T3 4710—Sport Aesthetics
Three Semester Hours
TC 11/14
Prerequisites
University Requisite: student must be a senior
Course Overview
The essential purpose of the course is to examine the relationships between sport, aesthetics, and art.
To challenge you to reach a deeper understanding of these relationships and to synthesize many of the ideas presented about sport, aesthetics, and art, two general themes permeate through the course:
- View sport as a medium for creating aesthetic appeal via dynamic human motion involving a pleasing form and style.
- Appreciation of the artist’s work
Methods of Course Instruction
All material for this course is print-based. Instructor and students communicate and exchange materials through postal mail.
E-Print Option
In this course, an option exists to use e-mail to submit your lesson assignments. Your assignment will be returned to you either as an e-mail attachment or as a hard copy sent through the postal mail, depending on the preferences of the instructor and/or program.
Textbooks and Supplies
- Guttmann, Allen. Sports and American Art (From Benjamin West to Andy Warhol) . Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011. [ISBN: 9781558498747]
- Any Given Number: The Ultimate Sports Debate: Who Wore It Best, From 00 to 99 . New York: Sports Illustrated, 2014. [ISBN: 9781618931108]
Number of Lessons
The course has 11 lessons; there are no examinations. The last lesson assignment requires you to submit a 5–7-page analysis paper involving two elite athletes. The lesson topics include:
- Lesson 1: Sport and the Aesthetic
- Lesson 2: Our National Games
- Lesson 3: The Aesthetic in Sport
- Lesson 4: The Non-Aesthetic in Sport
- Lesson 5: Photography and Sport
- Lesson 6: Cinema and Sport
- Lesson 7: Elements and Principles of Design in Sport Art
- Lesson 8: The Artists and Their Images of Sport
- Lesson 9: Sport Modification
- Lesson 10: Aesthetics and the Elite Athletes
- Lesson 11: The Elite Athlete Final Paper
Types of Writing Assignments
Each lesson contains a writing assignment with questions that pertain to the lesson’s reading assignment/topic. Each writing assignment is to be submitted for grading.
Optional Bonus Projects
You have the option to complete a sport-related work of art and/or shoot one or two photographs. In order to receive bonus points, you must submit your projects before submitting your final paper for the course. The artwork and/or photos cannot be selected from the T3 4710 course textbooks.
Note: Preapproval is required.
Creative projects are not required; however, you should be aware that participation in this optional project has the potential to raise your grade. For example, if you submit a drawing, there is the potential to earn up to 15 points in addition to the points that you have already earned in the course. Each photograph may add up to five bonus points. If your work is deemed to be “outstanding” or “exceptional,” you will be awarded additional bonus points.
Grading Criteria
- Complete writing assignments #1–9. The maximum number of points earned for completing the writing assignments is 90 (10 points each).
- For assignment #11, write two comprehensive analyses involving elite athletes. (Each analysis is worth 15 points maximum; the maximum points earned for the analysis of two athletes is 30.)
- Points earned for submitting optional projects are added to the points scored on the written assignments.