Winter quarter 2026

Professor Talinn Grigor

This introductory course is designed to provide students a basic visual literacy in order to understand and critically analyze the complex and
increasingly visual world around us. It introduces historical and contemporary cases where the visual and the visible have played a
fundamental role in shaping our environment, our discourses, our
ideologies, and our diverse ways of seeing and living. Students will
develop pictorial and theoretical tools to see, describe, and critique
contemporary culture. Under the rubrics of: Visual . Culture / Gaze .
Empire / Media . Public / Consumer . Desire / Body . Science / Global . Network, the course aims to teach students how to decode complex
images that often seem superficial, but have a deeper meaning and
larger sociopolitical implications. By the close reading of theoretical,
philosophical, and art historical sources, as well as lectures, discussion, student presentations, and hands-on projects, students will gain insight into the politics of visuality and visibility.

CRN 41208

Location: Manetti Shrem Museum of Art 1301
Day/Time: M/W, 9-10:50 AM