Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Spring Semester 2027
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
COLL 163 001 (CRN: 26923)
ARTISTS KNEW FIRST
Long Title: A HANDS-ON JOURNEY THROUGH ART, SCIENCE, AND THE SPACE BETWEEN (HANSZEN)
Department: College Courses
Instructors:
Meeting: 6:00PM - 6:50PM M (11-JAN-2027 - 23-APR-2027)
Part of Term: Full Term - No WL Purge
Grade Mode: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory
Course Type: Seminar
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 1
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Undergraduate Professional
Visiting Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Section Max Enrollment: 15
Section Enrolled: 0
Waitlisted: 0 (Max 99)
Current members of the waitlist have priority for available seats.
Enrollment data as of: 2-NOV-2026 7:19AM
Final Exam: No Final Exam
Description: Some things get discovered twice - once in a lab, once on a canvas. Long before the lab had the language to explain the world, artists already did. They got there by intuition and craft rather than study, and this course asks what it means for an artist to get there first. In this course, we put art and science in conversation: Proust’s madeleine with how memory works, Monet’s shifting colors with what happens when a retina starts to fail, Vermeer’s room acting like a camera as he painted it. The aim is to notice what each field sees that the other can't, and to find new meaning in both when they're read together. We'll move through memory, perception, consciousness, emotion, time, love - through paintings, photographs, prose, and hands-on experiments (yes, we're building a camera). No background required and no exams. You will walk out with a new way to imagine things, where every canvas is a lab and every lab is a canvas.