everything.study
ES.240

Composing Your Life: Exploration of Self through Visual Arts and Writing

Undergraduate · Historical course

Spring 2006

Topics

  • Introduction to Subject
  • Turning Points
  • Class Dinner
  • Family Traditions/Influential People
  • Gender and Self
  • Race and Ethnicity
  • Self Image and Roles
  • Values and Meaning
  • Class Trip to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  • Self in Historical Context
  • Alternative Views of Self
  • Self in the Future
  • Presentation Self Portrayals
  • Public Exhibition of Self-Portrayals
  • Composing a Life from Beginning to End

Readings

  • Ramsay, Graham, and Holly Sweet. A Creative Guide to Exploring Your Life: Self- Reflection Using Photography, Art, and Writing. Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishing, 2008. ISBN: 9781843108924.
    Listed reading
  • Brannigan, Gary G. Experiencing Psychology: Active Learning Adventures . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. ISBN: 9780321032829.
    Listed reading
  • Pennebaker, James W. Opening Up: the Healing Power of Expressing Emotions . New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781572302389.
    Listed reading
  • Daniel, Lois. How to Write your Own Life Story . Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 1997. ISBN: 9781556523182. This book gives practical tools and tips to help you recall and describe events, lessons, and relationships that have shaped your life - includes tricks to jog your memory, ways to gather facts, and how to conduct library research.
    Listed reading
  • Rainer, Tristine. Your Life as Story . New York, NY: Jeremy Tarcher, 1998. ISBN: 9780874779226. A thorough, well written, and historical look at how we write about our lives, including a very useful taxonomy of different types of autobiographies.
    Listed reading
  • Roorbach, Bill. Writing Life Stories . Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books; New Ed edition (October 2000). ISBN: 9781884910470.
    Listed reading
  • Alinder, J., ed. The Photographer’s Image: Self-portrayal . Carmel, CA: The Friends of Photography, 1978. ISBN: 9780933286009. Introspective and psychologically minded self-portraits by known photographers, including three essays on self-portraiture.
    Listed reading
  • Hieb, Marianne. Inner Journeying through Art-journaling . Philadelphia, PA: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2005. ISBN: 9781843107941.
    Listed reading
  • Hines, Babbette. Photobooth . New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. ISBN: 9781568983813. A compendium of photobooth images collected from the 1940s-1960s - opening essay by Lawrence Weschler.
    Listed reading
  • Lafo, R., F. Weiss, and G. Fifield. Self-Evidence: Identity in Contemporary Art . Lincoln, MA: Decordova Museum, 2004. ISBN: 0945506473.
    Listed reading
  • Michals, Duane. Now Becoming Then . Altandena, CA: Twin Palms Publishers, 1990. ISBN: 9780944092125. A collection of narrative photographs in series which reflect on the artist’s life. Includes a chapter about Michals’ life by Max Kozloff.
    Listed reading
  • Weiser, Judy. PhotoTherapy Techniques . Vancouver, Canada: PhotoTherapy Centre Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780968561904.
    Listed reading
  • Weissman, N, and D. Heimerdinger. Self-Exposure: A Workbook in Photographic Self-Portraiture . New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1979. ISBN: 9780060906917. An excellent workbook designed to introduce beginning photographers to the methods of self-portraiture.
    Listed reading
Sources