3rd Year Schedule
Visual Culture Lecture
Week 1
TUE
10:00 – 12.00
Visual Culture Electives
Weeks 2 – 12: Teaching
Term 1 Tuesday: Main Classes
Visual Culture Group A
TUE
11.30am – 12:30pm
Visual Culture Group B
INTRODUCTIONS &
Dialogues in Visual Culture:
(i) The Contexts of 21st Century Art and Design
1
2
What is Contemporary Contemporary Art:
Art?
Post Medium
INTRODUCTIONS &
Dialogues in Visual Culture:
(i) The Contexts of 21st Century Art and Design
3
4
Transgressions,
Contemporary
Physical & Digital:
themes in Craft
21st Century Vis
Comm.
Visual Culture Group A
Visual Culture Group B
Contemporary Visual Cultures
(Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre)
Contemporary Visual Cultures
(Noel Sheridan Room)
(ii) Concepts of Postmodernism
(ii) the Culture of the Copy
(iii) Designing our World: The Reality of our Experience of
Design
(iii) The Death of the Author
TUE
9.30 – 11:00am
(Weeks 13 – 15: essay
handback)
Visual Culture Lecture
Weeks 2 – 12
Mon: Electives
(iv) Made by Hand: skills/making/meaning
(iv) The Contemporary City
(v) Collective and Collaborative Practices
(v) Art and Fashion
(vi) Collaborative Creation: Craft, Manufacture, Fashion
(vi) The Dematerialized Art Object
(vii) Reproducing Images: Photography from analogue
to digital
(viii) No Logo: The Politics of Branding
(vii) Materialisation and Meaning
(ix) The Local and the Global
(viii) Global Conceptualism
(x) Design Ideals: Papanek and Design for the Real
World
(ix) Shopping: Lifestyles & Identities
(xi) Remix Cultures
(x) Art and Environment
(xii) Design and Order in Everyday Life
(xi) Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design
(xii) TBC
Weeks 1 - 12
TUE 2:00 – 4:00 pm
Group A (Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre)
Group B (Noel Sheridan)
Postmodern and Avant Garde Film
Philosophy Now!:
5
Art Design
Environment
6
Dublin
3:30 – 5:00pm
(MON)
3rd Year Schedule
Term 2 Tuesday: Main Classes
Visual Culture Seminars
Weeks 16 – 28: Teaching
Seminar 1
Context, Collaboration, Conflict: Art
in the World
TUE
09:30 – 11:00
(weeks 29 – 30: essay
handback)
Visual Culture Lecture
TUE
11:30am – 12:30pm
Seminar 2
Contemporary Art and
Interdisciplinarity
Mon: Additional Seminar
Options
Seminar 3
Design in the World
Seminar 4
Fashion & Textiles:
Visual and Material
Culture
Visual Culture Group A
Visual Culture Group B
(Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre)
(Noel Sheridan Room)
(i) the Culture of the Copy
(i) Concepts of Postmodernism
(ii) The Death of the Author
(ii) Designing our World: The Reality of our Experience
of Design
(iii) Made by Hand: skills/making/meaning
(iii) The Contemporary City
(iv) Collective and Collaborative Practices
(iv) Art and Fashion
(v) Collaborative Creation: Craft, Manufacture, Fashion
(v) The Dematerialized Art Object
(vi) Reproducing Images: Photography from analogue to
digital
(vi) Materialisation and Meaning
(vii) Global Conceptualism
(viii) The Local and the Global
(viii) Shopping: Lifestyles and Identities
TUE
2:00 – 4:00 pm
Seminar 6
Image,
Discourse,
Viewer (Issues
in Photography)
3:30 – 5:00pm
(MON)
(vii) No Logo: The Politics of Branding
Visual Culture Lecture
Last Week
TUE
9:30 – 11:30am
Seminar 5
TBA
3:30 –5:00pm
(MON)
(ix) Design Ideals: Papanek and Design for the Real
World
(ix) Art and Environment
(x) Remix Cultures
(x) Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design:
(xi) Design and Order in Everyday Life
(xi) TBA
Visual Culture Group A
Visual Culture Group B
Dialogues in Visual Culture:
(xii) The Art School and the Public Sphere
Dialogues in Visual Culture:
(xii) The Art School and the Public Sphere
Group A
Group B
(Harry Clarke Lecture Theatre)
Philosophy Now!
(Noel Sheridan)
Postmodern and Avant Garde Film
3rd Year Electives Visual Culture, NCAD, 2011/12
All students need to take 2 electives , i.e. 1 per term
JOINT COURSE STUDENTS should take 4 electives i.e. 2 per term
N.B. There are a limited number of places for each elective.
Student should number the electives in order of their preference 1-4
NAME OF STUDENT:
FACULTY AND DEPARTMENT:
STUDENT EMAIL:
OPTIONS TERM 1
Seminar 1
Seminar 2
Seminar 3
Seminar 4
What is Contemporary
Art?
Declan Long
Contemporary Art
Institutions
Emma Mahony
Transgressions, Physcial
& Digital: 21st Century
Vis Comm
Sorcha O Brien
Contemporary themes
in Craft
Anna Moran
No:
No:
No:
No:
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
Seminar 5
Seminar 6
Art Design Environment
Paul O Brien
Dublin
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
Lisa Godson
No:
No:
MON 3:30 –5:00pm
MON 3:30 – 5:00pm
OPTIONS TERM 2
Seminar 1
Seminar 2
Seminar 3
Seminar 4
Context, Collab-oration,
Conflict: Art in the
World
Declan Long
Contemporary Art
Institutions
Emma Mahony
Design in the World
Paul Caffrey
Fashion: Visual and
Material Culture
Hillary O’Kelly
No:
No:
No:
No:
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
TUE: 9:30 - 11:00
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
TUE 9:30 - 11:00
Seminar 5
Seminar 6
Art, Design and
Environment
Muireann Charleton
Photograph, Discourse,
Viewer
Fergal Fitzpatrick
No:
No:
MON 3:30 –5:00pm
MON 3:30 – 5:00pm
Course Title: Contemporary Visual Cultures, 3rd Year Lecture series
Year: 3rd Year
Module:
Assessment: none
Credits: none Time: 1 hrs x 2 x 12 weeks
Course Co-ordinator: Francis Halsall, Lecturer: Various
Declan Long
Aims:
Contemporary Visual Cultures. This lecture series examines key issues facing practitioners
today. This includes a survey of the key developments in contemporary fine art, design, dress,
