Sekler to Chair Vis Stud Dept.

Eduard F. Sekler, professor of Architecture and Coordinator of Studies at the Carpenter Center, will become chairman of the new Visual Studies Department when the department is created on July 1.

Sekler, a member of the Design School Faculty since 1954, yesterday discussed his plans for the new department, which will replace the Department of Architecture. The field of concentration, he said, will be for "a comparatively small group of students who are seriously interested in matters of visual environment and matters of visual communication."

The new department will differ from its predecessor both in specific requirements and in emphasis. Concentration requirements will be seven and one-half courses (two of which may be related) including at least three semesters of studio work, a junior tutorial, and a thesis.

Generalization

Existing visual studies courses will be merged to form more generalized courses. For example, parts of Visual Studies 140, 143, and 145 will be used to create the new Visual Studies 140, a general introduction to still photography, film, slides, and animation.

Rudolf Arnheim, who will join the Faculty from Columbia University, next fall, will teach Visual Studies 100, the other new general introductory course for the field. Called "An Introduction to a Psychology of Visual Studies," it will be the first year-long survey course the VAC has ever offered. Arnheim is the author of Art and Visual Perception.

Sekler, who has held his VAC post since 1963, was born in Vienna, studied at the Warburg Institute of London University, and received his Ph. D. in 1948. He received an honorary M.A. from Harvard in 1960.

Before coming to the United States to study as a Fulbright Fellow in 1953, Sekler taught seven years at the Technische Hochschule, and holds the little of professor extraordinarius there.

Sekler said that he expects Albert Szabo, current chairman of the Department of Architecture, to become associate chairman of the new department and head tutor.