Calendar

Art 1A Visual Literacy Reading Schedule: Spring 2026

*Weekly writing assignments should be 2-4 pages and they are due each in lecture Wednesday by 12:30PM (unless otherwise stated. Check due dates VERY carefully). All assignments must be submitted to your TA.

 

WEEK 1 (March 30 & April 1): Course Introduction & Representation and Intertextuality.


The first lecture, on Monday, March 30 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 (Associated Students), John Berger's Ways of Seeing (campus bookstore or Amazon) and Harmonia Rosales's Chronicles of Ori (campus bookstore, Amazon and Chaucer's Books). Your copy of Your Brain on Art is on reserve at the library, and you can download an electronic copy.

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/d5ddf326-5613-45c8-8184-331dde538479?env=na3&acct=36d87d60-c882-4887-835a-bc389fb776dd&accountId=36d87d60-c882-4887-835a-bc389fb776dd

*Students are responsible for their own transportation to the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara museums. Neither UCSB, nor the UCSB Department of Art will furnish transportation, or organize it. However, students tend to organize their own carpools each quarter.

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.’
"

• Michel Foucault. This is Not a Pipe (Excerpt)


• Scott McCloud, The Vocabulary of Comics (Excerpt) 

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book I, pp. 5-28.


Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, April 1 by 12:30PM in lecture): This is a 3-part assignment: 

1) Write a 1-page summary about the significant ideas addressed in Joanna Woods-Marsden's "Cindy Sherman's Reworking of Raphael's 'Fornarina' and Caravaggio's 'Bacchus'" If you haven't purchased your reader yet, download here from the library.

2) Write a 1-page summary of Kelly L. Richardson's "Simpsons Did It!": South Park and the Intertextuality of Contemporary Animation. If you haven't purchased your reader, download here from the library.

3) Write a 1-2-page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, pp. 5-28. 


WEEK 2 (April 6 & 8): Understanding Mediation: Photography and Cinema. Harmonia Rosales Getty Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voBZJ0c1fS0

• 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

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book II, pp. 37-57.

 

Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, April 8 by 12:30PM in lecture): This is a 3-part assignment: 

1) Write a 1-page summary of Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Read Chapter 1 of John Berger's Ways of Seeing to help you understand the ideas being advanced by Benjamin.

2) 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.

3) Write a 1-2- page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, pp. 37-57.


WEEK 3 (April 13 & 15): Mechanics of a Formal Research Paper Workshop on Monday, April 13 Scholarly Research Training Workshop with Heather Nisen on Wednesday, April 15 (both in lecture). Getty Center field trip on Saturday, April 18.


Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, April 15 by 12:30PM in lecture: This is a 2-part assignment. 

1) Write the first 2-3 pages of your research paper about the work of Harmonia Rosales. You may refer to the Artist Talk we saw in class, but should also do some light research since we will be viewing Harmonia Rosales's work at the Getty on Saturday.

2) Read Chapter 5 (pages 135-164) and write a 1- page summary of the chapter: "Amplifying Learning" from Your Brain on Art. 

3) Write a 1-page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book III, pp. 65-86.


WEEK 4 (April 20 & 22): Getty Center Field Trip on Saturday, April 18. The April 20 & 22 lectures are cancelled in lieu of the all day field trip to the Getty Center. Sections are scheduled on Monday and Tuesday, April 20-21 as usual.


Writing Assignment (Due: Tuesday, April 21 by 6:30PM. Email it to your TA): This is a 4-part assignment:

1) Write a 2-page response to the Getty Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages exhibition. Make sure to discuss Harmonia Rosales's paintings in the exhibition (you may use what you write for this assignment in your research paper)

2) Write a 1-2- page museum response to the Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 exhibition.

3) Write a 1-page response to other works of art, exhibitions, the gardens, etc. that interested and impacted you at the Getty.

4) Write a 1-page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book IV, pp. 97-119.

 

Alternative Assignment for the SBMA if you do not go to The Getty Center (but this means you must go to LACMA for the second field trip). (Due: Tuesday, April 21 by 6:30PM. Email it to your TA). This is a 5-part assignment: 

Nota Bene: The museum trip is an 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, and you won't be able to do your written assignment. Take a selfie at the museum, and the works of art that were of interest to you, and include them in your paper as proof of attendance.


