Contemporary Issues

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• a range of contemporary issues, contexts and practices:
• a range of methods for critically reflecting on your own practice.
• aspects of the interaction between theory and practice:

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• generate concepts for your own practice in relation to current debates.
• identify appropriate research material from library, digital and exhibition sources;
• evaluate relationships between context, theory and practice;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• articulate evidence-based conclusions.
• observe appropriate academic referencing;
• develop a written argument using a clear, coherent structure;

This module is designed to extend and expand upon the critical skills you are developing in your studio practice by examining contemporary art in broader cultural and historical contexts. It examines major concepts and key positions and assesses the relevance and significance of differing perspectives in art. The lectures explore key themes in contemporary art through specific examples and related texts, examining the themes historically and through the relationships between contemporary art and contemporary visual culture..

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• lectures

Learning activities include

• lectures
• group discussion
• peer-group learning
• self-evaluation

Relationship between the teaching, learning and assessment methods and the planned learning outcomes

In this module learning and teaching activities focus on helping you to investigate, question and analyse the nature of contemporary art contexts, its theory and how this influences practice, including your own. Feedback on your progress and development will be given in group discussions. Informal feedback will provide opportunities for peer-group learning and self-evaluation. The summative assessment will be by way of an illustrated 2,000-word essay

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Blackboard.

Panopto.

Textbooks

Carroll D, Ed (1990). The States of Theory: history, art and critical discourse.. New York: Columbia University Press..

Marí B and Schaeffer Jean-Marie Eds (1998). Think Art: theory and practice in the art of today. Rotterdam: Witte de With..

Wood P edited by Harrison C. (2002). Art in Theory 1900-2000: an anthology of changing ideas. Oxford: Blackwell.

Heartney, Eleanor (2013). Art & Today.. London and New York: Phaidon Press.

Edwards, Steve (2012). Art and Visual Culture: 1850 – 2010.. London: Tate Publishing; Open University.

CKocur (Z) & Leung (S). Eds (2004). Theory in Contemporary Art: from 1985 to the present,. Oxford: Blackwell.

Helena Reckitt (2001). Art and feminism. London: Phaidon.

Pollock, Griselda (1999). Differencing the Canon: feminist desire and the writing of art's histories.. London: Routledge.

Frascina, Francis (1992). Art in Modern Culture: an anthology of critical texts.. London:: Phaidon.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External