This survey introduces students to the history of Los Angeles' creative practices. Covering a broad range of environments and visual cultures, we will begin in the period before European colonization and conclude in contemporary Los Angeles. Reading the city as artwork will introduce students to an expanded field of creativity and analysis beyond the art object. To do so, we will consider enacted environments, expressive objects, urban landscapes, maps, monuments, murals and photographs. The class will give special attention to how colonialism continues to haunt and form the city, as well as explore the role creative practices have played in resisting the European colonization of space, time and being. We will cover topics including civil rights, hybridization, modernity, public space, and the outstanding role race has played in shaping the city. Students will learn to analyze evidence within its historical and cultural context, as well as write about how space and personal experience inform both artistic production and analysis.