HONORS 291: Honors Topic in Arts

An Honors course in the AR distribution explores - from term to term in varied specific cases - the basic assumption that form has meaning. In each Honors AR course, we address the questions "What is the study of arts?" by exploring areas including architecture, literature, painting, music, and sculpture. We will discuss the fundamental basic assumptions of the arts, including: the artist's subjectivity affects the creative process; the creative process is shaped by the social and cultural and political contexts in which the artist works; the creative outcome in open to interpretation' the interpretive process is driven by features of a specific piece and conventions of a specific form; artists both build on and disrupt established conventions in their field; the creative process involves revision. An Honors College course in the Arts shares the attributes of university-wide AR course in its emphasis on learning how the arts strive to articulate the aesthetic, moral, intellectual and spiritual aspects of the human condition. Students acquire hands-on experiences with the humanistic methods of inquiry by learning how to interpret ideas and symbolic expression. Students are taught how to engage artistic texts of all kinds, while also being trained to situate these texts in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary contexts. In this way, an Honors course in the Arts emphasizes the interplay between arts, humanities, natural science, mathematics, and technology.