Cultural Heritage and Creativity for tourism and territorial development

FUNDAMENTALS, LEXICONS AND METHODS OF THE ARTS

FUNDAMENTALS, LEXICONS AND METHODS OF THE ARTS

Academic year 2023/2024

Sommario del corso

• Course objectives
• Results of learning outcomes
• Program
• Course delivery
• Learning assessment methods
• Support activities
• Suggested readings and bibliography
• Teaching tools
• Course card

Course objectives

[Teaching module by Giuseppe Gatti]

The teaching aims to provide the theoretical, lexical, and methodological foundations necessary to understand the history of cinema and/as media archaeology. Specifically, the teaching is designed to:

• Become familiar with key theories, terms, and approaches in film history with a media archaeological perspective;
• Becoming familiar with the concepts of early and digital cinema with their social, political, economic, and cultural implications;
• Acquire the ability to critically analyse the different projects (museums, archives, exhibitions, etc.) related to film heritage and territorial development;
• Promote the application of theoretical-methodological skills for the management of creative projects related to film heritage and environmental development;
• To stimulate the promotion of creative enterprises with a multidisciplinary and polymedial approach.

[Teaching module by Giovanni Casini]

The teaching aims to offer an introduction to the discipline of art history. Rather than a survey or a crash course, the module will provide students with tools and appropriate resources to allow them to undertake self-directed independent study on art-historical subjects of their interest. While discussing select case studies of (mostly Western) art from the Middle Ages to the contemporary period, each class will address themes of central importance to the study of art history and its key methodological frameworks including:

• patronage and commissions, museums, contexts for display, ‘institutional critique’, inclusion and censorship, textual framing, publications and catalogues, and even actual frames
• authorship, anonymity, studios and collaborative manufacture, fakes, ‘authenticity’
• reproduction, iconographic transmission, editions, copies, prints, photographs, film, video, digital reproduction
• identity and difference, gender, conceptions of ‘non-western’ art.

Results of learning outcomes

[Teaching module by Giuseppe Gatti]

At the end of the teaching, students should be able to critically frame the history of cinema with a media archaeological approach, being able to identify and discuss its most significant junctures. In particular, they should:

Knowledge and understanding
Acquisition of basic knowledge in the field of film history and media archeology. In particular, the development of a genealogical, multi-layered, non-linear and non-teleological view of visual media history.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Be able to establish historical, theoretical, and cultural frameworks related to film heritage as a starting point for managing creative cultural enterprises.

Autonomy of judgement
Exercise judgement in identifying film history and heritage and in evaluating the most current methods and practices to be used in a particular field.

Communication skills
To use contemporary communication tools effectively and consciously. Development of a specific lexical characteristic in film and media theory.

Learning skills
To be able to independently pursue original research in the field of film and media history, and cinematographic heritage.

[Teaching module by Giovanni Casini]

By the end of the course, students should acquire a basic knowledge of art history and some of its crucial moments and historical developments. They should develop essential visual literacy skills and a critical approach to the main topics addressed during class, handling effectively the key tools of the discipline.

Students should be able to research, analyze and interpret the formal and aesthetic qualities of an artwork, as well as its historical and cultural context. They should thus acquire the fundamental vocabulary of the discipline in the English language and be able to effectively describe and characterize a wide variety of forms of artistic expression.

Students should become aware of the place of art in the cultural heritage and the important role it has played and plays in the broader socio-economic context, including creative and cultural industries in present times.

The teaching encourages the development of critical thinking in relation to major issues such as the role and ethics of public institutions like museums, mainstream narratives of art history, or the sociology of art.

Program

[teaching module by Giuseppe Gatti]

The teaching deals with early and contemporary film history from a media archaeological perspective. By revising (and extending) classical film history, the teaching retraces continuities and discontinuities in the development of cinema within the wider visual and material culture. In doing so, it illuminates the fundamental histories, theories, logics and practices of cinema’s historical emergence and periodic reinvention in the Twenty-first century.

• General introduction to film history and media archaeology 
• Early cinema: histories, theories and practices
• Digital cinema: histories, theories and practices
• Case study: the “return” of 3D cinema
• The poetics of obsolescence and film heritage promotion

[Teaching module by Giovanni Casini]

Classes will revolve around key questions and themes pertaining to the discipline of art history:

• What is art history?
• Presenting art and art history
• Reading and looking at art

Additionally, foundations tailored to the course “Making an art exhibition of modern and contemporary art” held in the second semester will be provided.

For some classes, one or two compulsory readings may be set and shared with the students on Moodle so that, collectively, the class would build upon these key readings.

The final class may be devoted to a vist to the Lingotto and the Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin.

Registration to the course is highly recommended in order to receive communications timely.

Course delivery

Classes are face-to-face and use multimedia tools. The Moodle platform is used as an integrated learning environment by uploading content that can be used in asynchronous mode.

Learning assessment methods

[teaching module by Giuseppe Gatti]

The evaluation will take the form of a multiple-choice written test. The student must demonstrate an adequate knowledge of the topics covered and discussed in the classes and of the bibliography listed in the programme.

Students are expected to:

• Demonstrate adequate knowledge of the topics covered and discussed in the lectures;
• Demonstrate adequate knowledge of the texts listed in the bibliography;
• Develop connections and associations among the topics, theories, and practises included in the teaching's syllabus;

• The written exam will last approximately 1 hour;
• The final vote will be expressed in Thirtieths;
• The final grade is the average of the grades achieved in the two modules.

[Teaching module by Giovanni Casini]

Students are required to autonomously prepare an essay of around 1200 words (excluding footnotes and/or final bibliography; 10% tolerance) analyzing an artwork agreed upon with Dr. Casini, chosen among the collections of a public institution, preferably visited in person. The originality of the essay will be carefully evaluated, and cases of plagiarism will not be tolerated. Further guidelines as well as the deadline for submitting the essays will be discussed in class.

In preparation for the essay, students are invited to give a 10-minute presentation to the class, using no more than five slides.

Essays will be graded in thirtieths.

The final grade is the average of the grades achieved in each of the two modules.

DSA students are asked to contact teachers during office hours to determine compensatory remedies and individualised treatment.

Support activities

For Students with disabilities, please refer to: 
https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-e-studentesse-con-disabilitaopen_in_new

For DSA Students, please refer to:
https://www.unito.it/servizi/lo-studio/studenti-e-studentesse-con-disturbi-specifici-di-apprendimento-dsa/supportoopen_in_new

[Teaching module by Giuseppe Gatti]

At the professor's discretion, students may be assigned additional short essays as the course progresses.

[Teaching module by Giovanni Casini]

Reference book for the history of Western Art: Ernst Gombrich, The Story of Art (1950); 16th rev. edn. (Phaidon, 1995). Italian edition available.

Select online resources: please refer to the list uploaded on Moodle.

Additional required readings will be made available on Moodle

• Teaching material
• Exams and finals
• Class schedule
• Go to Moodle
• Register for the course
• Enrolled students
• Invia email agli studenti registrati
• Export table