This course looked at the role of functional art throughout Western history. Functional art refers to aesthetic objects that still served utilitarian purpose. These were things such as clothing, architecture, and furniture. In the class we looked at the ways that changing cultural ideas, such as concepts of gender, religion, and status, informed these art objects.
The course was wonderful because it was really just a few hours of looking and talking about beautiful things. The projects just asked that I synthesize the information and present them in a new way. This allowed me to really internalize the information because I could put it all together in a way that worked for me. There was a lot of appreciation for beauty throughout history and I really enjoyed it.
