VPA705 Contemporary Critical Issues (16)

CSU Discipline Area: Design and Visual Production (DSVIS)

Duration: Two sessions

Abstract:

This subject extends the exploration of contemporary theory and criticism begun in VPA701/VPA711 Theories of Criticism. Students identify and analyse recent examples of public and scholarly debate about arts practice within a chosen field. They describe and trace the course of debate, and relate it to the theoretical literature, and to analogous debates at other times and places. The emphasis is on the current forms of ethical and ideological thinking within the student's chosen field, and the relative influence of other factors such as the personal, the economic, and the structural.

+ Subject Availability Modes and Locations

No offerings have been identified for this subject in 2013.Continuing students should consult the SAL for current offering details prior to contacting their course coordinator: VPA705

Where differences exist between the handbook and the SAL, the SAL should be taken as containing the correct subject offering details.

Enrolment restrictions:

DVPA students only

Objectives:

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:

- be able to identify and describe current debates in their chosen field of study
- be able to document and analyse events as well as theoretical arguments
- be able to demonstrate an understanding of the connections between practical controversy and the theoretical literature, by using theoretical frameworks to analyse the current debates
- be able to demonstrate familiarity with a range of analogous debates from other times and places, and their outcomes
- be able to discuss their own work in the light of contemporary practice.

Syllabus:

The subject will cover the following topics:

- the complexity of theoretical, social and aesthetic issues that contemporary artists might confront - philosophies of knowledge including theories of modernism, postmodernism, gender studies and postcolonialism - critical and theoretical writing relating to the production and reception of art - concepts of truth, including the culture/nature dichotomy - the relationship between art and social change - formal constraints, such as markets, institutions, and legal regimes, within which artists and critics operate - psychological theories of representation.

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