Undergraduate Common Curriculum
Overview
The Centre for Ideas common curriculum was established in 2001 as an affirmation of the principle of collaborative arts practice and research in the 21st Century. Common curriculum subjects are undertaken at undergraduate level. These subjects are part of all undergraduate degrees, and their descriptions are also available in your individual undergraduate course page.
Description
The VCA is committed to providing a course of study that advances both specialist arts practice and offers a broad educational program. The common curriculum is designed to enable students to consider the arts within larger social, political and cultural contexts. The close relationship between intensive specialist arts training and critical studies reflects the College's commitment to artists who are highly skilled and culturally and technologically literate.
The VCA is committed to offering interested students access to new technologies that are increasingly becoming part of the contemporary arts world. Subjects provide undergraduate students with formal opportunities for interdisciplinary arts practice and for exploring ideas and values that inform contemporary arts practice. In their final year students undertake professional studies to develop an understanding of the economic and organisational realities of the arts industry.
The Centre for Ideas common curriculum enhances School-based programs. Students encounter teaching staff from across the College, fellow students and visiting guest artists, academics and thinkers.
The Centre's program has two main objectives:
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To offer each student the opportunity to enhance his or her critical, analytical, research, literacy and presentation skills.
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To offer each student the opportunity for cross-disciplinary collaborative encounters and practice.
Student Commitment
Bachelor degree candidates are required to undertake 12.50 credit points (or 12.50%) of the total 300 credit points from the common curriculum in each year of study for successful completion of a three year undergraduate degree.
Subjects by Year
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Subjects
Year 1
| Credit Points: | 6.25 |
|---|---|
| Contact hours: | 2 hours per week |
| Supervised Studio hours: | 5 hours per week including class preparation |
| Semester: | Semester 1 |
Subject description:
Part 1: Ideas and Interpretations
This subject is to be taken in conjunction with 754-130—The Artist in the World (Part 2) in Semester 2.
The subject will introduce students to the key themes and ideas central to all performing and visual arts as interpreted by artists, philosophers and theorists.
This subject is offered as a weekly lecture and tutorial program.
We will proceed by looking at how these various themes inform processes and practices within and across art forms. Starting with Ideas and Interpretations which form points of intersection between the visual and performing arts we will explore pedagogical practices currently employed at the Faculty, as well as analyse some of the technical, aesthetic and conceptual frameworks applied in the development of creative works. We will investigate the influences of various historical and contemporary contexts on the application and interpretation of these themes. In addition we will examine the possibilities for research in and through the arts leading to new modes of representation and the creation of new knowledge.
A range of international and local visual artists, musicians, writers, directors, designers, composers, choreographers, performers, and filmmakers will present lectures about their own work that may coincide with the week’s tutorial topic.
The weekly tutorial readings provide a theoretical context for analysing selected themes found in contemporary practice. During tutorial discussions, students will be encouraged to speculate and reflect upon the relationship between ideas encountered in the lectures, tutorials and readings, and their own studio practice.
Semester 1, 2009
Lecture program
Wednesdays, 9.30 -10.30 am Federation Hall
18 February Welcome and Introduction to the Artist in the World
25 February Rodney Hall (novelist and playwright)
4 March Kristy Edmunds (Head of the School of Performing Arts)
11 March Mike Daisy (collaborative commons and on-line networks)
18 March Master Liu ( martial arts, movement and meditation)
25 March Joanne and Stuart Favilla (musical instrument makers)
1 April Paul Cox (filmmaker)
8 April Daniel Cramer (Berlin based visual artist)
15 April Easter Break (no lecture)
22 April Leisa Shelton (performance and theatre making)
29 April Barbara Campbell (visual artist)
6 May Clem Martini (Head of Drama, Calgary University) tbc
13 May Film festival
Objectives:
On completion of the Artist in The World subject students should be able to:
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identify key issues in contemporary cultural practice;
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acquire a critical vocabulary and refine written and verbal communication skills;
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develop an appreciation of the social and historical context of creative work;
-
develop the ability to critically analyse and evaluate discourses and performances in contemporary arts practice; and
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develop a more reflective approach towards their practice and across disciplines.
