STUDY PROGRAMME
Painting and Visual Arts

AFAM CODE
ABST47

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Phenomenology of contemporaray arts

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Phenomenology of contemporaray arts

CREDITS
8

APPROACH
Theoretical

This course guides the students into the investigation and discriminating analysis of all the images that characterize the “visual culture”, thanks to the understanding of the different languages of the contemporary artistic expression (fashion, photography, graphics, contemporary art, music). The course also includes an in-depth study module aimed at investigating the relations among the avant-gardes in art and cinema.

This course is made of a single module of 8 CFA credits.

The main goal is to enhance the understanding of the contemporary visual culture, hence enabling the students to identify the relations among different descriptive disciplines such as photography, documentary cinema, animation and the multiple viewing devices on the multimedia scene. This will also allow them to better decode the heterogeneity of the expressive languages on the contemporary artistic scene.

This course analyses the contemporary visual culture, a study field theorized by Nicholas Mirzoeff and W.J.T.Mitchell, which investigates the complexity of nowadays visual experience. The many viewing devices in the contemporary society allow for the constant creation of new representation systems, that redefine the aesthetic and sensory experience. In such situation, where reality is newly defined, Mirzoeff analyses the contemporary culture from a historic point of view, giving widely different examples from multiple disciplinary fields and contexts - from geography to city planning, to visual arts. The study method lays the foundation for a “science of images” that converses with different forms of expression. Special attention will be devoted to the analysis of essay-films and documentary cinema, in order to assess the vitality of these hybrid works made of found footage and archive material.

The course includes front lessons, debates and workshops, beside extra activities (conferences, meetings, visits to exhibitions as planned by the professor or by the department of Painting and Visual Arts).

• Theoretical/project based classroom lectures

• Workshops

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools for detailed study

• Classroom debates and presentations

• Individual study and research

• Field trips (conferences, meetings, visits to exhibitions as organized by the professor or department)

Assessment is based on the overall competence of the students and may include:

• Oral exam

• Written exam

• Submission of papers, projects or research work

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professor during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active participation and personal growth of the students over the course.

• M. Scotini, Politics of memory, Archive Books.

• N.Mizoeff, How to see the world: An Introduction to images, from self-portraits to selfies, maps to movies, and more.

Further bibliographic recommendations may be provided by the professor during the course. A lot of the referenced material, together with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.