STUDY PROGRAMME
Painting and Visual Arts

AFAM CODE
ABPR36

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Performative techniques for the visual arts

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Video-installations

CREDITS
8

APPROACH
Theoretical / Project based

The Videoart module focuses on the technical aspects of implementing audio/visual projects. It aims at providing students with the necessary tools to create videos, starting from the design phase to the actual production (shooting and editing), post-production, and final presentation. The module wants to develop and bring out the qualities of each student and to enhance their artistic sensitivity. The introduction of video art in the second half of the ‘60s was closely linked to the diffusion of video tapes, and over the last twenty years, performing and installation arts are similarly connected to personal computers. Nowadays, the combination of art and “accessible technology” has influenced the contexts of audio-visual New Media Performances, the production of new sound languages and the creation of narrative devices.

Related to previous courses, the Analysis and Design of the Sound-Spaces module aims at investigating the relationship between creative production and technological process in the analysis and design of new audio spaces, and provides students with the critical and executive tools to create and develop their own sound projects.

The total credits for this course are 8, divided as follows:

• Videoart: 5 CFA

• Analysis and Design of the Sound-Spaces: 3 CFA

The course provides advanced tools for understanding, analysing and using different languages relating to the audio-visual field. It is designed to encourage the development of individual projects capable of reflecting the research and the original expression of each student. Structured as a laboratory, the course encourages the students to develop and present a personal project, and to discuss it with teachers and classmates in an open and continuous exchange of reflections. Working in the field of sound allows for the acquisition of additional tools, which can be used both as a support for moving images, and as a standalone tool.

• The Videoart module is focused on the technical aspects of the creation of audio / video works, in order to provide students with the necessary tools for the creation of video products from the design phase to the production, post-production and final presentation. It fosters the development and surfacing of each student’s individual qualities, enhancing their artistic sensitivity. Starting from the weekly execution of simple exercises, necessary for the understanding and subsequent application of the fundamental rules of shooting and editing, the module also studies the iconic works of filmmakers, directors and visual artists.

• The Analysis and Design of Sound Spaces module aims at opening the reflection on the encounter between creative production and technological process, and provides the students with critical and executive tools to conceive and develop their own sound projects. The module combines critical cultural knowledge, creative research, and technical and technological processes within sound production. The programme includes two course plans, one for the analysis and one for the design of sound spaces through theoretical lessons and the listening / viewing of cinematographic, artistic, installation, performative, musical and live video productions.

• 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.

• Paul Klee, Creative confession and other writings.

• John Beger, Ways of Seeing.

• Susan Sontag, On Photography.

• Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary.

• John Cage, The Selected Letters of John Cage.

• D.M. Huber, R.E. Runstein, Modern Recording Techniques.

• John Cage, Silence: Lectures and Writings.

• Bjornberg, Structural relationship of music and Images in music video, Oxford University Press, 2000.

• Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media, NET, Cles (TN), 2004.

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.