ART 251 Art & Arch. In Ireland

Prerequisite: GSTR 210, two terms completed at Berea College, and permission of the instructors.

The landscape of Ireland offers layers of history from the prehistoric to the modern. The Irish countryside, with rolling hills and blue-hued mountains, might seem familiar to a traveler from central Kentucky, but a closer look could reveal a deeper understanding of the complex history of this place: frozen lava flows, Neolithic burial mounds, medieval churches, the remnants of 17th and 18th century clachans or villages, locations of nation-changing battle sites, evidence of the Irish Diaspora, and murals and graffiti as tools of resistance in the midst of religious and political conflict. Using drawing and writing as tools for observation and reflection, this class aims to better understand this Ireland and its revealed history.

Archeology once required the hand and eye, and not digital technology, as the primary means of recording information. This class will return to this practice, less for the sake of an anachronistic approach, but more to create a direct and personally engaged experience that emphasizes an intimate act of looking. However, this class will balance personal observation with historical context by studying early examples of travel literature in the 18th and 19th centuries to consider how words and drawings can create an obscured reality. Through a multi-disciplinary method, we will practice drawing and writing as empirical observation, we will experience the strikingly beautiful landscape of the island, and we will explore and better understand the history, culture, place, and people of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Daily journal writing will compliment drawing practice and historic study. This class will employ group and individual work and with daily seminar-style discussions.

Though not prerequisites, ART 115 Drawing Fundamentals and ARH 286 Introduction to Archeology and Archeological Methods are strongly recommended.

Credits

1 Course Credit