Interactions between culture and nature deeply influence how new creative work is brought into being. How can nature be accounted for in creative life, in a world marked by histories of industrialization, modernization, and colonization? This course explores what it means to be creative given the environment’s centrality to artistic creation. New theories and practices explore creativity given the urgency of challenges such as climate change. In this course, students will explore factors constituting nature, cultural complications of the natural, artistic interventions into climate change, and theories of art-making practices informed by eco-consciousness. Students will create and analyze creative works that foreground ecological awareness and challenge systems of environmental exploitation including environmental racism. Course projects encourage students to apply insights to their own artistic practices. Foundations in Critical Studies introduces critical thinking skills essential to college-level work in the humanities and sciences. Students develop their critical capacities through close reading and active response to cultural texts and phenomena drawn from multiple disciplines and reflecting diverse perspectives on major themes or topics in contemporary life.

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