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General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
E SD003.
Course Title (CB02)
Imagery of the Environment
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
An introduction to the academic discipline of Environmental Studies through historical and contemporary analysis of nature-based imagery. What those representations indicate about past and present environmental changes will be discussed. Roles of the artist as naturalist, scientist and conservationist will be explored, as well as visual representation by a diverse range of cultural groups. <br /> <br /> (One field trip outside of class time may be required.)
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course if CSU and UC transferable. This course meets a general education requirement for °®¶¹´«Ã½, CSUGE and IGETC. This course connects students with nature and artistry.

Foothill Equivalency

Does the course have a Foothill equivalent?
No
Foothill Course ID

Course Philosophy

Formerly Statement

Course Development Options

Basic Skill Status (CB08)
Course is not a basic skills course.
Grade Options
  • Letter Grade
  • Pass/No Pass
Repeat Limit
0

Transferability & Gen. Ed. Options

Transferability
Transferable to both UC and CSU
°®¶¹´«Ã½ GEArea(s)StatusDetails
2GC1°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area C1 - ArtsApproved
2GDX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area D - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved
2GES°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE - Environment Sustainability and Global CitizenshipApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGC1CSU GE Area C1 - ArtsApproved
CGDYCSU GE Area D - Social SciencesApproved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG3AIGETC Area 3A - ArtsApproved
IG4XIGETC Area 4 - Social and Behavioral SciencesApproved

Units and Hours

Summary

Minimum Credit Units
4.0
Maximum Credit Units
4.0

Weekly Student Hours

TypeIn ClassOut of Class
Lecture Hours4.08.0
Laboratory Hours0.00.0

Course Student Hours

Course Duration (Weeks)
12.0
Hours per unit divisor
36.0
Course In-Class (Contact) Hours
Lecture
48.0
Laboratory
0.0
Total
48.0
Course Out-of-Class Hours
Lecture
96.0
Laboratory
0.0
NA
0.0
Total
96.0

Prerequisite(s)

Corequisite(s)

Advisory(ies)

EWRT D001A or EWRT D01AH or ESL D005.

Limitation(s) on Enrollment

Entrance Skill(s)

General Course Statement(s)

(See general education pages for the requirements this course meets.)

Methods of Instruction

Lecture and visual aids

Discussion of assigned reading

Discussion and problem solving performed in class

In-class exploration of Internet sites

Quiz and examination review performed in class

Homework and extended projects

Field observation and field trips

Guest speakers

Collaborative learning and small group exercises

Collaborative projects

Assignments

  1. Writing assignments involving summary, synthesis and critical analysis of data and information.
  2. Team project (including written summary and presentation) on an assigned topic.
  3. Final team assessment that will require students to demonstrate the ability to summarize, integrate and critically analyze principles and concepts.

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Completion of writing assignments including an assessment process to evaluate student comprehension of concepts and principles (e.g., Prehistoric animals that are represented in the Paleolithic art).
  2. Completion of team project to evaluate student comprehension of concepts and principles (e.g., extinction of animals).
  3. A final assessment that will require students to demonstrate the ability to summarize, integrate and critically analyze principles and concepts examined throughout the course.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • Basic art supplies (pencil, sketchbook, erasers and sharpener)
Essential College Facilities:
  • Kirsch Center and surrounding gardens

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Johnson, Cathy. "The Sierra Club Guide to Sketching in Nature." 2nd Edition. Sierra Club Books. San Francisco. 1997.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Aquilino, J. (ed.). "Art for Survival: The Illustrator and the Environment." Graphis Press. Zurich. 1992.
Arthur, J. "Spirit of Place: Contemporary Landscape Painting and the American Tradition." Bulfinch Press. Boston. 1989.
Attenborough, David, "Amazing Rare Things", Kale Press. London, England. 2009.
Bahn, P. "Journey Through the Ice Age." University of California Press. Berkeley. 1997.
Barton, M., N. Bean, S. Dunleavy, I. Gray, & A. White. "Prehistoric America: A Journey Through the Ice Age and Beyond." BBC Worldwide Ltd. London. 2002
Bateson, G. "Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity." E. P. Dutton. New York. 1979.
Bell, J. Metropolitan Zoo. "Harry Abrams, Inc.," Publishers. New York. 1985.
Chauvet, J. M. "The Dawn of Art: The Chauvet Cave." Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York. 1996.
Clottes, J. (ed.). "Chauvet Cave: The Art of Earliest Times." University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City. 2003.
_____________. "World Rock Art (Conservation and Cultural Heritage Series)." Getty Trust Publication. 2002.
Crozier, R. and T. Bolt. "Inventing the Landscape: From Plein Air Study to Studio Painting." Watson-Guptill Publications. New York. 1989.
Fagan, B. "The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850." Basic Books. New York. 2000.
____________. "Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants." Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Lanham, 2003.
Flenley, J. and P. Bahn. "The Enigmas of Easter Island." Oxford University Press. Oxford. 2002.
Gelber, S. "A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land." Seabury Press. San Francisco. Not dated.
Jones, H. L. "Granville Redmond." The Oakland Museum. Oakland. 1989.
Jonsson, L. "Birds and Light." Princeton University Press. Princeton and Oxford. 2002.
Katz, S. and D. Kazanjian. "Walton Ford: The Tigers of Wrath, Horses of Instruction." Harry N. Abrams, Inc. New York. 2002.
Kjellgren, E. "Splendid Isolation: Art of Easter Island." Yale University Press. New Haven. 2001.
Koreny, F. Albrecht "Durer and the Animal and Plant Studies of the Renaissance." Little, Brown and Co. New York. 1985.
Kurten, B. "The Age of Mammals." Columbia University Press. New York. 1971.
London, P. "Drawing Closer to Nature: Making Art in Dialogue With the Natural World." Shambhala Publications. Boston. 2003.
Mezzalira, F. "Beasts and Beastiaries: The Representation of Animals from Prehistory to the Renaissance." Umberto Allemandi & Co. Turin. 2000.
Minks, L. "The Hudson River School." Barnes and Noble. New York. 2003.
Attenborough, David, "Amazing Rare Things", Kales Press. London, England. 2009.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Examine environmental studies as a field of study and its relation to the social sciences and other disciplines and discover how depictions of nature can serve as important historical indicators of environmental change.
  • Explore what nature-based imagery can teach us about the distribution, composition and/or extinctions of species worldwide.
  • Assess human impacts on the environment as evidenced in visual imagery.
  • Explore the themes and styles used in environmental imagery, both culturally and through time.
  • Analyze techniques of creation, including petroglyphs, rock painting, sculpture and works on paper/canvas.
  • Examine changing cultural- and world-views of nature as evidenced in environmental imagery.
  • Discover how environmental imagery has been used as advertisement, turning nature into commodity.
  • Explore the themes of the artist as naturalist/scientist and conservationist, in the past and today.

