Visual Cultures
We specialise in the histories and theories of modern and contemporary visual practices from around the world. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, we look at ways in which art engages with urgent social, cultural and political issues in the world. Therefore we explore visual culture within a framework of critical theory, philosophy and cultural studies. Included are issues of cultural difference, performativity, visual display, aurality, encounters with audiences and the production of subjectivities. Our approach to learning, teaching and research at all academic levels is exploratory and innovative, yet rigorous.
See also Art courses.
HT52040A
Museums, Galleries, Exhibitions: Framing Art
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You focus on the theoretical and ideological foundations of museums and their critiques. You analyse how the museum has evolved from an object-centered educational institution to an idea-oriented site for the production of experiences. The course proposes a series of typologies to understand the framework defining the museum: the meaning of the ‘museum object’, the institutional modalities for the production of ‘knowledge’, the celebration of ‘cultural and national diversity’ and the importance of museums in the ‘leisure industries’. Curatorially, we concentrate on how permanent collections have been displayed. We also explore how critiques of the museum have shaped its roles. Teaching involves museum visits, student presentations and discussions of key texts.
Museums, Galleries, Exhibitions: Framing Art
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You focus on the theoretical and ideological foundations of museums and their critiques. You analyse how the museum has evolved from an object-centered educational institution to an idea-oriented site for the production of experiences. The course proposes a series of typologies to understand the framework defining the museum: the meaning of the ‘museum object’, the institutional modalities for the production of ‘knowledge’, the celebration of ‘cultural and national diversity’ and the importance of museums in the ‘leisure industries’. Curatorially, we concentrate on how permanent collections have been displayed. We also explore how critiques of the museum have shaped its roles. Teaching involves museum visits, student presentations and discussions of key texts.
HT52055A
Cities of Modernity: Urban Space in the 20th Century
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
From the point of view of architectural history and urban history, this course approaches the question: what is the cultural space of a city? You address the crucial role of the urban environment in the emergence of different visual cultures in the 20th century. By examining examples of architecture, painting, film, photography and installation art we think of how visual culture has explored, articulated, and theorised the diversity of modern urban spaces. These visual practices are considered along with themes related to sexuality, class, ethnic cultural difference as well as legal, demographic, technological and aesthetic changes. The aim is to consider how artists, critics and cultural commentators have visually imagined urban space, contributed to the formation of urban space and themselves been formed by urban space.
Cities of Modernity: Urban Space in the 20th Century
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
From the point of view of architectural history and urban history, this course approaches the question: what is the cultural space of a city? You address the crucial role of the urban environment in the emergence of different visual cultures in the 20th century. By examining examples of architecture, painting, film, photography and installation art we think of how visual culture has explored, articulated, and theorised the diversity of modern urban spaces. These visual practices are considered along with themes related to sexuality, class, ethnic cultural difference as well as legal, demographic, technological and aesthetic changes. The aim is to consider how artists, critics and cultural commentators have visually imagined urban space, contributed to the formation of urban space and themselves been formed by urban space.
HT52056A
Patterns of Perception
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
Questions concerning perception, cognition and spectatorship are crucial to the study of art history and visual culture. This course is philosophical and creative/experimental in approach. It provides a critical introduction to the diverse theories, understandings and experiences of perception and of the perceptual world that have been influential from the early modern period onwards. Focusing on key cultural artefacts and perceptual scenarios/practices, we consider what notions of reality, possibility and impossibility have been produced, proposed and/or critically engaged with, and what implications these might have for us today. Texts include works by Descartes, Borges, Heidegger, Bataille, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Barthes, Virilio, Dussel, Trinh T Minh-Ha and Avital Ronell.
Patterns of Perception
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
Questions concerning perception, cognition and spectatorship are crucial to the study of art history and visual culture. This course is philosophical and creative/experimental in approach. It provides a critical introduction to the diverse theories, understandings and experiences of perception and of the perceptual world that have been influential from the early modern period onwards. Focusing on key cultural artefacts and perceptual scenarios/practices, we consider what notions of reality, possibility and impossibility have been produced, proposed and/or critically engaged with, and what implications these might have for us today. Texts include works by Descartes, Borges, Heidegger, Bataille, Merleau-Ponty, Foucault, Barthes, Virilio, Dussel, Trinh T Minh-Ha and Avital Ronell.
HT52063A
The Moving Image
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You are introduced to various theoretical approaches to the moving image, ranging from the melodrama to the documentary, experimental cinema and video art, through both historical and contemporary examples. Readings and discussions are informed by key film theoretical writings as much as by critical theory, postcolonial theory, feminist theory, cultural studies and anthropology, while questions of realism, the political and cultural differences are given priority. One aim of the course is learning to look at and work with formal aspects of screen works and develop analytical skills towards your own informed and creative ways to write about and with moving images.
