Art 1A Visual Literacy Reading Schedule: Summer Session A (2025)
*Weekly writing assignments should be 2-4 pages and they are due each in lecture Wednesday by 1:30PM (unless otherwise stated. Check due dates VERY carefully). All assignments must be submitted to your TA.
WEEK 1 (June 23 & 25): Course Introduction & Representation and Intertextuality.
The first lecture, on Monday, June 23 is via Zoom (no pass code, sign in as an attendee): https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/83111992304
Do the following:
1) Purchase your course reader (from Associated Students) and John Berger's Ways of Seeing (from the campus bookstore or Amazon). Your copy of Your Brain on Art is a free download from the library website, and there are copies on reserve.
2) Fill out the field trip Liability Waivers:
MANDATORY LIABILITY WAIVERS (PLEASE FILL OUT ALL OF THEM TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR ALL OF THE FIELD TRIPS): https://powerforms.docusign.net/617c99b5-0029-4e2f-893b-a196a28a3eb6?env=na3&acct=36d87d60-c882-4887-835a-bc389fb776dd&accountId=36d87d60-c882-4887-835a-bc389fb776dd
Wednesday, June 25: Representation and Intertextuality Reading Assignments:
• Carl Matheson: The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony and the Meaning of Life
• Kelly L. Richardson. “Simpsons Did It!”: South Park and the Intertextuality of Contemporary Animation
• Joanna Woods-Marsden. "Cindy Sherman’s Reworking of Raphael’s ‘Fornarina’ and Caravaggio’s ‘Bacchus.’
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• Michel Foucault. This is Not a Pipe (Excerpt)
• Scott McCloud, The Vocabulary of Comics (Excerpt)
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, June 25 by 1:30PM in lecture): This is a 3-part assignment: 1) Write a 1-page summary about the significant ideas addressed in Carl Matheson: "The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony and the Meaning of Life." 2) Write a 1-page summary of Kelly L. Richardson's "Simpsons Did It!": South Park and the Intertextuality of Contemporary Animation. 3) List a few ideas that you found interesting in Michel Foucault's This is Not a Pipe.
If you have not purchased your course reader, then you will need to go to the library to check out the course reader that I have placed on 2 hour reserve for you.
WEEK 2 (June 30 & July 2): Understanding Mediation: Photography and Cinema. Mechanics of a Formal Research Paper Workshop on Monday, June 30 at 1:30PM (in lecture).
• John Berger: Ways of Seeing
• Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Message
• Neil Postman: The Judgment of Thamus
• Susan Magsamen and Ivy Moss. Your Brain on Art
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, July 2 by 1:30PM in lecture): This is a 3-part assignment: 1) Write a 1-page summary of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (Chapter 1). 2) Write a 1-page summary of Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. 3) Write a 1-2 page summary of the important ideas addressed in Chapter 1 (pages 3-24): "The Anatomy of the Arts" from Your Brain on Art, and write about the most significant ideas advanced in this chapter. A free copy of this book can be downloaded from Davidson Library and is on reserve.
WEEK 3 (July 7 & 9): LACMA Field Trip on Saturday, July 12. Monday and Wednesday lectures cancelled in lieu of the LACMA trip. Monday discussion section scheduled as planned.
Writing Assignment (Due: Sunday, July 13 by 11:30PM. Email it to your TA. We will accept these papers through Monday, July 14 by 1:30 in lecture. If you turn it in on Monday it must be a hard copy.): This is a 4-part assignment: 1) Digital Witness: Revolutions in Design, Photography, and Film (through July 13), 2) Imagining Black Diasporas: 21st-Century Art and Poetics (through July 27) and 3) Zheng Chongbin: Golden State (through January 4, 2026). 4) Write a 1-2 page summary of the important ideas addressed in Chapter 5 (pages 135-164): "Amplifying Learning" from Your Brain on Art. (Everyone does this including the people who do the alternative museum trips).
If you cannot make it on one of the LA museum field trips, then you may go to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) in lieu of one of the two museum trips (not both). If this is the case, then here is your alternative assignment at the SBMA:
Alternative Assignment at the SBMA (Due: Sunday, July 13 by 11:30PM. We will accept them through Monday, July 14 by 1:30PM in lecture): This is a 5-part assignment. Write 5 pages total 1) Proscenium: Elliott Hundley (though August 31), 2) Math + Art (through August 24), 3) Guides to Enlightenment: Tibetan Paintings from the Museum’s Collection (through August 17), 4) Sea of Ice: Echoes of the European Romantic Era (through August 24). 5) Write a 1-2 page summary of the important ideas addressed in Chapter 5 (pages 135-164): "Amplifying Learning" from Your Brain on Art. (everyone does this including the people who do the alternative museum trips).
