Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
Objectives On successful completion of this subject students will be able to express aesthetic intuitions confidently; using analysis and argument, gain skills in linking visual observation to cultural values; and to represent knowledge of the historical, ideological and spiritual discourses in art and design as integral to the effective representation of intuitive ideas.
Synopsis This subject follows the history and theory of art and design from the industrial revolution to the present time. Examining the paradigm of western progress, the subject identifies various critiques of modernity and modernism. Reactions in art and design to technological change are compared to spiritual or ideological developments, particularly (i) the romantic rejection of the rationalist enlightenment, (ii) the modernist rejection of the authority of ornament and narrative and (iii) the postmodern rejection of totalising modernist assumptions.
Assessment One assignment (1500 words): 30% + One assignment (2500 words): 50% + One test: 20%