SOC30690

This module examines the dynamics, roles and politics of culture, art and creative agency in the reproduction and transformation of society. It focuses on the ways art and artists respond to, dismantle and reimagine beyond the discursive and institutional formations that construct difference as ‘problematic’, and the injustices they give rise to.

We will critically explore art, artists, art practices and art institutions
(1) as subjects of research (ie., as forms of political and cultural production that reflect the workings of the social world);
(2) as acts, instigators and spaces of political intervention (which are, themselves, implicated in the global colonial histories of modernity), and the ways they play out in the contemporary politics of voice, representation and participation;
(3) as forms, producers and sites of inquiry – how, like other forms of 'research', art practices involve processes of social engagement, analysis and critique.

This is an EMPIRICALLY and PRACTICE-BASED module that interrogates the relationships and tensions between knowledge, aesthetics and pedagogy through examination of ground-breaking works of art and scholarship across a range of pressing social justice issues and national contexts.

It is interdisciplinary, convening readings from sociology, anthropology, art history and social movement studies. Course materials are gathered across theoretical traditions of feminism, Black, indigenous and queer studies, as well as post-colonial and decolonial studies. There is no ‘textbook’ or singular approach to this area of study.

Coursework will require equal measures of weekly scholarly and weekly ARTS-BASED work: it will involve a variety of exercises using a range of visual art techniques, and students are welcome to experiment with sonic and performative practices for the final project if they so choose. Completing work on a weekly basis will be essential.

Students do not need to have prior arts experience or skills, and will not be graded on the basis of perceived 'artistic' or 'creative' 'abilities' (we are all creative!), but will be expected to take a few risks and 'have a go' with modes of critical exploration, analysis and learning that may be seen as 'unconventional' and unfamiliar.