This module engages you with the critical issues driving contemporary art practice within the expanded field in which it operates. Emphasising practical, experiential research-led enquiry and reflection as an integral mode of learning common to both art practice and the study of art's histories and theories, you will identify, explore and analyse current trends by investigating the contexts in which those issues emerge - in critical literature, art writing, exhibitions and curatorial agenda. Looking outwards to address the contemporary manifestations of the relationships between, for example, art and politics, the operation of global capital, activism and community, changing sites and spaces of the production of meaning, the politics of identity, and contemporary turns in philosophy and critical theory, the module also encourages you to reflect and begin to situate yourselves. Making links and interpreting the themes emerging in their own practice, the module provides you with the building blocks with which to construct an informed critical and conceptual framework within which operate while forging connections to wider artistic networks and contexts beyond the studio.
On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:
Subjects may include:
This module will integrate subject content and research practice, methods and skills through lectures, seminars tutorials, screenings and visits. Hands-on workshop seminars enable the application of research skills to explore a range of current issues affecting research and practice in contemporary fine art. As well as formal teaching sessions, the module involves study groups as integral to learning and teaching. These small student-led groups meet regularly, usually on the module teaching day. They offer a peer-group learning environment, enabling students to interact more informally with each other, and aid in each other's developing understanding of and relation to the module. They also allow students to complete specific tasks such as preparing readings, organising a presentation or going on a visit in preparation for in-class activities and assessments.
The module will make use of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Canvas for communication and dissemination of information between students and staff as well as making online learning materials available to all. Students should check this site on a daily basis for module information, timetables, sign-ups, updates and additional information and teaching materials.
All courses based in the Kingston School of Art offer students free access to the online video tutorial platform Lynda.com. This provides a wide range of subjects to choose from, many with downloadable exercise files, including software tutorials covering photography, graphics, web design, audio and music, CAD and Microsoft Office software, as well as courses on Business and Management skills. Some of these are embedded in the curriculum and offer additional self-paced learning, others may be taken at will by students wishing to broaden their employability skills in other areas.
| Definitive UNISTATS Category | Indicative Description | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled learning and teaching | Lectures, seminars, workshops, visits and tutorials Study Groups | 44 44 |
| Guided independent study | 212 | |
| Total (number of credits x 10) | 300 | |
Assessment for this module is by written Essay (2,500 words) responding to a brief but developed in relation to students' individual research area of interest, and Research Portfolio (including some or all of the following: exhibition review, textual and visual analyses, critical art writing, and Dissertation Proposal, as well as lecture notes and independent research)
The Essay responds to themes introduced in lectured content and developed via workshops. Formative feedback will assist students in identifying an area of research to be developed in their Research Portfolio. Formative feedback on this at mid-term crits will feed into the development of the final element, a Dissertation Proposal.
Essay (2,500 words) 50%
Research Portfolio 50%
BA Art and Design History & Practice students only:
BA Art and Design History and Practice students will submit a 2500 word Essay (50%) and a Research Portfolio (50%). In the first part of this module students will produce an essay which responds to a set question relating to the issues, debates and themes explored during the course and developed through students' own disciplinary interests. The Research Portfolio is the repository for each student's response to set tasks, exercises and self-initiated research. This will include a range of tasks such as image and object analyses, an exhibition review and a photo essay.
The Research Portfolio will include either a Dissertation Proposal or a Critical Reflection (both approximately 1200 words). Only one of these forms of assessment can be submitted per HA51.. module, and each can only be submitted once across both modules. The Dissertation proposal will serve to identify and locate an area of individual research related to the student's design practice and map out aims, objectives and resources to be investigated in future study at Level 6. The Critical Reflection allows students to reflect on the hybridity of their course, to evaluate the similarities and differences in methods and ideas encountered across the Level 5 modules and to consider the influence that this cross disciplinary learning may have had on their research interests as they prepare to progress to Level 6.
Feedback and feed forward will be provided for elements of the research portfolio, as these are initiated as part of scheduled teaching activities.
| Learning Outcome | Assessment Strategy |
|---|---|
| 1) Identify, describe and analyse issues affecting the current practice, display and critical framing of contemporary art; | Essay (2,500 words) Research Portfolio |
| 2) Articulate and apply the ideas of a range of key critical and theoretical positions in relation to the production, reception, display and interpretation of art | Essay (2,500 words) Research Portfolio |
| 3) Present an informed creative engagement with the ways research into Fine Art can be approached methodologically; | Essay (2,500 words) Research Portfolio |
| 4) Demonstrate a reflective, critical and creative engagement with contemporary and historical fine art practices through visual and textual examples; | Essay (2,500 words) Research Portfolio |
| 5) Articulate their own experiences as both practitioners and researchers in relation to historical and contemporary concerns; | Research Portfolio |
| 6) Locate their own research practice and personal interests in a chosen area and identify key objectives and resources for future study. | Research Portfolio |
| Description of Assessment | Definitive UNISTATS Categories | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | Coursework | 50% |
| Research Portfolio including a Dissertation Proposal | Coursework | 50% |
| Total (to equal 100%) | 100% | |
It IS NOT a requirement that any element of assessment is passed separately in order to achieve an overall pass for the module.
