Contemporary and Historical Issues in Design (Dalian)

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• apply some key principles of time-management;
• write an essay using a clear, coherent structure;
• utilise and evaluate an appropriate range of credible sources.
• demonstrate an awareness of appropriate academic referencing and citation conventions

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• apply critical enquiry and reflection to evaluate the work of others
• Start to inform your practice through reflection of your research on relevant critical and contextual concepts.

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• the connections between theory and practice in art and design
• a range of influential historical and contemporary artists and or designers relevant to your work and subject;
• a range of underlying concepts associated within your subject;
• the broad social, environmental and ethical dimensions of contemporary issues in art and design;

In this module, you will explore how practice is informed by context and theory and how it varies between cultures. In lectures and in seminars designed to assist your thinking and writing skills, you will look critically at historical and contemporary art and design objects and events through a variety of methods. Major concepts and key positions will be discussed in lectures. Through this work you are encouraged to explore how current and historical developments in art and design can inform your own programme-specific work.

You will learn how representations and information on the historical development of art and design impacts on the contemporary scene of art and design. Seminars and group discussions will allow more detailed examination of particular themes and sources.

You will be encouraged to access international and national sources to gain a wider perspective of the art and design context relevant to your programme of study.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Writing workshops
• module briefings
• seminars

Learning activities include:

• lectures
• module briefings
• seminars
• group discussion
• group critiques
• writing workshops
• peer group learning
• self-assessment

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 and historical art and design contexts, the associated theories and how these influence discipline-specific practice, including your own. Feedback on your progress and development will be given by group discussions and seminars. Informal feedback will provide opportunities for peer group learning and self-evaluation.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

The Academic Skills Library page for study skills support.

Blackboard.

Academic Integrity support.

Study Skills Workshops.

Harvard citing and referencing support including citethemright online resource.

Textbooks

Fiell C, Fiell P (2013). New Graphic Design: The 100 Best Contemporary Graphic Designers. London: Goodman.

Muller J (2017). The History of Graphic Design: Volume 1 (1890-1959). New York: Taschen.

Wood P edited by Harrison C (1992). Art in theory 1900-2000: an anthology of changing ideas. Oxford: Blackwell.

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

McEvilley T (1996). Capacity: history, the world, and the self in contemporary art criticism. Amsterdam: G+B Arts International.

Danto, Arthur C (1998). The wake of art: criticism, philosophy, and the ends of taste. Amsterdam: G+B Arts International.

Jury D (2012). Graphic Design before Graphic Designers: The Printer as Designer and Craftsman 1700 - 1914. London: Thames & Hudson.

Davies H (2009). British Fashion Designers. London: Laurence King..

Kocur (Z) & Leung (S). Eds. (2004). Theory in contemporary art: from 1985 to the present. Oxford: Blackwell.

Benhabib Sevla (1992). Situating the self: gender, community and postmodernism in contemporary ethics. Cambridge: Polity Press.

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

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.