Undergraduate Course: Photographic Theory from 1840 to the Present (HIAR10098)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Since the first public announcement of photography’s invention in 1839, numerous critics, theorists, and philosophers have commented on its appearance, theorized its nature, and drawn attention to the aesthetic and socio-cultural implications of the medium. The specific nature of the photographic image, its multivalent uses, its omnipresence in modern culture, and its digitalization, all pose difficulties for the theorist, critic, and historian of photography, continually prompting new and innovative approaches. This course will deal with the ontological, epistemological, aesthetic, and cultural concerns marking the theory of photography through close readings of seminal texts by (among others) William Henry Fox Talbot, Charles Baudelaire, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, and Vilem Flusser. The course will begin by examining mid-to-late nineteenth-century writings pre-occupied with photography’s scientific/technological dimensions and the medium’s artistic status and uses, before moving on to influential twentieth-century texts focused on the social, cultural, and psychological functions of photographic images, and their ‘indexical’ nature, and finally, conclude with late twentieth and early twenty-first-century photographic and media theory that problematises realist views of photographic truth in the context of digitalization. Specific topics of close study will include: What distinguishes photography from other forms of representation? What is the meaning of a photograph? Should photography be considered an art form? How should the history of photography be written? |
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
| By the end of the course students will acquire a well-rounded knowledge of key issues in photographic theory and history. They will also have a good knowledge of the conceptual strategies and methodologies of key figures in photographic theory and will be able to distinguish, classify, and historicize major arguments in the field and relate them to a larger socio-cultural context. |
Assessment Information
| 1 x 2 hour examinaton (50%) and 1 x extended essay - 2,500 words (50%) |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Kathrin Yacavone
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: |
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