ARTH 1163

ARTH 1163

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

This course will allow freshmen to answer the question: from where, and how, did the idea evolve that one might catch a picture in a net, as one might catch not only a butterfly but the piece of sky in which it flew?  By discovering how photography evolved, students will learn how many forces—artistic, scientific, technological, political, phenomenological, and structural—are responsible for the appearance of a single invention and idea.  Episodes from the history of optics, perspective drawing, mapmaking, landscape, chemistry, view painting, will be glimpsed (1300-1800) as well as the race to capture the image in the camera obscura (1800-1839) and an introduction to early photographic processes (1839-1870).

When Offered Spring.

Satisfies Requirement First-Year Writing Seminar.

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Syllabi: none
  •   FWS Session. 

  • 3 Credits Graded

  • 17654 ARTH 1163   SEM 101

  • For more information about First-Year Writing Seminars, see the Knight Institute website at http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute