This course will explore the many interrelationships between artistic practices, whether drawing, painting, printmedia, photomedia, sculpture, or time based art, and critical and theoretical issues that arise out of these practices and have been used to frame and comprehend them. Many modern and postmodern artists chose to carry a toolbox of history and of philosophical assumptions into the studio with them. The overall aim is to enable students to gain a critical understanding of both the historical and contemporary discourses which have framed our understanding of the role and meaning of art.