STUDY PROGRAMME
Graphic Design and Art Direction

AFAM CODE
ABST46

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Aesthetics

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Phenomenology of image

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical

This course covers the phenomenological aspects of the artistic research through the analysis of specific topics, authors and movements, with a focus on expressions and contaminations among visual arts, architecture, design, advertisement images and multimedia.

The students will analyse fundamental ideas and moments in contemporary art history through particularly significant works of art, in order to highlight their most original and contemporary communicative potential. This will be the foundation for a knowledgeable understanding of phenomena and experimentations that are typical of the contemporary world.

The programme consists of one single module, which grants 6 credits.

Successful students will be able to:

• Understand the reviewed topics and case studies, as well as the most significant authors

• Be aware of the dynamics behind production and fruition of the contemporary artistic system

• Improve their iconographic analysis with an interdisciplinary approach, comparison among different sources, analytical tools and historical-critic interpretations

• Artistic research as a way to understand contemporary phenomena

• The languages of art and its aesthetic paradigms, contexts and fields

• Images and their manipulation and consumption from the beginnings of the industrial era to the developments of technology and communication media, which mark our current world

The programme focuses on theoretical courses.

Students will take part in the following activities, which may vary depending on the different topics covered:

• Classroom lectures

• Debates, presentations, peer assessment

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools

• Exercises and revisions

• Individual study and research

Assessment tools may include:

• Oral exam: presentation of the iconographic research carried out as a group and developed around case study among those introduced in the monographic phase

• Graded practice: devising of a graphic concept, in visual or editorial communication, for one of the studied exhibitions, that will be presented at the exam in form of a project

• Final exam: in-depth study of a topic to be chosen among the ones covered in class, and test of the acquired

Further details about the exams will be provided by the professors.

• Belting, H. (2014) An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body, Princeton University Press.

• Boris G. (2002) Art in the Age of Biopolitics: From Artwork to Art Documentation, orginally published as Kunst im Zeitaler der Biopolitik. Vom Kunstwerk zur Kunstdokumentation, in katalog, ed. Okwui Enwesor et al. Hatje Cantz, Translated by Steven Lindberg.

• Foster, H., Krauss R., Yve-Alain B., Buchloh B. (2011) Art since 1900, Thames & Hudson, New York (only indicated chapters).

• Parmesani, L. (1997) Art of the Twentieth Century: Movements, Theories, Schools and Tendencies 1900-2000, Skira press (only indicated chapters).

Many of the recommended sources, together with additional material, are also available online on MyNaba, in the Library section.

Books and resources might be requested or suggested by the professors.