Module Information

The module aims to:
1 encourage an understanding of contemporary art in its wider cultural contexts
2 afford an opportunity to students to consider their own art practice in relation to these contexts
3 simulate research and reading in critical literature on contemporary art
4 stimulate informed discussion of art theory
5 encourage the development of oral presentation skills
6 encourage written discussion of visual art and theory

Following the introductory session students are assigned reading on a key topic relating to contemporary art practices. The classes are centred around student presentations followed by group discussion of the presentation in relation to the assigned reading. Students are encouraged to base their papers on a key text and to discuss the work of artists/practitioners who provide the most suggestive example for their critique.

Module programme:
Introduction to methodological approaches: Provides an overview of a variety of theoretical positions that have challenged traditional views of art and art history and surveys the topics selected for seminar discussion and student presentaton.
Cultural Studies/Visual Culture/ Material Culture : Examines different concepts and meanings of ‘culture’ and in particular what might constitute visual culture, material culture and their relationship to art practice.
Institutions and Organisations: Discusses the role of educational institutions, governmental organisations, museum and galleries in structuring and supporting (or otherwise) art and visual culture.
Production and Consumption: Considers different ways of conceptualising the production and consumption of visual culture; cultural producers and artists, viewers and buyers, culture and commodity.
New Technology: Studies the role of technology in the expanding range of visual practices: video art, art on the internet, information overload, art marketing.
Postcolonial Culture: Discusses what is meant by the term ‘postcolonial,’ questions a Eurocentric viewpoint and considers the notion of World Art. Performing the Self: Looks at the artist’s use of body and biography/autobiography, real or imagined, as subject.
Interrogating the Gaze: Examines notions of aesthetic pleasure in visual culture, questioning the politics of the act of looking and raising issues of gender in relation to the gaze.
Rethinking the Canon: Considers the ways in which artists challenge conventions of taste, value and representation especially those that have been approved of by inherited or traditional, institutional standards and traditions.
Globalisation and Cultural Identity: Considers the impact of concepts of global culture and national identity upon international contemporary as well as upon art and artists in Wales.