Unit name | Experiencing the Aesthetic |
---|---|
Unit code | AFAC20003 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24) |
Unit director | Professor. Shaw-Miller |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Arts Faculty Office |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit, while focused on the unique nature of aesthetic experience, also provides a broad introduction to the arts. The concern is with the nature, make-up and history of the arts, not in an attempt to provide full coverage, but to address issues of identity around specific instances and institutions. There will be two parts to the unit, characterised as ‘What do the arts do?’ and ‘What are the arts made of?’. The first considers the manifestations of art (film, theatre, visual art, music, literature) through a theme relating to the underlying nature of artistic activity (for instance beauty, the senses, or representation, each with its historical and conceptual aspects). The second considers specific objects (definitions, functions: e.g. poems, operas, portraits, symphonies, photographs, and more challenging examples like sound art or visual music) and spaces where art happens (case studies drawn from the many local venues).
The unit aims:
By the end of the course students should have acquired the following:
Weekly lecture (for C/4 and I/5 together); weekly seminar on readings done in advance (years separately; capped at 15)
1. Class presentation and accompanying report; peer review exercise 50% Students will present an illustrated class talk on a case study on either 1] An object (see the Description above) and how it does or does not conform or deviate from the concerns discussed in part one of the course or 2] An exhibition, or performance etc., and how it does or does not conform or deviate from the concerns discussed in part two of the course. Each presentation would include a 1,000-word written summary of the argument which will be peer reviewed. Each student would review and would in turn be reviewed. At the end of term the revised report will be handed in together with a 300-word reflection on what has been learned from the reviewing process.
2. Summative essay 50% An essay (3,000 words) on a topic related to the module, from a designated list.
Sensing the Past: Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Touching in History by Mark M. Smith (University of California Press, 2008)
Empire of the Senses: The Sensual Culture Reader (Sensory Formations), ed. David Howes (Berg, 2004)
The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics (Oxford Handbooks in Philosophy) ed. Jerrold Levinson (OUP, 2005)
Art and the Senses eds. Francesca Bacci, David Melcher (OUP, 2013)