This module will address key issues associated with contemporary art such as the social and psychological issues surrounding identity, women?s art, environment, the thinness of the boundary between the real and the imaginary, and the relationship between art and society.

Understanding art in terms of issues offers an expanded appreciation of artistic practice by revealing connections between the work of various individual artists that might otherwise go unnoticed. Making connections between the work of different artists is intellectually creative and serves to expand student?s consideration of their own practice as well as that of others.

Students will also be encouraged to understand the classification of contemporary art in terms of issues and themes as a problem-solving process designed to increase the understanding of works of art above and beyond a focus on individual artists. Moreover, this problem-solving, contextualising process can also be applied to students own practice.

Lectures
Online resources
Small group seminar workshops
Research seminar workshops focused on the Research Report
Writing workshops focused on the Coursework Essay
Independent study to support work within seminar workshops

Bishop, Claire. 2005. Installation art: a Critical History. Tate, London, 2005.
Bolton, Richard. 1989. The Contest of Meaning : Critical Histories of Photography. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Bourriaud, Nicolas. 1998. Relational Aesthetics. Dijon: Les presses du reel.
Dean, Tacita, and Jeremy Millar. 2005. Place. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson.
Greene, Rachel. 2004. Internet art, World of art. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson.
Grosenick, Uta, Burkhard Riemschneider, Lars Bang Larsen eds. 1999. Art at the Turn of the Millennium. Cologne: Taschen.
Grosenick, Uta, Burkhard Riemschneider eds. 2002. Art Now: 137 artists at the rise of the new millennium. Cologne: Taschen.
Kwon, Miwon. 2002. One Place after Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
Paul, Christiane. 2003. Digital art, World of art. London; New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson.
Parker, R; Pollock G. 1987. Framing Feminism: Art and the Women's Movement. London: Pandora.
Rush, Michael. 2003. Video art. New York: Thames & Hudson.
Steiner, Barbara; Yang, Jun. 2004. Autobiography. London: Thames & Hudson.
Wallis, Brian, ed. 1984. Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation. New York: The New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Data projector
Slide projector
Audio, VHS, DVD playback,
Room with blackout
Library
Slide library
Student word-processing facilities
Internet access

The Research Report consists of a portfolio of visual and textual information collected and collated by the student [Learning Outcomes 1,2,3]
A 1600 word illustrated and properly referenced essay based on material gathered in the Research Report [Learning Outcomes 1,2,3,4,5]