Fouzia Salahuddin Ahmed
Prof. Mehwish Abid CND
106-SI
Reflective Analysis on "Forms of
Inquiry" Course
The forms of inquiry course has a
very dense and comprehensive syllabus
that covers a huge amount of
information. I appreciated that the
modules are clearly defined and distinct
from each other, that makes it more
approachable. The syllabus can
sometimes feel too dense and too
expansive for me, but that's only
because I am taking the course as an
elective, the course load can feel like a
lot to keep track of at times but I think It
is incredible that we can learn so much
in just a 15 week course. I think forms of
inquiry is one of the courses where I can
say I feel like I actually learned
something i.e. art history, analysis,
the syllabus from one week to another
and create a database I can refer back to.
I feel that there is a lot more I could do if
I could take these notes digitally, e.g. I
could have a direct link or write notes
from screenshots of actual paintings,
but the journal has been great so far to
keep track of everything. I am a very
straightforward person and so is my
note-taking, it's very to the point with
only a heading or two to distinguish the
text, I'm not sure how that will reflect in
the grade I'll eventually get for the
journal/zine assignment but that's the
way the journal works for me, adding a
lot of different colors and headings and
inserts would only distract me and keep
me from actually making notes.
However I do think that as per the rubric
of the assignment I have kept it
organized with notes on all readings,
context for all kinds of art i see etc. The
Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)
mentions that it should help Identify the
complex interchanges between
artworks and their
historical/geographical contexts, even
though i don't have a background in art
the course has given adequate context
through the slides and videos that along
with the readings i feel like i have grasp
on the particular topic.
So far, the assignments given to
us have been very unique for me. The
workshop/presentation really had
collaboration at its core, and I learned a
lot from the experience. In order to
conduct the workshop about the
reading I had to understand the text and
read more closely than I usually would. I
also feel like that particular reading (The
Big Picture) will help me in the future
even outside the course or just writing
about art. Keeping a journal for the class
has been very unusual for me but having
my notes in the journal throughout the
weeks has really helped me remember
lectures and workshops in sequential
order and kept it consistent.
The texts presented in the course
were always unique and interesting to
read, from my SDP background reading
the manifestos that started particular
art movements was fascinating and I
could better understand that particular
framework when the manifesto clearly
defined its objectives and gave me the
necessary context. But other readings
like the paper by Stoyan was very dense
and difficult to understand, the lecture
was very helpful for that module. The
readings for Bauhaus were again difficult
for me to understand but the ones for
futurism were very interesting. All in all,
i think all the readings gave me a good
base to start from and the lectures
would fill in any of the holes.
In terms of the skills I've
developed thanks to the forms of
inquiry course I've gained a lot of
knowledge and information about art
and art history that I can apply to the
art I see all around me all the time. Its
helped me with analysis and
introduced a lot of different
frameworks I could employ moving
forward. In terms of challenges I've
faced, this course has been very far
outside my comfort zone in every way
but it's also teaching me to do things
differently than I usually would.