SANb2041 Art in Anthropology and Social Science

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
1/1/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
Ilaria Fornacciari, PhD. (lecturer)
Ing. Soňa Enenkelová (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Ilaria Fornacciari, PhD.
Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Ilaria Fornacciari, PhD.
Supplier department: Department of Sociology – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
None. This is an introductory course.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/30, only registered: 0/30, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 13 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
The course aims to offer some basic theoretical tools to read art as a relevant cultural phenomenon in its relationship with society. The program is structured in an anthological manner, and it focuses on introducing and discussing key concepts of social and cultural studies, starting with more classical ones like Weltanschauung, folklore, cultural hegemony, cultural capital, and then moving up to those characterizing the recent debate (material agency, visual regime i.a.). This itinerary, divided by topics, is aimed at showing the theoretical richness linked to the analysis of artistic practices in the context of social change and has the ambition to provoke a critical look at the present by emphasizing the sagittal relationship of artistic practices with their contemporaneity.
Learning outcomes
To know the main theories assigned to cultural systems in social studies, in order to be able to recognize their theoretical-conceptual frameworks;
To know the major historical transformations of the European art system, starting from the 19th century, in the broader framework of social change.
Syllabus
  • The establishment of the sociology of art in relation to anthropology and art history
  • The social production of art
  • The artist function and modes of authorship
  • The construction of high culture
  • Power and culture / knowledge
  • Aesthetic forms and the specificity of art in social studies.
Literature
    required literature
  • The sociology of art : a reader. Edited by Jeremy Tanner. New York: Routledge, 2003, xi, 265. ISBN 0415308836. info
    recommended literature
  • Selections from cultural writings. Edited by Antonio Gramsci - David Forgacs - Geoffrey Nowell-Smith. London: Electric Book Co., 2001, 720 p. ISBN 1843271230. info
  • PANOFSKY, Erwin. Studies in iconology. Deutschen Ausgabe. Köln: DuMont, 1980, 356 stran. ISBN 3770109376. info
Teaching methods
The program includes lectures and active learning exercises (to be carried out in small groups). Discussions on specific texts to be read beforehand will be agreed upon in class.
Assessment methods
60% Final group presentation (detailed instructions will be given in class);
40% oral examination (2 to 4 questions).
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
Teacher's information
Ilaria Fornacciari is a postdoctoral researcher at Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

Her teaching and research interests include Visual Studies (with a particular emphasis in the relationship between the historicity of vision and the cultural construction and modes of circulation of images), modern aesthetics and the historical-political notion of modernity, contemporary French philosophy, the attention economy and the critique of the assumptions of dominant organizational models.

As researcher within the EMOROB project, Ilaria is currently seeking to link discursive analysis and situated knowledge in investigating the visual and narrative dimensions of the historical construction of human-robot social interactions.

Former student of the doctoral school "Esthétique, sciences et technologies des Arts" at the University of Paris 8 and former fellow of the Graduiertenkolleg "Das Bild als Artefakt" of the "Eikones - Bildkritik" centre in Basel, she defended a thesis on the role of images in Michel Foucault's research, which benefited considerably from the philosopher's unpublished manuscripts on painting. Foucault et les images : pratiques de l'image et visibilité entre analyse archéologique et irréductibilité critique (published in open access). Ilaria has been an adjunct lecturer in Philosophy and Sociology of Art at the BSB Université Bourgogne - Franche Comté in Dijon and has been involved in various collaborative philosophy projects in Switzerland.

She has published in IMAGES: Journal for Visual Studies, Cartografie sociali. Rivista di sociologia e scienze umane and has been guest editor for Studia Philosophica, Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Philosophie.

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