27150 - Art Laboratory (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course students will:

- acquire and develop the knowledge of technical, organizational, managerial and artistic-professional aspects related to artistic disciplines, privileging the practical experience;

- integrate the practical experience with the historical, theoretical and critical knowledge.

Course contents

Located at the intersection between visual anthropology, art and postcolonial studies, the photography laboratory aims to develop a critical awareness around the value of the image, both filmic and photographic, its potential to generate collective imaginaries and forms of identification and political and social mobilization, and at the same time trigger processes of media consumerism and social hyper-visibility.

Going beyond the realistic and documentary perspective associated with the Western oculocentric tradition, the laboratory considers 'relational' approaches to the visual dimension in which the image, rather than capturing a pre-existing reality, activates social relationships and intersectional plots invisible in its syncretic modes of production , sharing and circulation. The workshop also considers the intersection between visual  and performative practices, and the role of the image as imagination not captured or incorporated in specific media.

In the first part of the course, after the presentation of different visual approaches and critical discussions around visual art, the students, divided into groups, will have to prepare a reflection on what they have seen, a sort of critical sheet that highlights the theoretical aspects and treated visual practice. This work will make it possible to create references and cross-references to authors who have worked on the same ideas and will offer cues for bibliographic insights. These researches will be presented and discussed in the classroom, collectively, through a power point specially designed by each group

In the second part of the course, each student will have to individually develop a visual project in which to use the same aspects of the theory previously discussed. These projects too will be presented in the classroom and discussed collectively.

Readings/Bibliography

Ariella Azoulay, Civil Imagination: Ontologia Politica della fotografia, Postmedia Books, 2020.

Walter Benjamin, L’Opera d’ Arte nell’ epoca della sua riproducibilita’ tecnica. Torino: Einaudi, 2014.

Tina Campt, Listening to Images, Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.

Susan Sontag. Sulla Fotografia realta’ e imagine nella nostra societa’. Torino: Einaudi, 2004.

Laura Marks, 1999. The Skin of the Cinema. Intercultural Embodiment, and the Senses.

Teaching methods

Workshop

Assessment methods

Laboratory activity does not give a grade but merely a “Idoneo”/“Pass”, expressed on the basis of participation in the activities envisaged.

In order to be considered an attending student an attendance of 80% is required

Teaching tools

Video and Power Point

Office hours

See the website of Massimiliano Nicola Mollona