AHV1005 - Inside the Museum
2015/6 Module description
| Staff | Professor Melissa Percival - Lecturer |
|---|---|
| Credit Value | 15 |
| ECTS Value | 7.5 |
| NQF Level | 4 |
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Co-requisites | None |
| Duration of Module | Term 2: 11 weeks; |
Module description
This module is a conceptual introduction to the artistic, social, aesthetic, and political implications of the art museum from roughly the 18 th century to the present. It will involve specific case studies , a field trip (or trips), and theoretical writings that will challenge you to think about the art museum as not merely a repository and exhibition space for art works, but rather as a complex technology for ordering and classifying material objects to create forms of knowledge ; for constructing narratives of art history, aesthetics, and civic ideals; and for providing us with experiments in seeing patterns of meaning emerge in physical and virtual spaces.
Module aims
This module will introduce students to the art museum as a tool for organizing, classifying, and exhibiting art. Fundamentally, the intent is to demonstrate that the art museum is not merely an inert space in which art is collected, stored, and exhibited, but is rather a complex form of shaping meaning through and about art. Particular attention will be paid to how the art museum functions in the 21 st century, including the complex intersections between the politics of globalization, the increasing attention paid to historical and contemporary art from around the world, and rapidly shifting collecting and exhibtion strategies in response to these changes. Some of the key questions we will be asking about the art museum in the 21 st century are the following: how deep is the museum’s self-awareness and criticism of its practices and possibilities? How has the art museum handled the rise of contemporary and global art in relationship to issues of globalization? How does the art museum organize and classify its collections? How do forms of exhibition and display frame art? Why has their been a massive increase in biennale exhibitions around the world? How public and democratic are art museums and biennales? What are the politics and ethics of repatriating cultural heritage?
Whenever possible, we will take advantage of important musuems, exhibition spaces, art centres, and collections in Exeter and surrounding areas, as well as national/international collections when appropriate, in order to conduct visits and meet with directors, curators, restorers, and educators. This module also has the pragmatic goal of introducting you to one of the main career options that might be an option after graduating with a degree in Art History and Visual Culture.
You will be able to use the skills developed in this module to think about a broad range of jobs and further education possibilities related to the practices of the art museum including: curating, heritage management, art conservation, exhibition design, gallerist, arts management, arts education, university teaching, public relations, fundraising, art publication, art criticism, museology, postgraduate work in art history and visual culture.
ILO: Module-specific skills
- 1. critically evaluate the dominant concepts, methods and debates informing the study of the art museum historically and in its present manifestations
- 2. visit an art museum and be able to understand how it contextualizes works of art and produces narratives for them, and thus is a technology integral to the discipline of art history
- 3. apply a variety of methodologies and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of the art museum in a consistent and informed way
- 4. analyse an exhibition in terms of its mise-en-scene
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
- 5. research, present and evaluate relevant visual materials with increased independence
- 6. interrogate and evaluate texts, artworks, images and representations, performances and installations and relate them with issues in the wider context of cultural and intellectual history.
ILO: Personal and key skills
- 7. through writing and project assessments, demonstrate good research and bibliographic skills, an informed capacity to construct a coherent, substantiated argument, and a capacity to write clear and correct prose
- 8. through research for projects and essays, demonstrate good proficiency in information retrieval and analysis
- 9. through project work, demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively orally and/or in written form, and in teams towards the development, research, organization, and expression of ideas under pressure of time
Syllabus plan
An indicative week by week syllabus may be as follows:
WEEK 1: Museums and Modernity
WEEK 2: Citizens, Culture, and the Nation State
WEEK 3: The Phenomenon of Collecting
WEEK 4: Aesthetics and the Sociology of Taste
WEEK 5: Seeing and looking
WEEK 6: Ways of Classifying and Worldmaking
WEEK 7: Museum Space and the Architectonics of Making Sense
WEEK 8: The Politics of Exhibition, Display, and Possession
WEEK 9: Art, Anthropology, and (Post) Colonialism
WEEK 10: Curatorial Practices
WEEK 11: Contemporary Art: Museums, Biennale Exhibitions, and Globalization
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | 134 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 11 | Weekly lectures |
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 5 | Weekly Seminars - these will be led by the tutor. You will need to prepare for each seminar and to present on a given topic on at least one occasion |
| Guided independent study | 134 | Independent study including reading, research, preparation for seminars and assessments. |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mini-Essay | 750 words | 1-8 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
| Oral presentation (group project) | 5-10 minutes | 1-9 | Peer-assessment recorded on feed-back sheet with tutorial follow-up |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 100 | 2500 words | 1-8 | Feedback sheet with opportunity for tutorial follow-up |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay | 1-8 | Referral/deferral period |
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Jean Baudrillard, ‘The System of Collecting’, in John Elsner and Roger Cardinal (eds) The Cultures of Collecting, 1994
Pierre Bourdieu et al. The Love of Art: European Art Museums and their Public , 1990
Brian Doherty, I nside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space , 1986
Carol Duncan Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, 1995
Elena Filipovic, “The Global White Cube,” in Barbara Vanderlinden and Elena Filipovic (eds) The Manifesta Decade: Debates on Contemporary Art Exhibitions and Biennials in Post-Wall Europe , 2005
Ivan Karp and Steven D. Lavine (eds) Exhibiting Cultures: the Poetics and Politics of Museum Display , 1991
Barbara Kirschenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Culture, 1998
Sharon Macdonald (ed.) A Companion to Museum Studies, 2011
Andrew McClellan, Inventing the Louvre: Art, Politics, and the Origin of the Modern Museum in Eighteenth-Century Paris, 1999
Kylie Message, New Museums and the Making of Culture, 2006
Donald Preziosi and Claire Farago (eds.) Grasping the World: The Idea of the Museum, 2004
Module has an active ELE page?
Yes
Available as distance learning?
No
Origin date
01/10/2011
Last revision date
06/03/2014
Key words search
Visual Culture; Media; Art History; Museum
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