Assessment:
Students must satisfactorily complete written work of 2,000 words or its equivalent and undertake active participation in tutorials to successfully complete the subject. Intellectual journal - 15 pages (45%); theoretical investigation - 800 words (30%); tutorial participation (25%). Hurdle requirement - 80% attendance.
Time Commitment:
5 hours per week including class preparation
Prescribed Texts:
Artist in the World Reader - Ideas and Interpretations (purchase from Student and Academic Services Unit)
| Credit Points: | 6.25 |
|---|---|
| Mode of Delivery: | weekly 1 hour lecture and weekly 1 hour tutorial |
| Contact hours: | 2 hours per week |
| Supervised Studio hours: | 5 hours per week incl preparation assessment tasks |
| Semester: | Semester 2 |
Subject description:
The Artist in the World, part 2: Keywords in the Arts and Society, introduces students to a number of keywords which appear in contemporary debates on art and society. These debates make use of concepts drawn from within the arts but also from other disciplines including psychoanalysis, philosophy, anthropology, visual design, law, cultural theory and the sciences. Students are encouraged to gain awareness of the variety of ways in which words are used, and ideas and values constructed in these disciplines.
Lecture Program
Semester 2, 2009
July 15 – Martin Ng – Cardiologist, genetic researcher and turntable improviser
July 22 – Phillip Adams – Choreographer and director Ballet Lab
July 29 – Danius Kesminas – Visual artist and musician and all around crazed genius
August 5 – J.Hillis Miller – Theorist and critic
August 12 – Robin Fox – Electronic Musician and laser artist – Robin will perform a piece for computer and lasers
August 19 – Marco Fusinato – Visual artist and sound installation artist
August 26 – Maureen Gardner – Head of the School of Production at VCAM
September 2 – Kevin Murray – Curator and writer, ex director of Craft Victoria and current director of the South Project
September 9 – Deborah Cheetham – Indigenous opera singer, actor, author and program manger of the Willin Centre VCAM
Break: September 14
September 23 – Greg Burgess – Architect
September 30 – The Film Festival – curated by the CFI tutors
October 7 – Student presentations
Objectives:
On completion of the Artist in The World subject students should be able to:
- identify key issues in contemporary cultural practice;
- acquire a critical vocabulary and refine written and verbal communication skills;
- develop an appreciation of the social and historical context of creative work;
- develop the ability to critically analyse and evaluate discourses and performances in contemporary arts practice;and,
- develop a more reflective approach towards their practice and across disciplines.
Assessment:
Students must satisfactorily complete assessment to pass part 2 of the subject. Students are required to complete written work of 2,000 words or its equivalent and undertake active participation in tutorials for each component to successfully complete the subject. Intellectual journal – 15 pages (45%); critical investigation - 800 words (30%); tutorial participation (25%). Hurdle requirement - 80% attendance.
Time Commitment:
5 hours per week incl preparation assessment tasks
Prescribed Texts:
Artist in the World Reader from the Student and Academic Service Unit
Also you can download the subject handout here
Year 2
| Credit Points: | 6.25 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | These seminars are offered at second year level. Second year students attend one x 2 hour seminar per week each semester from an available pool of approximately 12 seminar subjects. Seminars are held once a week and most seminars from semester one are repeated in second semester. |
| Mode of Delivery: | weekly seminar |
| Contact hours: | 2 hour seminar per week in each semester |
| Semester: | Both Semesters |
Subject description:
WORLD IN THE ARTIST 2B
SEMESTER TWO, 2009
Please check your University email for information on how to enrol in one of the seminars listed below for semester two.
CLASSES BEGIN EITHER THURSDAY 16 JULY OR FRIDAY 17 JULY - PLEASE CHECK THE DAY AND TIME OF THE SEMINAR THAT YOU HAVE ENROLLED IN.
EAST/ WEST: PART 1
David Shea
Fridays: 2.00pm-4.00pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
This seminar is an in-depth look at the traditional divide between the cultures, philosophies, perceptions and approaches to the body in Eastern and Western models. Themes explored include scientific and spiritual cosmologies, eastern and western medicine, evolutionary ideas and creation stories, eastern and western architecture, rationality and meditation, martial arts and body enhancement, anatomical and holistic bodies, and mysticism.
