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Skidmore College
First-Year Experience

Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

Picturing Time

Instructor(s): Sarah Sweeney, Studio Art

Time is the material of artists working in photography, video, and animation. But what happens when we take it as the subject of these forms as well? Is time moving backwards or forwards? Does it take the shape of a loop or an arrow? What does it mean to stop time? How do we feel and measure the duration of an event?

In this course, we will explore these and other issues as we make art using time-based media. We’ll make digitally manipulated images while wrestling with the philosophical question of simultaneity. We’ll consider films and novels about time travel while making animations about future time. We’ll study how psychologists have understood emotion, perception, and time while we make time-lapse photographs. And we’ll consider the history of past and present time while we work with video montage. We will consider time as a social construct, an area of scientific discovery, a tool for structuring narrative, and a medium for recording our lives.

No prior experience with time-based media or digital software necessary.

Course Offered: