Researching Images (ARTS90011)

This subject will introduce students to methodologies of researching images and to current issues in the research of images. The subject will be taught through active discussion and joint class readings of extracts from recent significant publications within or cognate to disciplines that work with images. These texts may be drawn from art history, cinema, critical theory or cultural studies. The subject will introduce students to the range of new developments in the scholarship of visual art and culture, cinema and new media. The subject will include workshops led by visiting scholars and invited specialists who will lead discussions about their own recent scholarship. Regular student-prepared reading reports and allotted class presentations will result in the acquisition of literature review skills, advanced seminar presentation and participation skills, and in cross-disciplinary knowledge about disciplinary shifts in the research of images. Students will be assessed on the basis of effective précis, bibliographic, textual and evaluative skills. Students will choose topics based on the proximity to their own research and as well based on their exploration of cross-disciplinary content beyond their home discipline.