There will be a strong concentration on current research in fields relating to the communication between traditional opposites such as quantum physics and its relation to spiritual views of time and space, art, music and literature, as well as medical research into meditation
and martial arts.
Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
SUBVERSIVE FILM IN ART
Oren Ambarchi
Thursdays 4pm-6pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
This seminar will introduce how aesthetic, sexual, and ideological subversives have used one of the most powerful art forms of our day to exchange or manipulate our conscious and unconscious, demystify visual taboos, destroy dated cinematic forms, and undermine existing value systems and institutions.
This subversion of form is illuminated by a detailed examination of films from Oren's collection including many rarely seen, or never released works. Avant-garde, underground, independent and exceptional commercial films will be viewed in their entire duration on a weekly basis followed by a group discussion and analysis.
*Please not that it not necessary to have attended this subject in the first semester. Additionally, none of the films screened in the first will be repeated in 2nd semester.
Assignment/Assessment:
Students will be required to submit a 1500 word written research assignment investigating one of the films viewed in the course or a film of their choice that relates to the ideas and topics discussed in the seminar.
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
THE HIDDEN LINKS OF THE AVANT-GARDE & POPULAR CULTURE
Oren Ambarchi
Fridays 11am-1pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
Pop and the avant-garde represent the cultural contradiction of late capitalism, the contradiction that has no dialectic. Pop music for example, has a mass audience, but its domination by the commodity form usually fosters "stupidity in listening". The avant-garde has the imagination to challenge passivity and stupidity, but usually addresses itself only to the art world. Is it possible to overcome the contradiction between the mass-market pop world and the avant-garde?
This course endeavours to explore the parallel worlds of pop and the avant garde and reveal how these contradictory cultural worlds have borrowed from each other and transgressed the rigid boundaries separating "high" and "low" culture to form secret and friendly alliances.
Assignment/Assessment:
Students are required to do a project researching a historical work, artist or movement that has ties to both the avant-garde and pop culture. This project has 2 requirements:
1. Each student will give a presentation of their project to the class
2. Each student will submit a written assignment of 1500 words reflecting their investigation
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
BODIES OF WAR IN ART AND PERFORMANCE
Adam Broinowski
Fridays 11am-1pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
This seminar provides views from the body in war through key samples of 20th century political performance and art. Artists have long recorded, reflected and reacted to the terror, cruelty, and pathos of war. But since the First World War, shocked out of their preconception that civilization had advanced beyond barbarity, influential artists opposed war by rupturing the way it was represented.
In providing a surface to touch to become critically aware of the burning lava of fear, joy and pride in war, artists over this century (Dix/Grosz/Hoch/Heartfield, Artaud/Brecht, Lanzmann/Ibuse, Hijikata/ Schneeman/The Living Theatre/Oshima, La Fura dels Baus/Dead Kennedys/Godard, Morris/Fairey/Banksy to name a few!) have often been uncomfortably out of place, exiles in their own societies while addressing the theme of war. What does the study of this violence and conflict through philosophy, art, performance and war documentary reveal? Is war ‘natural’?
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
DIALOGUE WRITING
Raimondo Cortese
Fridays 2pm-4pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
The seminar focuses on writing dialogue and scenes for theatre, film or TV. The work involves a direct and intensive exploration of the written material. The focus is on action, on what words do (to the performer speaking and being spoken to).
Dramatic dialogue is dynamic – it inspires change. Students are encouraged to treat their dialogues as verbal creations, to be spoken out then written, without censoring or judging what happens. A series of simple exercises are used to allow the students to focus on action.
The aim is to not ‘interpret’ or ‘shut down’ the dialogue, but to instead focus on the complex reality of what is actually happening between people rather than what is literally happening. From there we discover where rewriting is required. We will also be exploring dialogues from theatre and film classics.
Assignment/Assessment:
By the end of the seminar participants will be required to hand in their written material. This can be a short play, film or TV script or a series of dialogues that defy strict categorisation.
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
PROTEST AND SURVIVE: OR DO PROTEST SONGS DREAM OF iTUNE SALES?
