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

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.
• Present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results 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
• Sophisticated visual analysis
• 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
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• present an argument, initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• ability to undertake research and to write up the results 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
• bibliographical skills at an appropriate level