film, material culture and architecture; contemporary criticism; issues regarding globalisation;
contemporary philosophy; and politics.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students will have an understanding of, and be able
to articulate in written and spoken form, the key developments and theoretical paradigms in
contemporary art, design and visual culture. They will also be able to locate their practice in
relation to relevant contemporary contexts.
Course Content:
Term 1
(i) Dialogues in Visual Culture: The Contexts of 21st Century Art and Design
(ii) Designing our World: The Reality of our Experience of Design
(iii) Concepts of Postmodernism
(iv) Art and Fashion
(v) The Contemporary City
(vi) Materialisation and Meaning
(vii) The Dematerialized Art Object
(viii) Shopping: Lifestyles and Identities
(ix) Global Conceptualism
(x) Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design:
(xi) Art and Environment
Term 2
(i) The Death of the Author
(ii) the Culture of the Copy
(iii) Collective Action/ Collaborative Practices
(iv) Made by Hand: skills/making/meaning
(v) Reproducing Images: Photography from analogue to digital
(vi) Collaborative Creation: Craft, Manufacture, Fashion
(vii) The Local and the Global
(viii) No Logo: The Politics of Branding
(ix) Remix Cultures
(x) Design Ideals: Papanek and Design for the Real World
(xi) Capitalism and the Contemporary Sublime
(xii) Dialogues in Visual Culture 2: The Art School and the Public Sphere
Essential Reading: Terry Smith, What is Contemporary Art (Chicago: University of
Chicago, 2009); Diarmiud Costello, and Jonathan Vickery, Key Thinkers on Art(London:
Berg, 2007); M. Rampley, Exploring Visual Culture, (Edinburgh University Press); Kjetil
Fallan, Design History, Understanding Theory and Method, (Berg, 2010)
Course Title: Philosophy Now!
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: Halsall/ Long
Module:
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: E. Connole/ T. Kinsella
Aims:
The purpose of Philosophy Now! is to unpack some of the ‘isms’ related to contemporary
philosophy and theory. Concepts such as 'Modernism', 'Altermodernism', and 'Postcolonialism' will be addressed alongside contemporary theoretical constructs such as 'Black
Metal Theory' and 'Gender Theory'; both will be illustrated by examples taken from the fields
of contemporary art, design, film, photography, and that which is conceived, more generally,
as visual communication.
Learning Outcomes: To have a good awareness of some central themes in contemporary
philosophy and theory as they pertain to fine art and design discourse and practice.
Course Content:
1. Introductory Session 27-09-11
(i) An introduction to Philosophy Now! (Edia Connole)
(ii) An introduction to the relevance of ‘Philosophy Now!’ to visual culture (Tina Kinsella)
2. What is Enlightenment? 4-10-11
In this lecture we will introduce the idea that '(Philosophy) Now!' signifies philosophy since
the Enlightenment with reference to Immanuel Kant's question ‘What is Enlightenment?’ and
Michel Foucault’s critique of Kant’s question.
3. What is Modernity/ Modernism and what is Postmodernity/Postmodernism? 11-10-11
This lecture will set scene for modernity and the modernist critique of modernity with
reference to Raymond William’s essay ‘When was Modernism?’. We will situate
postmodernism as a critique
and response to modernity by reviewing the work of the postmodernist philosophers, JeanFrançois Lyotard and Jean Baudrillard.
4. Who is the Subject? 18-10-11
In this lecture will provide an introduction to the main concepts of psychoanalytic theory with
specific reference to the writings of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan.
5. Who is the Gendered Subject? 25-10-11
This lecture will provide an outline of contemporary gender theory and introduce concepts
and notions such as the ‘gaze’, ‘masculinities’, Queer Theory, and contemporary feminist
philosophy.
6. What is Altermodernity/Altermodernism? 1-11-11
This lecture will look at the emergence of an 'Altermodern' and theories of 'Altermodernity'
through the etymological definition of the term(s), and the situatedness of discourses around
the
Altermodern within the historical present; a specific ecological, economic, social and cultural
conjunction.
7. Being and Space 8-11-11
From 'Psychogeography' to 'Romantic Materialism', from 'Geophilosophy' to 'ecophenomenology', this lecture will address the topographical turn in contemporary art and
philosophy, unpacking
the relationship of spatiality to history.
8. The Experiencing and Thinking Subject 15-11-11
An introduction to Phenomenology (a philosophical movement that emphasises the study of
conscious experience) and Existentialism (a philosophical movement that focuses on the
meaning or
purpose of life).
9. What is Black Metal Theory? 22-11-11
Black Metal Theory is an exciting new development in philosophy. Black Metal music, which
is often characterized among its followers and opponents by its ambivalent relationship with
death and
decay. Borrowing from this vitalistic investment in death, Black Metal Theory is an amalgam
of this musical sensibility and theory that, expressing a liberalist and hedonistic openness
toward death.
10. What is Colonialism/Post-colonialism? 29-11-11
Introducing post-colonialism as a critique of the colonial. We will survey a range of images
from advertising and fashion photography and objects of design to address the notions of
Orientalism,
