Undergraduate - UnitTAD1101 - Introduction to Visual Culture in Art Design & Architecture

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture
Organisational Unit	Department of Fine Art
Offered	Caulfield First semester 2013 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2013 (Day) Gippsland First semester 2013 (Off-campus)
Coordinator(s)	Dr Daniel Palmer, Dr Leonie Cooper

Synopsis

This unit is an introduction to visual language in art and design. It examines artistic forms and media in the light of how they are made and how they engage with social symbols. Visual language is analysed in relation to aesthetic, technical and ideological frameworks. The reasons behind stylistic development are sought within the framework of the history of ideas, from the political and cultural to the economic. The unit crucially examines relations between art and design; and the diverse themes in contemporary practice are chosen in order to highlight the dynamic links between different media.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will:

recognize some key works of Western art and design and place them in the appropriate cultural climate
consider the relationships between design, art and craft as mutually important partners in the development of visual language
trace the formal and iconographic sources of works of art and design and identify their impact, both historically and critically, in terms of contemporary discourse
describe visual language perceptively and comment on works with critical discernment, attempting to evoke the expressive content of objects of art and design
present their insights in an articulate, critical and imaginative written manner
recognize critical values when conducting visual analysis and cultivate the identification of ideological bias in historical representation.

Assessment

Essays (3500 words): 75%
Visual test (1 hour): 25%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Daniel Palmer

Contact hours

Two 1 hour lectures and one 1 hour tutorial and 9 independent study hours per week