GUTS Award

Jodi CranstonDepartment of the History of Art &

Architecture2011-12

Introduction to Art History: AH 111 and 112

Problem: Large lecture course doesn’t lend itself to research projects and individualized student participation

Goal: Develop student projects which allow for collaboration and original research contributions

Tool: Adopt projects with data that can be mapped and organized through software applications and that result in new questions and conclusions

Tableau software maps and graphs sets of data, such as dimensions of buildings, locations and movements of portable

objects, such as paintings and sculptures

Example of mapping on tableau

Tableau first used for the Republic of Letters project (Stanford University) in which the early-modern network of written

correspondence mapped

Tableau-based projects planned for the Introduction to Western Art

1. Students will consult published catalogues of artworks by well-known artists and compile a data set on the location of the artworks at specific points in time.

2. Students will then employ Tableau to create maps and determine when and how these artworks “traveled” and make conclusions about collecting practices and the portability of the objects.

3. Students will also compile data on the proportions of buildings and use Tableau to analyze and map the possible regional differences and resulting implications of differences and continuities.

4. Students will be encouraged to assist in the development of new research projects based on their experience of the assigned projects.

Anticipated outcome of adopting Tableau-based projects

• Students will become familiar with a digital tool that has broader practical applications.

• Students will recognize that original research projects can result from organizing well-known data in new ways.

• Students will work together in small groups as a way to personalize the large lecture class experience.