Whether an aspiring scientific or medical illustrator or someone who enjoys drawing nature's wonders, this first-of-its-kind MOOC course is for you. The field of Natural History Illustration is about observing and illustrating subjects from nature, science and culture, with their linkages to the environment being central. Our natural world is a fascinating place. Being able to observe and replicate it through illustration provides insights into life that can change how we think about ourselves and our surroundings. You will learn essential skills and techniques that form the base for creating accurate and stunning replications of subjects from the natural world. This art and culture course is suitable for people looking to enter the illustration discipline as a serious pursuit or just looking to explore a passion. As world-standard instructors, we will show you practical ways to develop your skills from the outset. Step by step, we will cover the fundamentals of Natural History Illustration, from the first observation of a subject in the field to the final replication in the studio. This online course will teach you enduring skills that can be used in many different ways. Join us to explore, observe and draw the natural world and become part of a scientific tradition steeped in history.

Knowledge of media law is crucial for creative and design professionals. This course explores a comprehensive range of topics and models, such as privacy and art, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Open Source public license, Creative Commons, Digital Rights Management, as well as working definitions of Fair Use and the practical limits of sampling/mixing in different idioms and economic sectors.

Module 1: Books, Scrolls, and Religious Devotion This unit offers special access to a unique group of books and scrolls and sacred objects once interred inside a thirteenth-century Buddhist sculpture of Prince Shotoku, now in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. The works to be studied represent the most prevalent formats of Japanese books, but they display striking material idiosyncrasies that will help us understand how and why manuscripts were made, and how they could be personalized for individual readers, motivated, in this case, by religious devotion. Module 2: Visual and Textual Storytelling: Short-Story Scrolls Enter into the storyworlds of two lively illustrated Japanese tales, The Tale of the Rat (Nezumi sôshi) and The Chrysanthemum Spirit (Kiku no sei monogatari) in the Harvard Art Museums. Both tales are illustrated in the “small scroll” ( ko-e ) format, roughly half the size of standard scrolls, resembling medieval paperbacks, and intended for personal reading and private libraries. This unit focuses on reading experience, exploring the interrelationship between word and image, and explaining how literary and pictorial conventions work together to communicate a story. Module 3: “Multimedia” Books: The Tale of Genji Japan’s most celebrated work of fiction, The Tale of Genji , has been continuously read from the time it appeared in the eleventh-century to the present day and provides a perfect case study for exploring various book formats over the centuries in Japan. Using decorated manuscripts, richly illustrated albums, and a playful printed book of a Genji spin-off, A Fraudulent Murasaki’s Rustic Genji (Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji), this unit showcases the spectacular visual and material properties of Genji volumes that make them suggestive of “multimedia” books.

The purpose of this course ： is to improve students' understanding of the essence of Chinese landscape painting in the process of exploring the aesthetic interests and performance methods of Chinese landscape painting. Through the practice of brush and ink, students can improve their understanding and performance in material using and brush-ink structures. At the same time, it will improve the appreciation level of Chinese painting and lay the foundation for the innovative development of Chinese painting.

The fashion industry has a large influence on the global economy and is more and more known for its social and environmental impact. Everywhere, new sustainable initiatives are arising from recycling, upcycling to creating clothes from compostable materials. Circularity tough, is a complex phenomenon. What will the future bring us? Are we indeed going to decompose our clothes in our own garden? This online course brings you a comprehensive introduction in circular fashion brought to you by roughly thirty different experts from both academia and practice. You will learn about the versatile task of transitioning towards circular fashion, from the unique collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, ArtEZ University of the Arts and many other experts. After the course you will know the core concepts and tools to help better understand circular economy in the fashion industry. Some of the topics that are covered focus on understanding the challenge of recycling, design for circularity, alternative textiles through biobased innovation and circular business modelling to help bring innovations to the market. For whom? This course will provide designers, retailers, scientists, engineers and all working at the industry or with an interest in fashion with holistic insights in the complex challenges of circular fashion, while engaging you to start the transition to circularity within your personal and/or professional practices. We will bring together art, design and science to move beyond an ego-centric approach of fashion and start from an ecosystems perspective. Learn the theory, understand the practice and start your own circular fashion journey. Join the movement towards a circular fashion industry!

