HA978-30 Reality after Film

Department: SCAPVC - History of Art
Level: Taught Postgraduate Level
Module leader: Naomi Vogt
Credit value: 30
Module duration: 10 weeks
Assessment: 100% coursework
Study location: University of Warwick main campus, Coventry

Introductory description

This module will focus on the place of moving image in contemporary art. The theme of reality, explored through different artistic and social approaches to realism, will be at the heart of the works and literature studied in class.

Module aims

This topic will be introduced with the early years of the cinema and its theories concerning film’s future role for writing history. The module will then be dedicated to practices since the 1960s, when video permanently entered the art word and transformed art’s vocation to mediate reality. Through close formal analysis and a historical approach, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the role of sound, movement and editing in relation to contemporary ways of both capturing and constructing reality.

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Film and truth at the end of the 19th century
Genres of realism
The beginnings of video
Video installation
The documentary turn
Post-truth? Pretending in contemporary art
Networks and post-internet art

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

To develop a historical knowledge of moving image and the evolving relationships between art, film, and information.
To acquire the tools for the formal analysis of moving image, filmic genres, and video art.
To understand how moving images create new traditions of testimony and narrative.
initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
ability to undertake research and to write up the results using accurately specific techniques of analysis and enquiry in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
familiarity with essential ICT skills
ability to collaborate effectively with others
show understanding of diverse viewpoints
ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
ability to formulate a sustained argument
think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
ability to conduct independent research and analysis
sophisticated visual analysis and understanding visual culture
bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

Ina Blom, The Autobiography of Video: The Life and Times of a Memory Technology (Berlin: Sternberg, 2016).
Jean-Louis Comolli, The Cinematic Apparatus (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1980).
T.J. Demos, The Migrant Image: The Art and Politics of Documentary During Global Crisis (Durham: Duke University Press, 2013).
Marc Ferro, Cinema and History [1977] (Detroit: Wayne University Press, 1988).
Trinh T. Minh-Ha, ‘Documentary is/not a name,’ October 52 (1990).
Mark Nash, ‘Reality in the Age of Aesthetics,’ Frieze 114 (2008).
Hito Steyerl, The Wretched of the Screen (e-flux, 2013).
Bill Viola, ‘Video Black – The Mortality of the Image’ in Illuminating Video: An Essential Guide to Video Art (San Francisco: Aperture, 1990).

Subject specific skills

To develop a historical knowledge of moving image and the evolving relationships between art, film, and information
To acquire the tools for the formal analysis of moving image, filmic genres, and video art.
To understand how moving images create new traditions of testimony and narrative.
Sophisticated visual analysis and understanding visual culture
Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
ability to undertake research and to write up the results using accurately specific techniques of analysis and enquiry in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
familiarity with essential ICT skills
ability to collaborate effectively with others
show understanding of diverse viewpoints
ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
ability to formulate a sustained argument
think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
ability to conduct independent research and analysis
bibliographical skills at an appropriate level

Study time

Type	Required
Seminars	20 sessions of 2 hours (13%)
Tutorials	3 sessions of 1 hour (1%)
Private study	257 hours (86%)
Total	300 hours

Private study description

Required and recommended reading for seminars and tutorial and research for written assessment

Costs

No further costs have been identified for this module.

You do not need to pass all assessment components to pass the module.

Assessment group A

	Weighting	Eligible for self-certification
Assessment component
5,000 Word Essay	90%	Yes (extension)
Assessed Essay
Reassessment component is the same
Assessment component
Engagement	10%	No
Reassessment component is the same

Feedback on assessment

Written feedback and dedicated feedback tutorials

Courses

This module is Option list A for:

Year 1 of THAA-V4PJ Postgraduate Taught History of Art and Visual Studies

This module is Option list C for:

Year 1 of TPHA-V7PN Postgraduate Taught Philosophy and the Arts