STUDY PROGRAMME
Photography and Visual design

AFAM CODE
ABST46

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Esthetics

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Phenomenology of image

CREDITS
2

APPROACH
Theoretical

The course goes in-depth in the use of photography for the creation of public art projects.

The language of photography has changed a lot in recent years, and has become increasingly cross-discipline, open and contaminated, capable of embracing and including very diverse instances. Many public art experiences prove how citizens can be involved in processes of representation and activation of their territory. Today, residencies and other forms of cultural projects are already pointing out extended temporalities, a kind of permeability between photographer works and their surrounding contexts. The workshop focuses on these dynamics, that is the different ways authors and the public community interact to create shared projects, both through the study of the most relevant case history, and suggesting new ways to activate similar projects.

Part of the course is also devoted to public clients, listing their different instances and providing the necessary tools to take part in support and funding tenders.

The total CFA credits for this course are 2. The course comprises a single didactic section:

• WORKSHOP IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND PUBLIC ART

Successful students will be able to:

• Develop public art projects

• Interact with the citizenry to create shared works between author and community

• Foster and manage public participation project

• Search for public financing sources to carry out photographic projects

• Generate the necessary documents to take part in a public financing tender

The course contents include in-depth study of the following topics:

• Brief history of public art

• Photography and public art

• Interaction with the citizenry for the creation of shared projects

• Relation between authors and public institutes

• Curators as authors

• Fund-raising

This is a theoretical course. Throughout the course, the students will carry out didactic activities that are functional to achieving the learning goals, that in all modules may include:

• Classroom lectures

• Field trips

• Individual study and research

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

The course has no final marks - only qualification will be assessed.

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 during the course.

• Balduzzi, Matteo, “Narrazioni collettive dello spazio pubblico” in Roberta Valtorta (a cura di) Luogo e identità nella fotografia italiana contemporanea, Einaudi, Torino 2013.

• Bishop, Claire, Artificial Hells: Participatory Art and the Politics of Spectatorship, Verso Books, London 2012.

• Bourriaud, Nicolas, Estetica relazionale, Postmedia Books, Milano 2010.

• Kwon, Miwon, One place after another. Site specific art and locational identity, The MIT Press, Cambridge 2004.

• Michalski, Sergiusz, Public Monuments: Art in Political Bondage 1870-1997, Reaktion Books, London 1998.

• Pioselli, Alessandra, L’arte nello spazio urbano, Johan e Levi, Milano 2015.

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.