Communications Studies (COMS) 367 - Lecture 20
Introduction to Visual Culture
Spring 2008
TR 11:00-13:45

Instructor:	Deidre Martin
Office Location:	SS 209
Office Phone:	220-3239
E-Mail:	martinda@ucalgary.ca
Web Page:
Office Hours:	Tuesdays and Thursdays, 14:00-15:00 or by appointment.

Course Description

This course explores what it means to live in a visual world.   How do the visual images, texts, and practices that surround us inform and shape our everyday lives?  How is the realm of visual culture tied to specific institutions and ideologies of power?  Our study begins by introducing students to key thinkers and approaches that have contributed to the scholarly analysis of contemporary western visual culture.  Participating in a series of individual and group exercises and assignments students will learn to identify and critique the ways in which meaning is created and communicated across a host of visual fields, including: illustration and design, advertising, architecture, painting, photography, cinema, television, fashion, and new media.  Throughout the course, students will be expected to challenge and develop their own individual ways of seeing.

 

 

Objectives of the Course

The central objective of this course is to equip students with meaningful skills of visual literacy. Students should complete the course with a deeper appreciation of what it means to live in a visual world and a stronger sense of their own individual ways of seeing.

 

Textbooks and Readings:

•The Art of Looking Sideways.  Alan Fletcher, Phaidon, 2001.  Available in the campus bookstore.

• Ways of Seeing. John Berger, Penguin, 1990. Available in the campus bookstore.

Assignments and Evaluation

Visual Analysis Quiz 25% May 29, 2008.

Invisible Cities Group Project 30%  Exhibition date to be assigned in class.

Journal of Visual Culture 45% due June 26, 2008.

Descriptions:

Visual Analysis Quiz
This test is designed to assess your knowledge and application of course themes and theory.  You will be asked to define key concepts and to analyse a visual image or text using select methodological tools and frameworks studied in class. 

Invisible Cities Group Project
In groups of 3-5 individuals, students will be asked to creatively respond to one of the passages (to be provided in class) in Italo Calvino's book, Invisible Cities (Vintage, 1997).  Exploring the visual culture of cities, this exercise demands that each group research, reflect upon, design, produce and finally present, an original vision of an imagined city.  Presentations should be carefully organized, highly visual and thought provoking.  We will be having a class exhibition of the Invisible Cities and each group will be asked to provide a 1 page typed handout with the name of their city, the philosophy underpinning this creation, as well as a concise description of its ethos and design principles.  Handouts must include an image (photographic, illustrated) of your city in its final stage of construction. 

Journal of Visual Culture

Students are asked to keep a Journal of Visual Culture throughout the term.  Each class, in this journal, you will collect and critically respond to a found visual image or text that inspires, intrigues, troubles or otherwise captures your attention and imagination.   Visual images or texts must be clearly, creatively, and visually documented in your journal.   Each accompanying written response should be approximately 1 double-spaced typed page in length.  Your responses must synthesize relevant course concepts and methodologies of visual analysis (for example: aesthetics, semiotics, feminist analysis, postmodernism).  At the close of the course students will submit their journals and designate 6 of what they feel to be their strongest journal entries for formal evaluation.

 

*It is important that students keep up with their journal entries throughout the term.  Please come to every class with your journal in hand, ready and willing to share and discuss your entries.

Completion of all assignments except in class responses required to pass course. A+ grades will be awarded in exceptional circumstances to acknowledge outstanding achievement.
It is the student's responsibility to keep a copy of each submitted assignment.
Note: Please hand in your essays directly to your tutor or instructor if possible. If it is not possible to do so, a daytime drop box is available in SS110; a date stamp is provided for your use. A night drop box is also available for after-hours submission. Assignments will be removed the following morning, stamped with the previous day's date, and placed in the instructor's mailbox.

Registrar-scheduled Final Examination:  No
 
Policy for Late Assignments

Assignments submitted after the deadline may be penalized with the loss of a grade (e.g.: A- to B+) for each day late.

Writing Skills Statement

Faculty policy directs that all written assignments (including, although to a lesser extent, written exam responses) will be assessed at least partly on writing skills. For details see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/info. Writing skills include not only surface correctness (grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc) but also general clarity and organization. Research papers must be properly documented.

If you need help with your writing, you may use the Writing Centre.  Visit the website for more details: www.efwr.ucalgary.ca

Grading System

The following grading system is used in the Faculty of Communication and Culture:

A+ (96-100); A (92-95); A- (86-91); B+ (81-85); B (77-80); B- (71-76);
C+ (65-70); C (62-64); C- (59-61); D+ (55-58); D (50-54); F (0-49)

 

Plagiarism

Using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is a serious academic offense. Consequences include failure on the assignment, failure in the course and possibly suspension or expulsion from the university.

You must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. This includes assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such sources.

Please consult your instructor or the Writing Centre (SS 106, efwr.ucalgary.ca) if you have any questions regarding how to document sources.

Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.

Ethics
Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see

The Faculty of Communication and Culture Research Ethics site: http://www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/ethics

or the University of Calgary Research Ethics site: http://www.ucalgary.ca/research/compliance/ethics/info/undergrad/

Schedule of Lectures and Readings

To be distributed in class.