| Unit name | Intermedia Encounters in 20th Century American Art |
|---|---|
| Unit code | HISP30110 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | H/6 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
| Unit director | Dr. Kosick |
| 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 | Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies |
| Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
Why is this unit important?
In the 1960s artist Dick Higgins announced that ‘the best work being produced today seems to fall between media’. He argued that things like sculpture, painting, or poetry were no longer self-contained genres, but increasingly collaborative and ‘intermedia’ in character. Examples included participatory events known as “Happenings,” collaborative traveling creations like “Mail Art,” and visually-engaging “Concrete Poetry.” This class will survey important developments in intermedia art and explore the transnational communities that contributed to its development at the end of the twentieth century through the present day, centring in particular on innovations driven by North and South American artists and their movements—aesthetic and actual—around the Atlantic. It will challenge students to reflect on boundaries between media and to consider how aesthetic innovations disrupt academic categories of disciplinarity and reception.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
This unit will build on and consolidate skills students will bring from a range of disciplines, including literary, visual, and cultural studies. It will be an opportunity to investigate the interface between creative work and critical reflection as we will both read artists who write about their own practices and cultivate opportunities for creative praxis in the classroom. All materials will be accessible in English. Students from HiPLA, Comparative Literatures and Cultures, History of Art, and English (among other potential degree programmes) are welcome to join this optional unit.
An overview of content
In this unit, students will engage with a variety of intermedia practices from the twentieth century, drawing primarily on examples from artists working in North and South America. Students will also read a variety of critical and theoretical reflections on intermedia art. Alongside readings, students will have the opportunity to cultivate their own creative practices and skills in critical reflection.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?
Students will increase their knowledge of intermedia practices in the Americas from the twentieth century forward, gain exposure to new perspectives, and reconsider how the arts are internally divided. They will develop their creative skills and cultivate independent thinking and practice. They will reflect on their own learning and work collaboratively to communicate their ideas across disciplinary boundaries.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:
1. Evaluate their knowledge of intermedia art via a series of creative and critical tasks;
2. Collaborate with their peers to challenge inherited structures of aesthetic practice and academic reflection;
3. Devise their skills in independent research, evaluation, analysis, and creative making;
4. Formulate independent and evidence-based judgements and express these clearly and persuasively in their academic writing.
Learning will take the form of student-led discussion, applied practice with intermedia poetry, self-reflective analysis, inquiry-driven research, and peer-review.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative)
Students will participate in weekly seminars, presenting their knowledge of the materials under examination and responding to peer-driven discussions, which will support their exploratory learning. Students will submit weekly discussion questions on Blackboard, which will provide opportunities to generate open-ended questions in preparation for the assessed research. Students will participate in peer-review workshopping to develop and hone their assessment plans prior to submission. Students will have an opportunity to make their own intermedia creations, in preparation for assessed creative-critical reflections.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Object analysis, 1,000 words (25%) [ILOs 1, 3 and 4]
Creative-critical portfolio, 4000 words (75%) [ILOs 1, 2, 3 and 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 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. HISP30110).
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.
