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VIS Visual Arts Courses


VIS120H1
Visual Concepts 78P

Visual concepts introduces students to a wide range of topics situated in Modernism and Post-modernism that inform current art practice and critical discourse. The course investigates post-1970 art practice through the diverse societal, cultural and political influences of post-modernism.


VIS130H1
Visual Strategies 156P

A studio based course that employs intensive and diverse investigation of drawing strategies that stress the formulation and communication of visual ideas.NOTE enrolment instructions in Handbook for this course!
Exclusion: VIS140H (Siena)
Prerequisite: VIS120H


VIS140H1
Visual Strategies 78P

An introductory studio course with an emphasis on drawing. Issues of both representation and conceptualization are explored through studio and field projects employing drawing media, including watercolour, utilizing Siena and Tuscan landscape. (Taught in Siena only)
Exclusion: VIS130H


VIS201H1
Painting: Methods and Materials 78P

This is a hands-on course that deals with technical and theoretical issues of painting in the late 20th Century. The act of painting and the relevance of painting are stressed through both historical and current issues. This course is very project oriented.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H or equivalent or permission of instructor


VIS202H1
Video: Production and Post-Production 78P

This course is designed to introduce students to Video Art production and post-production techniques. Students conceive, shoot and edit a video tape in a hands-on-manner under the guidance of the instructor. The production of the Video Art project occurs within the framework of seminars, exhibitions and current critical writing on issues particular to Video Art. (A studio fee of $50 payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H or permission of instructor


VIS203H1
Print Media 78P

Principles and practices of Relief Printmaking. Projects in single and multiple block edition production. (A studio fee of $60 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H or permission of instructor


VIS204H1
Sculpture 78P

A studio introduction to the formal and expressive potentials of three dimensional form. Three projects, centred around broad thematic parameters, focus on the concepts, techniques and processes involved in the realization of sculptural form. Each of these projects are further defined in terms of additive, subtractive and constructive methods. (A studio fee of $60 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H or permission of instructor


VIS205H1
Drawing 78P

Studio-based projects explore drawing practice in the late 20th century. Materials and approaches both bear witness to continuity and respond to changing contemporary cultural issues. (A studio fee of $25.00 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H or permission of instructor


VIS206H1
Post-modern Art and Culture 26L, 52P

Popular culture in the Post-modern era is the central idea here. Artistic strategies in cultural appropriation and other post-modern concerns are discussed and used in the production of studio projects. Projects illustrate a particular situation and also index components of popular culture in a consumer society.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H, permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS130H; students should read Post Modernism for Beginners, R. Appignanesi & C. Caratt


VIS207H1
Urban Art 26L, 26P

This course asks the question: where does the "city" sit in your imagination? Through individual projects, discussions and critiques we explore the idea of the city both as a personal reality and as a metaphor. An initial written statement by each student provides the framework for two subsequent projects. The goal of the course is for you to locate and articulate your relationship to the idea of the city in expressive forms. (A studio fee of $50 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS208H1
Performance Art 26L, 52P

Practical and aesthetic concerns in the evolution of Performance against the backdrop of critical and historical perspectives. Students explore a range of Performance possibilities, alone and collaboratively to develop both intellectual and physical skills which will inform both their performance work and their view of art. Seminars focus on critical aspects of Performance.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS209H1
Women and Art 26L, 52P

The emergence and incorporation of the feminist perspective in current art theory and practice form the basis of lectures, seminars, projects and essays that focus on language, photography and other mediums that signal the shift to a variety of strategies shaping art in the post-modern era.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS210H1
Visual Studies Projects 26L, 26P

Theories and dialogue informing the practice of art in the 20th century are studied and form the basis of studio projects. The goal is to encourage cross-discipline research to inform your thinking about art and the making of art.
Prerequisite: VIS120H; permission of instructor


VIS211H1
Works on Paper (formerly VIS 205H) 26L, 52P

This course addresses, through theoretical and practical projects, the principles and sensibilities of paper-based expression, including drawing, with an emphasis on the interaction of its practice with contemporary image making and technology.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS212H1
Colour 26L, 52P

Colour may be claimed as the property of all: for most everyone sees, uses, and knows colour. Studying colour takes us into areas of humanities and sciences. This study, through lectures, projects and readings aims to develop a student's understanding and use of colour.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS213H1
Aspects of Form 26L, 52P

At the heart of form is movements; metamorphosis, transformation, regeneration. While central to our study is form as it manifests in visual art, the dialectic between matter and form of object, nature and culture continually places this study in a broader interdisciplinary context.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS214H1
Painting and Appropriation 26L, 52P

This course explores pertinent issues of appropriating painted images along with their content.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS215H1
Access to Painting 26L, 52P

A seminar based course that confronts questions of accessibility to painting in contemporary culture. Issues of alienation through gender, sexual orientation, and race meet the legacy of painting.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS216H1
Isamu Noguchi 26L, 52P

