4.S67
Special Subject: Study in Modern Art
Seminar or lecture on a topic in the history, theory and criticism of modern art that is not covered in the regular curriculum. Requires original research and presentation of oral and written reports and/or design projects, varying at the discretion of the instructor.
Fall 2016 · Landscape Experience: Seminar in Land/Art
Topics
- Introduction, syllabus review, assignment of presentations
- Out to Work: Landscape-Labor-Commodity
- Minimalism, Monument, Money, Mortgage
- What is/is not a landscape?
- Urban Counterpoints? Part 1
- Landscape Perception
- Urban Counterpoints? Part 2
- Meet at MIT List Visual Arts Center for the Lavine Lecture
- Politics of Nature
Readings
- Before class meeting, please consult these items:
- Jefferson, Thomas. “Query VI, A Notice of the Mines and Other Subterraneous Riches; Its Trees, Plants, Fruits, &c.,” In Thomas Jefferson: Writings . Library of America, 1984, pp. 150–162. ISBN: 9780940450165.
- Matilsky, Barbara C. “Mel Chin: Revival Field.” In Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists’ Interpretations and Solutions . Rizzoli International Publications, 1992, pp. 108–111. ISBN: 9780847815920.
- Smith, Kimberly K. “A Land Cursed by Injustice.” In African American Environmental Thought: Foundations . University of Kansas, 2007. ISBN: 9780700615162.
- Recommended:
- Griffin, Patrick. “American Leviathan: The Covenant for Commonwealth.” In American Leviathan: Empire, Nation, and Revolutionary Frontier . Reprint edition. Hill and Wang, 2008. ISBN: 9780809024919.
- DeLue, Rachael Z. and James Eklins, eds. “The Art Seminar” and “The ‘Actual Landscape,’ or Actual Landscapes?” In Landscape Theory . Routledge, 2007. ISBN: 9780415960540.
- David, Bruno and Julian Thomas eds. “Topographies of Value: Ethical Issues in Landscape Archaeology” and “Contested Landscapes—Rights to History, Rights to Place: Who Controles Archaeological Places?” In Handbook of Landscape Archaeology . Routledge, 2010. ISBN: 9781598746167.
- Olmsted, Frederick Law. The Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees: A Preliminary Report, 1865 . Yosemite Conservancy, 1995. ISBN: 9780939666690.
- Nash, Roderick F. American Environmentalism: Readings In Conservation History . 3rd edition. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 1989. ISBN: 9780070460591.
- Read the following selections:
- Black Elk, “Native Americans Define the Natural Community” (1931)
- Gilford Pinchot, “The Birth of ‘Conservation’” (1910)
- W.J. McGee, “The Conservation Mentality” (1910)
- Theodore Roosevelt, “Publicizing Conservation at the White House” (1908)
- Robert Underwood Johnson, “Aesthetics and Conservation” (1910)
- John Muir, “A Voice for Wilderness” (1901)
- Klesert, Anthony and Alan Downer, eds. Preservation on the Reservation Native Americans, Native American Lands and Archaeology . Navajo Nation, 1990.
- Jacobs, Jane. “The Kind of Problem a City Is.” In The Death and Life of Great American Cities . Reissue edition. Vintage, 1992. ISBN: 9780679741954.
- O’Doherty, Brian. “Art: [Kaprow’s] ‘Environment: Words’ Exploits Law of Chance.” New York Times . September 15, 1962.
- Wagstaff, Samuel. “Talking to Tony Smith.” Artforum 5:4 (December 1966): 14–19.
- Kepes, Gyorgy. “The Artist’s Role in Environmental Self-Regulation” and “The City as an Artwork.” In Arts of the Environment . George Braziller, 1972. ISBN: 9780807606209.
- Baum, Kelly. “On the Road.” In New Jersey as a Non-Site . Princeton University Art Museum, 2013. ISBN: 9780300174373.
- McLuhan, Marshall. “Art as Anti-Environment.” Art New Annual 16 (1966): 54–57.
- Kepes, Gyorgy. “Art and Ecological Consciousness.” In Arts of the Environment . George Braziller, 1972. ISBN: 9780807606209.
- Appleton, Jay. “The Imagery and Symbolism of the Prospect.” In Experience of Landscape . John Wiley & Sons, 1975. ISBN: 9780471032564.
- Hemingway, Andrew and Alan Wallach, eds. “Thomas Cole and Transatlantic Romanticism.” In Transatlantic Romanticism: British and American Art Literature, 1790-1860 . University of Massaschusetts Press, 2015. ISBN: 9781625341143.
- Odum, Eugene. “Introduction: The Scope of Ecology” and “Applications: Natural Resources.” In Fundamentals of Ecology . 3rd edition. W.B. Saunders Company, 1971. ISBN: 9780721669410.
- Spirn, Anne W. “Prologue.” In The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design . Basic Books, 1985. ISBN: 9780465027064.
- ———. “Polemical Landscapes.” The Language of Landscape . Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780300082944.
- Holiday, no regular class meeting
- Prior to Lavine Lecture by James Nisbet, please read:
- Zelko, Frank and Carolin Brinkmann. “The Early Years of the Green Politics Movement in the United States.” In Green Parties: Reflections on the First Three Decades . Heinrich Boll Foundation, 2006.
- Graham, James, Caitlin Blanchfield, et al., eds. “The Universals and Particulars of Climate.” In Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary . Lars Müller, 2016. ISBN: 9783037784945.
- SES #: 12 · TOPICS: Final Research Paper presentations · READINGS: No assigned readings
- SES #: 13 · TOPICS: Final Studio Project presentations · READINGS: No assigned readings
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: Permission of instructor G (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department Units arranged Can be repeated for credit.
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2016
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.