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Regular version of the site
2019/2020

Art, Politics and Ideology

Category 'Best Course for Broadening Horizons and Diversity of Knowledge and Skills'
Category 'Best Course for New Knowledge and Skills'
Type: Mago-Lego
Delivered by: Institute of Media
When: 3, 4 module
Instructors: Panos Kompatsiaris
Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 48

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course looks at art in public space by drawing attention to how propaganda, economy and policy shape aesthetic and political identities. We will discuss the interweaving of art, politics and ideology ranging from cold war artistic production and movements such as abstract expressionism and social realism to recent contemporary art practices of social engagement, participation and activist art. The course critically revises the most important discussions and standpoints around the shift in the global visual art of the last decades towards expanded educational and socially engaged practices. Central to this shift is the post-1970s questioning, often coming from feminist and post-colonial perspectives, of traditional aesthetic categories for reproducing dominant ideologies and canons. Cultural production is mediated and evaluated by a variety of actors, cultural policy agendas, local communities and the public. The course will draw attention in such aspects of the economy of culture as well as on issues around gender, race, class, political economy and ideology.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • The aim of this course is to equip students with critical knowledge around recent debates in the area of visual art, including films and video clips, and an understanding of the values and qualities of cultural activities, involving those taking place in official institutions such as museums, art fairs and biennials, or unofficial settings such as various subcultures and scenes.
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • To be able to analyze contemporary problems of the art as ideology.
  • To be aware of modern theories of art as media and communication.
  • To be able to interpret the power relations in curatorial practices, cultural policies, museum concept etc.
  • To be aware of contemporary theories of ideology (post-human ideology, machine ideology etc.)
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • Art Politics and Ideology. Introduction
    Main concepts of the art. Borders of ideology in art. Art and media and art as media. Political dimension of the art. Art as a social system. Aesthetics of art.
  • Art, Propaganda, Censorship
    Relationship between communication and propaganda. Art as propaganda. Censorship and regulation of messages. Soviet system of the art censorship. Western systems of the cultural regulation. Art between self-expression and propaganda.
  • Contemporary Art and Activism
    Borders of the contemporary art. Rap, prank and other public forms of contemporary art. Contemporary art as a culture of resistance. Media and art piracy as particular forms of cultural expression and activism.
  • Gendered (In)visibilities: Contemporary Art and Curatorial Practice in Russia
    Domination and social stratification in art and communication. Forms of “othering” in popular culture. Concept of identity and main tools of identity creation. Art as identity. Social inequality and gender inequality. Social inequality in contemporary Russia.
  • Forms of Power within International Art Biennials and Museums
    The notion of symbolic power. Foucauldian tradition of power. Art as power relation. Museum as media and as cultural activity, The place of ideology and power within the museum. Museum as ideological tool. Biennials as form of cultural expression and form of domination.
  • Machines, Animals and Post-Humanist Ideologies
    History of main thoughts on machine power in second half of XX century. Techno-centrist societies. Norbert Wiener and his model of cybernetics. Bell’s and Toffler’s idea of information society. Information society as ideology of domination. Post-humanist ideologies and post-human art.
  • Art Policy and Power
    Policy in field of culture: different approaches. The notion of cultural exception and cultural exception policy. Andre Malraux as proponent of the cultural exception policy in European countries. Neo-liberal cultural policy.
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Attendance and participation
  • non-blocking Critical analysis
  • non-blocking Presentation
  • non-blocking Final essay
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (4 module)
    0.2 * Attendance and participation + 0.2 * Critical analysis + 0.4 * Final essay + 0.2 * Presentation
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large : Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, University of Minnesota Press, 1996. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=310379.
  • Banks, M., & Hesmondhalgh, D. (2009). Looking for work in creative industries policy. International Journal of Cultural Policy, 15(4), 415–430. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286630902923323
  • McRobbie, A. (2015). Be Creative : Making a Living in the New Culture Industries. Chicester: Polity. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1158829
  • Moeran, B. (2014). The Business of Creativity : Toward an Anthropology of Worth. Walnut Creek, CA: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=654368
  • Throsby, C. D. (2001). Economics and Culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=77523

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Castells, Manuel. The Power of Identity : The Information Age - Economy, Society, and Culture, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/hselibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=470449.