Active Outline

General Information

Course ID (CB01A and CB01B)
HUMI D016.
Course Title (CB02)
Arts, Ideas and Values
Course Credit Status
Credit - Degree Applicable
Effective Term
Fall 2023
Course Description
Interdisciplinary introduction to artistic cultural studies. A critical analysis of the dynamic process through which contemporary cultural values and social constructions of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, religion and globalization shape and have been shaped by artistic expression. Special emphasis is placed on art as a tool for social change.
Faculty Requirements
Course Family
Not Applicable

Course Justification

This course is intended to meet GE, CSU and UC transferable undergraduate course requirements. It is one of the electives required for the AA degree in Liberal Arts, Arts & Letters Emphasis and serves as an introduction to the Humanities, wherein students analyze the dynamic intersections of culture and aesthetics within Western society.

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
2GC2°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
2GEX°®¶¹´«Ã½ GE Area E - Personal DevelopmentApproved
CSU GEArea(s)StatusDetails
CGC2CSU GE Area C2 - HumanitiesApproved
CGEXCSU GE Area E - Lifelong Learning and Self-Development (Non-Activity)Approved
IGETCArea(s)StatusDetails
IG3BIGETC Area 3B - HumanitiesApproved

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

Other: such as role playing, audio aids, online discussions, etc.

Assignments

  1. Regular reading weekly assignments .
  2. Regular writing assignments such as: maintaining workbook or journal based on questions from text and lecture; critical reaction papers based on performances, museums, etc.; book reports and short library research papers; written exams with essay components (2500 words minimum total). Written assignments stress informed reaction: the student's subjective response is desired, but in the context of a thoughtful and reasonably diligent effort. For example, an essay in response to a museum visit should be based on the student's impressions, but also on preparatory reading.
  3. Group and individual projects stressing reflection on art as personal experience (e.g., mask making, architectural walking tours, happenings, student art shows, etc...).

Methods of Evaluation

  1. Written exams--two or three written exams with essay components, evaluated according to the student's ability to analyze key concepts of the course and well as to synthesize ideas from the course material with personal experience.
  2. Workbook of responses to study questions based on text and lecture-two or three pages per class meeting, evaluated based on the student's ability to engage meaningfully with the issues raised by the study questions.
  3. Critical reaction papers (based on performances, museums, etc.) and/or short library research papers-one to two thousand words, evaluated according to the student's ability to articulate an informed response, based on both personal reaction and an application of the relevant concepts from the course.
  4. Art projects or performances that illustrate competency with concepts and ideas, not with materials or forms.
  5. Final exam/paper/project/presentation.

Essential Student Materials/Essential College Facilities

Essential Student Materials: 
  • None.
Essential College Facilities:
  • None.

Examples of Primary Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisherDate/EditionISBN
Cleveland, William. "Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World's Frontlines." Oakland, CA: New Village Press, 2008.
de Baca, Miguel. "Conflict, Identity, and Protest in American Art." Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015.
*Stuken, Marita and Lisa Cartwright. "Practices of Looking, 2nd Ed." New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
*Witt, M. A. F., Brown, C. V., Dunbar, R. A., Tirro, F., and Witt, R. "The Humanities: Cultural Roots and Continuities, 7th Ed." Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.

