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Given the importance of art to all aspects of their lives, the Greeks had reason to respect their artists. Yet potters, painters and even sculptors possessed little social standing. n nWhy did the Greeks value the work of craftsmen but not the men themselves? Why did Herodotus dismiss those who worked with their hands as "mechanics?" What prompted Homer to claim that "there is no greater glory for a man¿ than what he achieves with his own hands," provided that he was throwing a discus and not a vase on a wheel?n nPainted pottery was essential to the religious and secular lives of the Greeks. Libations to the gods and to the dead required vases from which to pour them. Economic prosperity depended on the export of wine and oil in durable clay containers. At home, depictions of gods and heroes on vases reinforced Greek values and helped parents to educate their children. Ceramic sets with scenes of Dionysian excess were reserved for elite symposia from which those who potted and painted them were excluded.n nSculptors were less lowly but even those who carved the Parthenon were still regarded as "mechanics," with soft bodies and soft minds (Xenophon) "indifferent to higher things" (Plutarch).n nThe seminar addresses these issues. Students will read and discuss texts, write response papers and present slide lectures and gallery talks on aspects of the artist's profession.

Poetry and painting have often been called the "sister arts". Why? Sometimes a poem or a painting stands out to us, asking that we stay with it, that we remember it, although we cannot exactly say why. Poems have a way of making pictures in the mind, and paintings turn "rhymes" amid the people, places, and things they portray. Each is a concentrated world, inviting an exhilarating closeness of response: why does this line come first? Why does the artist include that detail? Who knows but that as we write and talk about these poems and pictures we will be doing what John Keats said a painter does: that is, arriving at a "trembling delicate and snail-horn perception of Beauty." Each week explore the kinship between a different pair of painter and poet and also focuses on a particular problem or method of interpretation. Some of the artist/poet combinations we will consider: Shakespeare and Caravaggio; Jorie Graham and (the photographer) Henri Cartier-Bresson; Alexander Pope and Thomas Gainsborough; William Wordsworth and Caspar David Friedrich; Christina Rossetti and Mary Cassatt; Walt Whitman and Thomas Eakins; Thomas Hardy and Edward Hopper.

The cave temples of Dunhuang in far northwest China are the greatest repository of Chinese and Central Asian Buddhist arts from the medieval period of 5th to 14th centuries. This seminar will focus on caves that will be exhibited as full-scale replicas as part of the Getty Malibu Museum's International Dunhuang exhibition, which we will visit in a seminar field trip to Los Angeles. We will explore the spatial arrangement of sculptures and wall paintings, the imagery of Pure Land paradise scenes and narrative story cycles, and the embodied experience of movement around the caves. Through readings, discussions, VR simulation viewings, and exhibition visits we will also explore varied approaches to understanding the patronage, artistic styles, production techniques, devotional practices, and significance of these sacred spaces.

This seminar is offered in conjunction with the annual "Arts Immersion" trip to New York that takes place over the spring break and is organized by the Stanford Arts Institute (SAI). Participation in the trip is a requirement for taking part in the seminar (and vice versa). The trip is designed to provide a group of students with the opportunity to immerse themselves in the cultural life of New York City guided by faculty and the SAI programming director. Students will experience a broad range and variety of art forms (visual arts, theater, opera, dance, etc.) and will meet with prominent arts administrators and practitioners, some of whom are Stanford alumni. For further details and updates about the trip, see http://arts.stanford.edu.

This hands on studio based sculpture course focuses on developing concepts, and creating a site-specific installation art project. This class will addresses the impact of material and technique upon form and content; therefore understanding the physical and expressive possibilities of diverse materials. Conceptual and technical considerations will be addressed. Students will learn traditional building techniques as needed (wood shop, metal shop, mold making, found object) as well as anti-object techniques. Students will make 3-4 projects that will culminate in a final site-specific installation. We will look at contemporary artists working in the field of installation art. Group discussions, critiques, readings, video presentations, field trips and visiting artists will augment the class. Installation Art is based on the merger of Space and Time and on a relationship between the artist and the visitor. Utilizing your interests and abilities in a variety of subjects and media, you will create environments that immerse the viewer in a sensory/ intellectual/ emotional experience. The material and methods you use can range from everyday objects, to highly personalized forms, from appropriated sounds to surveillance video, from large wall drawings to interactive switches for the participant to manipulate. The class will consist of demonstrations of art skills particularly useful in installation (sculptural, video, audio, interactive media, etc), presentations by the professor, research and reports and journal entries, and weekly critique. Installation Art is a pervasive, varied, global practice for art-making that acts as a gathering place for expression in all media addressing all subjects in a wide range of styles by broad grouping of artists."

Preference to sophomores. Taiko, or Japanese drum, is a newcomer to the American music scene. Emergence of the first N. American taiko groups coincided with increased Japanese American activism, and to some it is symbolic of Japanese American identity. N. American taiko is associated with Japanese American Buddhism. Musical, cultural, historical, and political perspectives of taiko. Hands-on drumming. Japanese music and Japanese American history, and relations among performance, cultural expression, community, and identity.

This seminar will explore the ways in which anthropogenic change, climate change, habitat destruction, land use change, and species invasions effects the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. Topics will include infectious diseases of humans, wildlife, livestock, and crops, effects of disease on threatened species, disease spillover, emerging diseases, and the role of disease in natural systems. Course will be taught through a combination of popular and scientific readings, discussion, and lecture. .

The state of a changing world ocean, particularly in the eastern Pacific, will be examined through historical and contemporary fiction, non-fiction and scientific publications. Issues will include harvest and mariculture fisheries, land-sea interactions and oceanic climate change in both surface and deep waters.

Introduction to the field of conservation photography and the strategic use of visual communication in addressing issues concerning the environment and conservation. Students will be introduced to basic digital photography, digital image processing, and the theory and application of photographic techniques. Case studies of conservation issues will be examined through photographs and multimedia platforms including images, video, and audio. Lectures, tutorials, demonstrations, and optional field trips will culminate in the production of individual and group projects.