Course Description:
In this course, students will examine contemporary philosophical, historical, aesthetic and epistemological topics by addressing the evolution of discourse from the Enlightenment into the 20th century. A comprehensive selection of theorists and critics who address visual semiotics and the taxonomy of imagery and ideas will be introduced. Active discussion and participation will be a core requirement.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Next Class 2/2

  
Rhetoric of the Image by Roland Barthes

A Photograph by Umberto Echo

Looking at Photographs by Victor Burgin

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Reading for January 12


- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin
 
- Extracts from Camera Lucida by Roland Barths

- What has Occurred Only Once: Barthes's Winter Garden/Boltanski's Archives of the Dead by Marjorie Perloff

- Benjamin and the Political Economy of the Photograph by W. J. T. Mitchell

Post a short (two – three paragraph) synopsis of the readings on the class blog. In addition to each text synopsis you are to provide a brief autobiographical summation of the author.

Bring to class quotes and subjects to discuss from the readings