Examples of Supporting Texts and References

AuthorTitlePublisher
Act Up. " Women, AIDS, and Activism." Boston: South End Press, 1990.
Anzaldua, Gloria. "Borderlands/La Frontera, 4th Ed." San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2012.
Bornstein, Kate and S. Bear Bergman. "Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation." New York: Seal Press, 2010.
Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing." London: Penguin, 1972.
Cahoone, Lawerence E. "From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology, 2nd Ed." Cambridge: Blackwell, 2003.
Carroll, Tamar W. "Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty, and Feminist Activism." University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
Chicago, Judy and Donald Woodman. "The Dinner Party: From Creation to Preservation." New York: Merrell Publishers, 2006.
Cunningham, Lawrence and John Reich. "Culture and Values, 6th Ed." San Diego: Harcourt Brace College Publishers , 2005.
C100. "The Art of Rebellion 2: World of Urban Art Activism." Mainaschaff: Publikat Verlags-und Handels GmbH & Co, KG, 2006.
Fleming, William. "Arts and Ideas," 10th ed. New York: Holt Rinehart Winston, 2004.
Frank, Thomas and Matt Weiland. "Commodify your Dissent." New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011.
Freeland, Cynthia. "But is it Art?" New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Hughes, Robert. "Shock of the New." New York: Alfred K Knopf, 2013.
Jackson, Carlos Francisco. "Chicana and Chicano Art: ProtestArte The Mexican American Experience." Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2009.
Kaplan, Ann. "Postmodernism and its Discontents." New York: Verso, 1988.
McCloud, Scott. "Understanding Comics: the Invisible Art." New York: Harper Collins, 1993.
Powell, Richard J., Virginia Mecklenburg and Theresa Slowik. "African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, The Civil Rights Movement, and Beyond." New York: Skira Rizzola Publishers, 2012.
Moore, Alan W. "Art Gangs: Protest and Counterculture in New York City." Autonomedia, 2011.
Reed, T.V. "The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle." Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2005.
Rose, Tricia. "The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why It Matters." New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2008.
Rushing, W. Jackson. "Native American Art in the Twentieth Century: Makers, Meanings, Histories." New York: Routledge, 2013.
Saslow, James M. " Pictures and Passions: A History of Homosexuality in the Visual Arts." New York: Penguin Books, 2001.
Sporre, Dennis J. "Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts (8th Edition)". Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 2008.
Stokstad, Marilyn. "Art History: Fifth Edition." New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2013.

Learning Outcomes and Objectives

Course Objectives

  • Critically examine the prevailing values and attendant ideas of contemporary society, recognizing the diverse cultural and historical origins of these values and ideas.
  • Distinguish the subtlety and complexity with which cultural ideas are reinforced and values reflected in art through analysis of examples.
  • Develop correlations between historical milieu and artistic mediums.
  • Explore the potential political and social relevancies of artistic discourse.
  • Apply criteria of cultural and aesthetic analysis to unfamiliar art works.
  • Identify and evaluate aesthetic experiences and formulate reactions to these experiences.
  • Integrate a sense of the personal relevance of art, both as consumer and practitioner.

CSLOs

  • Synthesize students' critical thinking, imaginative, cooperative, and empathetic abilities as whole persons in order to contextualize knowledge, interpret and communicate meaning, and cultivate their capacity for personal, as well as social change.

  • Analyze the dynamic relationship between contemporary culture, artistic expression, and individual assumptions, beliefs and values.

