GDN2162

Ideas and form in visual culture

2 points
* One 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week
* Second semester
* Caulfield

Objectives On the successful completion of the subject students should be able to understand the formal basis to art and design this century; be familiar with how non-representational imagery may communicate; have considered major ideas that have contributed to the variety of this century's art and design.

Synopsis This subject looks at the impact of abstraction on art and design. The ideas and issues underpinning the separation of representational imagery and its means of presentation will be considered in regard to major art and design developments. The impact of movements like suprematism, constructivism, De Stijl and also the Bauhaus, on the use of space, colour, content, typography etc, will be studied, showing how these have formed that basis of trends that are relevant to art and design to the present. Photography will be explored in relation to the development of a photographic aesthetic, dependent on formal considerations and the impact of abstraction on film will also be discussed. The emphasis will be on the exploration of ideas that have been instrumental in the development of visual culture.

Assessment Research essay: 50%
* Seminar presentation: 50%

Recommended texts

Hoffert B Art notes Longman Cheshire, 1993
Hoffert B and others Art in diversity Longman Cheshire, 1989
Meggs P A History of graphic design Van Nostrand, 1983
Arnheim R Art and visual perception U California P
Barthes R Image, music, art Fontana