ARTHIST 725 : Concepts in Contemporary Art
Arts
2025 Semester One (1253) (30 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
Artworks can produce cognitive dissonance; this suggests art isn’t just there to make us feel happy and content. It also presents us with cognitive and perceptual problems (or "problem spaces") that help us to become aware of implicit attitudes and values acquired through childhood, cultural and institutional learning and through the daily consumption of images in mass media and digital culture.
In our seminars we try to unpick some of the dualisms by which we acquire implicit assumptions about the world. Some of the main traditional dualisms are:
Body/Mind; Representation/Experience; Self/Other and Materialism/Conceptualism
Art’s problem spaces help us to think about how these dualisms might be challenged, destabilised or questioned. It is important that these problem spaces can be shared between viewers and gallery visitors, artists, critics and students in this seminar. Problem spaces are good things. Viewers of art often feel they need to solve the "puzzle" of art, to find meaning; this may be pleasurable and provides motivation and purpose. But there are also opportunities to be open minded about different possible answers. This exercises our creative thought. While art presents problem spaces it does not impose an answer or solution to a problem.
Art also has a close relationship with non-rational thought, subconscious complexities, imagination, emotions, affects and sensations — all of which influence our concepts and how we might combine them. These ‘felt’ and very much embodied aspects to the art experience are addressed and often structured by artistic practice. This may also have political and ethical dimensions, both in terms of freedom of movement and freedom of thought.
It could be said that art is a vision of life as it might be. It may present us with some interesting challenges and counterfactuals concerning this vision. It often helps to produce aspects of spontaneity or improvisation rather than premeditated rules.
As the French artist Jean Dubuffet said:
"[…] the only flowers I like are wild flowers. Orderly gardens make me nervous…I feel a sharp curiosity for everything that does not emanate from man, in which man has not intervened…wild places, wild animals…and for my interest in worlds very different from that of man…As for human beings, it is also their wildness that I am fond of…I am not a great believer in the laws concerning the nature of art. As soon as such a law is proclaimed I immediately experience an intense desire to infringe it."
Henri Bergson, Sigmund Freud, Georges Bataille, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Henri Lefebvre, Judith Butler, Rosalind Krauss, Anton Ehrenzweig, Michael Fried, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Jacques Rancière, Jane Bennett.
Artists
Robert Smithson, Robert Morris, Hans Haacke, Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Mona Hatoum, Rachel Whiteread, Tracy Emin, Andre Serrano, Thomas Hirschhorn Damien Hirst, Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie, Jeff Wall, Thomas Struth, Wangechi Mutu, Olafur Eliasson, Lisa Reihana, Dane Mitchell, Simon Denny, Luke Willis Thompson, Francis Uprichard, Billy Apple, Hito Steyerl, Bernadette Corporation, Amalia Ulman, Frances Stark and many more.
Course Requirements
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | People and Place |
| Capability 3: | Knowledge and Practice |
| Capability 4: | Critical Thinking |
| Capability 5: | Solution Seeking |
| Capability 7: | Collaboration |
Learning Outcomes
- Acquire in-depth knowledge of contemporary art in a global context (Capability 4)
- Gain high-level research skills involved in image analysis and literature reviews (Capability 3)
- Gain a deeper understanding of concepts and technical terms current in curatorial practice, art writing, journalism and art criticism; students will learn how to apply these concepts to their own writing and visual analysis (Capability 5)
- Explain and communicate novel solutions through negotiation and teambuilding: key aspects of leadership and intellectual development. (Capability 7)
- Teach students to situate artistic practice and images in social, cultural, political and psychological contexts. (Capability 1)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Essay | 50% | Individual Coursework |
| Coursework | 50% | Individual Coursework |
| 2 types | 100% |
Workload Expectations
This course is a standard 30 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week
For this course, you can expect 36 hours of lectures
Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Lectures will be available as recordings. Other learning activities including tutorials will not be available as recordings.
The course will not include live online events including group discussions/tutorials.
Attendance on campus is required for the test/exam.
The activities for the course are scheduled as a standard weekly timetable.
Learning Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.
Class Representatives
Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Well-being always comes first
We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page https://canvas.auckland.ac.nz/courses/33894, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community.
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Learning Continuity
In the event of an unexpected disruption we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the University Website for information about how to proceed.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course you may be asked to submit your coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.