units

AHT3801

Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture

18 September 2017 19 December 2024
Monash University

Undergraduate - Unit

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2014 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.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 1, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered, or view unit timetables.

LevelUndergraduate
FacultyFaculty of Art, Design and Architecture
Organisational UnitDepartment of Fine Art
OfferedNot offered in 2014
Coordinator(s)Dr Spiros Panigirakis

Notes

This unit was formerly coded TAD3801

Synopsis

This unit examines the medium and its materiality across a range of visual art practices including: painting, sculpture, installation, photography, video, multi-media, social practices and performance art. It focuses on a historical lineage of art's mediums and disciplines and how they are framed, constituted and judged in a diverse range of academic fields. Concepts and traditions of modern aesthetics, the effect of late-capitalism, socio-economic critiques of art and technology are pivotal to any understanding of how art's form moves between modes of medium-specificity to trans-disciplinary realms. The unit introduces key theoretical tenets to analyse late modernist and contemporary art practices as case studies. It introduces students to the critical dialogue around the medium and artists' material processes.

Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

  1. understand and articulate what a medium is both conceptually and practically
  2. analyse the debates surrounding the defence and criticism of medium specificity and the trans-disciplinary
  3. contextualise studio practice within the conceptual models explored in the unit
  4. reflect and engage in critical dialogue about the medium and its importance in twenty-first century art

Assessment

Assignment 1,500 words (40%)
Research essay 2,500 words (60%)

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Spiros Panigirakis

Workload requirements

12 hours per week including 3 contact hours and 9 hours of independent study or equivalent.

Prerequisites

12 credit points at second year level in Art History and Theory, or Theory of Art and Design, or Visual Culture, or permission from Unit Coordinator

Prohibitions

TAD2801, TAD3801, AHT2801