Art History 280 - COLQ: ART HIS ST:VIRTUAL WRLDS

Topics course. Students may take up to four semesters of ARH 280 Art Historical Studies, as long as the topics are different. Virtual reality now makes it possible to fly-through the Roman Forum when the empire was at its height, to see the Sanctuary of the Great Gods at Samothrace at night by torchlight as initiates did thousands of years ago, and to savor the sculptural treasures of Hadrian's Villa reinstalled in situ. These powerful visualization tools produce compelling seamless worlds, but ones which raise challenging questions of interpretation. By seeking to understand the models and assumptions on which these visual worlds are based, we delve into contemporary and ancient modes of viewership, identity and spatial experience. Group A 

Topic: Ancient Virtual Worlds.