Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning

Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning offers a comprehensive introduction to the world of Art. Authored by four USG faculty members with advance degrees in the arts, this textbooks offers up-to-date original scholarship. It includes over 400 high-quality images illustrating the history of art, its technical applications, and its many uses. Combining the best elements of both a traditional textbook and a reader, it introduces such issues in art as its meaning and purpose; its meaning and purpose; its structure, material, and form; and its diverse effects on our lives. Its digital nature allows students to follow links to applicable sources and videos, expanding the students’ educational experiences beyond the textbook. Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning provides a new and free alternative to traditional textbooks, making it an invaluable resource in our modern age of technology and advancement.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Jeffery LeMieux, Pamela Sachant, Peggy Blood, Rita Tekippe

Media Studies 101

Media Studies 101 is the open educational resource for media studies studies in New Zealand, Australia, and Pacifica. We have constructed this text so it can be read in a number of ways. You may wish to follow the structured order of 'chapters' like you would in a traditional printed textbook. Each section builds on and refers back to previous sections to build up your knowledge and skills. Alternatively, you may want to go straight to the section you are interested in -- links will help guide you back to definitions and key ideas if you need to refresh your knowledge or understand a new concept.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Bernard Madill, Brett Nicholls, Colette Snowden, Erika Pearson, Hannah Mettner, Hazel Phillips, Jane Ross, Khin-Wee Chen, Martina Wengenmeir, Massimiliana Urbana, Maud Ceuterick, Sarah Gallagher, Shah Nister J. Kabir, Sy Taffel, Thelma Fisher

Understanding Media and Culture

This book’s title tells its intent. It is written to help you understand media and culture. The media and culture are so much a part of our days that sometimes it is difficult to step back and appreciate and apprehend their great impact on our lives. The book’s title, and the book itself, begin with a focus squarely on media. Think of your typical day. If you are like many people, you wake to a digital alarm clock or perhaps your cell phone. Soon after waking, you likely have a routine that involves some media. Some people immediately check the cell phone for text messages. Others will turn on the computer and check Facebook, email, or websites. Some people read the newspaper. Others listen to music on an iPod or CD. Some people will turn on the television and watch a weather channel, cable news, or Sports Center. Heading to work or class, you may chat on a cell phone or listen to music. Your classes likely employ various types of media from course management software to PowerPoint presentations to DVDs to YouTube. You may return home and relax with video games, television, movies, more Facebook, or music. You connect with friends on campus and beyond with text messages or Facebook. And your day may end as you fall asleep to digital music. Media for most of us are entwined with almost every aspect of life and work. Understanding media will not only help you appreciate the role of media in your life but also help you be a more informed citizen, a more savvy consumer, and a more successful worker. Media influence all those aspects of life as well.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Jack Lule

Art Appreciation Open Educational Resource

The Art Appreciation course explores the world’s visual arts, focusing on the development of visual awareness, assessment, and appreciation by examining a variety of styles from various periods and cultures while emphasizing the development of a common visual language. The materials are meant to foster a broader understanding of the role of visual art in human culture and experience from the prehistoric through the contemporary. This is an Open Educational Resource (OER), an openly licensed educational material designed to replace a traditional textbook. The course materials consist of 24 lessons each with a presentation, reading list, and/or sample assignment. For ease of adapting, materials are available as PDFs and Microsoft PowerPoint or Word documents.

Material Type: Full Course

Author: Marie Porterfield Barry

Graphic Design and Print Production Fundamentals

Short Description: This textbook — written by a group of select experts with a focus on different aspects of the design process, from creation to production — addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed, or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. It covers the concept that, while most modern graphic design is created on computers using design software, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer. The ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process. Keywords are highlighted throughout and summarized in a Glossary at the end of the book, and each chapter includes exercises and suggested readings. Long Description: This textbook is written by a group of select experts with a focus on different aspects of the design process, from creation to production. Traditionally referred to as graphic design, communication design is the process by which messages and images are used to convey information to a targeted audience. It is within this spectrum that this textbook addresses the many steps of creating and then producing physical, printed, or other imaged products that people interact with on a daily basis. Design itself is only the first step. It is important when conceiving of a new design that the entire workflow through to production is taken into consideration. And while most modern graphic design is created on computers, using design software such as the Adobe suite of products, the ideas and concepts don’t stay on the computer. To create in-store signage, for instance, the ideas need to be completed in the computer software, then progress to an imaging (traditionally referred to as printing) process. This is a very wide-reaching and varied group of disciplines. Each chapter begins with a list of Learning Objectives, and concludes with Exercises and a list of Suggested Readings on the Summary page. Throughout, key terms are noted in bold and listed again in a Glossary at the end of the book. Word Count: 69165 ISBN: 978-1-989623-67-1 (Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Material Type: Textbook

Music Fundamentals 1: Pitch and Major Scales and Keys

This collection is the first of five dealing with the rudiments of music.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Catherine Schmidt-Jones

Smarthistory.org

smARThistory.org is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional and static art history textbook.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lecture, Lecture Notes, Reading, Textbook

Author: Beth Harris Ph.D. Steven Zucker Ph.D. and others

Obelisk - A New History of Art

Obelisk (formerly Trivium) Art History is a free, online art history textbook designed for discovery. Meet history's greatest artists, browse artwork, and explore the timeline of human creativity. Trivium offers short, conversational essays and artist biographies and encourages exploration by artistic movements, mediums and themes.

Material Type: Reading, Textbook

Authors: Reed Enger, Rick Love

Art History

The history of Art is long and varied, spanning tens of thousands of years from ancient paintings on the walls of caves to the glow of computer-generated images on the screens of the 21st century.