Where is Giza? How were the Pyramids built? How did the cemeteries and hundreds of decorated tombs around them develop? What was Giza’s contribution to this first great age of ancient Egyptian civilization, the Old Kingdom? The Giza Plateau and its cemeteries — including the majestic Pyramids and the Great Sphinx — are stirring examples of ancient Egyptian architecture and culture. They provide windows into ancient Egyptian society, but also contain mysteries waiting to be solved. The Egyptian Pyramids at Giza provide an opportunity to explore the history of archaeology and to learn about some of the modern methods shaping the discipline today. This introductory course will explore the art, archaeology, and history surrounding the Giza Pyramids. We will learn about Egyptian pharaohs and high officials of the Pyramid Age, follow in the footsteps of the great 20th-century expeditions, and discover how cutting-edge digital tools like 3D-modeling are reshaping the discipline of Egyptology. Join us on this online journey to ancient Egypt’s most famous archaeological site as we uncover the history and significance of Giza, and use new digital techniques to unravel the mysteries of its ancient tombs and temples.

Physical and digital design skills are key to practitioners in art, design, and engineering, as well as many other creative professions. Models are essential in architecture. In design practice all kinds of physical scale models and digital models are used side by side. In this architecture course, you will gain experience that will help and inspire you to advance in your personal and professional development. You will attain skills in a practical way. First, we will focus on sketch models for the early stages of a design process, then we will continue with virtual representations for design communication and finally more precise and detailed models will be used for further development of the ideas. In the theoretical part of the course, you will learn about many different sorts of models: how architects use these and how they are essential in the design process. The practical part of the course addresses a number of challenges. In small steps we will guide you through technical and creative difficulties in exciting, playful, and pleasant ways. This is a self-paced course. This means that you can freely plan when and how fast you would like to do the course challenges: within the period of the course duration, you can decide when you are really ready to submit your course portfolio for an online peer review. The course team also offers the self-paced MOOC IMAGE | ABILITY and both courses come with a unique magazine called ‘MIAMIAM’ (Monthly Image Ability & Models in Architecture Magazine). This magazine will present the course feedback and it will report on notable results and insights from both MOOCs and related TU-Delft campus education. With both courses, we invite you to take new steps to explore your own creativity. The forum discussions, the possibilities to share and see each other’s work and the feedback in the magazine make it easier to work towards a course certificate. Both courses are a good preparation for further creative studies and could guide you in a career change towards creative industries.

Pow! Bang! Kaboom! Superhero stories, first arriving on the scene in the late 1930s, are now among the most popular forms of global entertainment. The study of philosophy has been around for centuries. Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes, a SmithsonianX and Harvard Division of Continuing Education course, blends these superheroes narratives with the core areas of philosophy. SmithsonianX has partnered with the Harvard Division of Continuing Education to bring this course from the Harvard Extension School to edX. This introductory philosophy course, led by Professor Christopher Robichaud of the Harvard Kennedy School, offers an exciting lens to interpret key philosophical ideas — metaphysics and epistemology, social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, existentialism, moral relativism, and much more. From Superman's embrace of truth, justice, and the American way to Wonder Woman's efforts at promoting peace rather than war, from Spider-Man's personal struggles at balancing his romantic life with his crime fighting exploits to the X-Men's social struggles with combating prejudice, Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes will give you the chance to explore philosophy through the many superhero narratives via videos, readings, and a meaningful course community. We invite both those new to philosophy and philosophy lovers to join us on this journey!

