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2021/2022

Works and Debate in Art Today

Code: 100579 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OT 3 0
2500239 Art History OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Jaime Vidal Oliveras
Email:
Jaime.Vidal@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

There are no specific entry requirements. However, English proficiency is desired for working with the bibliography and reference materials. Showing interest in the current socio-politic challenges, as well as, for art and its relation with technology and society is also highly recommended.

Objectives and Contextualisation

Context:

 

In the programme, current artistic production will be analyzed towards the understanding of the artistic involvement in our changing society, and how art interprets and communicates the crucial events redefining it.

With this aim will be studied the material and methodological research conducted by artists. Special attention will be due to how art interrogates himself about how our world is perceived and known? what is the situation of the human being in an ever increasingly complex world? what are their capacities for action?. Summarizing, the programme looks at the big challenges that our epoch is facing and how artistic creation deploys all available medium to propose possible alternate futures.

 

Objectives

 

After introducing the spaces and the ecosystem of contemporary creation and by means of the analysis of selected artworks:

 

  • The students will gain knowledge of the contemporary creative environment and how it has evolved after the adoption of new technologies and media, also what are the new concepts and values arising during the process.
  • They will learn how to contextualize the evolution of new forms of artistic production, the formation of new creative environments and what are the outstanding  artists, events and publications.
  • They will understand the relation between art, technology and society.
  • They will know the concepts that define the evolution of contemporary art.
  • They will acquire the domain of the material and historical analysis of contemporary creations.
  • This programme offers additional tools enriching the formation of the student and their own creative proposals.

 

Competences

    Art History
  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Applying the iconographic knowledge to the reading of artistic imagery.
  6. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  9. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  10. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  11. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  12. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.

Content

The syllabus introduces current art environment by means of the analysis of a set of selected artworks they created in response to different subjects. The proposed artworks show art in relation with technologies and new production media, at the same time, that illustrate the artistic reaction to contemporary challenges like the adoption of artificial intelligence, the collapse of natural resources and the recent geopolitical changes.

  • Art participation and democracy
  • Art and gender
  • Art simulacra and immersion. New representation environments
  • Art and control
  • Art and ecology (Anthropocene)

Methodology

ATTENDANCE-BASED: The space of the classroom will be dedicated to the material and historical analysis of artworks from the current creative environment, they selected accordingly the subjects proposed in the contents.

In this space, the student will be also informed about cultural events and motivated to participate in the cultural city life.

Finally, the classroom will be the stage for the student's participative interventions and oral presentations

TUTORIALS: The students will receive methodological and bibliographical tutorship and will be guided in the realization of supervised activities.

 

 

 

 

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Master classes 40 1.6 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6
Type: Supervised      
Written comentaries about artworks. Research work and oral presentation 40 1.6 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6
Type: Autonomous      
Individual preparation of homework 70 2.8 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6

Assessment

CRITICAL REVIEW: During the course, the students must realize two critical reviews of  artworks or exhibitions proposed by the teacher (25% + 25% final qualification)

 RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT AND ORAL PRESENTATION: Teamwork and classroom oral exposition. After organizing themselves in teams, the students will choose one subject from the list proposed by the teacher. After research about the subject, they must prepare a short classroom presentation (15 min.). They will be required to present the selected artworks in their context and to explain their relationship with the selected topic.
Conjointly the presentation, the students must deliver the developed research material for its evaluation. In addition to the quality of the research work, will be evaluated the capacity of the students for organizing themselves as a team and prepare an effective presentation. (20% of the final qualification)

 WRITTEN TEST: At the end of the course will take place a written test, consisting of 5 questions to be developed by the students showing the correct assimilation of the taught programme (25% final qualification)

 PARTICIPATION: Due to the openness and actuality of the programme, it is important that the students participate and show interest by the current socio-political and cultural context. Participation in the classroom will be evaluated ( 5% of final qualification)

 NOT ASSESSED/NOT SUBMITTED: Students will obtain a “Not assessed/Not submitted” course grade unless they have submitted more than 30% of the assessment items

REVIEW: at the moment of realisation of each activity evaluative, the teacher will inform the students of the procedure and date of review of the qualifications

 

RECOVERY: those students who do not pass any of the tests or do notdeliver in due time will only have to recover the part not approved or not presented

 

PLAGIARISMAND IRREGULARITIES:in the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade awarded to an assessment activity,thestudent will be given a zero for this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given a zero as the final grade for this subject.

 

VIRTUAL TEACHING: In the event that the tests and the course cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools (original weighting will be maintained). Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives.

 

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Classroom participation 5% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6
Critical review 1 25% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 9, 10, 12, 6
Critical review 2 25% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6
Research assignment and oral presentation 20% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6
Written test 25% 0 0 3, 4, 2, 11, 5, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 6

Bibliography

Manovich, Lev (2005) El lenguaje de los nuevos medios de comunicación. La imagen en la era digital. Paidós Iberica.

Shanken, Edward (2013). Inventar el Futuro: arte – electricidad – nuevos medios.  Trans. Everardo Reyes García y Pau Waelder Laso. Brooklyn: Departamento de Ficción, 2013.  ISBN: 978-0-9846555-1-9.

Cubit, Sean and Paul, Thomas (2013) Relive. MIT Press.

Hayles, Katherine (2002) Writing Machines, MIT Press.

Ryan Bishop, Kristoffer Gansing, Jussi Parikka, and Elvia Wilk (eds.) (2016), across & beyond – A transmediale Reader on Post-digital Practices, Concepts, and Institutions, Sternberg Press.

Software

If a specific program is needed, it will be notified in a timely manner