Contemporary visual culture
L Asbury
6 points * 3 hours per week * First semester * Clayton
This introductory subject aims to acquaint students with basic principles of visual analysis, and to develop in students an understanding of the visual characterisitics of contemporary culture, through the study of selected aspects of recent Australian art, architecture, photography, and so on. Discussion will involve consideration of the visual dimensions of various issues and ideas such as the urban and suburban experience, Aboriginality and Australia's relationship with Asia, cultural identity and nationalism, the role of art and architecture in the public realm, and questions concerning the body and representation.
Assessment
First essay (1500 words): 25% * Second essay (2500 words): 50% * Visual test (1 hour): 25%
Prescribed text
Willis A-M Illusions of identity: the art of nation Hale and Iremonger, 1993
Recommended texts
Caruana W Aboriginal art Thames and Hudson, 1993
Frow J and Morris M (eds) Australian cultural studies: A reader Allen and Unwin, 1993
Taylor P (ed.) Anything goes: Art in Australia 1970-1980 Art and Text, 1984
Willis A-M Picturing Australia: A history of photography Angus and Robertson, 1988
Wood P and others Modernism in dispute: Art since the forties Yale UP, 1993