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New minor appeals to the eye, senses

The new visual studies program is developing classes so that the minor will be ready in spring 2008, but students are already enjoying the available course curriculum.

"I love it," studio art junior Joy Moire said. "I’ll be sad when it’s over."

As of now, grants are still being written to supplement the University’s funding of the program, – the first of its kind in Texas. The program, which belongs to the Department of Anthropology, has been funded by an anonymous benefactor, small grants, UH’s Texas Learning and Computation Center and the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Dean’s Office.

"There is a phenomenal array of people interested in this subject. We would hope to have declared minors by the end of the year," Visual Studies Director Tracy Karner said.

Graduate students or post-baccalaureate who are interested in the curriculum can take all the required classes and finish with a certification in visual studies.

"In grad school, it’s all about the visual world; it’s nice to find out the inner workings that you don’t get to see," second-year fine arts graduate student Norberto Gomez. "This minor is the kind of thing I would have dreamed of as an undergrad."

Since the beginning of the semester, students have been able to take the first course offered in the minor, which outlines the field’s basic principles.

"It’s not about a definite discipline," Karner said. "We’re trying to do something new here at UH. We study different ways to approach and use images as data and expression without trying to categorize anything."

Visual studies, a field started by art historians in the early 1970s, analyzes how humans have different sensory and cognitive reactions to pieces of art. Specifically, it examines the aesthetic, ethical, historical, philosophical, psychological, social and symbolic issues raised by visual images.

Karner, who is also an associate professor of sociology, began the program with assistant research professor Jerome Crowder.

"I had been talking to my sociology colleagues about a program like this," said Karner. "Then I met Dr. Crowder, and we realized the potential of the program. We did it for the passion of the subject."

The minor involves the ways that artists construct and encode images and how viewers perceive and interpret these images.

"Visual studies helps us make sense of those things. It teaches us to deal with their images and read images like text," Crowder said.

An essential part of the visual studies minor is that the curriculum will draw on other disciplines to give different perspectives on art, Karner said.

Drawing on 25 faculty members in other colleges, the program combines the methods and perspectives of other disciplines, ranging from history to technology. Specifically, students will be able to learn about the eye from a guest optometry speaker, Crowder said.

"If we’re going to talk about things visual, we must talk about the tool we use to do so," he said.

After the minor’s introductory course, Introduction to Visual Studies, is satisfied, students will be able to select from approved courses such as History of Art, Literature and Film and Survey of Architectural History.

Finally, students will finish with the capstone course Visual Studies 4300, which will consist of a research project or internship with a community organization.

Karner said that Houston is the ideal city to have this kind of program because of such art venues as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Fotofest, the leading photography event in the United States.

"We are becoming a more and more visual culture as time goes on," Karner said. "There was really a need to build a program in this city."

For more information, visit www.class.uh.edu/vs/about_vs.asp.

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