IDOCS 04/05-5
At the February 10, 2005 faculty meeting, IDOCS will move that the following course, to be taught by A. Malcolm Gimse as Field Supervisor of the 2005-06 Term in the Middle East program be approved by the faculty.
Course: Art ME258: Sacred and Secular Manifestations of Three Religious Cultures (in
conflict) in the Middle East
Offered: Term in the Middle East, Fall 2005
Catalog Description: Historical and aesthetic survey of art forms emerging from civilizations which developed in Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, (Jordan) and Greece. It is a visual study of cultural information made evident in monuments and works of art, using linear and comparative investigations of art styles, structural techniques, and symbolic sources. Course includes class work onsite and in museums, presentations, and an individual aesthetic journal that builds into a reflective, analytical, comprehensive exam on a chosen art form. Counts toward major: Art and Art History GE credit: ALS-A (application in process)
Rationale: The first goal is to develop a vocabulary in the arts with applications to specific works. Each student responds with an assigned oral report, as well as in writing and in group discussions of monuments/art works onsite, applying aesthetic theory to cultural objects.
The second goal is to establish a basis for delineating between cultures through their art forms. Religious and political forces shape each era, which will be studied in the four other courses (one in each country). The survey and experiential components of the Term in the Middle East curriculum are on common ground with the onsite study of aesthetics, cultural self-realization through art, the politics of patronage, the sources and power of symbolic architecture, and the iconography of religious art.
