DU1904 Seminar: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Visual Cultures

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2024
Extent and Intensity
0/0/2. 6 credit(s). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History (lecturer)
Mgr. Zuzana Frantová, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Adrien Palladino, M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Ivan Foletti, MA, Docteur es Lettres, Docent in Church History
Timetable
each even Wednesday 12:00–15:40 K31
Prerequisites
No pre-requisites.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
Visual studies are, by definition, a discipline at the intersection. Since the 1980s, with Hans Belting’s The End of Art History and his call for a renewal of the field of art history, visual studies have been experiencing a variety of turns and challenges going towards increasingly ‘interdisciplinary’ or ‘transdisciplinary’ outlooks.
The main objective of this course is to introduce students to the notion of ‘transdisciplinarity’ in visual studies, that is, to the various approaches to material and visual culture across and beyond each individual discipline. Specifically tackled will be the very notion of transdisciplinary studies in art history and its correlated fields, such as anthropology, social studies, literature, science, geography, psychology, theology, and more. The understanding of the historiographical frameworks behind various interdisciplinary approaches will also be addressed and put up for discussion.
Learning outcomes
After completing the course, a student will be able to:
- Understand the issues and historiographical background of transdisciplinary approaches in visual studies;
- Orientate him/herself and use the bibliography, going across and beyond his field of studies;
- Make efficient use of the presented methodologies in his own research work.
Syllabus
  • The end of Art History, the beginning of something else?
  • Historians and Images: a difficult relationship
  • Literature and Images: from the aesthetic of reception to the period eye
  • The invention of ‘Bildwissenschaft’ at the crossroads of disciplines
  • Anthropology and visual cultures
  • Ancient images, new technologies: fruitful dialogues
  • The paradigm of the ‘senses’
  • Transdisciplinarity as a method or necessity?
Literature
    recommended literature
  • BELTING, Hans. An anthropology of images : picture, medium, body. Translated by Thomas Dunlap. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011, v, 207. ISBN 9780691160962. info
  • Art history, aesthetics, visual studies. Edited by Michael Ann Holly - Keith P. F. Moxey. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2002, xvii, 271. ISBN 0931102499. info
  • GELL, Alfred. Art and agency : an anthropological theory. 1st pub. Oxford: Clarendon, 1998, xxiii, 271. ISBN 0198280149. info
  • BELTING, Hans. Das Ende der Kunstgeschichte : eine Revision nach zehn Jahren. München: C.H.Beck, 1995, 231 s. ISBN 3406385435. info
  • HASKELL, Francis. History and its images : art and the interpretation of the past. 2nd print., with corrections. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993, x, 558. ISBN 0300059493. info
    not specified
  • HORNUFF, Daniel. Bildwissenschaft im Widerstreit : Belting, Boehm, Bredekamp, Burda. München: Wilhelm Fink, 2012, 130 s. ISBN 9783770552368. info
  • HENSEL, Thomas. Wie aus der Kunstgeschichte eine Bildwissenschaft wurde. Berlin: Akademie, 2011, 299 s. ISBN 9783050045573. info
  • Bildwissenschaft : Disziplinen, Themen, Methoden. Edited by Klaus Sachs-Hombach. 1. Aufl. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2005, 430 s. ISBN 9783518293515. info
Teaching methods
Interactive presentations by the students on selected topics and methods discussed beforehand with the teacher, roundtable discussions on theoretical texts, group readings
Assessment methods
Oral presentation on a selected topic discussed beforehand with the teacher, with an abstract and full bibliography expected at least 2 weeks before the presentation. The oral presentation will be followed by a written essay on the topic (including bibliography, footnotes), integrating the inputs and comments from the oral part and the follow-up discussions.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2021, Autumn 2022, Autumn 2023.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
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