WEEK 5 (April 27 & 29): Harmonia Rosales Research Paper Due on Wednesday, April 29. Fictional and Documentary Space: Blurring the Difference.

• Edward Branigan: Fiction


• Vivian Sobchack: On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space 

• Susan Magsamen and Ivy Moss. Your Brain on Art

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori

 

Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, April 29 by 12:30PM in lecture): Harmonia Rosales research paper due. You must bring a hard copy of your paper to lecture. No weekly writing assignments due this week.


WEEK 6 (May 4 & 6): LACMA Field Trip on Saturday, May 9. Monday and Wednesday lectures on May 4 & 6 are cancelled in lieu of the LACMA field trip. Discussion sections scheduled as planned.

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book V, pp. 129-158.

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book VI, pp. 169-188.

• Susan Magsamen and Ivy Moss. Your Brain on Art, pp. 201-227.

 

Writing Assignment (Due: Monday, May 4 and Tuesday, May 5 at the beginning your sections): LACMA Assignments due next week (see below).

This is a 3-part assignment: 

1) Write a 1-2-page summary of Chronicles of Ori,  Book V, pp. 129-158.

2) Write a 1-2-page summary of Chronicles of Ori, Book VI, pp. 169-188.

3) Write a 1-2-page response to Chapter 7, "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art, pp. 201-227.


WEEK 7 (May 11 & 13): Artist Talk featuring Christopher Velasco on Monday, May 11 in lecture via Zoom (Link HERE). Art in the Age of the Internet. 

• 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


Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, May 13 by 12:30PM): This is a 4-part assignment: 

1) Write a 1-2-page response to the LACMA SUEÑO PERRO: A Film Installation by Alejandro G. Iñárritu exhibition.

2) Write a 1-2-page response to the LACMA Deep Cuts: Block Printing Across Cultures exhibition.

3) Write a 1-2-page response to the LACMA Fútbol Is Life: Animated Sportraits by Lyndon J. Barrois, Sr. exhibition.

4) Write a 1-2-page response to Christopher Velasco's Artist Talk.


Alternative Assignment for the SBMA. If you did not go to the Getty Center, then you must go to LACMA for the second field trip. (Due: Wednesday, May 13 by 12:30PM). This is a 5-part assignment: 

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 8 (May 18 & 20): Artist Talk featuring Dannah Hidalgo on Monday, May 18. A Brief Introduction Semiotics & Advertising

• Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners: Codes

• Sturken and Cartwright: Consumer Culture and the Manufacturing of Desire

• Raymond Williams: Advertising: The Magic System

• Edisol Wayne Dotson: Buy Me Advertising

• Jean Kilbourne: Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel (Excerpts).

• Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori


Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, May 20 by 12:30PM):

1) Write a 2-page response to the Artist Talk featuring Dannah Hidalgo.

2) Write a 1-page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book VII, pp. 197-214.

3) Write a 1-page summary of Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book VIII, pp. 219-233.


WEEK 9 (May 25 & 27): Memorial Day Holiday on Monday, May 25

Wednesday, May 27: Field Trip to the UCSB AD&A Museum from 12:30-1:45 (Located adjacent to Storke Plaza and the University Center. Meet there). 


Writing Assignment: (Due: Thursday, May 27 by 12:30PM email to your TA): This is a 3-part assignment: 

1) Write a 2-page response to the AD&A Museum MFA Thesis Exhibition.

2) Write a 1-2-page response to Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book IX, pp 241-253.

3) Write a 1-2-page response to Harmonia Rosales, Chronicles of Ori, Book X, pp 259-267.


WEEK 10 (June 1 & 3): Artist Talks featuring Alexis Childress and KeyShawn Scott.

Monday, June 1: Artist Talk featuring Alexis Childress.

Wednesday, June 3: Artist Talk featuring KeyShawn Scott.

 

Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, June 4 by 6:30PM email to your TA): This is a 2-part assignment. 

1) Write a 2-page response to Alexis Childress's Artist Talk

2) Write a 2-page response to KeyShawn Scott's Artist Talk.

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