and artworks from the perspectives of art history, anthropology, archaeology, history, and ethnography. Our interdisciplinary perspective will assist us in partially reconstructing the cultural practices of these American societies prior to contact with the Europeans who arrived in the sixteenth century.
VAH 3384 – Introduction to Gallery Practices – Tuesday > 2:30-6:30 pm
This course examines practical and theoretical aspects of contemporary art and its presentation in the gallery environment. Students will gain gallery and curatorial experience through research, planning, written assignments, presentations, and the realization of an exhibition project in the Artlab Gallery.
VAH 3385E – Introduction to Museum Studies – Thursday > 11:30-2:30 pm
The Museum Studies class is divided into two parts: research and practical experience. In the research component, we look at a series of museums and exhibitions, ranging from the expected to the weird and wonderful (did you know there are museums dedicated solely to carrots, hair, funerals, sewers and questionable medical devices?). Students are also given the chance to curate an exhibition. Working closely with the professor and the TA, each student is assigned a role and together we curate a public exhibition. Students are able to choose their own roles, including writing essays for the catalogue, designing the exhibition space, fundraising, installation, web design and promotions. The class comes as close as possible to working in a real museum environment in a university setting. Each year, museum professionals are invited to visit, and they often work one on one with students (in the past representatives have come from London, Toronto and New York). Students leave the class with a good understanding of the theory and practice of museum studies, and often with a love for both. Each year, a large number of students use this class as a springboard to apply to graduate programs in Museum Studies.
VAH 3386G Histories of Collecting, Museums and Heritage Studies – Monday > 5:30-8:30 pm
This course traces the historical development of private and public collections of art and material culture, the related rise of museums in Western societies, and the more recent growth of concerns for the preservation of Heritage sites and artifacts.
VAH 3388G Histories of Architecture & Urbanism – Wednesday > 11:30-2:30 pm
The course will examine how the urban form has historically been used as a tool for colonization. Beginning with theoretical approaches to the city, our examination will take a historical approach starting with examinations of ancient urban practices and continuing through the early modern era. During our broad historical survey will examine non-Western, Roman, Christian, and Renaissance and Baroque urban practices in our discussions of Timgad, Tikal, Chichén Itzá, Santa Fe de Granada, Tenochtitlan-Mexico City, Savannah, and Boston along with other cities. By relying on a interdisciplinary approach we will consider how these historical models of colonization and urbanization reflect the cultures that created them, while also recognizing their legacy on today’s modern urban environments, which still influence our daily lives.
VAH 3390G Special Topic In Art History: Gender and Sexuality – Tuesday > 8:30-11:30 am
Queer Geographies on Screen – Anthea Black
This course examines contemporary film and video production by queer and transgender artists in relation to geography. Concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity will be expanded to consider queerness/trans-ness as an embodied spatial practice of navigating and moving through the world. The ways in which queer senses of landscape, utopia building, mapping, and tactics for navigation of political, geographical, and cultural boundaries are realized on screen will be of primary concern as we perform close viewings of works by Deirdre Logue, Richard Fung, A.L. Steiner and robbinschilds, Thirza Cuthand, and many others. This course is for students who want to map queer, feminist and transgender aesthetic and activist practices through close readings of film, video, performance works, critical texts drawn from contemporary art discourse, queer theory and gender studies, and cultural studies, in-class discussions, and artists lectures.
VAH 3392F Modernism and the Avant-Garde: Brazil, Canada, and Mexico
This course will examine how early twentieth-century artists in three regions of the Americas used notions of “modernism” and the “avant-garde” to promote “cultural change.” The study will highlight issues specific to each region, but an important objective will be to uncover threads that link these artistic projects to a global “traffic” of images across time and space.
VAH 4451G Seminar in Medieval Art: Romanesque and Neo-Romanesque:
Medieval Visual Culture in Translation – Kathryn Brush
This seminar explores the visual culture of eleventh- and twelfth-century Europe and its interpretation/appropriation by architects, scholars, and polemicists during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with emphasis on North America. “Romanesque,” a term coined by early nineteenth-century antiquarians to describe a round-arched medieval style that differed from Gothic, quickly became a canonical category in nascent art historical discourse as well as a focal point for nationalist debates about the origins of Western civilization—debates in which the United States and Canada participated. Students will engage with Romanesque buildings/sites/objects as well as with neo-Romanesque works which incorporated a medieval vocabulary (e.g., the Ontario Legislative Building in Toronto), considering the particular contexts and ideological and historical conditions that sponsored such modern translations and transformations of eleventh- and twelfth-century visual culture. Seminar participants will gain critical insight into the conceptual shaping of art and cultural history; the politics of taste; and the vital dynamics linking the visual culture of the medieval past to the “living” present.