Elliot Howard
Fridays 2pm - 4pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
In this seminar we will investigate both historical and contemporary forms of protest and pose the question – what place does protesting have in contemporary artistic and political practices? We will explore a range of material and disciplines including current Melbourne based protest movements and actions, popular music, film, art, current affairs, economics, climate change and theoretical perspectives.
We will look at recent G8, Mayday and anti war protests, the films of Jean-Luc Godard, the Situationist movement, the events of May 68, the Hornsey School of Art and Byam Shaw School of Art sit-ins (1968 and 2009), the Baader-Meinhoff group, the Gorilla Girls and graffiti on Melbourne’s streets and laneways. We will place protest in the context of Generation Y’s first recession, the Global Financial Crisis and impending climate catastrophe.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
MASHIT: SOUND AND VIDEO ART
Bruce Mowson
Fridays 11am-1pm
Noise, mash-ups, soundscapes, video art, music-videos, electronic music, minimalisms, sound art: these and many more are sub-genre’s that can be produced using analogue and digital sound and video. In this seminar, we will be working in the computer lab to create any and or all of the above. In class, a range of topics and techniques will be introduced, including audio-visual theory, soundtrack creation, video installation, collage and appropriation, critical listening and looking.
Ultimately, we will be working toward a screening, performance or presentation at the end of the semester. Submission requirements will include a short written assignment and sound and/or video works.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
SENSORAMA: MULTI-DISCIPLINARY INSTALLATION AND PERFORMANCE
Bruce Mowson
Fridays 2pm-4pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
In the first semester, we explored the way we use our senses in our art, and thought about distinctions between perception, thought and memory. In this semester we extend these explorations, and look at new material from Film, psychoanalysis, Media art, Installation Art and Happenings. We will continue exploring the senses through exercises such as the blind walk, and will actively explore possibilities for cross-disciplinary collaboration.
We will be working toward an installation/performance event and catalogue, coordinated by students, at the end of semester. Submission requirements will include a short written assignment and an artwork.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
ZEN PAINTING AND POETRY
Professor Richard Perry
Fridays 11am-1pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
This course will introduce students to major painters and poets within the Chinese and Japanese traditions of Zen Buddhist art. Topics to be discussed include Buddhism vs. Zen Buddhism, form and emptiness, spontaneity and control, tradition and iconoclasm, heroes and swagmen, silence and sound, the brush as sword, and Zen in modern art.
The influence of Zen Buddhist aesthetics on ceramics and garden design will also be discussed. Students will be expected to participate freely in seminar discussions, and assessed assignments will include one haiku poem, one brief essay, and one short quiz.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
‘DO IT’
Elizabeth Presa
Fridays 2pm-4pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
‘Do it’ famously began as a discussion between artists Christian Boltanski and Bertrand Lavier, and writer and curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, in 1993 at the Café
Select in Paris. Their discussion focused on the use of written instructions to make works of art in an effort to observe the effects of translation. They were interested in how written instructions from artists could function like musical scores, which go though countless variations and interpretations each time they are performed. ‘Do it’ has been staged in over 45 museums around the world.
The Centre for Ideas ‘do it’ project is presented in collaboration with Hans Ulrich Obrist. This year ‘do it’ focuses on art and philosophy. Eminent philosophers have been invited to write ‘do it’ instructions. Participating philosophers include Jean-Luc Nancy, Julia Kristeva, Alexander Garcia Duttmann, Daniel Birnbaum
(Director of the 2009 Venice Biennale), Andrew Benjamin, Peter Singer as well as Beijing based philosophers. Students from the Central Academy of Fine Art Beijing (CAFA), China’s leading art college, will participate in the exhibition.
The outcomes of your ‘translations’ will form the 2009 ‘do it’ exhibition at the George Paton Gallery 5 – 16 October
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
EAST/WEST: Part 2
David Shea
Thursday 4pm-6pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
This seminar is an in-depth look at the traditional divide between the
cultures, philosophies, perceptions and approaches to the arts in
Eastern and Western models. Themes explored include scientific and
spiritual cosmologies, eastern and western medicine, evolutionary ideas
and creation stories, eastern and western architecture, rationality and
meditation, martial arts and body enhancement, anatomical and holistic
bodies, and mysticism.
