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		TR 10:15 AM-11:44 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).	ARTH1500401	Humanities & 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	Humanities & 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	Humanities & 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	Humanities & 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	Humanities & Social Science Sector Natural Sciences & Mathematics Sector
VLST 1070-001	Looking and Making	Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz		W 10:15 AM-1:14 PM	This class introduces students to the fundamentals of Visual Studies and Fine Arts. A hybrid studio and seminar, students will consider foundational images across cultures and time, how they were made and interpreted, and how to respond to these histories through observation and analysis as well as a variety of visual and material approaches. Students will experiment with historic and contemporary image-making technologies including digital and analog photographic practices, printmaking and mixed media, and will also learn about presentation strategies, exhibition and curation. Students will visit art shows and archives on and off campus. Students will come away with an understanding of how power, politics, identity and belief are shaped and shown through images, making and the act of looking. They will also gain awareness about the materiality of the seen: what physical matter constitutes the media that we look at, and why this matters. Students will grow in their sense of their own visual language, proclivities for looking and making, and ability to articulate about the visual world. Course content draws from visual studies, art history and theory, cinema and media studies, anthropology and philosophy. Methodologies of slow looking and visual analysis, semiotic interpretation and ekphrasis will be employed. There will 3-4 creative projects with affi liated reading and writing components, and dialogue-centered critique and feedback. This seminar serves as an excellent foundation for those interested in visual studies, art, design, art history, media or communications fi elds.	FNAR0070001	Cultural Diversity in the U.S. Humanities & Social Science Sector
VLST 2120-401	Research Experience in Perception	Johannes Burge		MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	In this research course, students will begin by first replicating earlier experiments to measure human visual memory capacity. After several class discussions to discuss ideas, each student will design and conduct their own experiment to further investigate visual and/or familiarity memory.	PSYC4340401
VLST 2170-401	Visual Neuroscience	Alan A Stocker		MWF 10:15 AM-11:14 AM	An introduction to the scientific study of vision, with an emphasis on the biological substrate and its relation to behavior. Topics will typically include physiological optics, transduction of light, visual thresholds, color vision, anatomy and physiology of the visual pathways, and the cognitive neuroscience of vision.	NRSC2217401, PSYC2240401	Living World Sector
VLST 2210-402	Introduction to Philosophy of Mind	Raul Ibarra Herrera		TR 12:00 PM-1:29 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 2320-401	Renaissance to the Present	David Young Kim		MW 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.	ARTH1020401	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-402	Renaissance to the Present	David Young Kim		R 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.	ARTH1020402	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-403	Renaissance to the Present	David Young Kim		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	David Young Kim		F 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.	ARTH1020404	Arts & Letters Sector Cross Cultural Analysis
VLST 2320-405	Renaissance to the Present	David Young Kim		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	VR 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?	Ian F Verstegen		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	Gregory M. Vershbow		T 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	Permission of Instructor Required.
VLST 3999-001	Independent Study	Ian F Verstegen			Independent Study credit taken with advisor.