Politics and Visual Culture
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| CULT3044 | Cultural, Media and Visual Studies | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- CULT3044
- School
- Cultural, Media and Visual Studies
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
This module will explore, in the broadest sense, politics and visual culture: how films, television, art and online forms of visual communication can be understood politically (i.e. how they say particular things about the societies they represent); how they present and, in some cases, comment upon specific political events and changes around the world; how certain forms of visual culture have been produced and designed in order to act as agents of political change and activism, sometimes challenging the political structures of our society; how individual artists, filmmakers and content producers can be said to have deliberate political motivation and intent, and the ways they interact with and are challenged by the organisations and institutions to which they are often beholden. We will be looking at different genres, modes, forms and styles to examine how we can understand the interaction of politics and visual culture.
E.g:
• the nature, purpose and effect of political satire (in film, television, the visual arts and online): (e.g. The Great Dictator, Dr Strangelove, The Thick Of It, Banksy, Cassetteboy, online political meme culture);
• representations of the political process on TV (e.g. The West Wing, House of Cards, Scandal, Veep);
• global political documentary (e.g. La Hora de Los Hornos, La Batalla de Chile, Cathy Come Home, to new approaches and styles like Fahrenheit 9/11, Inside Job and The Act of Killing);
• conspiracy theories and visual culture: from the paranoid thriller to online ‘deep fake’
• key artists, showrunners, filmmakers: Reichardt, Loach, Granik, DuVernay, Sorkin, Capra, Godard, Iannucci
• neoliberalism and visual culture: e.g. representations of big finance, precarity, social class, labour relations
Target Students
BA Film and Television Studies; BA International Media and Communications Studies; BA History of Art.
Classes
- One 3-hour workshop each week for 10 weeks
- One 2-hour seminar each week for 10 weeks
The weekly workshop will consist of a lecture and screening
Assessment
- 30% Coursework 1: Political analysis of short video clip or image of the student’s own choosing (based on, but not taken directly from, one of the themes or topics which we have explored in the module so far). 1500 words. Due mid-semester.
- 70% Coursework 2: Answer one of the questions provided which will ask you to explore (and research) one of the topics which we have explored in the module. This will require wide reading AND viewing on the subject in order to produce an academically rigorous, well-written and well-structured argument. 3000 words. Due end of the semester.
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
This module aims to enable students to understand, analyse and evaluate visual culture through a political lens. This will involve close engagement with specific social, historical and national contexts, as well as understanding of particular political movements and forms of activism from around the world. It also aims to introduce to them the work of certain artists, filmmakers and content producers that set out to achieve political aims through their work, and engage with the efficacy of their approaches in relation to wider institutional, structural and political factors and challenges. Overall, therefore, the module seeks to establish in the student a broad understanding of the ways in which different forms of visual culture explore political issues and debates, and support the development of their ability to evaluate and critically analyse these texts.Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
A) Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
i) the major methodological and theoretical frameworks that been employed in the political approaches to visual culture
ii) the generic, narrative and iconographic traditions from which much political visual culture is drawn
B) Intellectual Skills:
i) Apply these methodological and theoretical frameworks in the discussion of political forms of visual culture;
ii) Address relevant questions concerning the validity of aforementioned;
iii) employ textual analysis in combination with these frameworks in order to articulate the political viewpoint/s of particular texts
iv) Critically evaluate and historicise political approaches to visual culture
v) Construct coherent and independent arguments.
C) Professional Skills:
i) Select, sift and synthesise information from a variety of primary and secondary materials;
ii) Write accurately and grammatically and present written material using appropriate conventions;
iii) work productively with peers in order to develop understanding, apply concepts and analyse visual texts
D) Transferable Skills:
i) Use IT to find useful sources of information and/or material;
ii) Manage a large and disparate body of information;
iii) Use IT to word-process their assessed essays;
iv) Speak and write cogently about a chosen subject area.
v) Reflect on strengths and weaknesses