Artistic practices are ways that human beings try to make sense of the world. How do art practices differ from other ways that human beings make sense of their world – such as religion, education, science, and philosophy? In thinking about what makes artistic practices distinctive, we will have to think about both what such practices ‘mean’, and how their meaning is related to their material conditions – stone, paint, sound, film, the human body or the printed word; and too to what effect human beings have transformed these conditions in ‘artistic’ ways through the socially and historically specific forms of painting, music, poetry, drama, photography and film. All of which is to say: We will be asking not only what art is (or, what the ‘arts’ are), but also why we care about art, if we still do, and how that caring can be justified (if it can). Students must register for both the lecture and discussion section of this course. [This ULEC is in category 3, Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Arts & Humanities.]