New visual arts major unveiled

The College of Arts and Sciences will be offering a new major this semester for those students who want to take a closer look at the world around them -- the visual studies major. The major will deal with ideas involving the nature and culture of seeing, encompassing disciplines such as communication, cognitive science, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology and art history. Courses will explore issues concerning the status of images as representation and conveyors of information, ranging from fine arts classes in sculpture to a computer and information science class dealing with information technology and its impact on society. According to Julie Schneider, professor and director of the fine arts undergraduate program, "our culture is in fact moving from a text-based one to a visual one," which is why she sees a need for such a major at Penn. "There is a whole newly emerging body of scholarship in this area," she added, noting that she is very excited that Penn is on the "cutting edge of a discipline." "I'd like to think of [the visual studies major] as an excellent general education for a person in 2003." Very few schools currently offer the equivalent of a visual studies major. Associate Director of Academic Affairs Eric Schneider described Penn's new program as unique and quite different from those taught at other schools because of the major's inclusion of aspects of science and history as they relate to visual representation. It also has students actually produce a form of visual media by the end of their senior year. The major will rely on faculty members from many departments to teach the courses, allowing the major to cover three areas of concentration -- the philosophy and science of seeing, the art and culture of seeing, and the art, practice and technology of seeing. The major draws on resources from many different disciplines, making possible courses such as Visual Studies 101, which will be co-taught by a scientist and an art historian. Gary Hatfield, the current program director of the visual studies major and a philosophy professor, noted that the new major takes advantage of the strengths of many different departments and combines them in order to give students a "chance to do an intensive synthesis of different fields around the act of seeing." Hatfield noted that he sees an interest and a need for such a major at Penn. "There is a considerable interest in fine arts and the new digital media among Penn undergrads," he said. "It made sense for the College to develop a major that allows for an integration of theory and practice." Although the major will not be officially announced to the Penn community until later this month, Hatfield has already been contacted by numerous interested students. For more information regarding the visual studies major, students can visit www.arth.upenn.edu/vlst/.

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