Outline

  1. Critically examine the prevailing values and attendant ideas of contemporary society, recognizing the diverse cultural and historical origins of these values and ideas.
    1. The course critically examines the values of contemporary America, the ideas with which these values are most intimately connected, and the ways these values and ideas are affected by and reflected in the arts.
    2. The course establishes how cultural meaning and social structure are reflected and reinforced as an artistic dialogue.
      1. Art is both a shaper of culture and a reflection of culture.
      2. Ideologies are reflected in coded representations.
      3. Meaning is not fixed, rather it is constructed to consolidate and perpetuate the power of its creators.
    3. Although the course is not necessarily chronologically organized, it places the values and ideas it considers in their historical and cultural context. Examples may include but should not be limited to:
      1. The value of "the good life" derived from materialism and reflected in the collectability mania of the modern world.
      2. Romantic love as a product of the courtly love tradition of the middle ages and manifest today in contemporary popular fiction, music, and film.
      3. A discussion of the treatment of binary oppositions as a major facet of understanding the process of change from a modern to postmodern contemporary society.
      4. The value of individualism and the reaction to it in the twentieth century as the product of the Renaissance and the belief that humans are both rational and perfectible.
      5. The focus of Western culture on technology and science from the age of discovery to the present as reflected in utopian and dystopian philosophies, literature, and arts. (futurism, Brave New World, and the hyper-real).
      6. The philosophical construct of the ideal modern state and its legacy in the twentieth century (new world order/disorder, UN politics, and post-colonial discourse).
      7. The idea of the nuclear family as it highlights cultural relativity in relation to social structure and economics.
      8. Cultural pluralism as the result of twentieth century relativistic thinking, which manifests itself artistically in such diverse ways as:
        1. the value-free creed of modern art (e.g., Arneson's bust of George Moscone)
        2. non-Western influences on the arts from around the world (e.g., Zen poetry, African sculpture, Middle Eastern architecture).
        3. minority influences on the arts in the U.S. (e.g., African-American musical influences).
        4. postmodern emphasis on pluralism and multiple truths (e.g., John Berger's "Ways of Seeing").
        5. feminist critique of representation (e.g., Barbara Kruger's use of appropriation).
      9. The current ferment of environmental values that derive from such diverse ideas as:
        1. original sin (artistically expressed in Old Testament poetry and prose).
        2. Native American philosophies (expressed in story, song, and ceremony).
        3. nineteenth century naturalism (as in the paintings of Bierstadt).
      10. The modern ideal of a secular society (with a separation of church and state) as a consequence of western humanism and the concomitant lowering of status of institutionalized religion.
      11. The idea of "progress" as the inevitable improvement of human life (and of Western society in particular) as one consequence of a linear view of time, coupled with a belief in the inherent goodness of Western cultural practices.
  2. Distinguish the subtlety and complexity with which cultural ideas are reinforced and values reflected in art through analysis of examples.
    1. The course explores the relationships between ideas, values, and the arts through the examination of specific examples. These examples will demonstrate that art both shapes and is shaped by culture. Examples may include but should not be limited to:
      1. "Oedipus Rex" as a prototype for subsequent drama.
      2. August Wilson's "Fences" as an expression of African American experience.
      3. Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party" as a celebration of the recognition of women as historical role models.
    2. Artistic examples chosen will be varied and represent the major art forms (visual arts, architecture, music, drama, literature) though in as non-technical a way as possible consistent with a study of some depth. The principal guideline here is that the art works studied are chosen for the ideas and values they illuminate and represent; the course is not an introductory study of artistic forms for their own sake.
    3. To the extent that the course draws from the Western tradition, care is taken to:
      1. compare forms, ideas and values in the West to those prevailing in other cultures during the same period (e.g., the aesthetics and worldview reflected in a classical Greek statue with those of a seated Indian Buddha).
      2. identify gender significant sub-texts in much Western work (e.g., the Genesis story as revealing the suppression of the feminine, earth principle (the serpent) by the patriarchal masculine (Yahweh).
      3. consider pluralistically focused alternate or revised ways of understanding and discussing the past (e.g., Howard Zinn's "The Peoples History of the United States" or Vine Deloria's "Spirit and Reason").
    4. The art chosen reflects the increasing importance of non-Western influences on contemporary culture (e.g., the role of Asian philosophies such as Zen in shifting the emphasis from product to process in art).
    5. Multicultural examples that highlight the intersections between race, class and gender are examined, both where they are obvious (e.g., the contributions of Native American art to environmental awareness) and where they are usually overlooked (e.g., Hildegarde of Bingen's contributions to medieval art).
    6. Thematic foundations of the class will encourage an in-depth exploration of the ways in which the students' own cultural ideas are reinforced and values reflected through the art they are exposed to or participate in. Such themes include, but are not limited to:
      1. identity and the individual
      2. self in community
      3. change and sustainability
  3. Develop correlations between historical milieu and artistic mediums.