appropriation and the colonial ‘other’.
11. The Horror of Philosophy 6-12-11
Philosophy ought to be called 'monstrosity': it is the thought of the limit of all thought – a
central motif of the horror genre. From Dark Materialism to Speculative-Realism, this lecture
will aim to
broach the horror of philosophy within the philosophy of horror.
Essential Reading:
INTRODUCTORY READING AND USEFUL RESOURCE TEXTS
Banville, John & O’Donnell, Jim, (2005) Wordgloss: A Cultural Lexicon (2nd Revised
Edition).Dublin: Lilliput Press.
Costello, Diarmud, and Vickery, Jonathan ed., (2007) Art: Key Contemporary Thinkers.
Oxford and New York: Berg.
Critchley, Simon, (2009) The Book of Dead Philosophers. London: Granta Books.
Mirzoeff, Nicholas, (1999) An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Routledge, 1999.
Nicholas Mirzoeff ed., (2002) The Visual Culture Reader (2nd edition). Oxford: Routledge.
Chris Murray ed., (2003) Key Writers on Art. London: Routledge.
Osborne, Richard, Sturgis, Dan & Turner, Natalie ed., (2006) Art Theory for Beginners.
London: Ziddane.
Williams, Raymond (1976) Keywords. London: Harper Collins.
Course Title: PoMo Feature Film & Avant-garde Cinema
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: F. Halsall
Module:
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: J. Armstrong
Aims: The objective of this course is to look at the multi-faceted evolution of the Post
Modern feature film and its relationship to the traditions of European art cinema, New
Hollywood cinema, avant-garde and experimental art cinema, surrealism, digital cinema and
the media.
The course aims to advance the students’ knowledge of aesthetic, sociological, material,
theoretical and historical elements which determine the nature and extent of our engagement
with and appreciation of the Cinema and cinematic ways of seeing and constructing visual
narratives.
Learning Outcomes: The student will become acquainted with the substantial issues within
the discourse of cinema studies. He/She will encounter and engage critically with these issues
in established contexts, will be aware of historical and theoretical perspectives, and
understand the aesthetic codes, material cultures and modes of production within the cinema
industry and how they apply transmedially in pictorial communications.
Course Content:
Post-Modern Feature Film (6 weeks)
HCLT Term-1 Group A Term 2 Group B
Wk-1 Post European art cinema & the 1970’s. The new directors of music videos &
television commercials. Lev Manovich, Bolter & Grusin.
Wk-2 Hollywood renaissance, intensified continuity, generic transformation, post-modern
indicators.
Lyotard, Baudrillard, Delueze, Metz.
Wk-3 Blockbuster films & CGI in film & television. Digital cinema. Material Film Cultures.
Wk-3 Independent cinema. Art through a Lens. Stanley Cavell’s The World Viewed.
Wk-4 Post feminist film studies, Queer cinema, & the legacy of the avant-garde.
Wk-5 Blue Velvet, Lynch, Lacan, Freud, Mulvey & representations of sexuality
and violence.
Wk-6 Magic Realism, Donnie Darko, Magnolia, Big Fish & Amelie.
Avant-garde Cinema/Video (6 weeks)
Term-1 Group A Term 2 Group B
Wk-1 1920’s European avant-garde cinema, Dada, Surrealism and pure form.
Wk-2 The avant-garde and documentary film. Art cinema and the documentary style.
Wk-3 The American avant-garde of 1940’s & 50’s. Kenneth Anger and New Hollywood
Wk-4 Underground film, subversive visions of the 1960’s. Queer visions.
Wk-5 Video art and new media. The avant-garde in feature film.
Wk-6 Art film/ experimental film, sites of exhibition, digital perspectives. Art house
and art gallery film cultures.
Essential Reading:
New Hollywood Cinema, An Introduction, Geoff King, Columbia University Press, 2002
Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmakers, and the Studio System, Thomas Schatz
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981
Film Genre Reader, 3rd Edition, Edited by Barry Keith Grant, University of Texas Press, 2003
Mythologies, Roland Barthes, trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Hill and Wang, 1957/1972)
The New American Cinema, John Lewis, 3rd Edition, Duke University Press, 1999
Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film,
Emanuel Levy, New York University Press, 2001
The Material Image, Art & the Real in Film, Brigitte Peucker, Stanford University Press,
2007
Filmosophy, Daniel Frampton, Wallflower Press, London, 2006.
Sets in Motion, Art Direction and Film Narrative, Charles & Mirella Jona Affron, Rutgers
University Press, 1995
Bordwell, David & Thompson Kristin, Film Art, McGraw Hill, 2008
Bordwell, David, Figures Traced in Light (On Cinematic Staging), University of California
Press, 2005
Bordwell, David, Poetics of Cinema, Routledge, 2007
Bordwell, David & Carroll, Noel , Post-theory: Reconstructing Film Studies, University of
Wisconsin Press, 1996
Buckland, Warren, The Cognitive Semiotics of Film, Cambridge University Press, 2000
Charney, Leo & Schwartz, Vanessa, Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life,
University of California Press, 1995
Flaxman, Gregory, The Brain is the Screen (Deleuze and the Philosophy of Cinema)
University of Minnesota Press, 2000
Frampton, Daniel, Filmosophy, Wallflower Press, London, 2006.
Jay, Martin, Downcast Eyes, The Denigration of Vision in Twentieth-Century French
Thought, University of California Press, 1994
Jona Affron, Charles & Mirella, Sets in Motion, Art Direction and Film Narrative, Rutgers
University Press, 1995