Prerequisite: VAH 2251E (Early Medieval Art) and/or VAH 2253E (Romanesque and Gothic Art)
VAH 4478G - Seminar in Contemporary Art
This course focuses on contemporary conceptions of performance and performativity, two key terms for explaining a diverse range of social, philosophical and artistic phenomena. Prior to the 1960s performance was a relatively marginalized artistic form beneath the aesthetic rigor of high modernism; Postmodernism has brought about a critical shift placing performance at centre stage, in both theory and practice. This “performative turn” with emphasis on process and participation, event and action, sees performative strategy as an interdisciplinary tool, engaging an array of critical fields such as feminism, gender, postcolonial and cultural studies among others. Historical precedents for performance art will be considered in relation to contemporary artistic projects and art audiences. Additionally, performative aspects of identity and agency will be further explored with respect to politics, the body, popular culture, social media and in everyday life.
Course Descriptions
Studio Arts
VAS 1020 Foundations of Visual Arts
This course is an introductory studio survey where you will create artwork while learning key issues concerning contemporary studio art practice. We will cover two-dimensional, three-dimensional, time-based and multi-media disciplines though art exercises, assignments and projects, and informed through readings, visual lectures, discussions, workshops, demonstrations and critique assessments.
VAS1025 Advanced Visual Arts Foundation Studio
This course is designed to develop foundational technical and conceptual skills for students with prior experience working with visual art media. Focus will be placed on the techniques and processes of two-dimensional and three-dimensional media with an emphasis on the theoretical concepts that inform and direct contemporary studio practices.
VAS 2100A/B Image Explorations
An introductory design and imaging course exploring two-dimensional design and imaging principles, including colour theory, the study of composition and other formal concerns. The course will present critical frameworks for reading and constructing images using basic technical means.
VAS 2104A/B Drawing Explorations
An introductory course exploring a wide range of traditional and contemporary aspects of drawing in order to develop an understanding of its application to the Visual Arts as well as other frameworks.
VAS 2236A/B Introduction to Print Media
This course offers an introduction to printmaking where students will be expected to consider contemporary and historical issues of print media through readings, discussions and critiques that will enhance and deepen the student’s artistic production. The print processes that will be investigated are relief (linocut), intaglio (etching) and screen. Students will create a body of work over the semester that demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the technical skills and quality necessary to produce work that is, in addition, critically well informed.
VAS 3320 Advanced Sculpture
An advanced studio course with a focus on three dimensional artistic output. Students will continue to develop technical skills as they define their individual critical practice. The course will emphasize a range of presentation models including sculpture, installation and performance.
VAS 3330 Advanced Printmaking
A continuation of the study of print media. Students will continue to develop skills in printmaking regarding relief, intaglio (etching) and silkscreen, and will be introduced to lithography. In context of extending their material capabilities, they will further explore the theoretical and experimental opportunities of print media, and will consider themes and ideas that are germane to contemporary print practice.
VAS 3340 Advanced Photography
This course is a survey and study of various contemporary approaches to photographic history and practice. The class will be organized around various technical demonstrations and tutorials. This class will offer tutorials and demonstrations of both analogue and digital techniques using small and medium format photography. Lectures and historical material will be organized thematically. Students will benefit from exposure to a diverse and wide-ranging field of approaches and are presented with productive evaluative modes of interpretation.
VAS 3351/4451: Time-based Production I: Digital Sound
A studio/theory course focusing on audio production in the context of contemporary art practices. Creative explorations may include field recording and sound synthesis; digital manipulation and multi-track composition; as well as audio installation and sound sculpture. This course will also examine the historical evolution of sound art and experimental music.
VAS 3352/4452: Time-based Production II: Digital Video
A studio/theory course focusing on digital video production and offering experience in the areas of effective camerawork, lighting, sound, and advanced video editing techniques. Creative explorations may include both single-channel and multi-screen presentations; performance and animation; as well as video installation/sculpture. This course will also examine the historical evolution of the moving image.
VAS 3384 Introduction to Gallery Practices
This course examines practical and theoretical aspects of contemporary art and its presentation in the gallery environment. Students will gain gallery and curatorial experience through research, planning, written assignments, presentations, and the realization of an exhibition project in the Artlab Gallery.
