AR937-7-SP-CO:
Art and Politics
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Postgraduate: Level 7
Inactive
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
20
12 August 2019
Requisites for this module
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This course considers the relationships between politics and the making, selling and exhibition of art since the Reagan / Thatcher years to the present. From the inexorable rise of modes of art making simultaneously revelling in and claiming to critique the excesses of consumer capitalism, via the use of artistic methods to resist the authoritarian governments of the Soviet bloc, to the issues of representing and responding to the perpetual war on terrorism following September 11th, 2001.
Can the rise of Donald Trump and the emboldening of the new right across the West be read partly as the result of a collective failure of cultural production? Despite the forces of institutional fine art, popular music, Hollywood film, broadcast comedy, and the mainstream mass media mobilising against Trump and the ideologies which brought him to power, the constituencies whom he claims to represent remain solidly unmoved. Indeed, their resistance, hostility and responses to liberal, diverse and progressive politics are frequently and loudly targeted at [perceived] manifestations of this politics in contemporary media. A new set of visual subcultures have arisen within the new right, as memes, repurposed symbologies and an appropriation of post-modernist conceptions of performance, irony and critical detachment push back against attempts to constrain them.
In the face of these failures and the metastasising of agile and virulent forms of right-wing visual culture, what is the role of political art? How can contemporary political artists respond to politics in 2018? And indeed, we must ask: Is political art ever effective in driving social change?
Weekly lectures will examine both the practice and the theory of contemporary political art, and seek to examine the often conflicting relationships between artists and the institutional systems of the art market and the museum world which facilitate them. Additionally, as art and culture increasingly rely on philanthropy and sponsorship, we will consider the influences of corporate culture and government money on the contemporary art-world, from art fairs such as At Basel, via corporate art schemes run by BMW, Becks and Hugo Boss, to the recent controversies regarding sponsorship of the Tate by BP.
Ultimately, the course will ask what strategies of political art making are effective in their stated aims, and to what degree political art and politics writ large are truly intertwined.
The aims of this module are:
to provide students with a grounding in the relationships between contemporary art and, politics, and the limits and possibilities of political and activist art.
to explore issues related to the main developments in contemporary art practice in Europe, America and beyond, and to be able to relate those issues to the politics, social contexts and ideological debates of their times, and subsequently
to present students with detailed case studies of artistic engagement with various political issues, including those of gender, race, class, terrorism, labour relations and democracy;
to encourage students to examine issues relating to their own engagement with political issues via artistic practice.
to introduce students to specialised debates in past and recent literature around the role and interpretation of contemporary art;
to learn to summarise and re-present key theoretical and historical arguments concisely
to raise student awareness of different methods of approaching the discipline through analysis of chosen texts;
to stimulate students to develop skills in written communication through essay and oral communication and debate in seminars.
a sound grasp of the history of contemporary art and its relationship to a variety of political issues;
the ability to interpret contemporary art practice and texts which criticise and theorise it based on sound knowledge of the appropriate historical and interpretative contexts;
the confidence to subject the artworks and texts studied to critical analysis;
the ability to communicate complex ideas concerning representation, medium-specificity, (post-)modernity, and political ideology;
the ability to engage with and produce detailed textual analysis relevant to works and theoretical debates on contemporary art;
an ability to discuss the political aspects of range of contemporary art practice, and demonstrate all these competences through seminar presentations and, one coursework essay of 4,000 words and an limited-time research exercise.
An ability to summarise and synthesise academic sources
No additional information available.
Combined lecture + seminar discussion. Each lecture will present a topic and discussion will be encouraged throughout.
There will be one field trip associated with this module. These visits are compulsory, and are as essential to the module as lectures and seminars. We are committed to looking at and studying works of art at first hand and this will be reflected in assessed assignments.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
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.
Dr Matt Lodder
spahpg@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr H Camilla Smith
University of Birmingham
Lecturer in Art History
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (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).
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