On Ways of Seeing

Course Overview

This course explores the inter-relationship between epistemology and ontology, between the things that we are aware of and how that shapes the way in which we conceive our world. • We will look at a series of iconic objects, including paintings, sculptures, music and films, to unravel the skeins of cultural assumptions that accompany the reception of well-known objects from the moment of their creation and through the history of their lives. • We will observe through formal analysis, examine through multiple narratives that form the discourse around such objects, especially through changing times and contexts, and analyze the themes of representation and intention that journey alongside, for a more nuanced way of looking.

Total Credits	4.0
Type	Theory
Lecture	1.0
Tutorial	2.0
Half Semester	N
Text Reference	1. Barthes, Roland. The Pleasure of the Text. Translated by Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, A division of Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1975 [Original in French, 1973].2. Baxandall, Michael. Patterns of Intention: Onthe Historical Explanation of Pictures.New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1985.3. Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London:Penguin Books Ltd., 1972.4. Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: a social critique of the judgement of taste. Translated by Richard Nice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984.5. Boyd, Brian. On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction.Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.6. Wyman, Jennifer D., Stephen F. Gordon. Primer of Perception. New York: Reinhold,1967

About Instructor

Prof. Alka Hingorani