Module Information

Module Identifier
AH23120
Module Title
Adaptation: Versions, Revisions and Cultural Renewal
Academic Year
2024/2025
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 1
Exclusive (Any Acad Year)
Reading List
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Presentation  Talk, performance or artistic response to an artwork featured in one of the lectures 20 Minutes  50%
Semester Assessment Research Essay  Critical case study in adaptation of a cultural product existing in at least 3 different media. 2000 Words  50%
Supplementary Assessment Personal Written Response  to an artwork featured in one of the lectures 2000 Words  50%
Supplementary Assessment Research essay  Critical case study in adaptation of a cultural product existing in at least three different media. 2000 Words  50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

Apply interdisciplinary approaches to the interpretation of works of art and visual culture

Debate the importance of the canon in literature and the visual arts

Understand the canonical uses and art historical biases of constructs such as ‘genius’ and ‘originality’

Define concepts such as appropriation, reflexivity and transience in relation to the strategies and motivations underlying postmodern art and contemporary culture

Evaluate primary and secondary sources in relation to the subject

Brief description

Many products of culture endure by shifting shape: stories are turned into sculptures, plays are reimagined as dramatic canvases and mass-produced ephemera are recycled for art. What survives such transformations? What is lost or gained in translation? What are the connections between – and interdependencies of – so-called originals and the works that keep coming after them?

The module approaches adaptation – or version making – as a regenerative take on past performances. It looks at adaptation within cultural, socio-political and ecological contexts, both as an adjustment to changing times and as a means of bringing about change through artistic vision and artful revision. It raises questions as to the underlying motivations of remaking and unmaking culture and invites reflections on responses such as nostalgia, camp and the uncanny. It asks why the move forward is indebted to looking back – in admiration, agony and anger.

This module aims to foster interdisciplinary approaches to art and culture, and encourage student critical thinking and thoughtful creativity, exploring and questioning notions of ‘art’ and ‘originality’.

Content

In a series of lectures and seminars, this interdisciplinary module investigates how artists adapt, translate, appropriate, remix, assimilate, transcode, reboot, and otherwise engage with art and culture. It explores relationships between form and content, genre and mode, integrity and hybridity, durability and transience, culture and commerce, as well as art and environmentalism. Why did Marcel Duchamp draw a moustache on the Mona Lisa? What happens when a novel inspires a movie which inspires a sculptor? The topics covered in classes investigate such questions through close analysis of a diverse range of cultural practices, which will draw from the latest developments in contemporary art practice, art historical knowledge, and the School of Art staff’s cutting-edge research and practice.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Communication Articulating ideas through seminar discussions and presentations, as well as academic writing skills in the essay.
Improving own Learning and Performance Independent study through seminar assignment research and preparation.
Information Technology Information retrieval from various academic research portals and online museum collection databases.
Personal Development and Career planning Emphasis on professional presentation of research and annotated bibliography using MLA style documentation.
Problem solving In seminar preparation and discussion, essay research and writing.
Research skills In seminar preparation, bibliography and essay research and writing.
Subject Specific Skills N/A (module is designed to be interdisciplinary)

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5