Contemporary Photography and Art 1

Subject is not scheduled Not scheduled

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
307ECON1 exam 4 2 lecture hours (45 min) of instruction per week, 82 to 102 hours of self-study English

Subject guarantor

Name of lecturer(s)

Contents

The course introduces framework topics connecting the medium of photography with contemporary art, especially in relation to the History and Theory of Photography 1 and 2. The individual seminars will follow a certain chronology, but mainly a thematic connection. They will be complemented by visits to exhibitions and guests. Given the open-ended nature of contemporary art (as opposed to art history), but also within the range of possible approaches, the seminar will respond to students' particular interests.

Main topics

The list of topics is indicative and subject to change.

  1. Introduction to the study of contemporary art, the relationship between the history of photography and art history; Modern/contemporary/postcontemporary; Media/postmedia
  2. Identity, feminism, queer, multiculturalism, postcolonial studies - roots in appropriation, Cindy Sherman, Dan Graham, Okwui Enwezor, Radek Brousil
  3. Curating and Key Exhibitions of Contemporary Art - Small Histories of Curatorship, When Attitudes becomes forms, Rooms, Pictures, Documenta; Exhibiting Contemporary Art - White cube, Institutional Critiques, Biennalisation, Post-Contemporary Art, Wolfgang Tillmans
  4. Conceptual and post-conceptual art - Peter Osborne, Karel Císař; Collaborative turn, art/photographic groups - Atlas, ZIP, Slavs and Tatars, Hynek Alt, Jasanský-Polák
  5. Social Turn - Eva Kot'áátková, Kateřina Šedá; Art and Research - News from nowhere
  6. Non-photography - contemporary out-of-camera photography, X Laruelle
  7. History of the Future, Repoliticization of Contemporary Art - Berlin Biennale, Engaged Art and Photography
  8. Video art and photography before the internet - Jennifer in Paradise, Constant Dullart
  9. Photography after the internet I - Marisa Olson, Domenico Quaranta, Gene McHugh, Artie Vierkant); Photography after the internet II - DIS, K-HOLE, instagramism - Manovich, visualization, corporate, diagrams, Simon Denny
  10. Realism/Materialism/Art, Theory and Photography Today
  11. Contemporary narrative photography and video art - David, Ondák, video art; Music and photography - Holly Herndon, Diedrich Diedrichsen, ontology/sound/image
  12. Archive Today - Taryn Simon, Simon Deny, Petra Feriancová, Roman Štětina

Learning outcomes

The student is oriented in contemporary art, understands contemporary theories of art and photography, is able to think about photography in the context of current discussions about technical images and is able to reflect on some of the topics discussed in his/her own creative work.

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

Required reading:

Ariella Azoulay, Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography. Verso 2012.

Borgdorff, Henk, Peter Peters, and Trevor Pinch, eds. Dialogues between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies. New York: Routledge, 2020.

Charlotte Cotton, The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Thames & Hudson 2014.

Christoph Cox, Jenny Jaskey, Suhail Malik (Eds.). Realism Materialism Art. Sternberg Press 2015

Dvořák, Tomáš, and Jussi Parikka, eds. Photography off the Scale: Technologies and Theories of the Mass Image. Technicities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.

Fisher, Anna Watkins. The Play in the System: The Art of Parasitical Resistance. Durham: Duke University Press, 2020.

Kaja Silverman, The Miracle of Analogy, or The History of Photography, Part 1. Stanford University Press 2015.

Rubinstein, Daniel, ed. Fragmentation of the Photographic Image in the Digital Age. Routledge History of Photography. New York, NY: Routledge, 2020.

Recommend literature:

Domenico Quaranta, Beyond New Media Art. Brescia: LINK Editions 2013.

Evaluation methods and criteria

The student is required to prepare a 15-minute presentation of an author, theoretical problem or other topic in the field of contemporary photography. The presentation consists of an introduction of the image material, facts, a theoretical analysis of the author's work or other given issue, and a reference to the literature. Selection of the topic in agreement with the teacher. Oral examination or discussion at the end of the semester. Alternatively, the exam can be fulfilled with an exhibition or art project of your own, beyond the scope of the regular classes and in conjunction with the topics discussed.

Note

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Further information

No schedule has been prepared for this course

The subject is a part of the following study plans