Fall Term 2012
AAD 550 Art in Society
Instructor: John Fenn
http://aaablogs.uoregon.edu/artsustainablesociety/
This course examines the arts as expressive practice that manifest through material culture in society, with specific attention to the concepts of participatory and convergence culture. We will explore the relationships of art to society and individual values using folkloristic, anthropological, sociological, philosophical and art education literature, and we will do so in a transmedia environment. Drawing on concepts derived from these literatures, we will examine the ways in which material culture functions to maintain, transmit, and dynamically engage cultural and social change. Fine, functional, popular, folk, multimedia, and environmental forms of art constitute a range of subject matter; we will specifically address the implications for arts managers that these various critical perspectives entail for work in the arts and culture sectors.
Objectives:
1. We will analyze assigned readings/materials for concepts useful in understanding ways in which art functions in various cultures and contemporary society, specifically in transmedia contexts or ways.
2. We will analyze material culture using information and methods derived from lectures, readings, and transmedia course materials.
3. Students will present analyses of readings and observations, in class and in papers, demonstrating ability to: analyze cultural assumptions, consider aesthetic principles in culture-based contexts, analyze artifacts and events in cultural context through a transmedia orientation, and imagine implications for arts and cultural managment.
Assignments