VAS 3385E Introduction to Museum Studies
The Museum Studies class is divided into two parts: research and practical experience. In the research component, we look at a series of museums and exhibitions, ranging from the expected to the weird and wonderful (did you know there are museums dedicated solely to carrots, hair, funerals, sewers and questionable medical devices?). Students are also given the chance to curate an exhibition. Working closely with the professor and the TA, each student is assigned a role and together we curate a public exhibition. Students are able to choose their own roles, including writing essays for the catalogue, designing the exhibition space, fundraising, installation, web design and promotions. The class comes as close as possible to working in a real museum environment in a university setting. Each year, museum professionals are invited to visit, and they often work one on one with students (in the past representatives have come from London, Toronto and New York). Students leave the class with a good understanding of the theory and practice of museum studies, and often with a love for both. Each year, a large number of students use this class as a springboard to apply to graduate programs in Museum Studies.
Courses without Prerequisites
VAH1040 History of Western Art
A survey of architecture, sculpture, painting and related arts from pre-historic times to the present.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 1.0 course.
VAH 1052G Art and Popular Culture – Thursday > 8:30-11:30 am
Investigating the meaning and value of the ‘popular’ within visual culture, this course considers its effect on divergent art practices over the last century. In order to encourage a critical engagement with popular images, icons, representations and practices in contemporary life, this course expands on traditional definitions of ‘art’ by investigating a wide array of media, such as advertising, craft, design, graffiti, film, fashion, music, tattoo and television. The broad spectrum of visual examples explored questions the fluctuating division between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art and culture. In order to better understand the value of art within contemporary culture, the ideological, political, social, cultural and economic contexts that inform and frame our relationships with race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation and gender will be investigated in an effort to come to grips with what is at stake when we refer to the ‘popular’. Through lectures, screenings, readings and projects students will consider how artists and non-artists alike engage and utilize the aesthetic and icons of popular culture often as subversive, ironic and humorous modes of critique. At its core, this course questions what is popular, what it looks like, how it is valued, who gets to define it, and, most importantly, how it impacts our daily lives.
VAH 1053F Picturing Science > Wednesday > 8:30-11:30 am
This course will focus on the intersections of art and science from both historical and contemporary perspectives. By using a series of frameworks (Beauty, Systems of Classification, Ecology, the Human Body) to look at key moments in the history of science, we will discover how scientific debates and issues have impacted the visual arts. We will not only look at the work of artists who re-present, imitate, or illustrate scientific themes and images, but we will also study artists who blur the lines between artistic and scientific practices by using biotechnology, genetic manipulation, computer sciences, and engineering. Some of the topics covered in class will be: the history of medical illustration and how the archetype of the artist-anatomist has informed the use of the human body in works of contemporary art; Darwin’s legacy and how the paradigm of the artist-naturalist has been appropriated by contemporary artists; and artists’ use of biotechnology to create new “semi-living” organisms.
VAS1020 Foundations of Visual Arts
A studio course designed to introduce students to techniques and processes of two-dimensional and three-dimensional media; the theoretical concepts which inform and direct studio practice will be emphasized.
Prerequisite(s): Priority will be given to students registered in a Visual Arts program.
Extra Information: 6 studio hours, 1.0 course.
Note: Some sessions may involve drawing from the nude (female or male) as a required component of the course.
VAS2100 A/B Image Explorations
An introductory design and imaging course exploring two-dimensional design and imaging principles, including colour theory, the study of composition and other formal concerns. The course will present critical frameworks for reading and constructing images using basic technical means.
Extra Information: 4 studio hours, 0.5 course
VAS2104 A/B Drawing Explorations
An introductory course exploring a wide range of traditional and contemporary aspects of drawing in order to develop an understanding of its application to the Visual Arts as well as other frameworks.
Antirequisite(s): VAS 2204A/B
Extra Information: 4 studio hours, 0.5 course.
VAS2274/5a/b Art Now
An introduction to contemporary artistic production and practice, featuring dialogues with artists on their work and critics on the criticism of contemporary art. Emphasis will be placed on major recent art movements and tendencies. The course will also focus on developing critical writing skills and vocabulary.
Prerequisite(s): At least one first year course from the Faculties of Arts and Humanities or Social Science, or permission of the Department.
Extra Information: 3 lecture hours, 0.5 course.
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