AMCS 3713 - Values and the Art-Culture Machine

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

This course introduces students to a range of contexts and problems that contemporary art and culture face with respect to how to account for and value human, communal, and diverse experiences. We begin with a comparison of dominant aesthetic, spiritual, and representational practices in Modernism and Postmodernism by looking closely at science, feminism, and commodity art and culture. We consider the ethics of silence in contemporary art in relation to human suffering and the place of humanness in relation to machines and reproductive technologies and products, including the printed picture and kitsch. We then consider the relevance of a computational understanding of human cognition and how information and experience relate. We address the role of art and artists in times of crisis and war, as well as the modes of mobilization, production, and distribution characteristic of art worlds. We question the authenticity of African tourist art and Aboriginal paintings. We highlight experiments in the representation of values and difference in contemporary art and anthropology. We conclude with a discussion of the relevance of time, fantasy, and imagination in cultural production.

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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