Documents of Contemporary Art series (Whitechapel Gallery & MIT PressP including the following:
Beech, Dave (Ed.) (2009) Beauty. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Bishop, C. (Ed.) (2006). Participation. Documents of contemporary art. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
Campany, David (Ed.) (2007)The Cinematic. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Doherty, C. (Ed.) (2009) Situation. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Evans, David (Ed.) (2009) Appropriation. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Farr, Ian (Ed.) (2012) Memory. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Iversen, Margaret (Ed.) (2010) Chance. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Johnstone, Stephen (Ed.) (2008) The Everyday. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Kastner, Jeffrey (Ed.) (2012) Nature. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Le Feuvre, Lisa (Ed.) (2010) Failure. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Merewether, Charles (2006) The Archive. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Morely, Simon (Ed.) (2010) The Sublime. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Myers, Terry R. (Ed.) (2011) Painting. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Noble, Richard (Ed) (2009) Utopias. Documents of Contemporary Art. London & Cambridge, MA: Whitechapel & MIT Press.
Arnold, Dana and Margaret Iversen (2003) Art and Thought. Oxford: Blackwell.
Beasley, Mark. Democracy: socially engaged art practice (London : Royal College of Art, 2000)
Bird, Jon (1999) Rewriting Conceptual Art London: Reaktion Books.
Bogue, Ronald (2003) Deleuze on Music, Painting and the Arts New York: Routeledge.
Costello, Diarmuid and Jonathan Vickery (2007) Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers. Oxford: Berg.
Danto, Arthur. (1998) After the End of Art: Contemporary Art and the Pale of History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
___ (1998) Beyond the Brillo Box: The Visual Arts in Post-Historical Perspective. Stanford, CA: University of California Press.
___ (1981) The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
DeDuve Thierry (1998) Kant After Duchamp. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press & October books.
Deleuze, Gilles "What is the Creative Act?" in Two Regimes of Madness (ed.) David Lapoujade. Semiotex.t
Deleuze, Gilles and Guattari, Felix (1988) 'The aesthetic model- nomad art' from A Thousand Plateaus London: Continuum.
Foster, Hal (1982) The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture. Seattle: Bay Press.
___ (1996) The Return of the Real. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Foster, Hal, Rosalind Krauss, Yve-Alain Bois and Benjamin Buchoh (2004) Art Since 1900: Modernism-Antimodernism-Postmodernism. NY & London: Thames & Hudson.
Halsall, Francis, Julia Jansen and Tony O'Connor (2008) Rediscovering Aesthetics: Transdisciplinary Voices from Art History, Philosophy and Art Practice. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Harrison, Charles and Paul Wood (eds.) (2002) Art in Theory 1900-2000 An Anthology of Changing Ideas. Oxford: Blackwell.
Jones, Amelia (ed.) (2006). A Companion to Contemporary Art Since 194. (Oxford: Blackwell.
Jones, Amelia and Tracey Warr (eds) (2012) The Artist's Body. London: Phaidon.
Kaye, N. (2000) Site-specific art: performance, place, and documentation. London: Routledge.
Kester, G. (2004) Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. University of California Press.
Kieran, Matthew (ed.) (2005) Contemporary Debates in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Kocur, Zoya and Simon Leung (eds.) (2004) Theory in Contemporary Art. Oxford, Blackwell.
Kosuth, Joseph (1993) Art After Philosophy and After. Collected Writings 1966-90. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Krauss, Rosalind (1997)The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kwon, Miwon. (1997) One Place After Another. Site Specific Art and Locational Identity. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lippard, Lucy (1973) Six Years: The dematerialisation of the art object from 1966-1972. New York.
Meskimmon, Marsha (2003) Women Making Art: History, Subjectivity, Aesthetics. London: Routledge.
Neill, Alex and Aaron Ridley (eds.) (2007). Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates. London: Routledge.
Osborne, Peter (2002) Conceptual Art. London:Phaidon.
Phelan, Peggy & Helena Reckitt (2012) Art and Feminism. London: Phaidon.
Ranciere, Jacques (2009) Aesthetics and its Discontents. Cambridge: Polity.
Raven. A. (Ed.) (1989) Art in the public interest. Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press.
Reilly, Maura and Linda Nochlin (eds.) (2007) Global Feminisms. New York: Merrell.
Roberts, John. (2007) The Intangibilities of Form: Skill and Deskilling in Art After the Readymade. London and New York: Verso.
Robinson, Hilary (2001) Feminism-Art-Theory: An Anthology 1968-2000. Oxford: Blackwell.
Schavemaker, Margriet, Mischa Rakier, Jennifer Allen (2003) Right About Now: Art and Theory Since the 1990s. Amsterdam: Valiz.
Smith, Paul and Carolyn Wilde (eds.) (2002) A Companion to Art Theory.Oxford: Blackwell.
Smith, Terry (2011) Contemporary Art: World Currents. London: Laurence King.
___ (2009) What is Contemporary Art? Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Stiles, Kristine and Peter Selz (1996) Theories and documents of Contemporary Art. A Sourcebook of artist's writings. California: University of California Press.
Suderburg, E. (ed.) 2000. Space, site, intervention: situating installation art. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Vanderlinden, Barbara and Elena Filipovic (eds) The Manifesta Decade, Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Whittaker, E and Landrum, A. (2007) Nonsite to celebration park: Essays on art and the politics of space. Bath: Bath Spa University.