Leighton, Tanya, (editor), Art and The Moving Image, A Critical Reader, Tate Publishing,
2008
Leslie, Esther, Hollywood Flatlands (Animation, Critical Theory and the Avant-garde),
Versoe, 2002
Rees, A.L., A History of Experimental Film and Video, British Film Institute, 2007
Sitney, P. Adams, Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, 1943-2000, OUP USA; 3
edition, 2002
Tyler, Parker, Underground Film, A Critical History, De Capo Press, 1972
Vogal, Amos, Film as Subversive Art, DAP/CT editions, 1974
Course Title: Contemporary Themes in Craft
Year: 3rd
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: Francis Halsall
Module:
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: Anna Moran
Aims: This course will introduce students to the themes and issues surrounding contemporary
craft practice. Focusing on ceramics, glass and metals, this series of seminars will equip
students with a critical awareness of the aesthetic, cultural, global and technological issues
which influence and shape the nature of contemporary craft practice.
Learning Outcomes:
These seminars will encourage students to learn how to explore themes and subjects relevant
to the study of contemporary craft practice. Students will have an overview of key artists,
craftspeople and developments in 20th century craft practice. They will also have the
opportunity to critically engage with issues surrounding craft practice, thereby developing
their critical skills and understanding of theoretical context in which such practice sits.
Through their own research and written work, students will be able to undertake their own
critical analysis.
Course Content:
1. Introduction: Definitions, issues, contexts and debates
2. Craft, modernity and postmodernity
3. The place of skill in contemporary craft practice
4. Gendered pots? Craft and the gender question
5. Craft and narrative
6. Transient craft – here today gone tomorrow
7. The handmade in contemporary art
8. Craft and the gallery space
9. Wearable sculpture: contemporary jewellery and the body
10. Craft it yourself: Making at home
11. Rethinking dichotomies: craft and the digital
Essential Reading:
 Adamson, G. (ed) (2010) The Craft Reader, Berg.
 Benjamin, W. (1937) ‘Art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction’ in Lees-Maffei, G
& Houze R (eds) The Design History Reader, Oxford, Berg, pp429 – 434.
 McBrinn, Joseph, (2009) ‘A quiet renaissance: contemporary Irish craft and design,
in The Irish Arts Review, Vol 26. No 2.
 Harrod, T (1999) The Crafts in Britain in the Twentieth Century, Yale
 Houseley, Laura (2009) ‘Applied Arts & Materials’, in 60 Innovators shaping our
creative future, Thames & Hudson.
 Kirkham, P. (1998) ‘Humanizing Modernism: The Crafts, ‘Functioning Decoration’
and the Eames, in Lees-Maffei, G & Houze R (eds) The Design History Reader,
Oxford, Berg, pp360 – 373.
 Del Vecchio, Mark. (2001) Postmodern Ceramics, Thames & Hudson, London.
 Liefkes, R (ed). (2000) Glass, V&A Publications, London.
 Jones, J. (2007) Studio Pottery in Britain 1900 – 2005, A & C Black Publishers Ltd.,
London.
 Woodham, J. (1997), Twentieth Century Design, Oxford University Press.
Course Title: What is Contemporary Art?
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: FH & DL
Module: 1
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: DL
Aims:
 Attain detailed understanding of the legacy of modernism and postmodernism
in visual art.
 Acquire a critical understanding of the current issues and debates relating to
local and international art practice
 Analyse ways in which local parties, exhibitions and institutions are informed
by tendencies in the global art world.
 Further develop (following 2nd year study) the ability to situate art practices in
relation to broader cultural, social and political context.
 Further develop critical writing and research skills with reference to
contemporary art and theory.
 Establish a theoretical and methodological framework for developing thesis
topics.
Learning Outcomes:
On completing the course students should:
 Understand key ways in which art has changed in the wake of modernism and
postmodernism.
 Have extended their knowledge of the range of practices and theories
generating debate in the contemporary art world.
 Be able to demonstrate, through written submission, the capacity to relate
current art practices to broader cultural and critical questions;
 Be able to demonstrate, through written submission, their ability to develop a
critically reflexive position when discussing contemporary art
Course Content:
1. Legacies of Conceptual Art: Ideas as art?
2. Interdisciplinarity and the post-medium condition
3. Varieties of Site-specific art.
4. Art as ‘Spectacle’: Pop, YBA art and Biennale Culture
5. From Appropriation Art to ‘post-production’
6. Postmodern subjectivities: The Death of the subject & identity politics
7. Anxiety, the uncanny and the surrealist legacy
8. Installation art & ‘embodied viewing’
9. Time, affect and the moving image
10. Deadpan: photography after conceptual art
11. ‘Expanded’ Painting
12. Unmonumental: contemporary art’s awkward object
Essential Reading:
Students are expected to keep up to date with the current issues of the main
contemporary art magazines such as: Artforum, Frieze, Art Monthly, Flash Art, Art
Review. These are all available in the NCAD library. Specific readings will be
identified on a year-to-year basis in order to connect with current debates, however,
several guides to contemporary art are recommended to support ongoing leaning:






