Hi Guys!

If you’re reading this, chances are you either A) are enrolled in my CHIP class, Art and Politics, for this fall, or B) you were blog surfing and thought this one was too awesome to pass up. Both answers are completely acceptable 🙂 I’ll leave you surfers alone for the moment, and address the freshmen, if you don’t mind. First of all–welcome to the U of O, and welcome to the Clark Honors College! You have 4 years of adventures ahead of you, so let’s get started!

It’s hard to deny that we live in a visually-oriented society: brightly-colored tv ads, memes, music videos, and campaign posters all function as primary methods of catching a person’s attention visually. With the increased access to computers, what we see, and more importantly, what we recognize, demonstrates quite a bit about us as individuals. A single manifestation of this is how we see and interpret art.

This CHIP is organized around the connection between artistic production and political action. Over the course of the term, we’ll be talking about a wide range of artworks prompted by(and even prompting!) political events. By discussing the nature of propaganda, artistic creation, and the function of art in ancient and modern society, you’ll have the opportunity to understand a little bit more about the visual world you live in.

I’ll explain this again at orientation on the 24th, but for your first assignment, I want you to come to class with some definitions:

First, define “art.” What does it mean? Where does it come from? What do you think about when you hear the word? Next, define “politics,” asking the same questions. I want a list of personal answers to those  questions– do not just copy the dictionary, but using it is a very good idea–when you come to class in two weeks. Let me give you a hint–we’ll be talking about this during orientation, so it’s a very good idea to come prepared. 😉 

Hope you’re enjoying The Illusion of Power, and I’ll see you all next week!

~Maggie