Course detail

Media Archive Presentation - winter

FaVU-1PMA-ZAcad. year: 2020/2021

Documents of Presence and Experience is a series of lectures accompanied by audiovisual projections. Art films, videos, and documentaries and excerpts from lectures by international artists and collectives from the early 20th century to the present are shown throughout the course, illustrating theoretical deliberations on given themes and artistic movements. Art and artist databases, institutional resources, alternative communities, and artist residencies are also showcased within the sessions. Conceptual texts and deliberations are included as part of the curriculum. The course's primary objective is to aquaint the student with the manifesto as a transdisciplinary device.

Language of instruction

English

Number of ECTS credits

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Guarantor

MgA. Jennifer Helia De Felice, Ph.D.

Department

Department of Art History and Theory (KTDU)

Offered to foreign students

Of all faculties

Learning outcomes of the course unit

Upon succcessful completion of the course students will be able to: - identify and summarize the guiding concepts ritual and myth and its contemporary application - recognize references to ritual and performative process within contemporary art practice - write a theoretical text detailing or adopting the mechanisms of the myth, ritual , or cultural performance - analyse the socio-politcal context which gave/gives rise to shifts in aesthetic paradigms Students should be able to identify and describe the socio-politcal contexts which gave rise to avant-garde cultural movements, discuss key works, and understand the mechanisms of participatory practice.

Prerequisites

User IT skills. Basic orientation in the history of 20th century culture.

Co-requisites

Not applicable.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods

The presentations are divided into semester-long blocks which deal with individual themes related to perfomativity as a phenomenon. Key concepts such as experience, contemporaneity, avant garde, ritual, play, indeterminacy, social engagement, participation, and improvisation are explored, relying heavily on artistic texts and theoretical works. Lectures are accompanied by audiovisual material. The classes are based on presentation and class discussions. Students will asked to participate actively in discussions based on reading assignments.

Assesment methods and criteria linked to learning outcomes

Final evaluation will be based on attendence (75%), active participation in class, the presentation of a project or theme of the student's choice accompanied by a theoretical text (comparative study, curatorial project, personal manifesto (approx. 1000 words) based on the given theme of the semester. Semester projects will be assesed based on relevance of theme and quality of research and delivery (presentation, text).

Course curriculum

Key Themes: Oral Tradition – Myth, Steps to be Taken – Ritual, The Nature of the Game – Play, Performing Culture, Conceptual Approaches, Language Texts and Signs.

Myth and ritual are an integral aspect of culture and society, and as such an integral aspect of artistic practice. Throughout the course of the semester we will look at ritual and native cultures, reenactment, and its use within performative practice in terms of samanism, the guru, and the creation of a tribe whether as a unique social entity or a digital community. We will also look at work that is inspired by a return to paganism or inspired by a close relationship to nature and phenomena that are to be found through its observation and animation. Particular attention will be paid to the concept of experience and its transference into an open artistic work which assumes participation and/or interpretation.

Work placements

Not applicable.

Aims

Documents of Presence and Experience is a series of lectures accompanied by audiovisual projections. Art films, videos, and documentaries and excerpts from lectures by international artists and collectives from the early 20th century to the present are shown throughout the course, illustrating theoretical deliberations on the theme of Process and Structure within artistic practice. Art and artist databases, institutional resources, alternative communities, and artist residencies are also showcased within the sessions. Conceptual texts and deliberations are included as part of the curriculum. The course's primary objective is to familarize students with a social history of performative artistic practice through the lens of experiential interpretation. Through ritual and mythmaking as points of departure, the course aims to move through underlying principles that have been adapted and incorporated into contemporary art production.

Specification of controlled education, way of implementation and compensation for absences

Projections are optional, but students who are absent must produce a paper corresponding with the presented document on the given session.

Recommended optional programme components

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

Dewey, John, Art as Experience, The Berkeley Publishing Group (EN)
Gadamer, Hans-Georg, Truth and Method, Bloomsbury Academic (EN)
Schechner, Richard, Performance Studies: An Introduction, Routledge (EN)
Stiles, Kristine, & Selz, Peter, Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings, Universtiy of California Press (EN)

Type of course unit

Seminar

26 hod., compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer

MgA. Jennifer Helia De Felice, Ph.D.