Terry Smith, What is Contemporary Art? (Chicago: University of Chicago,
2009) [A good account of the current form of the global contemporary art
world and key practices within it]
Perry, Gill and Paul Wood (eds.), Themes in Contemporary Art (Milton
Keynes: Open University, 2004) [Informative, clearly written essays on a
range of relevant themes: conceptual art; installations; video/film; art and
globalization]
Stallabrass, Julian, Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford:
OUP, 2006) [formerly published as Art Incorporated: a largely hostile account
of contemporary art that nonetheless addresses key trends and tendencies with
some polemical vigour.]
Heartney Eleanour, Art & Today (London: Phaidon, 2008) [More expensive,
large-scale survey of key themes]
Costello, Diarmiud and Jonathan Vickery, Key Thinkers on Art (London:
Berg, 2007) [general guide to artists, critics, writers and theorists who will be
useful points of reference during the year]
Documents of Contemporary Art Series, various editors (London: Whitechapel
Gallery / Massachusetts: MIT Press) [range of themed collections covering
major subjects of concern to contemporary art theorists and practioners.
Examples include: The Gothic; Beauty; participation; Appropriation; The
Artist’s Joke; The Cinematic; The Archive]
Course Title: Contemporary Art’s Institutions
Year: 2nd or 3rd Year
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: Francis Halsall
Module: Term 1; Module 2
Credits: 3 Time: 1.5 hrs x 11 weeks
Lecturer: Emma Mahony
Aims:

