Eye, Mind, and Image

Understanding the visual character of our natural and built environments involves both scientific and humanistic disciplines. While the various specialties involved require considerable effort to master, Visual Studies 1010, drawing on a subset of disciplines— neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, art history, and cinema studies—provides an initial guide through the many claims made about seeing art and seeing the world. Students weigh ideas and evidence about seeing through an interdisciplinary lens. Does seeing vary across cultures? What can art tell us about vision? How is it that combining green and red yields yellow? How do still movie frames produce an experience of motion? Is there a new, modern form of seeing? To address such questions, students gain knowledge of the eye and visual centers of the brain, basic principles of perception, the way in which psychological proclivities are utilized in the cultural sphere, the interaction between art and visual theory, and philosophical questions concerning the mind-brain relation, the value of art, and vision as a source of knowledge. They learn from lectures by an interdisciplinary set of Penn faculty, from hands on labs (for example, an eye dissection), and field trips (to the Dia Beacon Museum).