The course will focus on how students communicate technical and scientific information to a variety of audiences through written and oral presentations, using electronic media such as the Internet, Power Point and graphics programs. Students also analyze readings in science and technology, study technical writing models and practice collaborative research and presentation.
“I went into photography because it seemed like the perfect vehicle for commenting on the madness of today’s existence.” — Robert Mapplethorpe
This course surveys the history of photography from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the present. We will examine the use of photography for aesthetic, documentary, and “scientific” purposes, stylistic shifts in photography related to aesthetic concerns, and varying interpretations of subject matter based on social and cultural concerns at specific moments in history. We will also consider the relationship between photography and the visual arts in general, which culminates with the primacy of photography as a medium by the late twentieth century.
