Instructor
Carl Bybee
Course Description
Leonardo da Vinci was working in a time before the split between art and science, before the split between the humanities and science. As Fritjof Capra writes, Leonardo can be seen as working through an ecological world view, where art and science are informed by each other to understand the complex dynamics by which life is sustained and nurtured. Leonardo's attention to "relations, patterns and context" can be seen as inspiring crucial first steps in western culture to map out, in Capra's words, "a new ecological understanding of life" known as "ecological literacy." This ecological, systems worldview can be seen as a means for rethinking the relationship between humans, technology and nature and for re-understanding the spectacular communication technologies of our time. It can also offer insights into how Public Culture can begin to rebuild what has been lost in the fragmented views of contemporary science and humanities, insights that provide fresh perspectives on an integral remaking culture, politics and science. This course will engage with Leonardo's work as he integrated art and science into what we will call an ecological worldview. We will explore his work on water, earth and plants as well as his work on the human body. To explore this integral worldview, we will be reading about his work, reading excerpts from his work and visiting and observing drawings, working models and constructions of his work at locations such as the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and the Uffizi in Florence and the Museo Leonardino di Vinci in Vinci. The course will then engage with Siena and Tuscany through the lens of Ecoliteracy and Ecomedia Literacy, attending to current and historical lessons of sustainability and their representations.