60-397 Critical Studies: Art and Conflict

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

These are turbulent times we are living through, with unnerving specters of conflict in seemingly irreconcilable political ideologies and environmental threat. What role do we have as artists within this malaise. Can art become a catalyst for meaningful change This course will consider definitions of conflict and look at artists whose work has responded to conflict, such as war and civil strife, and all manner of disputes from territorial to domestic. We will look internationally at colonial and imperial histories, and consider national struggles from Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter. We will examine how artists have expressed solidarity, observed, or engaged with ideological differences, abuses of power, injustice and the infliction of privilege through commentary, protest, agitprop and activism.

Prerequisites: none listed

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