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Ten Simple Rules for Passing this Class |
The following suggestions were composed in an effort to make clear to my students the necessity of hard work in any art and design history class. Pay attention to the following, and proceed accordingly. 1. Review the lecture material within two days of each class meeting, and then again before the next class. Review the image list, filling in images and notes missed in class; use the textbooks and the web slide list to help fill in gaps. Consult the "additional resources" section in the side bar of each slide list; for other resources, see the Links page. Faithfully complete your image list every week. PhotoShop now has a tidy little "contact sheet" feature that should help. Since all slide lists are now linked online (in .rtf format), there are no excuses for completing this task. 2. Faithfully maintain your Workbook. Since you will be allowed to use your Workbook during exams, it stands to reason that a complete and carefully-arranged notebook will help you earn the highest possible scores. In some ways, this segment in the class is more difficult than the first, because the timeline is not nearly as clearly demarkated. Movements overlap one another, so the lectures are arranged thematically rather than chronologically. You must be able to recognize styles and conventions developed within particular movements, and the best way to do so is to keep up with the slide list. 3. Take notes in class, when reading assigned segments of the textbooks, when watching films or videos, when looking through websites, etc. If you do not make the connection between hand and brain, you will not retain the material nearly as well as if you physically take notes. But take good notes. 4. Use the website. It has been designed to be simple to navigate. Everything underlined is a link to further information either on the site or elsewhere on the web. Most of my pages are now linked to separate windows. It helps to know how to use the print preview feature on your browser, so you can download only what you need. Don’t waste paper and ink by printing out everything you see–only what you will really use. It also helps to know how to use the "Contact Sheet" feature of PhotoShop, or the Table function in Microsoft Word to copy text and images into your own custom-made document (always making note of source information, of course). If you need help figuring out how to download images for your image lists, I can provide a brief tutorial after class or during office hours. I can also help you manipulate text on graphics-heavy websites so that you get what you need, rather than a large amount of useless stuff that takes up space and wastes paper and printing toner. 5. That said, be sure to read the material you print out, and make appropriate notations in the margins, underline or highlight important passages, etc. This will not only help you learn the information, but it will show me that you have read what you’ve printed out. Place these materials in the appropriate section of your workbook. 6. If you prefer viewing images to reading, make use of the extensive DVD and VHS collection in the Kelley Library. Most of these are between thirty minutes and one hour in length; you can view them in the Library if you don’t have an appropriate machine at home. Also: check local listings for television programs on PBS, the Learning Channel, the Discovery Channel, and other sources related to what we study in class. One of the websites listed on the links page reviews feature films that deal with art history. Some of these can be quite good (such as recent films about Artemisia Gentileschi and Jackson Pollock); some are dreadful (such as the old Kirk Douglas film about Vincent van Gogh, and the Charleton Heston debacle about Michelangelo). But the good ones can take you “into” a period and give you a sense of what it might have been like to live and work in a particular era. Plus, it’s a cheap date. 7. Write down questions as they occur to you, and either look them up (and write the answers down) or bring them to class for discussion. 8. Whether or not you can draw well is not important. The physical act of trying to sketch something helps you to learn about it. So every time I present a diagram, be able to sketch the basic principles involved. You should be able, for example, to reproduce simple diagrams of the orders of classical architecture or maps of basilicas, central plan churches, and cathedrals in your sleep! 9. Although they are less important this quarter, use outline maps to learn the locations of major cities and countries we study in this class. A physical sense of where things happened is linked to a cultural sense of why they happened there. The political upheavals that began in the early part of the nineteenth century and that led to World Wars I and II changed national boundaries significantly. And because some of the discord continues to this day, you will be a better citizen of the twenty-first century if you know where things happened and are still happening. Fill in your maps with colors, symbols, commentary–whatever will help you learn the geography of art history. Use the Map Links page to locate good maps to use as reference. 10. Finally, don’t just sit there and watch the dog and pony show. Ask questions, take notes, participate in your own learning. If I'm going too fast, tell me, and raise whatever questions you have in mind. One reason I limit the number of slides shown in class is to facilitate discussion–as well as to enable you to actually complete the image lists. So do it. resources
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