    1. An historical timeline is developed that provides students with a clear understanding of the artistic representations of, and catalysts for, social change. Examples may include but should not be limited to:
      1. The shift from analytical, to experiential (e.g., the psychotherapeutic uses of art among the followers of Carl Jung), and finally to conceptual approaches to art as indications of ongoing discussions in philosophy and the social sciences.
      2. The Renaissance emphasis on realism in the depiction of objects and people as indicative of the era's fascination with worldly goods and concern with establishment of personal and family reputation.
      3. Continued emphasis on realism and the role of perspective as a visual representation of Enlightenment fascination with scientific explanation of the natural world and Cartesian dualism.
      4. The invention of the photograph and the shift in social and political power as a result of the Industrial Revolution resulting in a breakdown of traditional patronage and the subsequent move towards modernist critique and abstraction by the avant-garde (e.g., Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" as an assault on Victorian sensibilities and Cubism as a challenge to the "rules" of perspective).
      5. Dada and Surrealist ties to the legacy of the unconscious proposed by Sigmund Freud, and counter-culture arguments with the establishment during and after WWI.
      6. Social realism in literature and photography as socially conscious evaluations of the United States during the Great Depression.
      7. Magical realism as a literary reaction to political and social upheaval in Latin America and post-WWII Japan (e.g., works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami).
      8. The literary and personal lives of Beat writers as a response and challenge to perceived social conformity during the post-war 1950's.
      9. Pop art as a reaction to and a critique of popular culture, eroding barriers between high and low art and drawing together art and mass culture.
      10. Televised images of violence during the Vietnam War invoking social criticism of the role and impact of visual images, questioning the authority of truth in photography and further eroding barriers between artistic creation and popular culture.
      11. Post-modern emphasis on pluralism, multiple truths and identity as intellectual descendants of the social and political movements of the 1960's, including ethnic civil rights, feminist, gay and lesbian, anti-war, and post-colonial movements.
    2. Art is placed within broader contexts of popular culture in order to identify the roles it plays in contemporary society. The dynamic and interactive relationship between contemporary art and popular culture provides a foundation for student exploration of their relationship to the artistic world around them.
      1. Student experience with popular culture provides a foundation for analysis of art previously unfamiliar to them.
      2. Students develop an interactive relationship with contemporary culture through their interpretation and exploration.
  4. Explore the potential political and social relevancies of artistic discourse.
    1. There are a variety of ways to interpret and understand the past. This course challenges the canon of art history and encourages the development of alternate and revised versions of history that demonstrate both the continuity of change and the multiple perspectives offered by the pluralistically focused and identity driven focus of the contemporary art world. This analysis includes a discussion of the political motivations reflected in the writing of history.
    2. The potentially political nature of contemporary art and its criticism is compared to classical notions of taste and beauty, demonstrating a recent shift in the role that art plays in society.
    3. Art is identified as a means for communicating challenges and critique of popular culture. Examples are chosen for their ability to identify relational aspects of the intersection between race, class and gender and to challenge the impacts of marginalization. Examples may include but should not be limited to:
      1. the freedom song tradition as an integral part of the civil rights movement.
      2. guerrilla theater as a form of social protest at World Trade Organization meetings, political party conventions and anti-war demonstrations.
      3. Duchamp's "Fountain" or Guerilla Girl's "antics" as a challenge to the art establishments' artificial separation between high and low art and concomitant exclusion of women and minorities.
      4. chicano art as a forum for discussion of border and immigration issues and the diaspora.
      5. Gran Fury's use of iconography to address political and social opinions about AIDS and the subsequent impact on the queer community.
      6. pop art and culture jamming as challenges to the autonomy of corporate advertising culture.
      7. graffiti, rap and hip-hop as voices of urban youth experience.
      8. cybernetworks as new "spaces" for grassroots political organizing, social activism, and aesthetic expression.
  5. Apply criteria of cultural and aesthetic analysis to unfamiliar art works.
    1. Students are expected to develop skills in cultural analysis by applying concepts covered in class to works unfamiliar to them.
    2. Students are expected to experience art in contexts beyond the classroom (concerts, plays, museums, etc.) and to write critical reactions to these experiences.
  6. Identify and evaluate aesthetic experiences and formulate reactions to these experiences.
    1. Students are exposed to pertinent information through lectures and the reading of texts.
    2. Collaborative learning and other group activities are used to encourage the active self-appropriation of learning and cooperative problem solving.
    3. Evaluations of students focuses on written essays, exams, oral reports or presentations, and de-emphasizes such instruments as multiple-choice tests.
  7. Integrate a sense of the personal relevance of art, both as consumer and practitioner.
    1. To an extent, students shift from analysts of art to makers of art, at least in a laboratory sense, in order to better understand art as process.
    2. Students are empowered to utilize artistic expression as a means to communicate their own personal or political ideas.
Back to Top