Title	Instructors	Location	Time	Description	Cross listings	Fulfills	Registration notes	Syllabus	Syllabus URL
VLST 1010-401	Eye, Mind and Image	Hammam Aldouri Ian F Verstegen			Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).	ARTH1500401	Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1010-402	Eye, Mind and Image			F 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).	ARTH1500402	Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1010-403	Eye, Mind and Image			F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM	Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).	ARTH1500403	Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1010-404	Eye, Mind and Image			F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).	ARTH1500404	Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1010-405	Eye, Mind and Image			F 3:30 PM-4:29 PM	Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).	ARTH1500405	Humanties & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1060-301	Virtual Reality Storytelling	Gregory M. Vershbow		T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	What does it mean to compose for an open world, in 3 dimensions, where the audience can move with 6 degrees of freedom? How does embodiment in a 360 degree space change the experience of the audience? What control does the director maintain when the user chooses their own immersive adventure? In this course, we will explore the past, present, and future of immersive narrative through a variety of media, including fictional texts, dystopian television shows, and Virtual Reality films. Using the critical theory of media scholars from diverse backgrounds, students will critique VR applications as models to inform their own iterative design process. Students will prototype their own VR narrative films with the tools available through the library makerspaces and media lab. No experience with film or emerging technology necessary.		Humanties & Social Science Sector
VLST 1070-301	Learning to Look, Looking to Learn	Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz		R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	The act of looking is fundamental to visual studies, and to human meaning making and experience. Looking is a central piece of multisensory learning that we employ often“without thinking”, and yet making cognitive leaps all the while. Looking can be more than an involuntary action, but a perceptual, creative and intellectual tool that we can seek to better understand and hone. In this course, we will learn to look, and look to learn. We will visit sites of interest to the practice of looking, including local art museums and galleries. Through weekly exercises, we will observe our own observational proclivities and challenge our looking habits. We will consider how looking engages with power, politics, and identity, and how it informs belief. Drawing from visual studies, art history and theory, cinema and media studies, anthropology and philosophy, we will consider concepts of looking (such as: the gaze, verisimilitude, the invisible, surveillance, double consciousness). Methodologies of slow looking and visual analysis, semiotic interpretation and ekphrasis will be employed, along with various modes of reporting and recording. This class is experiential, experimental, collaborative, creative and discussion-centered. There will be a number of trips on and off campus. There will be weekly readings and written responses, and expressive prompts (that some might call “art assignments”). Major projects will include a research presentation and a visual essay. This seminar serves as an excellent foundation for those interested in visual studies, art, art history, media, design or communications fields, as well as neuroscience and psychology.		Cultural Diviserity in the U.S. Humanties & Social Science Sector			https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=VLST1070301
VLST 2140-301	Intercultural Dialogue and Perception (SNF Paideia Program Course)	Claudia Elena Tordini		R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	Art, dialogue theory and cultural differences come together in this experiential course. Students will explore and learn about all three of these components. They will experience true dialogue and learn about it. They will engage in interpersonal encounters with art, the key driver of cultural content for this course. Art will provide a neutral platform for perceiving cultural differences through careful exploration, verbal description, and an exchange of insights into ways artists express concerns, biases, and world views. Students will engage in dialogues to inquire into these and other personal and cultural differences, thereby participating in intercultural communication. Altogether the course will offer a safe space for students to exchange cultural and personal points of view as expressed in many forms of art and to then participate in dialogues that delve into these rich and complex forms of expression. True dialogue is not a discussion or argumentation aimed to unveil a single truth. True dialogue is a co-creation, a creative process, a source of newness, a discovery journey, and a portal to a new reality. This course is for students who want to be disrupted by a new understanding of art and to embrace new cultural realities as they stretch their perceptions, ideas and experiences. “Art opens a window into a culture’s dreams, drives, and priorities” revealing “aspects of a culture’s soul.” It is frequently ambiguous and asks to be questioned. Individual perceptions and insights are worthy and do not fall into right or wrong categories. Because art is a dynamic and flexible tool to build personal equity, meaning a sense of fairness, students will enlarge their capacity to connect to the world’s diversity through its multiple expressions. The ensuing dialogues will open thought rather than close it down and encourage openness to other ways of seeing the world. Because students will engage in true dialogue with one another and with art that arises from diverse backgrounds and ways of interpreting the world, they will emerge with increased confidence to interpret complex issues and manage diverse relationships. The course is experiential and hands-on. It requires personal commitment, an open mind and a desire to grow using new, non-traditional and effective ways of connecting art and intercultural dialogue. It does not require prior knowledge of or experience with art. As part of the experiential learning, some of the course activities will take place in museums and art galleries in Philadelphia.
