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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2020/2021

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Art

Undergraduate Course: The Time of Art: Contemporary art practice, theory, philosophy & history (ARTX10062)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course explores concepts of time in art practice, art theory, philosophy and art history. With a continuous engagement with the contemporary, it brings together examination of the way artists have represented time or made time the subject of their work with the ways in which art theorists, philosophers and historians have examined the question of art's time. The course will examine such questions as: how have different concepts of time affected the way we think and write about art? What do we mean when we say works of art 'survive' the passing of time? How have time-based practices impacted our understanding of the way art embodies time? How has the globalization of the contemporary, and the critique of universalizing narratives of Western art history impacted the way we think of the time of art?
Course description The course combines philosophical, art historical, and art theoretical material to explore the question of art's time. It will introduce students to the vast range of ways in which artists have explored the problem of time, familiarising students with the breadth of art history beyond traditional delimitations of period and chronology. A focus on selected philosophies of time - particularly in the Western continental tradition - and a continuous reflection on how these discourses can help us address contemporary practices, will link the sessions.

The question of time has been at the forefront of art historical and theoretical investigations over the past decade. Recognition of the inadequacy of Western narratives of time to account for the heterogeneity of temporal experience across cultures, the globalization of the contemporary, and the transformations in art practice since the 1960s (namely, the rise of time-based media), has led to a questioning of chronology and clock time as universal means of measuring the time of art, and the proposal of new terms and models. The disciplinary emergence of visual culture, and the foregrounding of the image as the category for thinking the visual has further contributed to a nuancing of the way we address the time of art. Whilst the focus of the course will be on the impact of Western philosophies of time on art historical thinking and artistic practice, a unique aspect of this course will be its attention to a comparative exploration of non-Western concepts of time to propose innovative ways of thinking about art and images.

Teaching will be delivered through weekly 2 hour seminars. Each class will be structured around a single concept of time, such as eternity, deep time, Chronos, heterochrony, historical time, the instant, anachronism, Kairos, waiting, cyclical time, and duration. Key thinkers of time in the Western philosophical tradition that may be studied include Augustine, Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, John McTaggart and Gilles Deleuze.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Identify, research and show understanding of key concepts and debates in the philosophy of time, and their applicability to the interpretation of artworks.
  2. Demonstrate skills in theoretical and visual analysis and argumentation with respect to key texts and artistic practices.
  3. Evidence the ability to write about philosophy and art with critical awareness and academic rigour.
Reading List
Groom, Amelia ed. (2013) Time. Documents of Contemporary Art. UK: Whitechapel
Kubler. George. (2008) The Shape of Time. Remarks on the History of Things. USA: Yale
Lee, Pamela. (2014) Chronophobia. On time in the art of the 1960s. UK: MIT
Moxey, Keith. (2013) Visual Time. The Image in history. USA: Duke University Press Nagel, Alexander and Wood, Christopher. (2010) Anachronic Renaissance. UK: MIT
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills CHARACTERISTIC 1: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING :
Demonstrating a critical, detailed and knowledge and understanding of theories of time and their relationship to art practice.

CHARACTERISTIC 2: PRACTICE: APPLIED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND UNDERSTANDING
Knowledge and understanding that is generated through research that makes a significant contribution to the development of the students Visual Culture and studio-based work.

CHARACTERISTIC 3: GENERIC COGNITIVE SKILLS
The ability to critically review, consolidate and extend knowledge, skills, practices and thinking in relation to theories and practices related to concepts of time in art practice.
KeywordsTime,Art,History
Contacts
Course organiserDr Kamini Vellodi
Tel: (0131 6)51 5800
Email: k.vellodi@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Ellie McCartney
Tel: (0131 6)51 5879
Email: emccartn@exseed.ed.ac.uk
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