Postgraduate Course: Permanent Cinema (ARTX11052)
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 | Permanent Cinema supports students to develop a critical understanding of filmmaking by engaging with film viewing as an active part of their film practice. With the screenings of selected films, students will explore the mediums parameters, possibilities, and limits, while unfolding the conditions of its experience. |
| Course description |
Establishing the experience of film viewing at its core, Permanent Cinema provides a structure to learn about filmmaking from films as an integral part of students' developing film practice. In relation to the audience's sensory experience, the course explores the definitions of film and the relation between its parameters (image, sound, movement, duration, projection). Informed by experimental, artist moving image and expanded cinema, students will experience the unique modalities of attention of the cinema space and its multiple avatars as vital sites to engage critically with films, making film viewing a transformative and determining dimension of filmmaking. Through a selection of historical and contemporary films and moving image artworks, the course aims to create possibilities for radically different encounters with a diverse body of references, connecting multiple geographies, histories, and modes of production.
After an introduction lecture in Week 1, the course is student-led. Each week, students working together introduce one of the course's selected films. Following the 2-hour screening, they engage their peers by informing and guiding the discussion to unfold some of the film parameters in relation to chosen themes during a 2-hour seminar. On specific occasions, external guests are invited to respond to or contextualise a particularly challenging aspect of the screening. The screenings and seminars provide students with references and methods to develop their skills in research, writing and critical thinking that can be applied to their future film practice. Students are requested to write texts and collect images as personal responses to the films and discussions experienced in the class which are edited at the end of the semester in a collective publication.
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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 | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, 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 2,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 14,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 28,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 4,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
148 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
1) A journal comprised of personal reflective summaries of the weekly seminars, 4 posts, and a short proposal for component 2, 200 words each, 50%, Week 7, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1 and 2.
2) A contribution to a collective publication, 1500 words and 5-10 images, 50%, December exam diet, assessed against Learning Outcomes 1, 2 and 3. This could be an essay, a fictional or poetic text, an interview, or a letter.
Students will receive further resit information as per University regulations where necessary.
Resit Information
The resit arrangements for this course are as follows.
- The resit task for assessment component 1 is: a journal comprised of personal reflective summaries of the weekly seminars, 4 posts, and a short proposal for component 2, 200 words each, 50%.
- The resit task for assessment component 2 is: a contribution to a collective publication, 1500 words and 5-10 images, 50%. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback and Feedforward
Component 1: students receive verbal feedback from their tutor and peers following their introduction to a screening and its associated discussion. Feedforward informing students' journal is shared verbally at each seminar.
The summative feedback for Component 1 feeds directly into the development of Component 2. Further formative feedback is shared verbally during the publication workshop at the end of the semester, after the submission of a draft on Learn in Week 10.
Summative Feedback
Summative feedback is delivered in writing by their tutor. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Identify resources and discuss concepts relevant to the study of contemporary filmmaking and artists' moving image practices, including their features, contexts, terminology and conventions.
- Apply selection, evaluation, critical analysis, and synthesis to issues that are informed by forefront developments in contemporary practices of filmmaking and artists' moving image.
- Demonstrate skills in research, writing, critical thinking and editing that can be applied to the student's future film practice.
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Reading List
Balsom, Erika. (2013). Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Bruno, Giuliana. (2022). Atmospheres of projection: environmentality in art and screen media. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Godard, Jean-Luc. (1998). Histoire(s) du cinéma. London: Artificial Eye.
Della Noce, Elio; Murari, Lucas (eds.). (2025). Expanded Nature. Ecologies of Experimental Cinema. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland: Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan.
Iles, Chrissie. (2016). Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905-2016. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Ranciere, Jacques. (2009). The Emancipated Spectator. London: Verso.
Ruiz, Raúl. (2005). Poetics of Cinema. Paris: Dis-voir. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Personal and intellectual autonomy: The course supports students to develop critical thinking skills and analysis for understanding significant contemporary forms of representation by relating practice to theory.
Communication: The course encourages students to participate in discussion through personal contributions and active listening, to learn from productive disagreement and to articulate complex arguments and ideas in writing.
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| Keywords | Film,experimental cinema,artist moving image,spectatorship |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Aurelien Froment
Tel: (0131 6)51 5882
Email: Aurelien.Froment@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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