Art and Design History and Theory
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Linda Lou Murphy 2006, Drawing breath (Photo: Gretchen Mercedes) |
The School of Art, Architecture and Design is the only art school in Adelaide, South Australia, offering a comprehensive program in art and design history and theory studio specialisation. Students can enrich their understanding of art and enhance their career prospects in a range of arts occupations by taking courses in art history and theory during their degree. See Theory Spine, an exciting pathway offering additional features in 2009.
- Courses and electives offered in 2009
- Staff and Facilities
- Student testimonials
- Useful links
- News and events snapshot
Courses offered in 2009
Representing Visual Culture: Design History and Theory (VSAR 1102)
An introduction to major themes and history of Western design from the ancient to the modern world, with an emphasis upon changing modes of representation and meaning; the changing social and cultural contexts informing the development of visual culture in the West; the evolving language of design; some important critical and comparative perspectives on these themes. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Design Language in the Twentieth Century (VSAR 1101)
The dialectics of modernity and post modernity in design and society in the twentieth century; the effects of technological progress upon design method and content; the struggle for both security and freedom in expression within the twentieth century; key design terms and issues pertinent to the twentieth century. It will build the research and critical writing skills of students. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Contemporary Design Issues (VSAR 2101)
Issues as they affect the graphic designer/illustrator, including: professionalisation; differentiation; historicity; modernism; Neo- and Post-Fordism; the culture of consumption; postmodernism; product semantics; globalism; branding; interactive consumerism. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Australian Art, Craft and Design (VSAR 3015)
An exploration of issues in contemporary Australian visual arts as well as the patterns of meaning which have developed in Australian culture. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Arts Writing (VSAR 2042)
An introduction to the historical and contemporary frameworks of movements, schools and styles in art and crafts writing/criticism. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Sex, Gender and Representation (VSAR 2031)
An investigation of the cultural constructions of gender with a view to developing understandings of theories of representation and meaning. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
History of Contemporary Graphics and Illustration (GRAP 2022)
A survey of historical and ideological aspects of contemporary 2D design areas; the relationship between image, text and historical/political/cultural changes; identification of current influences on the making of graphic design and illustration. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Visual Art and Culture in the Modern Age (VSAR 2100)
Individualism, revolution and the philosophical notion of progress; the rise and apotheosis of the avant-garde; art in the age of mechanical reproduction; isms, ideologies and icons of 20th Century art; changing models of representation in the modern age; the art of late modernism; pop art, the dematerialisation of art and postmodern currents. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Indigenous Arts, Cultures and Design (VSAR 3017)
This course will cover such topics as the positioning and diversity of Indigenous cultures; chronology and change in Indigenous cultures; Indigenous cultural diversity; visualising 'whiteness' and representing 'otherness'; the function of art in Indigenous cultures; land and the Dreaming; museum; Indigenous tourism, colonialism and its effects; intellectual property and ethics; street art; contemporary issues, namely ownership and appropriation; hybridity and authenticity; marketing and contemporary socio-political discourses. More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Contemporary Art and Visual Culture (VSAR 3016)
Perspectives on modernism and the origins of the postmodern condition;
postmodern perspectives and the transavantgarde; appropriation and quotation
at the end of history; from representation to simulation; hyper-reality, the
body and post-humanism; hybridity; contemporary art in Australia.
More details (timetables, unit value and learning resources)
Electives offered in 2009
Study period 2:
Asia-Pacific Arts (VSAR
2030)
Meet the 'neighbours' in
'The South' and the
'East'. New encounters with art
and craft - both contemporary and traditional.
More information
Critical Theory (VSAR 2037)
Continental and trans-Atlantic theories encompassing
Structuralism and post-Structuralism; critical theory generated by
post-Structuralism/as interpreted within the Australian context.
More information
Romanticism: From Impulse to Style (VSAR 2028)
The literary and cultural origins of Romanticism; Romanticism as a
movement in art, design and culture of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth
centuries; visionary art; the literary nature of art; realism and individualism;
manifestations of Romanticism in modernity and post-modernity; nostalgia for a
lost age; the new forms of the landscape.
More information
Study period 5:
Arts Writing (VSAR 2042)
Professional and creative writing. Write for pleasure, profit and posterity.
More information
Sex, Gender and Representation
(VSAR 2031)
Visualisations of sexualities and gendered identities.
More information
Photography: Evolution of an image (VSAR 2066)
How the photographic image evolved to take over the world.
