1040 Orientation to Visual Studies

This foundation course introduces students to syntax and theory of visual art. Through readings, discussions, and writing assignments, students will practice and develop their ability to think and and write critically about art.

Faculty Contact:

Kellie Bornhoft

Assistant Professor of Art & Foundations Coordinator
Office: KA 327
Phone: 801-626-6453
Email: kelliebornhoft1@weber.edu

Sample Syllabi:

Kellie Bornhoft's in-person Syllabus Spring 24

Online Syllabus Template

Ariel Wilson's in-person Syllabus (Fall 2023) copied from Canvas.

Canvas Courses:

Kellie Bornhoft's Spring 24 in-person class

General Online Sample Course

Ariel Wilson's in-person course (Fall 2023) available upon request- arielwilson1@weber.edu

Course Materials:

This course does not typically follow a specific textbook or require course materials.

Previous reading lists have included:

Moral Philosophy - Plato, Aristotle,
“Pure” Aesthetics - Kant, Hume, Bell
Phenomenology - Martin Heideger, Hana Arendt
Semiotics - Roland Barthes, Julia Kristeva, Judith Butler
Psychoanalysis - Freud, Lacan, Deluze, Joan Copjec
Cultural Theorists - Adorno, Benjamin, Mark Fisher
Modernist Art Critics - Greenberg, Michael Fried
Postmodern Art Critics - Lyotard, Lucy Lippard, Rosalind Krauss
Postcolonial Theorists - Edward Said, Ania Loomba, Gaytari Spivek
Feminist Theorists - Judith Butler, Linda Nochlin, bell hooks, Amelia Jones
- Laura Mulvey, Visual Pleasure
- Toni MOrrison, the bluest eye
Critical Race Theorists
- Audre Lorde,
- Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks
- Bell Hooks: The oppositional gaze
- Stuart Hall
Marxist Theorists - Angela Davis, Mark Fisher?
Media Theory, Technology, OOOs - McLuhan, Baudrillard, Donna Haraway,
Queer Theorists - Foucoult, Sarah Ahmed, Sandy Stone
Walter Gropius, The Theory and Organization of The Bauhaus
Walter Benjamin,
Theodor Adorno
Clement Greenberg, Avant Garde and Kitsch
Jacque Lacan
Michael Fried
Lucy Lippard
Jacque Derrida, from Of Grammatology
Michel Foucault, What is an Author?
Roland Barthes, Rhetoric of the Image
Rosalind Krauss, Noted on an index, sculpture in the expanded field
Edward Said, from Orientalism
Jean Boudrillard, The Hyper-realism of simulation
Hal Foster, from Subversive Signs
Julia Kristeva,
Richard Rorty, Private Irony and Liberal Hope
Gayatri Spivak, Who Claims Alterity
Jean Francis Lyotard, Introduction to The Postmodern Condition
Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto
Jane Bennet, from Vibrant Matter
Adrian Piper, Passing for White, Passing for Black
Amelia Jones, Postfeminism, Feminist Pleasures, and Embodied Theories of Art
Judith Butler
Audre Lorde
Bell Hooks
Joan Copjec
Claudia Rankine
Linda Stone

Slides/Lectures:

Archive of Lectures

Kellie Bornhoft's Spring 24 Lectures

Ariel Wilson's in-person course slides (Fall 2023) available upon request- arielwilson1@weber.edu

Further Resources:

Suggested Guidelines for Assessment (archived from Molly Morin)

DOVAD Learning Outcomes by Course