Course Title: Contemporary Art Studies Level 3
Part B: Course Detail
Teaching Period: Term1 2007
Course Code: VART5141
Course ID: 020952
Course Title: Contemporary Art Studies Level 3
School: 340T Art
Program Code: C5048 - Diploma of Arts (Visual Arts)
Course Contact : Kellyann Geurts
Course Contact Phone: +61 3 9925 4472
Course Contact Email: kellyann.geurts@rmit.edu.au
Name and Contact Details of All Other Relevant Staff
Anthony Riccardi c/o the front office
Nominal Hours: 32
Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the relative teaching time and student effort required to successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and complete all assessment requirements, including any non-classroom activities.
Pre-requisites and Co-requisites
VART5775C – Research and critically analyse history and theory to inform artistic practice
Course Description
Students analyse in detail the influence of specific prominent philosophical concerns upon contemporary art and design.
Contemporary Art Studies is designed to continue students’ investigation of various contemporary art forms and to introduce other issues relevant to art practice. Emphasis is placed on recent developments within contemporary art practice. Classes are presented thematically.
Delivery is in the form of lectures with discussion developed during tutorial periods. Visiting lecturers and arts practitioners are invited to illustrate issues discussed within the course.
National Codes, Titles, Elements and Performance Criteria
National Element Code & Title: |
VBS651 Contemporary Art Studies Level 3 |
Learning Outcomes
1. Discuss the principal themes of two major philosophical concerns. The views of discussion should be drawn from feminism, post modernism, post colonialism, gender or Marxism.
2. Discuss the influence of selected philosophical theory upon contemporary art and design in Australia.
3. Evaluate the effect of philosophical theory upon one’s work.
Overview of Learning Activities
Details of Learning Activities
Students acquire the skills and knowledge required to analyse specific philosphical concerns relating to contemprary art and their own practice.
Teaching Schedule
Week One |
Introduction. An historical context to postmodernism. Overview of post-structuralism; challenges to the ideas of creativity, originality, modernism etc. The importance of culture, identity, theory. |
Week Two |
Post Modernism 1. A history and overview of Structuralism and Post-Structuralism. The influence of Rationalism, Freud, Marx and Nietzsche. Structuralist thinkers are discussed: Levi-Strauss, Lacan, Barthes, Eco. The Structuralist approach to anthropology. |
Week Three |
Post Modernism 2. Structuralism in relation to the study of culture (Barthes, ’Mythologies’ etc). Derrida and deconstruction. The free play of binary opposites. |
Week Four |
Post Modernism 3. Foucault’s study of history and his approach in relation to the history of madness, imprisonment and medicine. Lyotard on paganism and legitimation. Baudrillard on the hyper-real, simulacra and orders of simulation. |
Week Five |
Post Modernism 4. Concerns, Qualities and Characteristics of Postmodernism. Architecture: Finlay, Graves, Bofill, SITE, Gehry etc. The Trans Avant-Garde: Chia, Clemente etc. |
Week Six |
Post Modernism 5. Neo Expressionism: Penck, Baselitz, Immendorf, Kieffer. Neo Classsicism: Mariani, Schnabel, Salle, Fischl, Longo, Henson, Zahalka, Polke, Basquiat, Tillers, Koons, Haring etc. |
Week Seven |
Art and Politics 1. The ideas of Marx: Dialectical Materialism; his economical, political and social theories; his critique of Capitalism. Marx and art. Modernism and Socialist Realism in russia. The relationshi[p between post Marxism and post-Structuralism. |
Week Eight | Art and Politics 2. The work and ideas of Hans Haake. Introduction to the works of: Miereles, Burgin, Avalos, Hock, Sisco, Hernandez etc. |
Week Nine |
Feminism and Gender 1. The different types of feminism. A short history of feminism from the French Revolution to the present. The First, Second and Third wave of feminism. Definition and explanantion of the term ’gender’. Freud’s influence on feminism and feminist critique of Freud. |
Week Ten |
Feminism and Gender 2. Lacan on gender development. His influence on feminism and feminist critique of Lacan. Three feminist thinkers: Luce Irigaray, Helene Cixous, Julia Kristeva. |
Week Eleven |
Feminism and Gender 3. Some women artists and how they implement feminist ideas into their work: Edelston, Chicago, Guerilla Girls, Kelly, Lacy, Holzer, Kruger, Mendieta, Levine etc. |
Week Twelve |
Postcolonialism. Its aims and practices in relation to art. Postcolonialist thinkers: Fanon, Said, Bhabha, Spivak. Examination of contemporary African art made in Africa as opposed to contemporary art made by American artists of African descent. |
Week Thirteen | Issues in Australian Art. How the above issues are manifest in an Australian context. |
Overview of Learning Resources
Learning Resources
Prescribed Texts
References
Other Resources
Reading lists will be nominated if and when required.
Overview of Assessment
1. Analytical research essay 40%
2. Essay on student’s own work 40%
3. Theory journal 20%
Assessment Tasks
1. Research Essay. Students will choose an art related topic that significantly links to their own work. The research should demonstrate a clear understanding of the module’s content, by relating one or more of the discussed topics.
2. Essay on one’s own work. Students will write an essay on their own work, ideas and development. This must include examples of own work as well as influences of other artists. references must be made to the ideas discussed during the module and how they have influenced their thinking and production within the context of contemporary art practice.
Other Information
Delivered over two hours per week for thirteen weeks. Class is held in the auditorium on Level 1 of Building 94.
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