AR207-6-AU-CO:
Picturing the City I
2021/22
Art History and Theory
Colchester Campus
Autumn
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Thursday 07 October 2021
Friday 17 December 2021
15
17 May 2021
Requisites for this module
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Picturing the City I: Tokyo. This module will examine art, architecture and visual cultures in Japan from the 18th century to the present day, with a primary focus on Edo/Tokyo, though also touching upon art from the cities of Osaka, Yokohama, Kobe and others.
We will examine the relationships between art, urbanism, politics and popular culture in the Japanese context, and track flows of influence both from and into Japan from its Western and Eastern neighbours. The module will intersect fine art painting, sculpture and drawing with performance art, digital and new media work, and visual and material culture including fashion, film, photography, decorative arts, architecture and animation.
By the 18th century, the former small fishing village of Edo had grown to be one of the largest capitals in the world, with over 1 million residents, and today, as Tokyo, it sits at the heart of the most populous metropolitan area in the world. For centuries, Japan was isolated from Western trade and influence, developing a set of unique artistic and cultural traditions which would explode onto the global arts scene in the middle of the 19th century and define an entire culture in the global imagination.
Edo/Tokyo is an urban, imperial capital city whose history is run through with the strata of waves of historical devastation – it was battered by volcanic eruption in 1707, decimated by major earthquakes in 1855 and 1923, and was heavily bombarded from the air during the defeat in WWII. Both architecturally and culturally, centuries of political and physical upheaval have rendered Edo/Tokyo a fertile site for radical art practices, from the sybaritic and hedonistic watercolour scenes of the ukiyo "floating world" and its infamous shunga scenes, through the symbiotic yoga ("Western-style") and Nihonga ("Japanese style") paintings of the early 20th century trading Eastern and Western influences, to the brutally stark, twisted reportage paintings of the 1950s and body-performances of the 1960s. Stock market bubbles in the 80s propelled new, experimental architectural and cultural styles which would inspire both utopian and dystopian science-fiction authors and filmmakers, as well as fashion designers and animators. The economic stagnation from the 1990s has given birth to a style of cynical, digital flatness as exemplified by the work of Takashi Murakami, and countless contemporary artists drawing upon and critiquing historical tendencies.
The aims of this module are:
1. to provide a broad overview of modern and contemporary Japanese art.
2. to situate art in Japan in its historical and political contexts.
3. to use the changing shape of urban life in Japan in general and Edo/Tokyo in particular as a lens through which to understand Japanese art.
4. to trace artistic influences on and from Japanese art since the Meiji Restoration, and to place Japanese art in a global context.
5. to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the study of art history.
By the end of this module the student should have:
1. a substantial understanding of a historical period in the life of a city;
2. the ability to critically interpret works and texts based on sound knowledge of the appropriate historical and interpretative contexts;
3. the confidence to subject the texts studied to sophisticated and informed critical analysis;
4. well-developed bibliographical and research skills; and
5. the mature ability to communicate complex ideas concerning urban history, concepts of urban development, art, and architecture.
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
1. define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant;
2. seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information;
3. process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments;
4. compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure;
5. write, summarise and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.
Intro: Picturing the City in Japan
The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt Fuji: Images of the Floating World
Lovers in an Upstairs Room: Shunga: Sex & Pleasure in Japanese Art
Atomic Straggler: Mavo - Modernism in and from Japan
Last Stand At Attu: Art and War in Modern Japan
Challenging Mud: the Gutai Group
Men Aflame: Japan's Post-War Avant-Garde
Neo-Tokyo: Picturing the City in Manga and Anime
ZuZaZaZaZaZaZa: Takashi Murakami & Contemporary Japanese Pop Culture
9 x 2 hour combined lecture and seminar.
Week 8 is Reading Week
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Reading Summaries TOTAL |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Week 2 Reading Summary (400 words) |
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| Coursework |
Wk 3 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 4 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 5 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 6 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 7 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 9 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 10 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
Wk 11 Reading Summary |
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| Coursework |
2500 word essay |
|
80% |
| Exam |
Main exam: 24hr during January
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Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Matt Lodder, email: mlodder@essex.ac.uk.
spahinfo@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Dominic Paterson
University of Glasgow
Senior Lecturer in History of Art / Curator of Contemporary Art
Available via Moodle
Of 36 hours, 36 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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