Art and Science: 1900 to the Present
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| HART3055 | Cultural, Media and Visual Studies | 3 | 20 | Spring UK |
- Code
- HART3055
- School
- Cultural, Media and Visual Studies
- Level
- 3
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring UK
Summary
This module explores the influence of scientific disciplines on art production and theory from the early twentieth century to the present day. It will examine how artists have interrogated ideas surrounding objectivity, optics, knowledge, and humanity itself by deploying traditionally scientific methodologies, processes, and epistemologies in the making of visual art. We will consider how the work of artists including the Surrealists, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Broodthaers, Mark Dion, Joseph Beuys, Susan Hiller, and Marc Quinn has been influenced by the ideas and objects associated with diverse approaches to the material (and immaterial) world, such as astronomy, geology, ethnography, physics, and anthropology. In order to make these interdisciplinary analyses of visual art we will engage with a variety of important concepts and discourses, including psychoanalytic theory, the abject, and the sublime. In this way, the module considers how and why visual artists have been influenced by contemporary attitudes towards science and how this impacted on recent histories of art.
A single coursework assessment will replace all failed assessment components at the reassessment stage.
Target Students
Only available for History of Arts students, Liberal Arts students and Exchange students
Classes
- One 1-hour seminar each week for 11 weeks
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 11 weeks
2-hour lecture; 1-hour seminar
Assessment
- 100% Coursework: 3,500 words portfolio of written work and equivalent
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
To provide a broader context within which to understand and locate modern and contemporary artistic practices.To develop insight into the influence that alternative disciplines have had on recent artists and their works.To encourage an interdisciplinary approach to art history through the study of diverse textual and historical documents in relation to modern and contemporary art production.To engage critically and imaginatively with discourses surrounding cultural and historical influences on artists working in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.To appreciate the impact of diverse cultural interests on the production of art.Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding:
• Knowledge of important examples of artistic appropriations and citations of scientific discourses in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
• Understanding of methods by which artists have applied scientific thought and theory in their practices.
• The consideration and comprehension of both primary and secondary sources that explain and interpret the importance of scientific disciplines to recent art production.
• The importance of the histories of science to a number of artists, and the consideration of history more widely as an artistic subject matter.
Intellectual Skills:
• Analysis of textual and visual sources.
• The application of diverse sources to art-historical debate.
• The ability to create connections between artistic and scientific approaches to the material world.
• To apply philosophical and historical models to the consideration of recent art.
• To engage critically with diverse practices in relation to their cultural influences.
Professional/Practical Skills:
• To collate information and ideas in order to present an argument.
• To work and research independently.
• To present confidently and coherently in a group setting.
• To work collaboratively with others through discussion and debate.
Transferable (Key) Skills:
• Ability to analyse and utilise textual and visual sources.
• Ability to work alone or collaboratively.
• Ability to articulate effectively in writing and orally.
• Ability to manage a number of tasks to deadlines.