Overview of Course

This course begins with a deceptively simple question: If art means something, how does it mean it? Using our voyage’s itinerary as a guide, we will unpack this question. We will use visual art from our ports of call as the lens through which we examine the formal, material, aesthetic, economic, socio-political and spiritual-religious domains in which art traffics or has trafficked. Lectures and readings will introduce cultural and aesthetic value systems and illuminate their impact on artistic process and product. Creative projects will demonstrate applied understanding of formal and conceptual artistic terms and processes. In-port journaling will reflect on the active and generative nature of artistic practice. In-class discussions will compare and connect cultural and aesthetic value systems. A final thematic essay will reflect on the use-value of art in global culture.