Fantastic animals have often been rendered as monstrous creations heralding social chaos, in which animal and human worlds collide. Yet many visual formulations of composite creatures present instead apex animalistic beings as icons of human political power. By taking students through investigations of "animal-style" art of steppe nomads, this course probes into new ways of seeing that embrace indigenous cultures and post-humanist mind frames. Students will delve into social constructs of animal-dominated worlds, dissect a myriad of fantastic beasts, and reconstruct the logics of animal-centric artistic creations. As this course also serves as an elective for Museum Studies, students will engage in analyses of material objects, their curation in collections, and their roles in museums.

HISTART Concentration Distribution: Asia; Ancient