Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

Synopsis

This unit will consider the ways in which the camera contributed to new ways of seeing in the nineteenth century. The unit will investigate the concept of analogue reproduction, especially photography's promise to represent the 'real' world, and consider practices in which the real is consistently manipulated. Photography will be considered across a range of disciplines: ethnographic and anthropological photographs; documentary photography; photography as a diagnostic tool in the world of medicine and the use of photography by the legal system. Finally, the unit will address the changes in the production and circulation of images evident in digital modes of reproduction.

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this unit students will have developed:

1. A broad knowledge of the multi-disciplinary nature of photography

2. Critical skills that enable them to analyse a broad range of photographic texts and contexts

3. An understanding of the critical and theoretical debates related to photography in society

4. An understanding of two different modes of reproduction: the analogue and the digital

5. An understanding of the ways in which technologies of reproduction change modes of representation

Assessment

Essay (2250 words): 50%
Internet project (equivalent 2250 words): 50%

Contact hours

2 hours (1 x 1 hour lecture and 1 x 1 hour tutorial

Prerequisites

Must have passed 6 credit points in Theory of Art and Design, Visual Culture or Cultural Studies

Prohibitions

VSA2440, VSA3440, CLS2440, CLS3440, TAD2440