Geometry is usually considered the "science of space." But what is space anyway? Students in this course will undertake a broad historical survey of geometry and spatial representation across cultures including Chinese, Navajo, Inuit, Australian Aborigine, and Western/European practices. We will also explore the traditional skills of the scientific method (including observation, experimentation, reasoning, interpretation, and modeling) to understand how artists across disciplines use to shape and represent space. Along the way we will consider abstract versus material notions of space, classical and analytic geometry, boundaries, fractals, higher dimensions, perspective, poetics, landscape, architecture, the technological, and the virtual as well as the way in which the "shape" of space may be contingent upon the particularities of embodied subjects. Instruction and discussion of theoretical concepts and mathematical practices will be paired with collaborative analysis of relevant works of art and examples from popular culture.Science and Math (SCIMA) courses develop students' capacity for evidence-based reasoning through the study of life, earth, and physical sciences and of computational and theoretical mathematics. In these courses, students learn to recognize and interpret meaningful patterns of information; to assess the validity of empirical claims, distinguishing between opinion and fact; and to understand the sociocultural relevance of scientific and mathematical thinking.

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