The purpose of this module is to examine how the spread of neo-liberalism
and globalization since 1989, has altered the face of contemporary art
institutions.

The module will interrogate how the institutions of art have responded to the
pluralizing effects of globalization with the proliferation of biennials, art fairs
and new models for art museums, galleries and artist-run spaces.

This module will also consider how curatorial practice has evolved in response
to the current climate.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students will have an understanding of, and
be able to articulate in written and spoken form:

How the spread of neo-liberalism and globalization, since the fall of the Berlin
wall, has altered the face of contemporary exhibition-making and display.

How the institutions of art have responded to these changes.

The various types of curatorial practice and their roles in specific contexts.
Course Content:
Topics to be covered will include (but are not limited to):










The Artist as Curator
The White Cube and After
New Curatorial Paradigms: The Author and The Editor
The Art Museum after Globalization
The Rise and Fall of the Global Biennial
Case Study Dublin Contemporary 2011
Institutional Critique
The Means of Production: The Role of Artist-Run Spaces
New Institutionalism and the Educational Turn
Locating the Wrong Place
Essential Reading:
Students are expected to keep up to date with the current issues of the main
contemporary art magazines: such as, Artforum, Frieze, Art Monthly, Flash Art, Art
Review. These are all available in the NCAD library.
Buskirk, Martha (2005), ‘Context as Subject’, in The Contingent Object of
Contemporary Art, Massachusetts: MIT Press
Dickson, Malcolm (1998), ‘Another Year of Alienation: On the Mythology of the
Artist-Run Initiative’, in eds D. McCorquodale, N. Siderfin, and J. Stallabrass,
Occupational Hazard: Critical Writing on Recent British Art, London: Black Dog
Publishing
Doherty, Claire (2008), ‘Public art as situation: Towards an Aesthetics of the Wrong
Place in Contemporary Art Practice and Commissioning’, in. Jan Debbaut, Out of the
Studio! Art and Public Space, Hasselt: Z33
Also available: www.situations.org.uk/research_rr_publishedarticles.html
Doherty, Claire (2006), ‘New Institutionalism and the Exhibition as Situation’, in
Protections Reader, Kunsthaus Graz
Available: http://www.situations.org.uk/research_rr_publishedarticles.html
Esche, Charles (2005), ‘Debate: Biennials’, Frieze, issue. 92, p.105
Also available: http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/debate_biennials
Foster, Hal (1996), ‘The Artist as Ethnographer,’ in The Return of the Real,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press
Filipovic, van Hal, Ovstebo (eds.) (2009), in The Biennial Reader, Bergen Kunsthalle:
Hatje Cantz Verlag
Matthew Higgs in Conversation with Paul O’Neill (2006), NDP no.3
Available: www.northdrivepress.com/interviews/…/NDP3_HIGGS_ONEILL.pdf
Gordon-Nesbitt, Rebecca (2003), ‘Harnessing the Means of Production’, Verksted #1
Available:
http://www.societyofcontrol.com/pmwiki/Akademie/uploads/Main/harnessing.htm
Kwon, Miwon (2004), One Place After Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
O’Doherty, Brian (2007), Studio and Cube, On the relationship between where art is
made and where it is displayed, New York: The Temple Hoyne Buell Centre for the
Study of American Architecture
O’Doherty, Brian (1999), Inside the White Cube, The Ideology of the Gallery Space,
Expanded Edition, London: University of California Press
Raunig, Gerald and Gene Ray (eds.) (2009), Art and Contemporary Critical Practice,
Reinventing Institutional Critique, London: May Fly Books
Vidokle, Anton (2010), ‘Art Without Artists?’, E-flux issue 136, May 2010
Available: http://e-flux.com/journal/view/136
Welchman, John C (2006), Institutional Critique and After, Volume 2 of the SoCCAS
symposia, Zurich: JRP Ringier
Course Title: Transgressions, Physical and Digital: Visual Communications in the late
20th and early 21st century
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: Halsall/ Long
Module:
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: S. O’Brien
Aims:
This course focuses on late modernism and postmodernism in visual communications,
considering the historical and cultural contexts in which the current field of graphic
design has developed. It particularly looks at themes such as consumerism, globalisation, the
hybrid and the digital, considering how the utopian world of Modernist design has been
reshaped into new and alternative forms in recent decades.
Learning Outcomes: To have an awareness of the historical contexts of the current field of
graphic design and how the utopian world of Modernist design has been reshaped into new
and alternative forms in recent decades.
Course Content:
NB This links in with Dublin as City of Science 2012.
