Visual Culture

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• develop an argument informed by different perspectives using a clear, coherent structure;
• organise time and manage deadlines;
• demonstrate clear, effective and persuasive communication skills.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• develop and research your own position in relation to current debates in visual culture.
• evaluate different critical approaches to the production and consumption of visual culture;

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• how to identify and apply methods of critical and visual analysis.
• visual culture and its critical contexts;

The syllabus explores key theories of visual culture through examples from film, TV, fashion, advertising, music videos, contemporary art, gaming and social media.

Indicative content for this module normally includes:

• Selfies: The role of the image in constructions of identity
• Shock and Awe: Why are images so powerful?
• Surveillance and Voyeurism: Watching and being watched, how seeing is related to power.
• Reality TV: what is meant by ‘reality’ in TV?
• Advertising and Propaganda: The role of the image in persuasion and manipulation
• The Gaze: Looking and power in relation to race, gender and sexuality.
• The Spectacle: The illusions of late Capitalism
• Museums and Power: Cultures of display and knowledge.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• lectures;
• seminars.

Learning activities include:

• reflection on tutor feedback;
• individual presentations;
• peer group learning.

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 visual culture, its theories and how this influences your own ideas and/or the discipline in which you operate. Feedback on your progress and development will be given by group discussions, seminars and presentations. Informal feedback will provide opportunities for peer group learning and self-evaluation.

The formal assessment will be a 2500 word illustrated essay on an agreed topic. The use of illustrations will help you to develop visual research and analysis skills and to effectively present your critical engagement with visual cultural artefacts.

Resources & Reading list

Internet Resources

Blackboard.

Textbooks

Finkelstein, Joanne (2007). The Art of Self Invention: Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture. London: I.B.Taurus.

Evans, Jessica and Hall Stuart (1999). Visual Culture : The Reader. London: Sage.

Lymberopoulou, Angeliki (2012). Art and Visual Culture: A Reader. London: Tate Publishing.

Edwards, Steve (ed) (2012). Art and Visual Culture: 1850-2010: modernity to globalisation. London: Tate Publishing.

Manghani, Sunil (2013). Image Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Mirzhoeff, Nicholas (ed) (2002). The Visual Culture Reader. London / New York: Routledge.

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

Gray, Carole and Malins, Julian (2004). Visualising Research. A Guide for Postgraduate Students in Art and Design. Ashgate.

Barnard, Malcolm (2001). Approaches to Understanding Visual Culture. London: Palgrave.

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

Smith, Shawn Michelle (1999). American Archives: gender, race, and class in visual culture. Princeton University Press.

Jones, Amelia(ed) (2010). The feminism and visual culture reader. London: Routledge.

Berger, John (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin.

Paul Wood & Harrison, Charles (Ed) (2002). Art in theory 1900-2000: an anthology of changing ideas. Oxford: Blackwell.

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.