Courses for Fall 2025 | Visual Studies

	Title	Instructor	Time	Description	Cross Listings	Fulfills
VLST 1020-001	Form and Meaning	Kaitlin Kylie Pomerantz	W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM	This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of image making, focusing on the development of observational skills and analytical thinking. We will look at conventions of artistic representation across time and cultures; discuss types of visual information and modes of formal language; explore visual narrative techniques; and seek to expand our understanding of the role images play in our culture. We will look at conventions of pictorial representation across time and cultures; discuss types of visual information and modes of formal language; explore visual narrative techniques; and seek to expand our understanding of the roll images play in our culture.
VLST 2090-401	Visual Culture through the Computer's Eye	Konstantinos Daniilidis Ian F Verstegen	TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM	Visual studies and the humanities more generally have thought about and modeled seeing of artworks for many centuries. What useful tools can machine learning develop from databases of art historical images or other datasets of visual culture? Can tools from machine learning help visual studies ask new questions? When put together, what can these fields teach us about visual learning, its pathways, its underlying assumptions, and the effects of its archives/datasets? Class project teams will ideally be composed of both humanities majors and engineering majors who will develop datasets and/or ask important questions of datasets, in addition to thinking and writing more generally about how computer vision could help in teaching and analyzing visual art. We are looking for a variety of students from different majors and schools to bring their diverse skill sets to the course. No programming knowledge is required. The course offers an example-based introduction to machine learning, so no prior knowledge of machine learning is required.	CIS1070401
VLST 2110-401	Perception	David H Brainard Alexander Gordienko Abigail B Laver	MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	How the individual acquires and is guided by knowledge about objects and events in their environment.	PSYC1340401
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 2140-301	Art as Intercultural Dialogue (SNF Paideia Program Course)	Claudia Elena Tordini	R 12:00 PM-2:59 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 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 (all classes)
VLST 2340-401	Art of Global Asia	Sonal Khullar	TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	This course surveys flows of ideas, images, and objects across, within, and beyond Asia. It considers how the art of Asia is and has been global from antiquity through the present, and introduces 'Asia,' 'globality,' and 'art' as key terms and concepts that shift over time and place. Artistic traditions are presented within broader historical, cultural, social, and economic frameworks, with attention to their local and regional significance. Trade, exchange, and interaction between cultures and groups, including but not limited to artists, pilgrims, merchants, warriors, and rulers, and the transmission of concepts through languages, religions, and philosophies, will be highlighted throughout. We shall address problems of iconophilia and iconoclasm, narrative and temporality, archeology and historiography, ritual and religion, sovereignty and kingship, gender and sexuality, colonialism and nationalism, diasporas and migration as they pertain to the images, objects, and sites of our study. We shall make use of local resources at the Penn Museum and Penn Libraries, as well as other sites, to show how objects retain and inflect these ideas. The course builds out from a central focus on the arts of South Asia or the arts of East Asia, depending upon the specialty of the faculty member teaching the course, with additional faculty offering guest lectures as available. Students with a background in art history, studio art, architecture, history, religion, literature, anthropology, and/or South or East Asian Studies are especially welcome.	ARTH1040401	Arts & Letters Sector (all classes)
VLST 2380-001	Virtual Reality and Perception	Gregory M. Vershbow	TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM	An understanding of perception is crucial in creating digital interactive experiences ranging from immersive art to video games and user interfaces. Design solutions in art, video games, and user interfaces can also offer insights into the nature of perception. In this course, we will study ideas and experiments in Visual Perception and how they relate to digital interfaces and experiences, and create our own XR (Extended Reality) projects that explore these ideas. We will produce XR art, games, environments, and interfaces using open-source software (including Blender 3d, Godot Engine, and Three.js). (Students may also use commercial software such as Maya3D and Unreal Engine) These projects will recreate historic perception experiments and optical illusions, build new experiments, and incorporate lessons of perception into original art and design projects. Students will leave this course with an introduction to the study of visual perception and a skillset in 3d Modeling and XR application/game and UX (User Experience) design. Students will also learn to initiate original projects that combine creative and analytical thinking.