The Moving Image
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You are introduced to various theoretical approaches to the moving image, ranging from the melodrama to the documentary, experimental cinema and video art, through both historical and contemporary examples. Readings and discussions are informed by key film theoretical writings as much as by critical theory, postcolonial theory, feminist theory, cultural studies and anthropology, while questions of realism, the political and cultural differences are given priority. One aim of the course is learning to look at and work with formal aspects of screen works and develop analytical skills towards your own informed and creative ways to write about and with moving images.
HT52070A
Post-Modernities
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
Cyborgs and Nomads, Simulations and Virtualities, Machinics and Rhizomatics: postmodernity encapsulates a bewildering array of new technologies, practices and paradigms. This course aims to introduce some of them – and to explore what we mean by postmodernity and postmodernism. Beginning with an exploration from an historical perspective (the crisis in modernism), the course goes on to engage critically with Post-structuralism, at the same time exploring the postmodern. The course does not intend to be an historical narrative or a theoretical overview. Case studies are used in exploring the terrain beyond modernity – and beyond modernism – relating specifically to art and visual culture.
Post-Modernities
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
Cyborgs and Nomads, Simulations and Virtualities, Machinics and Rhizomatics: postmodernity encapsulates a bewildering array of new technologies, practices and paradigms. This course aims to introduce some of them – and to explore what we mean by postmodernity and postmodernism. Beginning with an exploration from an historical perspective (the crisis in modernism), the course goes on to engage critically with Post-structuralism, at the same time exploring the postmodern. The course does not intend to be an historical narrative or a theoretical overview. Case studies are used in exploring the terrain beyond modernity – and beyond modernism – relating specifically to art and visual culture.
HT53037A
Beckett and Aesthetics
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You explore the concept of aesthetics through the prose, theatre, radio and film work of Samuel Beckett in conjunction with the work of a range of visual, aural and performance artists such as Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman, John Cage, Helen Chadwick and Janet Cardiff. You examine the philosophical foundations for a contemporary understanding of aesthetics. You address key debates in contemporary art concerning the body and the sublime, questioning the ways in which issues such as originality, appropriation, transformation and representation function within the literary and visual arts.
Beckett and Aesthetics
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
You explore the concept of aesthetics through the prose, theatre, radio and film work of Samuel Beckett in conjunction with the work of a range of visual, aural and performance artists such as Jasper Johns, Bruce Nauman, John Cage, Helen Chadwick and Janet Cardiff. You examine the philosophical foundations for a contemporary understanding of aesthetics. You address key debates in contemporary art concerning the body and the sublime, questioning the ways in which issues such as originality, appropriation, transformation and representation function within the literary and visual arts.
VC52057A
Visualising Difference
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
This course has evolved from the field of Postcolonial study, but is concerned with all forms of difference as negotiated by the visual realm and thus incorporates gendered, raced, classed and queered discourses. Through a varied and interdisciplinary study of cultural texts, including film, contemporary art, theory, popular culture and literature, you negotiate this difficult terrain intended to challenge your own subject positions as consumers and producers of texts. The course is student-centred and loosely structured around four key themes – Performativity, Narrative, Image Politics and Space – tackling notions such as Drag, Spectacle, Whiteness, Authorship, Identity and Hybridity.
Visualising Difference
(4 credits, Autumn; 4+4 credits, Autumn and Spring; 10 credits, Full year;)
This course has evolved from the field of Postcolonial study, but is concerned with all forms of difference as negotiated by the visual realm and thus incorporates gendered, raced, classed and queered discourses. Through a varied and interdisciplinary study of cultural texts, including film, contemporary art, theory, popular culture and literature, you negotiate this difficult terrain intended to challenge your own subject positions as consumers and producers of texts. The course is student-centred and loosely structured around four key themes – Performativity, Narrative, Image Politics and Space – tackling notions such as Drag, Spectacle, Whiteness, Authorship, Identity and Hybridity.
VC53006A
London Artworlds
(4 credits, Autumn; 4 credits, Spring; )
What are the dynamics and histories of London’s art worlds? Where do they register on a global scale? How are artists, curators, and gallerists aided and challenged by new technologies and encounters? This course introduces you not only to the city, but also to multiple ways of viewing and experiencing contemporary art and culture from Trafalgar Square to the East End. Lectures, workshops and field visits will provide the material for a personal research portfolio and final essay based on your negotiations of this vibrant and culturally diverse city via themes of art, collecting, museology, and multiculturalism in the social sphere.
London Artworlds
(4 credits, Autumn; 4 credits, Spring; )
What are the dynamics and histories of London’s art worlds? Where do they register on a global scale? How are artists, curators, and gallerists aided and challenged by new technologies and encounters? This course introduces you not only to the city, but also to multiple ways of viewing and experiencing contemporary art and culture from Trafalgar Square to the East End. Lectures, workshops and field visits will provide the material for a personal research portfolio and final essay based on your negotiations of this vibrant and culturally diverse city via themes of art, collecting, museology, and multiculturalism in the social sphere.