Postgraduate Course: Art: Critical Contexts (ARTX11053)
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 | Critical Contexts engages you in the field of contemporary art through a structure of talks, seminars and critical writing exercises. This course supports the honing of your confident critical voice by providing you with skills to produce independent research and analytical responses to a range of art practices, exhibitions, events and publications. You will produce two new essays, which will strengthen your ability to articulate your own practice. |
| Course description |
Critical Contexts is designed to provide you with points of entry to contemporary art as a field of practice interlinked with broader cultural debates. Over two semesters, the course will equip you with confident skills to relate to, evaluate and debate dominant trends across major galleries, festivals and recent publications. Themes of study may include decolonisation, artificial intelligence, artists' moving image, gallery-based performance practices, cultural memory and political belonging. Critical Contexts empowers you to situate your work within an international network of professional contemporary artistic practice.
The course provides you with the skills and direction to identify and pursue your own lines of enquiry into contemporary art based on your research, culminating in two 2,000-word essays. In the first two weeks of the course, you are introduced to the schedule, key research facilities in the University, as well as visiting galleries in the city. You will then participate in a series of six two-hour seminars. In each seminar, you rigorously unpack a single artist's practice, modelling approaches relevant to your essay submissions. Additionally, you will receive dedicated practical support from academic language specialists with practical essay skills, tailored for the specific needs of postgraduate students. In week 8 of semester 1 and week 7 of semester 2, you will share a draft piece of writing, for which you will receive written feedback.
Between timetabled activities, you are required to practice your writing through keeping personal notes on your independent research. It is expected this will reflect your active engagement with exhibitions, relevant contemporary art resources including magazines, academic journals, books and online materials, and the lively programme of contemporary art events in Edinburgh and the broader Scottish context.
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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 | Completion of relevant Undergraduate programme, e.g. an art-based or humanities programme. Students who do not hold a relevant qualification may be considered on a case-by-case basis. |
| 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 |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 13,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
External Visit Hours 6,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
155 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components.
1. Essay 1, 1,500-2,000 words, 40%, Semester 2, Week 1. Individually assessed equally against all Learning Outcomes.
2. Essay 2, 2,000 words, 60%, May Exam Diet. Individually assessed equally against all Learning Outcomes.
Resubmission Information
The resubmission arrangements for this course are as follows:
Students will submit to the original assessment brief.
1. Essay 1, 1,500-2,000 words, 40%. Individually assessed equally against all Learning Outcomes.
2. Essay 2, 2,000 words, 60%. Individually assessed equally against all Learning Outcomes.
Students will receive further resubmission information as per University regulations as necessary. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
During week 8 of semester 1 and week 7 of semester 2 students will submit draft writing in response to a formative exercise designed specifically to prepare them for producing their final essays. Written feedback will be provided to students within two weeks of submission, in addition to a feedforward tutorial with their course tutor. This feedback relates directly to the Learning Outcomes, to assist students in understanding how they will be graded in their final summative assessment. Students are also encouraged to test ideas for further research in the context of the seminar, where they will receive feedback from peers and their course tutor.
Summative feedback will be provided by course tutors on the summative submissions, in line with published ECA timelines. This summative feedback will be written feedback, delivered through Learn. It will be based on a Feedback Rubric, describing the relationship between Learning Outcomes and University of Edinburgh standard grade descriptors. This rubric will be made available through Learn.
Summative feedback on Assessment Component 1 will prepare students for Assessment Component 2. This feedback will be discussed individually, increasing feedback literacy and awareness of relationship between learning outcomes, rubrics and the quality of the work produced. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Investigate current developments, principal theories and concepts of contemporary art to identify a subject of enquiry and develop a focused essay question;
- Analyse and interpret a range of relevant materials to develop an informed critical response to the subject of enquiry;
- Compose a clear, well-structured and academically formatted essay that positions a viewpoint within a critical debate supported by integrated research and analysis.
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Reading List
Afterall (Online), afterall.org*
Art Forum (Online), artforum.com*
The Common Guild, audio archive of talks and events, Soundcloud page with 77 tracks, https://soundcloud.com/the-common-guild
Frieze (Online), frieze.com *
Various Editors, Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art, series of 54 separate edited volumes (Whitechapel Gallery, 2006-24)
Williams, Gilda How to Write about Contemporary Art (Thames & Hudson, 2014)
*Afterall, Art Forum, and Frieze are available as physical resources in Evolution House. This allows students to use these journals more effectively than online access. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Critical Thinking: In the context of student-led seminars, you will develop as a critical thinker through challenging discussion, raising questions about norms, practices and opinions through timely teaching materials, and making clearly evidence-led propositions through engagement with set reading.
Reflection: The seminar, assessment and feedback structures of this course ensure you will receive a consistent level of feedback to feedforward, consider your choices, decisions and outcomes, allowing you more fully to recognise your strengths, and set and achieve detailed goals for further development.
Inclusivity: The talks included in the programme reflect the departmental commitment to decolonising the curriculum, and include cutting-edge practitioners and researchers who bring an array of distinctive views and perspectives from diverse communities, e.g. seeking to represent wider society in terms of race, gender, sexuality, class, disability.
Curiosity: This course will equip you with tools to expand your research beyond course materials to cultivate your own critical voice, stoking your desire to learn, discover, create and inspire new ideas and concepts through teaching which models and supports diverse approaches to ask searching questions and adopt different perspectives.
Communication: You will be given a great deal of support to develop your skills in communicating effective meaning and message in relation specifically to artist practice, both in verbal exchange during class debate, and written presentations. |
| Keywords | Contemporary Art,Critical Writing,Applied Artistic Research,Professional Artistic Practice,Cultural |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mx Adam Benmakhlouf
Tel:
Email: A.Benmakhlouf@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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