28468 - Semiotics of the Visible (1) (2nd cycle)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, students will have acquired the necessary methodological tools to observe, describe and analyse visual texts in general, and more specifically the ones which will be discussed during each lesson. Students will, thus, develop transversal skills to read and interpret works of art in themselves, and in connection to their significance in the spaciotemporal moment of their production and first exhibition.

Course contents

A fruitful approach to the human sciences is one that tends to demonstrate how many of the problems that cross contemporaneity in actual fact have ancient roots, having already made their appearance in history. In this perspective, artistic representation constitutes a true and proper benchmark: it is the "memory" of a given phenomenon and it is down to the analyst to re-actualize its contents accurately, conferring specific importance to the same visual representation. Starting from this kind of approach, the course will deal with different themes, from anthropological ones concerning the representation of “the other”, to those concerning the issues surrounding the diverse media used by art and the different meanings they channel.

Readings/Bibliography

Required texts:

Lucia Corrain, Il velo dell'arte. Una rete di immagini tra passato e contemporaneità, La casa Usher, Firenze 2015.

Victor Stoichita, Effetto Sherlock. Occhi che osservano, occhi che spiano, occhi che indagano. Storia dello sguardo da Manet a Hitchcock, Il Saggiatore, Milano 2017.

Victor Stoichita, L’immagine dell’altro. Neri, giudei, musulmani e “gitani” nella pittura occidentale dell’età moderna, La casa Usher, Firenze 2019 (in uscita a settembre 2019).

Two texts selected from the following list:

Belting, Antropologia delle immagini, Carrocci editore, Roma 2016.

Horst Bredekamp, Immagini che ci guardano, Raffaello Cortina, Milano 2015.

Louis Marin, Opacità della pittura, La casa Usher, Firenze 2012.

Omar Calabrese, La macchina della pittura, La casa Usher, Firenze 2012.

Teaching methods

Lectures, laboratory activities, presentations by other invited scholars.

Assessment methods

For attending students

Attending students will take two specific partial exams: the first, where they have to prepare the three books of section 1, will take place in the second half of the course; the second – in the form of an interview – about twenty days after the end of the course itself. In order to be able to access the second test it is necessary to have passed the first test: the three compulsory texts of part 1 make up the basis for honing the other part of the exam. Indeed, the second test consists of an oral discussion, accompanied by images and by a bibliography, which the student will choose and agree upon with the lecturer. The last four lessons of the course will have a laboratory format: the students will be assisted by the lecturer in the honing of the talk and the bibliography. Each student will present his/her talk in a congress that the lecturer will organise specially for the participants: the task of the student-congress members is also to provide before the end of the lesson the title and the abstract of the talk.

For non-attending students

Non-attending students will take a single oral test concerning both parts of the syllabus.

The oral test – both for non-attending students and attending students – consists of a conversation whose aim is to evaluate the critical skills developed by the student who will have to prove that he or she possesses an appropriate knowledge of the books detailed in the syllabus.

1. The test in which the student shows he/she is able to analyse the texts deeply and is able to insert them in an organic vision of the themes studied. The expressive mastery used during the oral exam will also be fundamental.

2. Mostly mnemonic knowledge, non-in-depth analysis and correct language but not always appropriate regarding the texts to be studied will lead to satisfactory evaluations.

3. Approximate knowledge, superficial understanding, scarce capability of analysis and expressiveness that is not always appropriate will lead to an evaluation which is little more than satisfactory.

4. Learning gaps, unsuitable language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials to be studied in the syllabus will lead to a negative evaluation.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint and other hypermedia projections; study trip.

Links to further information

http://www.dar.unibo.it/it/dipartimento

Office hours

See the website of Lucia Corrain