Nota Bene: The museum trip is all-day immersive experience, and therefore the museum field trip is in lieu of both of the Art 1A lectures that week (section attendance is as scheduled that week). If you do not go to the museum that week, or do the writing assignment, then you will receive two absences for the missed lectures that week, and you won't be able to do your written assignment that week. Take a selfie at the museum, and works of art that were of interest to you, and include it in your paper as proof of attendance.
WEEK 4 (July 14 & 16): Fictional and Documentary Space: Blurring the Difference. Lorna Simpson Artist Talk.
Monday, July 14: Fictional and Documentary Space
• Edward Branigan: Fiction
• Vivian Sobchack: On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space
• Chapter 6 (pages 166-198): "Flourishing" from Your Brain on Art.
Artist Talks: In Conversation: Lorna Simpson, Thelma Golden, and Zora Simpson Casebere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3gB0B21NsQ
Lorna Simpson on Memory and Representation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7GuVJ8EAWQ
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, July 16 by 1:30PM): 1) Write a 1-2-page summary of the important ideas addressed in Chapter 6 (pages 166-198): "Flourishing" from Your Brain on Art. 2) Write the first 2-3 pages of your Lorna Simpson research paper.
WEEK 5 (July 21 & 23): Getty Center Field Trip on Saturday, July 26. No on campus lectures on July 21 & 23 in lieu of the Getty trip. Section scheduled. Research Papers due on Monday, July 21 by 4:00 in section. See Getty assignments listed below (in week 6).
Writing Assignment (Due: Monday, July 21 by 4:00PM in section): Formal research paper due. No weekly writing assignments. Museum response papers due next week.
Nota Bene: The museum trip is all-day immersive experience, and therefore the museum field trip is in lieu of both of the Art 1A lectures that week (section attendance is as scheduled that week). If you do not go to the museum this week, or do the writing assignment, then you will receive absences for the two missed lectures. Take a selfie at the museum, and works of art that were of interest to you, and include it in your paper as proof of attendance. Your museum response paper will due next week since you are submitting your research paper this week.
WEEK 6 (July 28 & 30): Art in the Age of the Internet. Artist Talk
Monday, July 28
• Jeff Scheible: Longing to Connect: Cinema’s Year of OS Romance
• Katrina Sluis, Julian Stallabrass and Christiane Paul. The Canon After the Internet
• Lauren Cornell. Self-Portraiture in the First-Person Age
• Gloria Sutton. CTRL ALT DELETE: The Problematics of Post-Internet Art
• Jeffrey De Blois. Hybrid Bodies
• Chapter 7 (pages 201-227): "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art.
Wednesday, July 30 Artist Talk featuring Emily D'Achiardi.
Writing Assignments for the Getty & SBMA (Due Wednesday, July 30 by 1:30PM in lecture): This is a 4-part assignment. Getty response paper: Write a 4-5 page (total) response paper for the following exhibits at the Getty: 1) Artemisia's Strong Women: Rescuing a Masterpiece (through September 14), 2) Queer Lens: A History of Photography (through September 28), 3) Select an exhibition at the Getty that you were particularly interested in, and discuss why it impacted you. 4) Read Chapter 7 (pages 201-227): "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art, and write about the most significant ideas advanced in this chapter. (everyone does this including the people who do the alternative museum trips).
Alternative Assignment for the SBMA if you do not go to the Getty Center (but this means you must have gone to LACMA for the first field trip).
If you cannot make it on one of the LA museum field trips, then you may go to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) in lieu of one of the two museum trips (not both). If this is the case, then here is your alternative assignment at the SBMA:
Alternative Assignment at the SBMA: This is a 5-part assignment. Write 5-6 pages total 1) Proscenium: Elliott Hundley (though August 31), 2) Math + Art (through August 24), 3) Guides to Enlightenment: Tibetan Paintings from the Museum’s Collection (through August 17), 4) Sea of Ice: Echoes of the European Romantic Era (through August 24). 5) Read Chapter 7 (pages 201-227): "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art, and write about the most significant ideas advanced in this chapter.
