IM081 Visual Culture

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2011
Extent and Intensity
2/0. 4 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
doc. Mgr. Jan Zálešák, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Jana Horáková, Ph.D.
Department of Musicology – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Bc. Jitka Leflíková
Timetable
Mon 9:10–10:45 N21
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 150 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/150, only registered: 0/150, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/150
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
At the end of the course students will be able to:
Define key notions from the field of visual studies and know its key representatives.
Be aware of the theories used for interpreting visual culture.
Interpret a broad range of imagery according to visual culture studies (using the notions from the areas of semiotics, cultural studies, psychoanalysis etc.).
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction. Notions of the culture and the visual. A visual turn. History and disciplinary background of the visual culture studies. Art history vs. cultural studies.
  • 2. Images in culture and society. Images and power. Production, distribution, and consumption of images. Theories influencing visual studies: (neo)Marxism and critical theory, psychoanalysis, feminism, post-colonialism.
  • 3. Interpretation of visual culture. Structuralism and semiotics (Peirce, Saussure, Mukařovský, Barthes). Intertextuality (Eco). Medium (McLuhan). Representation (Hall). Simulacrum (Baudrillard).
  • 4. High and low (tradition of the Frankfurt School). Images in contexts of art and popular culture. A role of the institutional framework within creating and interpreting images.
  • 5. A technical image: aesthetics and politics. Original and copy. Truth and value of the image. Ontological and epistemical aspects of the prevalence of digital imagery.
  • 6. Technical images and power (archive, database). Panoptical gaze (Foucault) and a camera eye (CCTV, Big Brother). Spectacle (Debord). Media and mass media.
  • 7. Computers, web and a visuality of digital environment. Visual culture and Web 2.0 – ongoing erosion of borderlines between image makers and consumers.
  • 8. Representation and techniques of self (Foucault). Commodities, brands, and advertisement. Image and the cult of beauty.
  • 9. Images of space. Maps, mapping, and power. Architecture, urbanism, and visual culture.
  • 10. Visual culture and biopolitics. Imagery of science and medicine. rk / Image/ Spectacle / Simulacrum: Benjamin, Debord, Baudrillard
  • 6. Postmodernism: Overview of Postmodern Theory and Issues
  • 7. Introduction to Mediology: Media and Institutions of Mediation
  • 8. Visual Culture and Mediology
  • 9. Working with Mediology: Popular Culture, Visual Culture, Art
  • 10. Seminar, Closing lesson
Literature
    required literature
  • Sturken, Marita - Cartwright, Lisa. Studia vizuální kultury. Praha : Portál, 2009. 471 s. ISBN 9788073675561.
    recommended literature
  • Císař, Karel (ed.). Co je to fotografie? Praha : Hermann & synové, 2004.
  • BERGER, John. O pohledu. Vyd. 1. Praha : Agite/Fra, 2009. 225 s (Edice vizuální teorie) ISBN 9788086603810.
  • Mít a být : sběratelství jako kumulace, recyklace a obsese. Edited by Martina Pachmanová, Translated by Lucie Vidmar - Josef Fulka. Vyd. 1. V Praze: Vysoká škola uměleckoprůmyslová, 2008, 223 s. ISBN 9788086863252. info
  • FILIPOVÁ, Marta and Matthew RAMPLEY. Možnosti vizuálních studií : obrazy, texty, interpretace. 1. vyd. Brno: Masarykova univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, Seminář dějin umění, 2007, 254 s. ISBN 9788087029268. info
  • Vizuální teorie : současné angloamerické myšlení o výtvarných dílech. Edited by Ladislav Kesner, Translated by Lucie Vidmar. 2. rozš. vyd. Jinočany: H&H, 2005, 372 s. ISBN 8073190540. info
  • BARTHES, Roland. Mytologie. Translated by Josef Fulka. 1. vyd. v českém jazyce. Praha: Dokořán, 2004, 170 s. ISBN 808656973X. info
  • The visual culture reader. Edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2002, xix, 737. ISBN 0415252229. info
  • Representation : cultural representations and signifying practices. Edited by Stuart Hall. 1st pub. London: SAGE Publications, 1997, 400 s. ISBN 0761954325. info
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Written term paper (essay). Exam: written test (multiple-choice, approximately 25 questions).
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
The course is taught annually.
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021, Spring 2022.
  • Enrolment Statistics (Spring 2011, recent)
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