1 Anatomy, autonomy and the human form in Art (Introductory)
2 The artist’s studio as Laboratory
3 Communication: from Astrolabe to iphone
4 Collecting & Classifying
5 Wartime Modernizations
6 Cold War Sci-fi aesthetic
7 Virtual Worlds and Mapping: from tools to companions
8 Ethical principles and design potential
9 Sustainable futures
10 Site Visit (TCD Science Gallery/ Royal College of Surgeons Museum)
Essential Reading:
Available on request
Course Title: Context/ Collaboration/ Conflict: Art in the world
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator: FH & DL
Module: 2
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: DL
Aims:
 Attain detailed understanding of key critical and theoretical positions regarding the
place and purpose of art in today’s world
 Acquire a critical understanding of the current issues and debates relating to local and
international art practice
 Analyse ways in which local parties, exhibitions and institutions are informed by
tendencies in the global art world.
 Further develop (following previous study) the ability to situate art practices in
relation to broader cultural, social and political context.
 Further develop critical writing and research skills with reference to contemporary art
and theory.
 Establish a theoretical and methodological framework for developing thesis topics.
Learning Outcomes:
On completing the course students should:
 Be able to situate their own views on art and its contexts in relation to key critical and
theoretical positions in this field of study
 Understand key ways in which contemporary art engages with context, imagines
modes of collaboration and addresses situatons of conflict.
 Have extended their knowledge of the range of practices and theories generating
debate in the contemporary art world.
 Be able to demonstrate, through written submission, the capacity to relate current art
practices to broader cultural and critical questions;
 Be able to demonstrate, through written submission, their ability to develop a
critically reflexive position when discussing contemporary art
Course Content:
1. Space, place and identity
2. Airports, motorways, shopping centres: Art and contemporary ‘non-places’
3. The art of ‘everyday life’: walking and watching in the contemporary city
4. Contested space: The representation of borderlands and conflict zones
5. The Local and the international: art and globalization
6. Understanding ‘Publics’ and ‘communities’
7. Varieties of Participatory art
8. The Death of the Author & ‘Activated spectatorship’
9. The Politics of the Aesthetic: actions, events, and interventions
10. Beau Monde? Cosmopolitanism and Biennale culture
11. Imagining the Future: utopia and contemporary art
12. The art of conversation: education and the ‘discursive turn’ in contemporary art
Essential Reading:
Students are expected to keep up to date with the current issues of the main contemporary art
magazines, such as: Artforum, Frieze, Art Monthly, Flash Art, Art Review. These are all
available in the NCAD library. Specific readings will be identified on a year-to-year basis in
order to connect with current debates, however, several guides to contemporary art are
recommended to support ongoing leaning:
 Joan Gibbons, Contemporary Art and Memory: Images of Recollection and
Remembrance (London: IB Taurus, 2009)
 Terry Smith, What is Contemporary Art? (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2009) [A
good account of the current form of the global contemporary art world and key practices
within it]
 Perry, Gill and Paul Wood (eds.), Themes in Contemporary Art (Milton Keynes:
Open University, 2004) [Informative, clearly written essays on a range of relevant
themes: conceptual art; installations; video/film; art and globalization]
 Stallabrass, Julian, Contemporary Art: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: OUP,
2006) [formerly published as Art Incorporated: a largely hostile account of contemporary
art that nonetheless addresses key trends and tendencies with some polemical vigour.]
 Heartney Eleanour, Art & Today (London: Phaidon, 2008) [More expensive, largescale survey of key themes]
 Costello, Diarmiud and Jonathan Vickery, Key Thinkers on Art (London: Berg, 2007)
[general guide to artists, critics, writers and theorists who will be useful points of
reference during the year]
 Documents of Contemporary Art Series, various editors (London: Whitechapel
Gallery / Massachusetts: MIT Press) [range of themed collections covering major subjects
of concern to contemporary art theorists and practioners. Examples include: The Gothic;
Beauty; participation; Appropriation; The Artist’s Joke; The Cinematic; The Archive]
Course Title: Contemporary Art Post-Medium
Year: 3rd Year
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinators: Francis Halsall
Module: Term 2; Module 2
Credits: 3 Time: 1.5 hrs x 11 weeks
Lecturer: Emma Mahony
Aims:

