Courses

In this interdisciplinary course, students will gain experience with a wide range of creative thinking practices with a focus on ideation techniques and creative problem solving methodologies, such as design thinking. Students will apply creative problem solving techniques to complex problems and personal interests while learning about the history, key players, and processes that have led to our contemporary understanding of creativity. Students will develop their capacity for flexible and original thinking, and will begin cultivating habits that support their ability to quickly adapt and innovate in our rapidly changing world.

In this introductory photography course, students will explore the art and science of capturing images through a hands-on, experiential approach. This course includes, but is not limited to basic camera operations, lighting, image editing, digital workflow, and photo montage. Through a series of creative assignments, in-class discussions, and critical reflections, students are invited to explore the aesthetic, semiotic, and ethical aspects of photography as a way of worldmaking, and what it means to be an image maker in contemporary society.

An introductory survey inviting students, as a mode of inquiry, to explore, examine, analyze and appreciate specific historical visual images, sculptural objects, and architectural structures. It traces thematically and chronologically some of the major developments that have influenced both western and eastern cultures from prehistoric cave painting to the 15th century. Students employ historical means and methods (notably artworks as important historical documents complementing written texts) to question, in a systematic and rigorous way, and to interpret the ways in which particular works of art participate in the social, political, economic, religious and cultural climates of which they have been an integral part learning.

An introductory survey inviting students, as a mode of inquiry, to explore, examine, analyze and appreciate specific historical visual images, sculptural objects, and architectural structures. It traces thematically and chronologically some of the major developments that have influenced both western and eastern cultures from prehistoric cave painting to the 15th century. Students employ historical means and methods (notably artworks as important historical documents complementing written texts) to question, in a systematic and rigorous way, and to interpret the ways in which particular works of art participate in the social, political, economic, religious and cultural climates of which they have been an integral part.

Students explore inquiry-based perceptual, abstract, conceptual, and performative definitions of contemporary drawing practice. The criteria for defining, analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating drawings are widened to embrace current theoretical frameworks. Issues and themes of drawing practice after the initial decades of postmodernism are the focus of student inquiries/projects.

This course traces the diverse artistic movements that developed in urban centres throughout Europe from The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London to the Dada movement in Zurich in the 1920s. Students consider the changing role of the artist and the way in which both the subject matter and the stylistic treatment of their art are shaped by and are a response to this modern world.

This course explores how art strategies (in traditional mediums such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as film, video, performance) and the critical debates that arose in Europe and North America in the aftermath of the First World War to the present day, reflect the social, economic, and political context charting the rise and fall of modernism and the transition to postmodern practices within the visual arts. The role of art in society, its relationship to mass culture, and what is at stake in maintaining socially engaged art today are considered.

Cultivating an informed engagement with our predominantly visual culture, this course combines photographic technical skill (composition, lighting, darkroom procedures, etc.) with informed cultural photographic theory relating to aesthetic, ethical, and theological issues. Participants are encouraged to embody a re-visioning as photographers and thinkers who embrace a Christian view of the world and its inhabitants.

An exploration of the conception, production, and analysis of imagery in graphic communication design, including photos, illustrations, and graphic marks. Imagery-based problems are investigated in multiple design contexts and formats. Specialized rendering techniques, digital studio practices and iconographic style development are considered.