Instructor:
When protesters gather in democratic nations, as part of their calls they often chant “this is what democracy looks like!” But what, exactly, do they mean? Does democracy have a “look”? In this Aesthetics Engagement, we will consider art, campaign materials, music, and credos from the founding of the United States to the present day to determine if, and how, democracy represents itself differently from other political systems and why such differences matter. For instance, we will consider the United States’ first postage stamps, which featured a dead president and Founding Father, and compare them to the Penny Black issued by the United Kingdom, the first postage stamp ever created, which featured the living Queen Victoria, to ask crucial questions about the role of history in democracies and how visual iconography reflects it. We will also turn to Cold War propaganda in the US and USSR to ask if abstract art is more “democratic” than figurative representations and, if so, how? In doing so, we will work together to understand political systems as a collective ethos that structure, guide, and delimit our everyday affective experiences