STUDY PROGRAMME
Visual arts and Curatorial studies

AFAM CODE
ABPR36

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Performative techniques for visual arts

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Exhibition design

CREDITS
12

APPROACH
Theoretical/project based

This course revolves around the investigation of the exhibition and editorial design areas, that is, the theoretical and practical research around the idea of expanded display and art publishing (where books are also conceived as display areas).

The programme grants 12 credits, divided as follows:

• EXHIBITION DESIGN 1: 6 CFA

• EDITORIAL STUDIES 1: 6 CFA

Successful students will be able to:

EXHIBITION DESIGN 1:

• Develop a complete exhibition display project

• Adopt efficient strategies to approach the different practical aspects of exhibition design

• Thoroughly analyze and correctly understand a project brief

• Carry out research to understand the public exhibition of works, selection and installation processes, choice of sites and spaces, as well as the related social and political relations

• Enhance their critical-analytical skills on the history of exhibitions

EDITORIAL STUDIES 1:

• Learn to look at and think up publishing

• Conceive publishing from a curatorial and artistic point of view, integrating it within the design of exhibitions or of personal

• artistic work

• Provide the technical foundations for the development of editorial projects

• Actively rework specific knowledge related to the personal cultural background, and turn it into a research project in editorial format

• Develop new areas of interest in personal research

EXHIBITION DESIGN 1:

• From private collections, to small studies, to national museums

• History of exhibition design through the history of exhibitions

• Formalization processes: the relation between artistic work and display

• Policy of exhibitions and visualization strategies

EDITORIAL STUDIES 1:

• Graphic concept, editorial formats, organization of contents and form of the publication, grids and space management, printing and binding techniques

• Alphabet and characters classification

• Links between text and images

• Art history through the history of publications

• Catalogues and artist’s books

• Posters and pamphlets

• Software: Photoshop and InDesign

This is a theoretical/project based course. Over the course, the students will carry out didactic activities that are functional to achieving the learning goals, that in both modules may include:

• Classroom lectures

• Exercises and revisions

• Field trips

• Development of individual projects

• Individual study and research

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

The didactic modules that make the course will be assessed separately. The final grade will result from the weighted average of all marks, based on the final presentation of the project. They may include:

• Oral exam

• Complete projects

• Assessed revisions or mid-term tests

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professors during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active

participation and personal growth of the students over the course.

EXHIBITION DESIGN 1:

• Staniszewski, M.A. (1998), The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• Bayer, H. (1961), “Aspects of Design of Exhibitions and Museums”, Curator: The Museum Journal 4/3, July.

• Greenberg, R., Ferguson B., Nairne S. (1961), Thinking about Exhibitions, London: Routledge.

• Altshuler, B. (2013), Biennials and Beyond: Exhibitions that Made Art History: 1962-2002, London: Phaidon.

• Condorelli, C. (2009), Support Structures, Berlin: Sternberg press.

EDITORIAL STUDIES 1:

• De Bondt, S e Muggeridge F., eds. (2009), The Form of the Book Book, London: Occasional Papers.

• Berger, J. (1972), Ways of Seeing, London: Penguin Books.

• Acker, K. (1995) “Writing, Identity, and Copyright in the Net Age”, in The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1995, pp. 93-98.

• Vignelli, M. (2010), The Vignelli Canon, Baden: Lars Müller Publishers.

• Müller-Brockmann, J. (1968), Grid Systems in Graphic Design, Salenstein: Niggli Verlag.