80035 Photography and the Body
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Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Result type: Grade and marks
Description
This subject explores the history of the body in photography and visual culture. What are the social, political, cultural and ethical implications of visualising the body in particular ways? Students are supported to produce creative works that question how their bodies and the bodies of others are visually communicated in images. This subject teaches students to employ experimental and playful approaches to consider the diversity of bodies and the pervasiveness of the body depicted across a broad range of media. This interdisciplinary subject suits students from any discipline. Through two practical and research-focused projects, students can develop image-making skills in various photographic and video contexts to reflect on what it means to be a body that sees and is seen in the 21st century.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Develop an advanced understanding of the issues surrounding body representations in visual culture. |
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| 2. | Demonstrate the ability to visualise the body in a way that is informed by research and an understanding of historical and contemporary body-centred practices. |
| 3. | Capacity to initiate and execute self-critique, critical thinking and iterative processes in the making of ethically engaged body-centred work. |
| 4. | Develop and apply technical skills using image based technologies appropriate to representing the body ethically and creatively. |
| 5. | Demonstrate skills in experimenting with image based technologies in interdisciplinary ways using performative methods. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Establish and develop a sustainable, informed and ethical position towards social and cultural issues. (A.1)
- Communicate an informed well-researched viewpoint. (C.2)
- Create designs that respond to their context in formally or conceptually innovative ways. (I.1)
- Advance ideas through an exploratory and iterative design process. (I.2)
- Independent development of high level technical and craft skills for the production, presentation and documentation of work. (I.3)
- Analyse, synthesise and formulate complex ideas, arguments and rationales and use initiative to explore. (R.3)
- Reflect and engage in self-critique and critical thinking. (R.5)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:
C = communication and groupwork
A = attitudes and values
P = practical and professional
R = research and critique
I = innovation and creativity.
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).
Teaching and learning strategies
A weekly three-hour tutorial/workshop combining historical, conceptual and technical instruction to guide students in producing new image-based work in response to the body as a photographic subject. Each week students will be asked to familiarise themselves with various online resources related to the week's topic; these are included in the program descriptions. They will then attend tutorials and workshops and must be prepared to ask questions, raise ideas and apply their understanding of the topic in a collaborative and social learning environment. Workshops will allow students to seek feedback from the tutor, work with peers to collaborate on projects directly relevant to the assessment items, and develop creative skills in a practical context.
Preparation in advance of classes is crucial. Students will bring their developing projects to class each week where studio tutorials will provide students with the opportunity to give and receive feedback on their projects. The tutor will help facilitate discussion and offer expert insight and direction where needed, but students are primarily responsible for the creative development of new work. Outside of class time, students are expected to extend the enquiries made in the collaborative classroom with the independent development of their assessment projects. Students are supported in these projects by access to level 2 photo media facilities. Feedback is provided throughout the session, and grades/marks on submitted tasks will be provided through Canvas or ReView.
Content (topics)
Subject content will vary depending on tasks, but generally, will include:
Explore creative approaches to representing the body in critical, creative and ethical ways.
Visual and textual research into the body as the subject of visual representation.
Examine socio-cultural and creative contexts that give rise to the representation of the body in the production of imagery.
Survey historical photographic practices that have taken the body as its focus.
Examine critical and political approaches to the body in interdisciplinary photographic contexts.
Engage with theories around the body in performance and the notion of performativity related to photography.
Survey the politics of the body in visual culture.
Consider and adopt ethical approaches to documenting or representing bodies.
Problem solve technical and production issues related to the presentation of creative work.
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Performing the Body
| Intent: | This task encourages a broader understanding of photographic representations of the body. Students produce a creative body of work that develops an approach to 'performing the body' in socially responsive and ethically informed ways. Students conceive an idea and creative approach driven by real-world issues while developing visual literacy and an awareness of the body that is far from neutral. Students can engage with representations of their bodies and the body of others to explore the body's power as a signifier of socio-cultural meanings and how in conjunction with image-making technology, a politic, position or experience can be recorded and communicated. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2, 3 and 4 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): A.1, I.1, I.3 and R.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: Fragmented Bodies
| Intent: | The ‘fragmented body’ is a concept that poses radical challenges to classical representations of the body and body norms. Many image makers use this conceptual framework to create alternative depictions of the body. In task 2, students will research and make photographic, video and or performance-based work that interprets the notion of the 'fragmented body'. In this task, students adopt an experimental approach to imaging the body by pulling it apart, looking at its parts and reassembling it to reconstitute the boundaries of the traditional view of the human figure. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 2, 3, 4 and 5 This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.): C.2, I.2, I.3 and R.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Project | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 50% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment.
Students must submit both assessments to pass the subject. Records of lecture attendance will be kept. Students are expected to come to tutorials adequately prepared. This means doing the readings and being ready to discuss them. If students are not adequately prepared for tutorials, they will be marked as absent. The readings, lectures and tutorials are an interconnected system where if one part suffers the whole suffers as a result. The high degree of continuity across the semester series means that missing one week can leave you ill-equipped to participate in the following week’s discussion.
References
Benthien, Claudia 2002, Skin: On the Cultural Border Between Self and the World, Columbia University Press, New York
Grosz, Elizabeth 1994, Volatile Bodies: Towards a Corporeal Feminism, Allen & Unwin, Sydney
Butler, Judith 2004, Undoing Gender, Routledge, New York
Danto, Arthur C, 1999, The Body/Body Problem, Uni of California Press, Berkley, London, Los Angeles
Didi- Huberman, Georges 2003, Invention of Hysteria: Charcot and the Photographic Iconography of the Salpetriere, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
O’Reilly, Sally, 2009, The Body in Contemporary Art, Thames and Hudson, London
Thomas, Nicholas, 2014, Body Art, Thames and Hudson World of Art, London
Rice, Shelly (ed.) Inverted Odysses: Claude Cahun, Maya Deren, Cindy Sherman, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.
Squires, Carol 2005, The Body at Risk: Photography of Disorder, Illness and Healing, ICP and University of California Press, New York and Berkeley.
Warr, Tracey editor, 2000, The Artist’s Body, Phaidon Press, London