How do we deal with the challenges and threats to vernacular architecture and make sure that it is sustained in this modern urbanized world? This is the key question we will try to answer in this course. This architecture course takes you on a journey of understanding and appreciating the value of our everyday built environment. In the first two modules, we will explore the deeper socio-cultural meaning of rural vernacular architecture and look at the urban vernacular and challenges of people migrating from villages to live in cities; in module 3, we will focus on what we call ‘informal settlements’ in Asian cities; and in the final two modules, we will explore answers to a few questions that are very relevant to the current status and future development of vernacular architecture, such as: How can we conserve and sustain our vernacular cultural heritage? How can we reconcile tradition with modernity and originality? We will also cast our eyes into the future, and discuss how the field of vernacular architecture might evolve and develop in the years to come. Ultimately, the goal of this 5-week course is to help you establish your own viewpoints about the more complex or even contradictory issues in vernacular architecture, so you can make informed decisions regarding the protection and conservation of your local vernacular environments. Special note: This course can be taken independently from The Search of Vernacular Architecture of Asia, Part 1 . 我们要如何应对本土建筑面临的挑战和威胁？并确保本土建筑在这个现代城市化的世界中持续存在？ 我们在本课程中将解决這些问题。 本建筑课程将带领你理解和欣赏我们日常建筑环境。前两个单元，我们将探索农村本土建筑的深层社会文化意义，并了解城市本土建筑和从农村移居到城市的人们所面临的挑战；第三单元，我们将专注于亚洲几大城市中，我们所谓的“非正式定居点”；最后两个单元，我们将探索与本土建筑当前形势和未来发展相关的几个问题，例如：我们如何保护和维持我们的本土文化遗产？我们如何平衡传统与现代性和原真性？我们也将放眼未来，讨论本土建筑领域可能会往哪个方向演变，在未来几年可能会有怎样的发展。這5周的课程旨在帮助你在本土建筑领域一些更為复杂或更深層次的问题上形成你自己的见解，便于你能夠在本土环境的保护和保育方面做出明智的决定。 特别说明：本课程可独立于“亚洲乡土建筑研究（第一部分）”，单独选修。

This MITx course was developed in collaboration with HarvardX and is co-taught by MIT, Harvard, and Duke historians. You will examine Japanese history in a new way—through the images created by those who were there—and the skills and questions involved in reading history through images in the digital format. The introductory module considers methodologies historians use to “visualize” the past, followed by three modules that explore the themes of Westernization, in Commodore Perry’s 1853-54 expedition to Japan; social protest, in Tokyo’s 1905 Hibiya Riot; and modernity, as seen in the archives of the major Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido. VJxwill cover the following topics in four modules: Module 0: Introduction: New Historical Sources for a Digital Age (Professors Dower, Gordon, Miyagawa). Digitization has dramatically altered historians' access to primary sources, making large databases of the visual record readily accessible. How is historical methodology changing in response to this seismic shift? How can scholars, students, and the general public make optimal use of these new digital resources? Module 1: Black Ships & Samurai (Professor Dower). Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853-54 expedition to force Japan to open its doors to the outside world is an extraordinary moment to look at by examining and comparing the visual representations left to us by both the American and Japanese sides of this encounter. This module also addresses the rapid Westernization undertaken by Japan in the half century following the Perry mission. Module 2: Social Protest in Imperial Japan: The Hibiya Riot of 1905 (Professor Gordon). The dramatic daily reports from participants in the massive "Hibiya Riot" in 1905, the first major social protest in the age of "imperial democracy" in Japan, offer a vivid and fresh perspective on the contentious domestic politics of an emerging imperial power. Module 3: Modernity in Interwar Japan: Shiseido & Consumer Culture (Professors Dower, Gordon, Weisenfeld). Exploring the vast archives of the Shiseido cosmetics company opens a fascinating window on the emergence of consumer culture, modern roles for women, and global cosmopolitanism from the 'teens through the 1920s and even into the era of Japanese militarism and aggression in the 1930s. This module will also tap other Visualizing Cultures units on modernization and modernity.