Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (12:00 p.m.) Happiness Group Completed Project | Page 4

both history and modern times. The
most innovative part of this class is
the collaborative project. These give
the student the ability to create
something one of a kind. From cus-
tom coloring books to virtual reality
projects, this assignment gives stu-
dent the freedom to explore art and
find the pieces of emotion within in
them. This class emphasizes two
forms of art and emotions by looking
at the history of emotions and how
they were perceived, and looking in-
to the future of art with the ability to
engage with it.
Emotions incorporated with
artwork is an important subject to
study today because it involves look-
ing into the past in order to better
the future. Happiness is an important
emotion that, when fully understood,
can lead to the betterment of others
and one’s satisfaction with life. In
these times, technology and materi-
alism is highlighted as the best way
to achieve happiness, but this only a
vain attempt at euphoria instead of
true happiness. These objects only
fulfill our physical needs; they do not
truly satisfy us. By studying happi-
ness and other emotions we can bet-
ter ourselves to understand what
these emotions are and spread these
ideas to others in hopes that we can
better our world.
Biography
I
n education, many schools focus
on STEM programs and often
push for classes that emphasize
science and mathematics; however,
studies in the arts are still an im-
portant part of a student's education.
While most art classes involve tradi-
tional topics such as music or review
of artwork, classes such as HC 2010
provide a unique curriculum by infus-
ing two fields of emotions, the scien-
tific and artistic sides. HC 2010: The
Art and Science of Emotions is a
class that allows students to dissect
emotions and the role they play in
society. The class explores a wide
spectrum of emotions, ranging from
fear and sadness to hatred and hap-
piness. Emotion is a word that hasn’t
even existed before the turn 17th
century. Before the term was even
used as it is today, emotion was re-
ferred to civil or political unrest or
movement. Transitioning from old
descriptions to modern definitions of
emotion, the word meant the disrup-
tion of the mind or having a strong
passion for something.
This class differentiates from
normal college courses by inspiring
the students to think further about a
specific emotion and how it affects
their lives, the lives of others,
and culture as a whole. Our
class is composed of special-
ized seminars that discuss the
spectrums of emotions, such as
love, hate, happiness, and
fear! Additionally, Dr. Beckwith
included literature pieces that
deal with the physiological and
philosophical aspects of emo-
tion. Once the readings have
been covered, we discuss as a
class how the previous aspects
relate to emotions and art we see in
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