Material Type: Textbook

Moving Pictures:An Introduction to Cinema

Short Description: A free and open-source introduction to the art and science of moving pictures, offering in-depth exploration of how cinema communicates, and what, exactly, it is trying to say. Long Description: A free and open-source introduction to the art and science of cinema. From the earliest iterations to the latest innovations, this introductory text explores the tools and techniques of mise-en-scene, narrative form, cinematography, editing, sound and acting, how each has contributed to the evolution of cinematic language, and how that evolution implicates critical issues of representation in mass media. Moving Pictures offers in-depth examination of how cinema communicates, and what, exactly, it is trying to say. Author Contact: russell.sharman@gmail.com Word Count: 55639 (Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Russell Leigh Sharman

Guide to Ancient Roman Art

This book contains all of Smarthistory’s content for the Ancient Roman art.

Material Type: Reading

Author: SmartHistory

Art Appreciation

This course is particularly focused on helping you develop visual literacy skills, but all the college courses you take are to some degree about information literacy. Visual literacy is really just a specialized type of information literacy. The skills you acquire in this course will help you become an effective researcher in other fields, as well.

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

The Elements of Art

The goal of this unit is to introduce students to the basic elements of art (color, line, shape, form, and texture) and to show students how artists use these elements in different ways in their work. In the unit, students will answer questions as they look carefully at paintings and sculpture to identify the elements and analyze how they are used by different artists.

Material Type: Diagram/Illustration, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Introduction to Theatre

Lecture notes, internet links and vocabulary lists for a core curriculum Introduction to Theatre college level course.

Material Type: Lecture Notes

Author: Valerie Brugh

Understanding Music: Past and Present

Understanding Music: Past and Present is an open Music Appreciation textbook co-authored by music faculty across Georgia. The text covers the fundamentals of music and the physics of sound, an exploration of music from the Middle Ages to the present day, and a final chapter on popular music in the United States.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Elizabeth Kramer, Jeffrey Kluball, N. Alan Clark, Thomas Heflin

Concepts of Biology

Concepts of Biology is designed for the introductory biology course for nonmajors taught at most two- and four-year colleges. The scope, sequence, and level of the program are designed to match typical course syllabi in the market. Concepts of Biology includes interesting applications, features a rich art program, and conveys the major themes of biology.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: James Wise, Rebecca Roush, Samantha Fowler

Biofundamentals 2.0

Our goal is to present the key observations and unifying concepts upon which modern biology is based; it is not a survey of all biology! Once understood, these foundational observations and concepts should enable you to approach any biological process, from disease to kindness, from a scientific perspective. To understand biological systems we need to consider them from two complementary perspectives; how they came to be (the historic, that is, evolutionary) and how their structures, traits, and behaviors are produced (the mechanistic, that is, the physicochemical)

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Melanie M. Cooper, Michael W. Klymkowski

Microbiology

This course is designed to be an introduction to the biology of microorganism. The emphasis is on the specific properties of microorganisms and their relation to disease.

Material Type: Full Course

Author: Shannon Compton

Microbiology

Microbiology covers the scope and sequence requirements for a single-semester microbiology course for non-majors. The book presents the core concepts of microbiology with a focus on applications for careers in allied health. The pedagogical features of the text make the material interesting and accessible while maintaining the career-application focus and scientific rigor inherent in the subject matter. Microbiology’s art program enhances students’ understanding of concepts through clear and effective illustrations, diagrams, and photographs.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Anh-Hue Thi Tu, Ann Auman, Ann Paterson, Ben Rowley, Brian M. Forster, Clifton Franklund, George Pinchuk, Graciela Brelles-Mariño, Mark Schneegurt, Mark Sutherland, Myriam Alhadeff Feldman, Nina Parker, Paul Flowers, Philip Lister, Summer Allen

A Student's Guide to Tropical Marine Biology

A Student’s Guide to Tropical Marine Biology is written entirely by students enrolled in the Keene State College Tropical Marine Biology course taught by Dr. Karen Cangialosi. Our goal was to investigate three main aspects of tropical marine biology: understanding the system, identifying problems, and evaluating solutions. Each of the sections contains chapters that utilize openly licensed material and images, and are rich with hyperlinks to other sources. Some of the most pressing tropical marine ecosystem issues are broken up into five sections: Coral Reefs and Diversity, Common Fishes to the Coral Reef, Environmental Threats, Reef Conservation, and Major Marine Phyla. These sections are not mutually exclusive; repetition in some content between chapters is intentional as we expect that users may not read the whole book. This work represents a unique collaborative process with many students across semesters authoring and editing, and therefore reflects the interests and intentions of a broad range of students, not one person’s ideas. This collaboration began with contributions from KSC students in the 2017 semester and includes work from the 2019 class, as well as new content and editorial work from 2017 & 2019 alumni. We look forward to future editions of this book. Enjoy exploring the rainforests of the sea through our collaborative project and please share with those who care!

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Alana Olendorf, Allie Tolles, Andrew Fuhs, Audrey Boraski, Bryce Chounard, Christian Paparazzo, Devon Audibert, Emily Michaeles, Emma Verville, Haley Fantasia, Haley Zanga, Jaime Marsh, Jason Charbonneau, Jennifer Rosado, Jessica Comeau, Maddi Ouellette, Malisa Rai, Marisa Benjamin, Mary Swain, Melissa Wydra, Morgan Tupper, Sarah Larsen, Simone McEwan, Suki Graham, Tim Brodeur, Will Trautmann