The Visual Studies Area in the Department of Architecture offers courses in drawing, photography, and word-image relationships, all of which take the visual world as their focus: how to see, how to structure an image, how to give visual clarity to an idea. The goal here is both visual literacy and, at the same time, an active, creative and physical exploration of image-making media. This hands-on approach is distinct — and necessary — in a department where design questions are often addressed on a more abstract, theoretical level. By contrast, the visual studies courses allow students direct involvement with media and materials. Students at both graduate and undergraduate level are enrolled in these courses. At the graduate level, the department offers a Master of Arts in Design degree program, which provides an opportunity for advanced independent work within a broadly conceived field of visual studies.

The core faculty member and chair of the program is Professor Anthony Dubovsky, a painter whose work has been shown internationally, most recently in a solo exhibition at the CUE Art Foundation in New York. Dubovsky, also the author of Jerusalem: To Know by Living (El Leon Literary Arts), is actively involved in online media. The program is supported by two regular lecturers: photographer Janet Delaney, whose insightful teaching has been central to the photography offerings, and sculptor Joseph Slusky, whose courses in drawing and form in three-dimensions are legendary within the department and the college. Both attract an enthusiastic and committed group of students. Also contributing to the program’s teaching over many years has been lecturer Katie Hawkinson, a painter with exemplary skills in digital media.

Visual studies offerings are also supported by faculty in the architecture program with parallel interests, including Professor Cris Benton, who has offered a course on documentary photography with an environmental focus, and Jean-Paul Bourdier, who has brought his own photographic explorations to the classroom. Professor Yehuda Kalay’s program in digital new media offers many parallels. Also, Margaret (Penny) Dhaemers, Professor Emerita, continues in her now-perforce more limited role as instructor and advisor.

The history of the program goes back to what was originally the Department of Design, one of the founding departments in the College of Environmental Design, but closed by the University for budgetary reasons in 1973. The senior faculty from Design joined other college departments, and the courses — always highly regarded — continued to be offered. The current program — an area within the Department of Architecture — has built on these offerings, and remains important for the breadth it brings to the architecture program as a whole.

Many of the approaches to image-making that were once specific to visual studies — drawing and image-making in general — have now become part and parcel of the general realm of digital image culture. Today the architect (and the student of architecture) employs digital software — Illustrator and Photoshop, for example — without a second thought. These media are available to all. However, the underlying principles of insight and visual clarity remain, as always, a challenge. How does one learn to see? How does one give form to an image? What makes an image meaningful? What are the personal as well as historical issues at stake? The visual studies program addresses these questions directly, providing a studio setting in which students can test ideas and materials with their hands as well as their minds.