Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

N/A

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

This module looks at how and why artists from the mid-nineteenth-century to the present, in a range of countries and cultural contexts, have used art in political ways: to express discontent publicly, to create a safe space for political dissent, to deal with the experience of discrimination or disenfranchisement, or to bring about political change through artistic means. We will investigate how artists have engaged with politics and activism through the form, material, and content of their work, as well as through the contexts of display.

This module is available to incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students studying Fine Art. Incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students primarily studying other disciplines are not able to take this module as an outside subject.

Outline Of Syllabus

The module begins by examining the development of a politically radical artistic avant-garde in France and Britain in the late-nineteenth century and the impact of these movements on the development of political art histories in the twentieth century. The lectures are structured thematically and will explore topics such as civil disobedience; appropriation and collage; documentation and witnessing; violence and the right to revolt by any means necessary; art and immigration, and viral aesthetics, and conclude by thinking about how to exhibit protest cultures and activist objects in the present. We will look at an international range of politicised art movements and activist groups, including the Dadaists, the Situationist International, the Art Workers Coalition, Fluxus, Asco, the Guerrilla Girls, the Black Panthers, and Brazilian Neo-Concretists and Conceptualists.

This module is available to incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students studying Fine Art. Incoming Study Abroad and Exchange students primarily studying other disciplines are not able to take this module as an outside subject.

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On completion of Art and Protest, students should have knowledge of:

Different forms of visual responses and practices related to issues surrounding art and protest.

Contextual factors – asethetic, social, political, economic and institutional – that influence the creation of artworks, their exhibition and reception.

Key artists, theorists and their tenets.

A range of interpretational artworks.

A wide range of theoretical approaches to analysing the issues raised during the course.

The specific ways in which institutional and contextual factors influence the creation and reception of artworks.

Intended Skill Outcomes

On completion of Art and Protest, students should have developed skills in:

Presenting information and ideas in a clear and engaging manner.

Researching a topic, making productive use of the library and appropriate online resources.

Engaging with interdisciplinary texts and evaluating appropriate material to inform relevant debates.

Evaluating information, ideas and theoretical and ideological points of view in order to reach independent conclusions.

Discussions within a group context.

Visual analysis.

Critically appraising contextual and theoretical factors and their influences on the visual material and its relationship to protest.

Analysing contemporary artworks in relation to their context - ethical, social, political and economic.

Presentation skills.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

1. Lectures: to allow definition of the scope of the syllabus, an introduction to a body of knowledge, and modelling of the level and nature of the analysis required.
2. Seminars: to encourage interaction and the development of cognitive and key skills; to allow preparation and presentation of directed research on specific issues and case studies.
3. Tutorials: to provide feedback and analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of submitted work, and increase awareness of the potential for individual development.
4. Workshops: to allow for more innovative and cross-curricular teaching

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The coursework affords the student the opportunity to conduct research with seminar and peer support into particular areas of interest, to develop their organisational, group work and presentational skills in reporting back to the group and then to demonstrate their ability to think independently using their seminar discussion to inform their individual assignments. Assignments are targeted to develop critical thinking, the ability to develop an argument, visual analysis and theoretical comprehension. The presentation enables the student to develop and test valuable transferable skills.

General Notes

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