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FS1506: INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL CULTURE (2015-2016)

Last modified: 25 Mar 2016 11:33


Course Overview

What is Visual Culture? Over the last twenty years, the visual landscape has become digital, virtual, viral, and global. A vibrant cross-section of scholars and practitioners from Art History, Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, and Film Studies have responded, not only engaging contemporary image production and consumption, but also the foundations of visual knowledge: What is an image? What is vision? How and why do we look, gaze, and spectate? From the nomadic pathways of the digital archive to the embodied look that looks back, this course will introduce students to the key concepts that shape this fluid field.

Course Details

Study Type Undergraduate Level 1
Term Second Term Credit Points 15 credits (7.5 ECTS credits)
Campus None. Sustained Study No
Co-ordinators
  • Dr Katherine Groo

Qualification Prerequisites

None.

What courses & programmes must have been taken before this course?

  • Any Undergraduate Programme (Studied)
  • Either Programme Level 1 or Programme Level 2

What other courses must be taken with this course?

None.

What courses cannot be taken with this course?

None.

Are there a limited number of places available?

No

Course Description

What is Visual Culture? Over the last twenty years, the visual landscape has become digital, virtual, viral, and global. The image-as-object has disintegrated. The theatre-as-architecture has collapsed. Visual media have been mixed and re-mixed in the museum and online. In turn, a vibrant cross-section of scholars and practitioners from Art History, Critical Theory, Cultural Studies, Anthropology, and Film Studies have responded, not only engaging contemporary image production and consumption, but also the foundations of visual knowledge: What is an image? What is vision? How and why do we look, gaze, and spectate? From the nomadic pathways of the digital archive to the embodied look that looks back, this course will introduce students to the key concepts and theories that shape this fluid field. We will engage film, video and mixed media from across the twentieth and twenty-first century, and texts by key theorists such as Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, Frederic Jameson, Donna Haraway and Jean Baudrillard.

Further Information & Notes

This is a compulsory course for entry into the Honours Film and Visual Culture programme.

Contact Teaching Time

Information on contact teaching time is available from the course guide.

Teaching Breakdown

More Information about Week Numbers


Details, including assessments, may be subject to change until 30 August 2024 for 1st term courses and 20 December 2024 for 2nd term courses.

Summative Assessments

1st Attempt: Two 1,500-2,000 word essays (80%); Tutorial Assessment (20%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Formative Assessment

Short writing assignments will be submitted and discussed in tutorial groups.

Feedback

Written and/or oral feedback will be offered on short tutorial assignments (see above) and essays.

Course Learning Outcomes

None.

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