More information
Staff
All the staff teaching in this area are active researchers, writers and publishers in the visual arts, locally and nationally. The department has a number of funded research projects underway.
Senior lecturer and postgraduate
supervisor:
Dr
Pamela Zeplin;
Lecturer and Research
Portfolio Leader:
Dr Kathleen Connellan
Lecturers:
Jude Adams,
Jim Moss,
Julie Henderson;
Andrew Dearman
Facilities
The University Library houses the largest collection of art and design resource materials in the state, comprising some 35,000 books; more than 320 periodicals; 162,000 slides; access to videos, CDRoms, databases and the internet; and 12,000 prints.
Useful links
DBVS Bachelor of Visual Arts (Specialisation)
Internet resources for art history (UniSA Library): this
site contains links under headings such as databases,
online dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks,
electronic journals, professional organisations
and more.
Connellan, Kathleen (researcher) 2001-2
Opening Pandora's Paintbox:
Curriculum research into History and Theory of Design in Australian
Universities
General Art Glossary (UniSA)
News and events snapshot
Global warming has brought about a resurgence of interest in Medieval studies due to the fact that there is no Renaissance in sight. - Jim Moss
The Dream Republic exhibition was curated by Pamela
Zeplin in 2007. The image (right) shows
Heri Dono, Artist
in Residence at SASA (March-May 2007),
and artist collaborators assembling the
Trojan Horse in the SASA
Gallery. Photo by Tok Basuki.
More about Dono's Trojan Horse
Postgraduate and Alumni news
Several Master of Design students are engaged in research with a strong theoretical and historical bias, providing a forum for design history and theory dialogue (critiques are held fortnightly). Topics include spatial and illumination graphics, the role of 'feminine' Christian symbolism, collaborative design practice and theory, women's issues in Malaysia and models of the design process in graphic design studios.
The 2006 EAS Research Award for the 'Highest Impact Publication/Artefact by A PhD or Masters Student (Art, Architecture and Design)' was won by Linda Patterson (aka Linda Lou Murphy), for her artefact (performance) Drawing threads, which attracted national attention to the possible new relations between performance art and new media with existing conventions of contemporary craft and visual art.
In late 2006, Dr Georgina Downey (PhD graduate 2004) received an Australian Academy of the Humanities Travelling Fellowships Programme grant for postdoctoral research in Paris.
Staff news
2008 Australian Council of University Art and
Design Schools (ACUADS) conference
Jude Adams presented the paper
Gendering,
careers and the art school curriculum (PDF file) and
Kathleen Connellan presented the paper
Ethics in
human research: enriching understandings of participatory research (PDF
file).
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Flooded gum, Katarapko Creek, Murray River National Park 2006, 75cm x 220cm. Giclee archival print on canvas hand-coloured with watercolours and pencils. The backwaters of the River Murray have been suffering and this image of the flooded mighty River Red Gum is rare. The water surrounding this huge tree has had to be pumped from the creek. It is part of a regeneration program trying to bring life back to the River Red Gum forests (Nici Cumpston) |
Julie Henderson, lecturer, is a postgraduate of the School and a well-known artist with national and international experience in installation and performance. She performed Continuous Wave: Forms for a Dialogue at There Forever: Ephemeral public art works for the 2007 Port Festival (Port Adelaide).
Adelaide hosted the annual conference of the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Association (ACRAWSA) in 2007. The theme was Transforming bodies, nations and knowledges.
Photographs by Nici Cumpston (former student and course coordinator) were selected for 'The Perfect Alibi', Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery (Sydney), 30 Nov-31 December 2006. Select the image to view enlarged in a new screen
The inaugural core course Indigenous Arts, Cultures and Design, commencing in 2007, has an all Indigenous teaching staff and represents the first of its kind in Australia. This is a joint initiative with UniSA's Unaipon School..
Dr Pamela Zeplin presented a Plenary Lecture at the South Project's 3rd annual gathering Crossing horizons: context and community in the South in Santiago, Chile (3-7 October 2006). She is also the author of a catalogue essay for Yhonnie Scarce's exhibition Forget me not at Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute.
Jim Moss was author of 'Paranoid Critical Essay' for the Contemporary Art Centre of SA's Mentor Mentored II exhibition catalogue. This featured the work of Mark Kimber/Aurelia Carbone; Nick Folland/Bianca Barling; and Paul Hoban/Mark Siebert. Jim is the current Chair of the Contemporary Art Centre of SA Board.