| Unit name | Theories of Visual Culture: Comparisons across Time, Space, and Media |
|---|---|
| Unit code | MODLM0075 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Sutton-Mattocks |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Modern Languages |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
Visual culture is everywhere. It can inform, encourage, amuse, shock… But what is it about the composition of a poster that makes a viewer feel or act a certain way? How does our own positionality affect the way we receive a painting? Can you feel a film? Who holds power at a photo shoot? What happens when media interact to create new, hybrid artforms? What is the role of the visual in celebrity culture?
These are the kinds of questions that you will tackle on this unit, which brings both established and emerging theoretical approaches to bear on a range of examples of visual culture, which may include film, painting, photography, street art, sculpture, calligraphy, iconography, posters, cartoons, theatre and music video. The primary works come from different eras and from all over the world, and students are encouraged to apply their knowledge to works beyond those encountered in class.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit will interest anyone who is fascinated by the visual and wants to discover new ways of interpreting it. The unit is ideal for students who want to focus on cultural studies within the MA in Comparative Literatures & Cultures. More broadly, the theoretical approach means the unit fits well with a range of disciplines across the Arts and Humanities.
Whether you join the unit from the School of Modern Languages or elsewhere in the university, this unit will introduce you to a breadth of postgraduate-level ways of thinking critically about visual culture that can be applied across your degree programme, including in dissertation projects.
Overview of Content:
Visual Culture Studies is a diverse and multifaceted field. As a starting point, we will consider what visual culture is, why we should study it, and how. In subsequent weeks, experts from across the School of Modern Languages will introduce you to different theoretical approaches to studying visual culture and give you the opportunity to practise applying them to work/s of visual culture from across genres, media, historical periods and different parts of the world. The unit may include topics such as: star and celebrity culture, gender, intermediality, political art, advertising and marketing, religious art, street art cultures, kitsch, image translation, and haptic visuality.
How students will, personally, be different as a result of the unit:
This unit will enable you to build up a detailed, nuanced understanding of a breadth of theoretical and conceptual issues relating to visual culture studies. The historical, cultural, political and linguistic contexts may be very different from your own, but they will all nevertheless help to facilitate a more nuanced and reflexive understanding of the very visual world that surrounds us. The assignments will give you the opportunity to apply and communicate your developing knowledge. Because the unit is open to students from Comparative Literatures & Cultures and beyond, you may make connections and have the chance to work collaboratively with peers from across Arts and Humanities. The resulting breadth of understanding will contribute to your intercultural understanding and development.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of the unit, students will be able to:
The unit will be taught through a mixture of lecture-workshops and seminars. Emphasis will be placed on discussion and collaboration. The assignments provide the opportunity for you to apply theories introduced in class and through preparatory work to works of visual culture beyond those taught on the unit. As such, you will be able to expand your understanding of visual culture studies, tailor your learning to your own particular interests and share your findings with your peers. The unit is therefore research led, not just by your tutors’ research, but by your own.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Collaborative presentation, 15 minutes (30%) [ILOs 1-4]
Individual research essay, 2,000 words (70%) [ILOs 1-4]
When assessment does not go to plan
When required by the Board of Examiners, you will normally complete reassessments in the same formats as those outlined above. However, the Board reserves the right to modify the form or number of reassessments required. Details of reassessments are normally confirmed by the School shortly after the notification of your results at the end of the academic year. If you are required to complete a reassessment for the presentation, this will normally be as an individual task (of a shorter length) unless a group of students can reasonably be constituted by the unit leader.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MODLM0075).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The assessment methods listed in this unit specification are designed to enable students to demonstrate the named learning outcomes (LOs). Where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, schools will make reasonable adjustments to support a student to demonstrate the LO by an alternative method or with additional resources.
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
