Courses and electives

Representing Visual Culture VA

Study Period 2 - March to June

Build your research and critical writing skills. You will explore:

• 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.

Representing Visual Culture: Design History and Theory

Study Period 2 - March to June

You are introduced to major themes of Western design from the ancient to the contemporary world, with an emphasis on:

• 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.

Design, Culture and Environment (Architecture + Interior Architecture)

Study Period 2 - March to June 

You will explore:

• attitudes to the human being and the environment
• cross disciplinary design theory
• designed environments and natural environments
• design and consumption
• design theory and representation.

Reading Visual Culture 2

Study Period 5 - July to November

You will examine various cultural aspects from the past 150 years of largely European art discourse. A theme that runs through this course is the permutative relations between realism and abstraction. Realism is the dominant mode of pictorial discourse in the 19th century and remains the dominant mode in the 20th century. However, abstraction and idealism constitute a resistance movement against verisimilitude during the 20th century.

Design Language in the Twentieth Century

Study Period 5 - July to November

Prerequisite: Representing Visual Culture: Design History and Theory

You are introduced to major themes of Western design from the ancient to the contemporary world, with an emphasis on:

• 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.

Contemporary Art and Visual Culture

Study Period 2 - March to June

Prerequisite(s): 72 units of Level 1 and 2 courses in the Bachelor of Visual Arts (Specialisation) or equivalent.

Initially you will focus on the phenomena of visual culture: its origins, historical development and contemporary condition as in its various manifestations.

Then you will concentrate on the condition of contemporary art within the context of visual culture - what is contemporary and how is art recognised and acknowledged within the plethora of art-like things?

Architecture and Modernity (Architecture)

Study Period 5 - July to November 

Prerequisites: Contemporary Design Theory students who have completed Theories of Modernity should not enrol in this course

You will examine:

• the development of modern consciousness
• modern architecture and the development of the 'international style'
• questions of representation and abstraction in modern art and architecture
• modern architecture and politics
• the development of modern art; modernity and the avant-garde
• architecture and emergent technologies of reproduction and construction.

Contemporary Design Issues

Study Period 5 - July to November

Prerequisites: 36 units of Level 1 courses in the Bachelor of Visual Communication

You will explore issues as they affect the graphic designer or illustrator, including:

• professionalisation
• differentiation
• historicity, modernism and postmodernism
• Neo- and Post-Fordism
• the culture of consumption and interactive consumerism
• product semantics and branding
• globalism.

Contemporary Design Theory (Architecture + Interior Architecture)

Study Period 5 - July to November

Prerequisite: Design, Culture and Environment

Find out about:

• visual and theoretical vocabulary of contemporary design thinking and practice, Tectonic Culture, theory and practice
• office-based and craft-based design practice
• individual designers
• professional versus academic and progressive vs conservative
• relationships between theory and practice, history and theory, design and cultural identity
• international and Australian practitioners
• international trends.

Australian Art, Craft and Design

Study Period 5 - July to November

You will examine Australian art, craft and design within the context of recent cultural developments. While Australian art, craft and design practices will be viewed in relation to events in Australian history and world history, you will focus on key issues and contemporary concerns.

There is an emphasis on the nexus between critical thinking, writing, discourse and rigorous art, craft and design practice.

Indigenous Arts, Cultures and Design

Study Period 5 - July to November

You will explore topics such 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 - ownership and appropriation
• hybridity and authenticity
• marketing and contemporary sociopolitical discourses.

Theory of Interior Architecture

Study Period 5 - July to November

Prerequisites: Level 1

You will analyse the interiority of buildings:

• the body and reciprocal interactions
• environmental issues and spatial practices, colour texture theory
• domesticity
• media representations.

You will research the themes of gender, and popular, social and material culture: the interpretation and effect of these influences and their integration into interior design. In the context of interior architecture, you will analyse the criteria detail, patterning, colour, ornament and lighting.

Advanced Theory of Interior Architecture

Study Period 2 - March to June

Prerequisites: Theory of Interior Architecture

You will critically analyse:

• the interiority and exteriority of buildings, and the value of the artefact
• textural and narrative representations; the relationship of the body to space, place and artefact
• environmental science and spatial practises.

You will research and analyse the themes:

• popular, social and material culture
• gender and desire
• narrative and non-narrative processes
• sound, light and movement: the interpretation and physical manifestation of these influences and their integration into interior architecture.

Theories and History of Architecture

Study Period 2 - March to June

You will explore:

• the historiography of theory

• pre-Socratic and Platonic world views

• Vitruvius and Alberti

• humanism

• representation and abstraction

• Gothic structure, construction and meaning

• Baroque philosophy

• enlightenment, modernity, post-humanism, deconstruction and post-structuralism

• ideology and meaning