Slow Looking with Art and Nature

Slow looking encourages us moderns to practice a skill not emphasized in current education and especially not in our ubiquitous screen technology. Slow looking augments some of the natural and societally ingrained behaviors such as scrolling, quick first impression judgments, as well as the substitution of on-screen images for in-person experience. Working in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and outside in the town of Brunswick, we will employ close looking with 17th-century paintings as well as with works of your own choosing from the museum. The course also includes focused observation of birdlife, water, sky and plants, and requires the ability to walk outside, standing–or sitting–for 20 minutes. All levels of visual ability are welcome.

Film and Podcast: John Berger, Ways of Seeing (John Berger/Ways of Seeing, Episode 1 (1972); Claire Bown, What is Slow Looking? (and How Can I Get Started?); and other materials which will be supplied by the teacher.

Susan Wegner has taught the history of Italian art as well as the art and architecture of the ancient Maya, Aztec, and Inca peoples. She has been an observer of the natural world since her rural Wisconsin childhood.