Art 1A Visual Literacy Reading Schedule: Fall 2026
*Weekly writing assignments should be 2-4 pages and they are due each in lecture Wednesday by 9:30AM (In lecture, unless otherwise stated. Check due dates VERY carefully). All assignments must be submitted to your TA.
WEEK 1 (September 28 & 30): Course Introduction & Representation and Intertextuality.
Do the Folloing Before the First Day of Class:
1) Purchase your Course Reading Materials:
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):
3) Fill out your Art 1A Questionnaire (HERE), and submit it to your professor and TA via email.
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, September 30 in lecture): This is a 2-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.
WEEK 2 (October 5 & 7): Understanding Mediation: Photography and Cinema. Eileen Cowin Artist Talks.
• 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, October 7 in lecture): This is a 2-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 (both are in your course reader).
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.
WEEK 3 (October 12 & 14): LACMA Field Trip on Saturday, October 17. No lectures on October 12 & 14. All sections scheduled as usual. See Week 4 for the museum response paper assignments based upon LACMA or SBMA exhibitions.
Writing Assignment (Due: Tuesday, October 13 in your section): This is a 2-part assignment.
1) Write the first 2-3 pages of your research paper about the work of Eileen Cowin. You may refer to the Artist Talks we saw in class, but should also do some light research since we will be viewing Eileen Cowin's work at LACMA 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.
WEEK 4 (October 19 & 21): Scholarly Research Workshop & Mechanics of a Formal Research Paper Workshop in lecture.
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, October 21 in lecture): This is a 4-part assignment:
1) Write a 2-3 page response to the LACMA Eileen Cowin: Between Panic and Paradise exhibition. Make sure to discuss Eileen Cowin's work 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 LACMA The Brockman Gallery: Los Angeles, 1967–1990 exhibition.
3) Write a 1-page response to the LACMA Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.: In Between Stops exhibition.
4) Write 1-page reponse about anything else that you found interesting at LACMA, including the new David Geffen Gallieries.
Alternative Assignment for the SBMA if you do not go to LACMA (but this means you must go to The Getty Center for the second field trip). (Due: Wednesday, October 21 in lecture). This is a 4-part assignment:
- Write a 1-2-page response to the SBMA: Portrait of Mexico Today exhibition.
- Write a 1-2-page response to the SBMA: Stage Craft: Pictorialist Photography and Performance exhibition.
- Write a 1-page response to the SBMA: Cassatt and Friends exhibition.
- Write a 1-page summary discussing other works of art or exhibitions that you particularly enjoyed at the SBMA.
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 (October 26 & 28): Research Paper Due on Wednesday, October 28 in lecture.
Fictional and Documentary Space: Blurring the Difference.
• Edward Branigan: Fiction
• Vivian Sobchack: On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, October 28 by 9:30AM in lecture): Research paper due. You must bring a hard copy of your paper to lecture. No weekly writing assignments due this week.
WEEK 6 (November 2 & 4): Getty Center Field Trip on Saturday, November 7. Monday and Wednesday lectures on November 2 & 4 are cancelled in lieu of the Getty field trip. Discussion sections scheduled as planned. See Getty and SBMA Assignments listed for Week 7, when they are due.
Writing Assignment (Due: on Tuesday, October 27 in section):
This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-2-page summary of Edward Branigan's Fiction.
2) Write a 1-2-page summary of Vivian Sobchack's On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space. Discuss what she means by the "real" and the "irreal."
3) Write a 1-2-page response to Chapter 7, "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art, pp. 201-227.
WEEK 7 (November 9): Veterans Day Holiday November 11. Art in the Age of the Internet. Writing Assignments this week are from the Getty field trip.
• 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: Monday, November 9 in lecture): This is a 4-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-2-page response to the Getty Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles exhibition.
2) Write a 1-2-page response to the Getty Instante/revelación: Moments in Mexican Photography exhibition.
3) Write a 1-2-page response to the Getty Reggie Burrows Hodges: A Theater of Passions exhibition.
4) Write a 1-2-page response to anything that you particularly enjoyed at the Getty. You can discuss the gardens and anything else that you found noteworthy.
Alternative Assignment for the SBMA. If you did not go to the LACMA, then you must go to The Getty Center for the second field trip. (Due: Monday, November 9 in lecture). This is a 5-part assignment:
- Write a 1-2-page response to the SBMA: Portrait of Mexico Today exhibition.
- Write a 1-2-page response to the SBMA: Stage Craft: Pictorialist Photography and Performance exhibition.
- Write a 1-page response to the SBMA: Cassatt and Friends exhibition.
- Write a 1-page summary discussing other works of art or exhibitions that you particularly enjoyed at the SBMA.
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 (November 16 & 18): A Brief Introduction Semiotics & Advertising. UCSB AD&A Museum Field Trip on Wednesday, November 18 during lecture (meet at the museum).
• 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).
Writing Assignment (Due: Wednesday, November 18):
1) Write a 2-page Summary of Daniel Chandler's Semiotics for Beginners: Codes, and extract the most important points to distill the importance of this important framework for understanding the way in which signs function.
2) Select two actual advertisements and deconstruct them using a Semiotic framework– to really get to the coded ideas that the advertisers utilized.
WEEK 9 (November 23 & 25): Artist Talks by TBA. Wednesday lecture via Zoom because of the Thanksgiving travel day: https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/83111992304 (no password needed, sign in as guest)
Writing Assignment: (Due: Wednesday, November 25): This is a 2-part assignment:
1) Write a 2-page response to the AD&A Museum exhibitions we viewed from our field trip on Wednesday, November 18. The featured exhibitions: Bonnie Ora Sherk: Life Frames since 1970 and Jackie Amézquita: Gemidos de la Tierra.
2) Write a 1-2-page response to the Artist Talk Featuring TBA (from Monday, November 23).
WEEK 10 (November 30 & December 2): Artist Talks featuring TBA.
Monday, November 30: Artist Talk featuring TBA
Wednesday, December 2: Artist Talk featuring TBA.
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, December 3. Email it to your TA): This is a 3-part assignment.
1) Write a 1-2-page response to Artist Talk featuring TBA (from Wednesday, November 25 talk)
2) Write a 1-2-page response to Artist Talk featuring TBA.
3) Write a 1-2-page response to the Artist Talk featuring TBA.
