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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2024/2025

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Art

Undergraduate Course: Popular Art and Folk Culture (ARTX10061)

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
SummaryFolk culture means the traditional culture of ordinary people; the basis of popular art for millennia. This includes proverbial language, tales, legends, magical beliefs, jokes, metaphors; the visual culture of festivals, carnivals, gender, rituals and rites of passage, dreams and nightmares, and the characteristic ways of patterning and communicating these forms and concepts.
Course description Drawing on research into the history of carnivals and dreams, this course presents an alternative history of art and visual culture, illuminating the synergy between popular art and folk culture, from the cave art of 20,000 years ago to the present day. This is a lecture- based course, with accompanying class discussion. Each lecture will be for one hour, with a one hour scheduled seminar afterwards. The course is arranged in key themes, starting with key general topics (oral culture, dreams, carnivals etc.), and ending with in-depth case-histories (e.g. the virago, the nightmare), which demonstrate how these theoretical perspectives can be applied.
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
Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1) Quota:  19
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 200 ( Lecture Hours 10, Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10, Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 174 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Formative Assessment: Essay 1000 words plus bibliography, illustrations with captions
Students submit a detailed outline or a full draft that will be the basis for their Summative submission.
Submitted mid semester approx. week 6
(0%) - feedback/feedforward will be given based on Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.

Summative Assessment: Visual Essay, fully illustrated text with references, bibliography etc.
4000 words
Submitted approx. week 11/12
(100%) - assessment will be based on Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3.
Feedback Formative Essay - submitted mid semester approx. week 6 via Learn Written/verbal feedback/forward via Learn in 15 working days of submission Summative Essay - submitted approx. week 12 via Learn
Grades and written feedback via Learn in 15 working days of submission

Formative assessment (feed forward) will be given in relation to the written assessment at the mid-point of semester. Students will be asked to prepare 1000 word excerpt for their written assessment task and will receive verbal or written feed forward / feedback on this in advance of the final submission date. Summative Assessment: Grades and written feedback via Learn in 15 working days of submission.
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Undertake and apply independent research into the forms, visual tradition, media and cultural contexts of popular art and folk culture.
  2. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key issues related to popular art and folk culture, and analyse, evaluate and reflect upon their relationships to contemporary art.
  3. Clearly communicate a creative selection and historical contextualisation of popular art and folk culture in ways that are well-structured, imaginative and rigorous.
Reading List
Bakhtin, M. M., (1984). Rabelais and his World. Translated by H. Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Hyman, T. and R. Malbert (eds.), (2000). Carnivalesque. London: Hayward.
Milne, L. S. (2007) Carnivals and Dreams. Pieter Bruegel and the History of the Imagination. London: Mutus Liber.
Milne, L. S. (2017). The Terrors of the Night. Charms Against the Nightmare and the Mythology of Dreams. Incantatio 6.
Turner, V. W. (1964). Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period. In Ritual de Passage. Proceedings
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills CHARACTERISTIC 1: KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING :
Demonstrating a critical, detailed and knowledge and understanding of theories and practices related to popular art and folk culture and their relationship to contemporary 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 intersectional theory and practice to contemporary art practice.
KeywordsOral culture,Carnivals,Dream-culture
Contacts
Course organiserDr Louise Milne
Tel:
Email: louise.milne@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Hollie Gilligan
Tel:
Email: hgilliga@ed.ac.uk
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