Aesthetics and Visual Culture is a culture course about the nature, history, and meaning of “beauty” that promotes a discussion of theoretical texts and primary works of art from various disciplines and sources on this topic: classical texts, art treatises, fine arts, media spectacle, multicultural manifestations of aesthetics, technology. SUSTech Masters and/or PhD students will learn the evolution of the concept from ancient art, where the idea of beauty was based on sensory perception (aiesthesis in Greek), to Modern art, where art schools began to define the standards for the appreciation of visual aesthetics, up to contemporary culture, where mass market and globalization and have shifted the meaning and place of aesthetics in our everyday life. The course will provide answers to questions, among others, such as: what can aesthetics contribute to ecology, or engineereing, or other disciplines? How can art affect our understanding of cultures and societies? How has the current exposure to multimedia changed our notions of the “beautiful”? At the end of the course, students will learn to compare Chinese aesthetics to the Western one, to assess an artistic artifact, and to judge better what is “valuable” and “beautiful” in our current global culture. Prerequisites: English for Academic Purposes III or EAP or English for Academic Purposes.
