Dr. Emily Spratt joined IWP as a Visiting Professor in Fall 2023, and she is teaching a new course on The Art and Architecture of Democracy: Approaches to Cultural Diplomacy (IWP 724).
About the course
This new course examines the creation and development of the visual culture of democracy from its origins in ancient Greece to the present day. Beginning with Periclean Athens this course will trace the use of classical architectural idioms as an expression of democratic values that have come to influence subsequent art and architectural movements. Through attention to classical revival in the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, students will consider how the founding fathers appropriated art to symbolize the values of our nascent nation from the planning of Washington, D.C., as the capital city, to the Jeffersonian ideals of Palladian and Roman design as a model for civic and domestic architecture.
At its essence, this course contributes to the expanding methodological approaches to the field of cultural diplomacy by privileging the role of visual culture in theoretical constructions of soft power. The course not only involves lectures and discussions, but also on-site tours of significant monuments and historical sites in Washington, D.C. that have had an inestimable influence on the visual culture of American democracy.
About the professor
Dr. Spratt’s current research concerns the philosophical, ethical, and legal implications of AI techniques used in the analysis, generation, and curation of digital images, and their transformation of our global visual culture.
At Columbia University, she completed her post-doctorate in the Data Science Institute in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science and the Program in Historic Preservation. She earned her doctorate from Princeton University in Byzantine and Renaissance art history, holds master of arts degrees from Princeton and the University of California, Los Angeles, and has a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University.
Dr. Spratt brings teaching experience from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, Masaryk University, Rutgers University, Princeton, UCLA, and Cornell. She is also a strategic advisor in art and technology and has executive training from the Harvard Business School.
Outside of academia, she has worked with a variety of international companies, not-for-profit institutions, and governments on projects showcasing the uses of emerging technologies for art, music, and film. One of her most inspirational early-career experiences was the opportunity to have worked with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture on the recognition of Corfu Town, Corfu, Greece, as a UNESCO World Heritage site. More recently, Dr. Spratt was honored to have been the art curator for the Global Forum on AI for Humanity in Paris, which was sponsored by the office of President Emmanuel Macron.
Dr. Spratt has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards for her research, and her insights on AI, art, and society have been covered by The Washington Post, CBS News, and a host of other media companies.
This course began this September and will continue throughout the Fall 2024 semester. A special thank you to Dr. Emily Spratt for sharing her expertise on the subject.
Prof. Emily Spratt with her Art and Architecture of Democracy Class at the Anderson House