Postgraduate Course: Approaching World Objects (HIAR11113)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course, which is one of three compulsory courses for the Global Premodern Art: History, Heritage and Curation MSc, runs in Semester 1. It introduces you to the arts, histories and theories of cross-cultural exchange circa AD 300 to AD 1815. Object-based lecture-seminar sessions and a group VR curatorial exhibition project will further your understanding of the course themes and enable you to gain practical knowledge of contemporary heritage and curatorial practice. |
| Course description |
Approaching World Objects takes advantage of one of the largest concentrations of global art historical expertise in the UK coupled with Edinburgh's world-leading collections. The course offers theoretical, historical and hands-on approaches to working with objects, including manuscripts, paintings, sculptures, relics, dress, textiles, ceramics, maps, prints, and scientific and musical instruments. The course provides an engaging and practical means of getting to grips with contemporary issues and debates in medieval and early modern art and visual culture (includingass issues of display, curatorial interpretation, conservation and repatriation), as well as scrutinising the institutions that define them. Students work collaboratively with curators, archivists, and academics to handle, research and interpret medieval and early modern artefacts and primary source materials. Each week students will undertake set readings and preliminary tasks to prepare for classroom seminars and site visits, focussing on the four core themes of the programme:
* Power
* Bodies
* Religion
* Intellectual histories
Weekly timetabled activities will normally include 2 hours of structured lecture-seminar discussion per week. There will also be one practical workshop in the semester, to prepare you for your formative VR task. Some of the classes will take place in collections and stores external to the University of Edinburgh but easily accessible from the central campus. The CO will also be available for informal individual discussion and face-to-face formative feedback. In parallel with the timetabled classes, students will work in small groups to undertake field work, research and design a virtual exhibition, focusing on an object in an Edinburgh collection.
This is a team-taught course through weekly 2-hour lecture-seminars. These sessions comprise of various teaching activities, including typically a lecture, class discussions and group tasks. The discussions typically include the close analysis of objects and essential readings. They will often look to works in local collections, and some sessions may be delivered off-site in local collections and archives.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | As numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Course Secretary directly for admission to this course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 10,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 3,
External Visit Hours 4,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 5,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
162 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
This course has 2 assessment components::
1) Curatorial Portfolio (40%), Week 7, consisting of:
a. A pdf of the VR exhibition (5-10 pages) and PowerPoint slides (10-12 slides)
b. 1 X 1000-word catalogue entry
2) 3000-word Essay (60%) December Exam Diet
Component 1 draws on draws on students¿ work for a VR exhibition proposal, which focuses on core objects from Edinburgh collections. Students will work in a group to propose and design an exhibition. The group will create a VR exhibition and orally present this exhibition proposal in Week 6 in front of an invited external panel (The group presentation is not assessed). Each student will submit a pdf document of the VR exhibition (approx. 5-10 pages), the slides from the Power Point presentation (approx.10-12 pages) and a 1 x 1,000-word object catalogue entry for their chosen key object.
Component 2 will be a themed catalogue essay inspired by the group exhibition project.
Both assessment components will be submitted via Turnitin, relate to all LOs and are assessed on an individual basis using the History of Art Marking Criteria Scheme. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback:
Students will receive ongoing formative feedback during seminars from peers and the Course Organiser in the form of class discussions and the opportunity to ask questions, as well as verbal feedback from the Course Organiser for any group tasks or presentations.
In Week 4 students will meet with Course Organiser in their groups to discuss their exhibition proposal, key objects, exhibition narrative and receive verbal feedback.
In Week 8 students will have a one-to-one session formative feedback session with Course Organiser about Assessment 2.
Summative Assessment Feedback:
Verbal formative feedback which will be useful for Assessment 1 will be provided by Course Organiser, Programme Director and invited panel in person in Week 6.
Full written feedback will be provided by Course Organiser via Turnitin for Assessment 1 after submission in Week 7. This summative feedback will feed directly into component 2.
Full written feedback on Assessment 2 catalogue essay (60%) will be provided by Course Organiser via Turnitin.
All feedback will be provided as per University regulations.
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Assess decisive moments in the history of artistic exchange between Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia before 1750
- Reflect critically on the factors that led to cross-cultural encounters
- Undertake independent and group research using a range of primary materials
- Assemble a range of primary and secondary information sources to support art historical communication and deploy core research skills, such as visual, material and textual analysis to debate historical questions and issues
- Communicate art historical research to a non-academic audience through a curatorial exhibition project
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Reading List
Blick, Sarah and Laura Gelfand. Art and Material Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, 2023
Cooke, Edward, Jr. Global Objects: Toward a Connected Art History, Princeton University Press, 2022
Gerritsen, Anne and Giorgio Riello. The Global Lives of Things The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World, 2016
Hall, Kim. Things of Darkness: Economies of Race and Gender in Early Modern England, 1995
Newall, Diana. Art and its Global Histories: A Reader, 2017
Peterson, Jeanette and Leibsohn, Dana (eds), Seeing Across Cultures in the Early Modern World, 2012
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Personal/intellectual autonomy:
Thinking creatively in developing a curatorial proposal, demonstrating reflective awareness of historical content, social responsibility and sustainability issues in curatorial practice.
Communication:
Effective, interactive verbal communication including listening, questioning, and articulating complex ideas. The ability to produce clear, structured written work that speaks to a range of academic and non-academic audiences.
Research and Enquiry:
Working with a range of textual, visual and material sources related to the key themes strengthens and broadens research and enquiry skills.
Analytical and critical thinking skills develop through verbal and written discussions of artworks and texts. |
| Keywords | Medieval,Renaissance,Early Modern,Visual Culture,Material Culture,Bodies,Power,Religion |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Seren Nolan
Tel:
Email: snolan@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Susanne Neil
Tel:
Email: sneil@ed.ac.uk |
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