Art and the Postmodern City (U01150)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : ACE-3-HPostCity

The course provides a broadly chronological history of the relationships between the postmodern city and the visual arts in western Europe and the United States from c.1960 to the present day. The primary concerns are the following: how was the city represented in art (painting, photography and film) in the period? How did architects represent the city? How did artists inhabit and use the city? What city institutions and spaces did they depend on? What was the subject position adopted by these creative people vis-a-vis the city? Key moments in this history include: the critique of the modernist city by Jane Jacobs; LA and Las Vegas in the writings of Reyner Banham and Robert Venturi; Robert Smithson's interventions in 1960s New York; Fredric Jameson and utopianism; gentrification and art in contemporary London; the city and the art museum; Tati's Playtime and the loss of faith in the modernist city. The course is interdisciplinary, making use of source material from the fields of art criticism, art history, architecture, urban theory, and film studies. No previous knowledge of the field is required, however. The course is primarily taught through image and texts available through university resources, but there will be a number of visits to sites in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : A pass in either History of Art 2 or Architectural History 2a and 2b

Subject Areas

Home subject area

History of Art, (School of Arts, Culture and Environment, Schedule A)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 3rd year

? Delivery Period : Semester 2 (Blocks 3-4)

? Contact Teaching Time : 3 hour(s) per week for 11 weeks

First Class Information

Date	Start	End	Room	Area	Additional Information
07/01/2008	15:00	15:50	Lecture Room 1, Minto House	Central

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Monday	15:00	15:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : Seminars take place on Fridays 2-3.50pm and 4.10-6pm. Students attend one of these.

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

After completion of the course, students will have
(1) a good understanding of the terms 'postmodern', 'postmodernity' and 'postmodernist' in relation to the Western city;
(2) a good grasp of the literature around the postmodernist city in the West;
(3) an understanding of a wide range of artistically produced images of Western cities;
(4) an understanding of the way the Western city has been represented on film;
(5) developed good critical skills in analysing
images of cities in contemporary art and film;
(6) developed a good sense of the disciplinary relationships between art history and other disciplines concerned with the built environment (architecture, urbanism etc.);
(7) developed a sense of the city as a critical discourse as much as a material object;
(8) developed essay writing techniques appropriate to the subject area.