CSLOs

  • Analyze how human relationship with nature has changed over time and the resulting impacts.

Outline

  1. Examine environmental studies as a field of study and its relation to the social sciences and other disciplines and discover how depictions of nature can serve as important historical indicators of environmental change.
    1. Assess the history of climate change by examining case studies such as: The Little Ice Age (1300-1850) and the art of Peter Breughel the Elder; the desertification of the Sahara (10,000 years bc to present) depicted in the rock art sequence of the central Saharan Tassili Plateau/Hoggar Mountains region.
    2. Discover the evidence of climate change in the northern hemisphere by examining species distribution such as is shown in the Paleolithic cave art of Lascaux, Chauvet, Altamira etc.
    3. Explore environmental change in modern times as depicted by artists such as Alexander Hogue (the Dust Bowl of the 1930's).
  2. Explore what nature-based imagery can teach us about the distribution, composition and/or extinctions of species worldwide.
    1. Examine the Pleistocene mega-fauna associations (now largely extinct) depicted in European Paleolithic art (approximately 35-15 kya).
    2. Assess modern extinctions of species documented in art and illustration, such as: The decline and eventual 1920's extinction of the California grizzly as shown in early California art and advertisements; the loss of the passenger pigeon, great auk and Carolina parakeet etc., all subjects in Audubon's Folio.
  3. Assess human impacts on the environment as evidenced in visual imagery.
    1. Examine the environmental effects (especially deforestation) of early European settlement in the eastern United States by studying the art of the Hudson River School and other 1700-1800's works.
    2. Assess the impacts of European settlement of the American Southwest on that region's arid environment.
  4. Explore the themes and styles used in environmental imagery, both culturally and through time.
    1. Discuss the major themes of early cave and rock art: For example, why animals are the main subjects, whereas plants and objects are rarely shown.
    2. Compare and contrast the styles of rock paintings found worldwide.
  5. Analyze techniques of creation, including petroglyphs, rock painting, sculpture and works on paper/canvas.
    1. Consider different techniques including the use of natural pigments such as ochre, hematite and charcoal, and the modeling of sculptures using clay, stone, bone and antler.
    2. Examine how pigments have been applied to rock surfaces.
    3. Briefly explore portable art by looking at the historical uses of silk, papers, linen, hides, bone and wood panels all natural products.
  6. Examine changing cultural- and world-views of nature as evidenced in environmental imagery.
    1. Consider the importance of the wild to various cultures and times.
    2. Explore how humans regarded other species: as predator, as prey, as deities, as products, as symbols etc.
    3. Assess the roles of religions and religious art in describing the human/nature interface.
    4. Examine the European Romantic conception of nature.
    5. Examine the effects of developments of modern science on the imagery of nature (including microscopy, photography).
  7. Discover how environmental imagery has been used as advertisement, turning nature into commodity.
    1. Examine the westward settlement of the United States and Canada and how it was affected by artists such as Bodmer, Bierstadt, Remington, etc.
    2. Explore the works of the California Impressionists such as Payne, Redmond, Wendt, Wachtel, Hill and Bischoff in terms of their encouraging immigration to this state.
    3. Consider the impacts of the visual glorification of resource extraction and mega-projects that has occurred in many nations.
  8. Explore the themes of the artist as naturalist/scientist and conservationist, in the past and today.
    1. Review the history of the artist as naturalist/scientist by examining the specimen studies of Da Vinci, Durer, Audubon, Le Sueur, De Barde, Rembrandt etc.
    2. Assess the history of biological illustration.
    3. Explore how modern biological illustration blurs the line between art and science.
    4. Examine the works of contemporary artists concerned about environmental problems and showing that concern visually, such as Robert Bateman, Walton Ford, Carol Selter, Richard Estes and James Valerio etc..
    5. Discover contemporary activist/artists and the successes of their groups' land trust efforts: For example, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust (MALT), the Sonoma Land Trust and The Oak Group (Santa Barbara).
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