Fall 2007

SCIE 688
Science and Art

Beveridge,David L.; Klaneski Reisner,Mariah Elizabeth

09/10/2007 - 12/10/2007
Monday 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM

Science Tower 0101

This is an interdisciplinary course dealing critically with intersections of the fields of science and the visual arts including intellectual, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives. Part I will be focused on physics of light, biology of vision and color interactions, chemistry of pigments, paints and paper, psychology of perception and the mathematics of perspective, composition and design, each illustrated with examples from drawings and paintings. Part II is a chronological survey of developments in the arts from cave painting to the present, viewed through the lens of concurrent historical advancements in science. This course will included an introduction to probability models, non-Euclidean geometry, quantum mechanics, and relativity theory, and discussion of their sometimes controversial relationship to modern art. Each class with include a lecture, discussion, laboratory demonstrations and hands-on desk-top experiments.

Students will be graded on class participation, homework exercises and response papers, an in-class presentation and a final exam

A syllabus for this course is available at:
http://www.wesleyan.edu/masters/courses/Fall_2007/fall07_syllabi/syb_scie688.html


David Beveridge (B.A. College of Wooster; Ph.D. University of Cincinnati) is professor of chemistry and university professor of the sciences and mathematics.

Mariah Klaneski (B.A., M.A., Wesleyan University) is an artist and instructor, Green Street Arts Center.

ENROLLMENT INFORMATION

Consent of Instructor Required: No

Format: Seminar

Level: GLSP Credits: 3 Enrollment Limit: 19

Texts to purchase for this course:
Philip Ball, BRIGHT EARTH: ART & THE INVENTION OF COLOR (University of Chicago Press), Paperback

Betty Edwards, THE NEW DRAWING ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BRAIN (HarperCollins), Paperback

Margaret Livingston, VISION & ART: THE BIOLOGY OF SEEING (Harry N. Abrams), Hardcover

Robert Solso, COGNITION & THE VISUAL ARTS (The MIT Press), Paperback

READING MATERIALS AVAILABLE AT BROAD STREET BOOKS, 45 BROAD STREET, MIDDLETOWN, 860-685-7323 Order your books online

Register for Courses



Contact glsinquire@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. 
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459

How to Register

Current Term

      Fall 2011

Upcoming Terms

       Spring 2012

Previous Semesters