The life and work of one of this century's most influential, significant sculptors, manipulator of paper, stone, light, space, water, movement and time is studied and assessed as a bridge between east and west.
Prerequisite: VIS120H; permission of instructor


VIS301H1
Painting: The Indignant Eye 78P

Creative projects are introduced to develop an aesthetic with social and political relevance, with specific emphasis on painting.
Prerequisite: VIS201H and permission of instructor


VIS302H1
Video: Advanced Projects 52P

Emphasis on pre-production, production and post-production of a video project. Students script, shoot and edit a tape through rough cut to fine cut. Class discussions focus on all stages of the work-in-progress. Strategies for distribution, exhibition and funding are examined. (A studio fee of $50 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS202H or permission of instructor


VIS303H1
Print Media II 78P

An introduction through studio projects to the principle forms of intaglio printmaking, including etching and collagraph. (A studio fee of $60 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS203H or permission of instructor


VIS304H1
Sculpture: Advanced Projects 78P

The body as the site of personal and social values. In consultation with the instructor individual projects related to the body are approached from a variety of directions and through a wide-range of sculptural means in a working studio environment. There is no pre-defined aesthetic or political position in this course. The question we are asking is this: what is the body at this time and how can you express your perception of it? (A studio fee of $50.00 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H; permission of instructor


VIS305H1
Drawing and Painting 52P

Time and place in drawing and painting. This course provides a discourse with which to continue the evolution of the students' work in drawing and painting.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, 130H; permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS201H, 205H/211H


VIS306H1
Site Specific Installation 26L, 26P

How does context affect the creation and perception of visual art? To what extent can one engage and incorporate selected aspects of a chosen context within a work of art? How are contextual fictions established? How do installations define the viewer? Does site specific art necessitate a narrative structure? These are some of the questions considered in this course. Students prepare an analysis of an existing installation work and realize two on-campus installations. (A studio fee of $50 is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: VIS120H; permission of instructor


VIS307H1
Art and Context 26L, 26P

Applying art to the borders of other disciplines or issues within the university community, students develop projects with the objective of opening spaces for discourse: art as a transgressive device.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: at least 5 course credits in any subject


VIS308H1
Art Intersections 26L, 52P

An examination of concepts that provided the impetus for the interrogation of Modernism, beginning with the historic rupture between photography and painting.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS309H1
The Processed Image 26L, 52P

Lectures, seminars and studio projects address issues of transformation, commodity, ownership and the singularity of images through the intersection of photo-based and processed iconography.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS310H1
Painting the Political 26L, 52P

A lecture and seminar based course with a studio project, examining plastic, social and gender politics in contemporary painting.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS311H1
Independent Projects TBA

Students propose and produce projects in media that are offered in Visual Studies. (A studio fee of $50 in video and sculpture only is payable with tuition.)
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor


VIS312H1
Collage 26L, 52P

An investigation of the history and process of collage in the 20th century. From cubism to photoshot, collage remains an integral component of visual expression.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS313H1
The Body 26L, 52P

Ideas about the body are challenged by developments in technology, culture and politics. This course studies the metamorphosis of gender, age, and culture through lectures, projects, and readings.
Prerequisite: VIS120H, permission of instructor


VIS314Y1
Imaging Siena 156P

Projects encourage the development of visual forms appropriate to individual responses to Siena's religious and cultural heritage and complex medieval iconography. Works produced include drawing and painting, photography and other media. (Taught in Siena only)
Prerequisite: VIS211H or permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS201H


VIS315H1
Machine Culture 52L, 26P

This course offers a critical exploration of our culture's infatuation with the machine as an extension of the body. The canoe and the motorcycle are examines as icons that have captivated the imagination of designers, artists and curators.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS120H


VIS316H1
Outsider Art 52L, 26P

The course examines censorship as the enforcement of moral or political norms. In their time artists such as Picasso, Klee and Max Ernst were banned or banished as degenerate outsiders. Works by urban graffitti artists, visionairies/dreamers are examined in various contexts.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS120H


VIS317H1
Moments for Monuments 26L, 52P

Timeless markers and propoganda and props provide material for the study of the primordial human need to set memorials that attempt to defeat human transience. Successful reclamation of such spaces are investigated, proposals for problems advanced.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor
Recommended preparation: VIS120H


VIS401H1
Thesis Text and Critique 52P

Taken in conjunction with VIS402H Thesis Project, students develop project(s) over the course of the academic year with studio, textual and critical analysis forming the components of the project. Class discussions with faculty.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor


VIS402H1
Thesis Project 52P

Students realize projects embarked upon in VIS 401H Thesis Text and Critique. Class discussions with faculty.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor


VIS403H1
Secondary Focus Project 52P

A variety of projects developed in various media with a strong interdisciplinary focus.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor


VIS404H1
Independent Studies 52P

Individual advanced projects, including texts, that are subject to group critiques.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor


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