VLST 2210-401	Philosophy of Mind	Ege Yumusak		TR 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	This course will survey several central topics in philosophy of mind, as well as investigate how philosophy of the mind interacts with scientific study of the mind. Among the questions we'll be asking are: What is it to have a mind? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Can there be a science of the mind? What can it tell us? What can philosophy contribute to a science of the mind? What is consciousness? What is it to think, to perceive, to act? How are perception, thought, and action related to one another?	PHIL2640401				https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=VLST2210401
VLST 2210-402	Philosophy of Mind	Ege Yumusak Junhyung Han		F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM	This course will survey several central topics in philosophy of mind, as well as investigate how philosophy of the mind interacts with scientific study of the mind. Among the questions we'll be asking are: What is it to have a mind? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Can there be a science of the mind? What can it tell us? What can philosophy contribute to a science of the mind? What is consciousness? What is it to think, to perceive, to act? How are perception, thought, and action related to one another?	PHIL2640402
VLST 2210-403	Philosophy of Mind	Ege Yumusak Junhyung Han		F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	This course will survey several central topics in philosophy of mind, as well as investigate how philosophy of the mind interacts with scientific study of the mind. Among the questions we'll be asking are: What is it to have a mind? What is the relationship between the mind and the brain? Can there be a science of the mind? What can it tell us? What can philosophy contribute to a science of the mind? What is consciousness? What is it to think, to perceive, to act? How are perception, thought, and action related to one another?	PHIL2640403
VLST 2320-401	Renaissance to the Present	Andre Dombrowski		TR 5:15 PM-6:14 PM	This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums.	ARTH1020401	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis			https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=VLST2320401
VLST 2320-402	Renaissance to the Present	Andre Dombrowski		M 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums.	ARTH1020402	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-403	Renaissance to the Present	Andre Dombrowski		T 12:00 PM-12:59 PM	This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums.	ARTH1020403	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-404	Renaissance to the Present	Andre Dombrowski		F 1:45 PM-2:44 PM	This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums.	ARTH1020404	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-405	Renaissance to the Present	Andre Dombrowski		F 12:00 PM-12:59 PM	This course is an introduction to the history of art in a global context from the early 1400s to the present. Lectures will introduce students to significant moments in artistic production in both the Western and Eastern hemispheres through focused studies on crucial aspects of exchange between cultures and continents. Covering an era of increasing economic transactions, imperial conquests, and industrialization, this course will build recursively through themes such as: the emergence of authorial identity and models of artistic collaboration, the traffic of artistic materials and techniques and their adaptation in different cultural settings, and the foregrounding of art to both document and initiate political change. Developing vocabularies to discuss painting, sculpture, architecture, and prints, as well as photography and film, students will learn to analyze art's decisive role during times of social transformation, including modernization, colonization, and technological advances. We will also examine the role of broad-reaching media and the advent of art criticism in forming public opinion. Assignments will encourage students to think widely across geographies and study intimately local examples in the Philadelphia museums.	ARTH1020405	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2390-201	Virtual Reality for Artists	Gregory M. Vershbow		TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	With rapid developments in virtual reality technology, artists have new opportunities to exhibit work at any scale, create interactive and immersive experiences, and bridge distances between makers and viewers. This course will focus on creating art for virtual (and augmented) reality, and learning about the development of VR as a medium and how it is being utilized by contemporary artists. Students will create virtual exhibition spaces for images, videos, sculptures, and develop interactive work that can only exist in Virtual Reality. We will also develop 3D sculptures for augmented reality. We will develop our camera and editing skills for making still and video-based VR media and learn the fundamentals of 3D Modeling in Blender. We will also develop advanced skills in Adobe Photoshop,Premier, and Rhino3d. Readings in this course will cover contemporary topics in VR and consider pre-VR immersive mediums such as Panorama painting and stereographic photography.
VLST 3010-301	What is Visual Studies?	Aleksandra Igdalova Tanya A Jung		R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	Visual Studies at Penn bridges humanities, fine arts, and vision science. It is built on the premise that research in cognitive science, theories of seeing, humanistic study of visual artifacts, philosophical theories of the arts, and maker’s skill and knowledge can inform one another in surprising ways. As with any interdisciplinary endeavor, the synthesis across disciplines takes place primarily in the knowledge and skills of individual practitioners. As they proceed through the major, students find their own syntheses and connections in the rich domain of the visual. To foster such synthesis, this Seminar offers a chance to integrate ideas and practices. It is usually taken during the Spring Term of the third year. Its participants seek new insights into the interplay of art, perception, philosophical theories, and the history of visual practices (including cinema). The Seminar builds on topics introduced in “VLST 1010—Eye, Mind, and Image,” but engages at a more advanced level. It considers topics that expand on the science, philosophy, and history of art, and considers art making and reflections on it. Students undertake a research paper in close collaboration with the instructor and with their classmates. Scholars from Penn and elsewhere specializing in appropriate topics will visit the Seminar and offer new perspectives. The research paper often frames the initial steps toward the Senior Project in the fourth year.
VLST 3030-401	Rise of Image Culture	Hammam Aldouri		W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	Today images are everywhere; two centuries ago, they were rare. This seminar considers key historical and theoretical contexts for this change and its social consequences. With the help of some of the strongest critics and theorists of image culture, we will consider five interrelated aspects of the rise of image culture. - First, we will explore how new media and mechanical reproduction has changed the idea of the image over in the free market. - Second, we will explore how images operate through the psyche and gaze and how that operation is tied to social and political power. - Third, we will examine how representations make meaning and form identity in coded systems. - Fourth, we will consider the relationship between visual space and concepts of reality. And finally, we will interrogate how the physical and digital material that images are made from affects their meaning.	ARTH3070401
VLST 3950B-301	Senior Project	Ian F Verstegen		T 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	Permission of Instructor Required.