Light and the Arts: A Quantitative Approach

University Of South Florida, Tampa FL

Investigators

Abstract

This project will develop a fine arts course for engineering students that approaches the subject matter through an avenue that they can see as valuable and empowering. The key objectives in the creation of the new course were: . to approach the subject of fine art from a perspective where technology-oriented students would have an advantage, rather than a handicap; . to exploit the experience so as to reinforce some aspect of engineering science by reviewing it in a new context; . to place the engineering students in an environment composed mostly of others in the same discipline. Light is used as the underlying theme for this new approach to fine arts appreciation. Light, obviously, is the chief medium through which painting expresses itself to us. Engineering students come into the course with a modicum of expertise in optics and electromagnetics through their basic physics courses. Moreover, it is apparent to them that optical devices will inevitably play a role in their subsequent engineering practice. Therefore, a light-based approach to fine art fulfills the goals of changing their perspective from handicapped bystander to empowered facilitator and of creating an experience that manifestly advances their professional qualifications. The bulk of the course content is a survey of the lives and works of 40 well-known artists. Most of these works are presented in a context that reflects some aspect of the physics, perception, or technology of light. Therefore, even though study of light phenomena takes up only a fraction of the material, it dictates the order of presentation of the artists and forms the frame of reference for the syllabus. The exposure to the artists works is interspersed and correlated whenever possible with the physical and aesthetic aspects of light, the workings of the eye, and the use of technology in world of the artist. "Lights and the Arts: A Quantitative Approach" was taught for the first time in the spring of 2003 to 40 students, and it successfully met its modest objectives for a first offering. Herein the proposer seeks support to enable it to reach its full potential, most importantly by developing a laboratory component providing a hands-on experience in support of the exposition. The intellectual merit of this project is the distillation of new conceptual perspectives that, to some degree, recognize art as a manifestation of technology, and technology as an empowering force for art. The broader impact of the project is the challenge it extends to educators to seek ways to empower, and not discourage, technology students in their distributional curriculum, especially when the subject matter may present non-conventional approaches to the understanding of