The purpose of this module is to analyse the legacy of the post-medium
condition on contemporary artistic practice

This module will interrogate privotal concepts in contemporary theory
including, ‘The Social Turn’, ‘The Collaborative Turn’, ‘The Altermodern’,
and ‘Contemporaneity’.

It will also examine how art has interfaced with other disciplines and how
these disparate fields have variously enriched and subverted each other to
create models of practice that can be critically generative of new ideas.
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students will have an understanding of, and
be able to articulate in written and spoken form:

How the vernaculars of other disciplines have interfaced with contemporary
art practice.

How artists have dialogued with other disciplines in order to question the
limits and the nature of art; and in doing so have created new models of
critical practice.

An understanding of the following concepts: ‘The Social Turn’, ‘The
Collaborative Turn’, ‘The Altermodern’, and ‘Contemporaneity’.
Course Content:
Topics to be covered will include (but are not limited to):








The Post-Medium Condition
From Post-Modernism to the Altermodern and Contemporaneity
The Social Turn: Participation and Relational Aesthetics
The Collaborative Turn
Authored Social Engagement
Art as Service
Rethinking Trade: Art after Capitalism?
Artivism? Art as Activism



Designart
Art and Architecture
Urgent Architecture - Activism and Environmentalism
Essential Reading:
Students are expected to keep up to date with the current issues of the main
contemporary art magazines: such as, Artforum, Frieze, Art Monthly, Flash Art, Art
Review. These are all available in the NCAD library.
Bourriaud, Nicolas (2002), Relational Aesthetics, Paris: Les presses du reel
Bourriaud, Nicolas (2009), Altermodern, 4th Tate Triennial, London: Tate
Claire Bishop (ed.) (2006), Participation, London: Whitechapel Gallery and MIT
Press
Bishop, Claire (2006), ‘The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents’,
ArtForum, Feb, 2006
Bishop, Claire (2004), ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October 110, Fall
2004
Coles, Alex (2007), Design and Art, London: Whitechapel and the MIT Press
Coles, Alex (2005), DesignArt, London: Tate
Dezeuze, Anna (2010), ‘Thriving On Adversity: The Art of Precariousness’, Favelas,
Learning from, Lotus International 143, 2010, pp.122-129
Kester, Grant H. (2004), Conversation Pieces, Community and Communication in
Modern Art, California: University of California Press
Krauss, Rosalind (2006), ‘Two Moments from the Post-Medium Condition’, October
116, Spring 2006
Lind, Maria (2007), ‘The Collaborative Turn’, in Brian Kuan Wood (ed) Maria Lind,
Selected Writing, New York: Sternberg Press
Lind, Maria (2004), ‘Actualization of Space: The Case of Oda Projesi’, in Brian Kuan
Wood (ed) Maria Lind, Selected Writing, New York: Sternberg Press
Lippard, Lucy (1997), Six Years: the dematerialisation of the art object, Los Angeles:
University of California Press
McEvilley, Thomas (1991), ‘Heads It’s Form, Tails It’s Not Content’, Art &
Discontent, Theory at the Millennium, New York: McPherson & Co.
Montmann, Nina (2009), ‘New Communities’, in New Communities, Ontario: Public
Books
Mouffe, Chantal (2007), ‘Artistic Activism and Agonistic Spaces’, in Art & Research,
vol. 1, no. 2 summer 2007
Rendell, Ruth (2006), Art and Architecture, A Place Between, London: I.B.Tauris, pp.1-12
Smith, Terry (2009), What is Contemporary Art?, Chicago and London: University of
California Press
Course Title: Fashion and Textiles: Visual and Material Culture
Year: 3
Module: 2
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Course Co-ordinator:Declan Long and Lecturer: Hilary O'Kelly
Francis Halsall
Aims:
This seminar course aims to explore contemporary fashion and textiles as visual and material
culture.
It aims to outline and analyse key practices and practitioners in the fields.
This will include the designer, the fashion system, the fashion media and the business of
fashion and textiles – as well as the absence of these.
It also aims to explore the diverse ways in which the cultures of fashion, textiles and fine art
practice engage with each other and with related cultural issues.
Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this course the student should:
Be able to discuss the cultures of their studio disciplines from an informed perspective.
Be able to identify key practitioners and key moments in the formation of the contemporary
disciplines of fashion and textiles.
Be able to demonstrate an ability to analyse the creative, economic and cultural roles of
fashion and textiles.
Be able to critically explore the relationships between the practices of fine art, fashion and
textiles.
Course Content:
FASHION: INTENTION, STYLE & MATERIALITY
1 ADORNED IN DREAMS: FASHION & MODERNITY
2 INNOVATING CHANGE
3 PROMOTING FASHION
4 CLOTHING THE MASSES:
5 STYLE FOR ALL
6 COUNTER-CULTURES & SUB-CULTURES
CLOTH & CLOTHING AS SOCIAL & CULTURAL CHALLENGE
7 DRESS & NATIONAL IDENTITY
8 DRESS, FEMININITY & RELIGION
9 DRESS & EMIGRATION
10 DRESS & MODERNITY IN IRELAND
Essential Reading:
Breward, Christpher (2003) Fashion Berg
Evans, Caroline (2003) Fashion at the Edge, Spectacle, Modernity and Deathliness, Yale
Monem, Nadine (2008) Contemporary Textiles, black dog publishing
Quin, B (2010) Textile Futures, Berg
Welters L and A Lillethun (2007) The Fashion Reader, Berg
Course Title: Design in the World
Year: 3
Assessment: 1 x 2000 word essay
Course Co-ordinator:
Dr Francis Halsall
Module:
Credits: 3 Time: 2 hrs x 12 weeks
Lecturer: Dr Paul Caffrey
Aims:
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the origins and history of modernism in
architecture and design. Students will be introduced to theories of modernism and the
literature of modernism in design with specific reference to European design in the 20th
century.
Learning Outcomes:
The objectives of the course are to place modernism in context, to develop students’ skills of
historical and critical analysis. This will be achieved through seminars, visits, research and
writing. On completion of this course students should be able to demonstrate a thorough
knowledge of the main historical and theoretical concepts of modernism in design, design
history and visual culture.
Course Content:
The seminars will focus on a range of topics and texts relating to Modernism in design.
Christine Frederick's The Labour Saving Kitchen will be discussed. There will be seminars on
the impact of cars on design and mass production through an examination of Henry Ford and
Fordism. The development of the design profession in America and Germany will be
emphasised.
Essential Reading:
Gorman, Carma (ed.) (2003) The Industrial Design Reader, New York,
Allworth Press.
Woodham, Jonathan (1997) Twentieth Century Design, Oxford University
Press. [see chapter 2 and bibliography].
Greenhalgh, Paul (ed.) (1990) Modernism in Design, Manchester University Press, Reaktion.