So far, Objects as History has consistently been in my top three favorite classes in my first year of college. I’ve always been fascinated by art history, though never took a formal class in it, so I feel that this has been a great opportunity for me, and I really am enjoying learning about the art of different cultures throughout history.
I personally don’t feel that my experience has been negatively affected by the online nature of our classes. In fact, I would say that it allowed me to focus more on my work, allowing me to better set my own schedule than if I was on campus. That being said, I am looking forward to returning to NYC when it is possible to do so safely.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I grew up going to museums quite often, with the Met in NYC being one of my favorites. Despite this, I often overlooked the history of the pieces I was seeing, and just appreciated their visual style. I recognized many of the pieces shown in class so far, but their backstory was often completely new to me!
When answering questions for this class, I feel like I had to view things from a more holistic perspective, taking into account many sides to things, and accept that there isn’t a single, consise answer. Additionally, seeing the various other responses to discussion questions from my classmates was extremely useful in gaining a greater understanding of a topic.
I don’t know if I can pick a single favorite object we discussed! That being said, I did really enjoy talking about ancient Aztec artifacts , and our discussion about the depiction of God in art.
Overall, I think so far I’m pretty proud of my work in Objects as History, and look forward to future projects, discussion questions, and objects of the week.