In this second semester we will explore, in depth, aspects of subjects we covered in the first semester. We will also investigate many new areas, with a shift in focus towards presentations, both by my self and the students. My presentations, which will be the first hour of every week, will concentrate on the arts and in particular the visual arts, performance and music in traditional cultures all round the world and the religious, scientific and mythological philosophies, which form the roots of these cultures. It is not necessary to have done the first semester of East West to be a part of this seminar as we will be covering almost all new ground and re-visiting some of the first semester concepts in new contexts.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
DIALOGUES WITHIN INVISIBLE CITIES
Leisa Shelton
Fridays 2pm-4pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
Investigations into the evolving cross fertilisations within and between the languages of architecture, theatre, philosophy, the culinary arts, science and curatorial practice – to name but a few!
If Gay Bilson, William Forsyth, John Zorn, Peter Greenaway, Sophie Calle, Helene Cixous and Gordon Matta-Clarke were guests at our dinner table, what kind of conversations might emerge?
This series of seminars will introduce students to a variety of processes developed by leading practitioners, working beyond the parameters of their specific disciplines to redefine both their practice and the way we experience the world through the encounters with their work.
Assignment/Assessment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
THE ART OF DESIRE: PSYCHOANALYTIC AESTHETICS
Dr Ashley Woodward
Fridays 11am-1pm
Subject/Seminar Description:
For roughly a century now, psychoanalysis has been a major force of influence in the arts, both in practice and criticism. This subject introduces and explores a variety of different psychoanalytic perspectives on art, as well as the relations between psychoanalysis, art, and politics. It will focus on the ideas of four major theorists: the psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, and the philosophers Jean-François Lyotard and Slavoj Zizek.
The seminar will also consider the ways psychoanalysis has been taken up by artists (for example, in surrealism), and how it has impacted on politics and culture. It will introduce key ideas in psychoanalytic theory, such as libido; the unconscious; phantasy; the uncanny; the symbolic, the imaginary, and the real; the figural; and so on.
It will also look at the application of psychoanalytic theory to a variety of art forms, including painting, cinema, and music, and consider the politics of public space in relation to how desire circulates through advertising, stencil art, and graffiti.
Assessment/Assignment:
Contribution and participation in seminar discussion 25%
Total written work or equivalent project comprising 1500 words 75%
Hurdle requirement: 80% attendance
Objectives:
On completion of World in the Artist seminar subjects students should be able to:
- demonstrate and analyse the philosophical and methodological basis of creative research activity;
- exhibit insight into the relationship between key theoretical concepts and original creative practice;
- exercise knowledge of highly specialised disciplinary practice and methodology;
- recognise the significance of research in creative work;
- develop a framework for addressing future inter-disciplinary research projects;
- demonstrate analytic skills and the ability to communicate complex concepts;
- exhibit lucid verbal and written communication skills and fluency within the student’s own practice and across other disciplines;
- develop a sense of individual perspective; and
- demonstrate familiarity with recent cultural debates and new cultural practices.
Time Commitment:
6 hours per week
Year 3
| Credit Points: | 6.25 |
|---|---|
| Mode of Delivery: | weekly seminar/workshop |
| Contact hours: | 2 hours per week |
| Supervised Studio hours: | 6 hours per week including class preparation |
| Semester: | Semester 1 |
Subject description:
Through the process of group building activities in tutorial settings, students will form collaborative groups and project ideas reflective of the diversity of disciplines. Additionally, throughout the course students will develop their project ideas through various forms of online collaboration including blogging, forum discussions, bulletin board postings as well as responding to collaborative work as it is developed and posted online.
Subject Coordinator - Alex Gibson
Seminar/ lecture Program
Friday 9.30-11.30am Art Auditorium
FEBRUARY 20, 27, MARCH 6, 13, 20, 27, APRIL 3, 24, MAY 1, 8.
Objectives:
On completion of the Collaborative Contract subject students should be able to:
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demonstrate confidence in their ability to initiate cross-disciplinary collaborative practice;
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develop cooperative approaches and exercise leadership skills;
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display critical, reflective skills;
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demonstrate the ability to work in an inclusive manner;
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gain confidence that insight is found in the creative process;
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recognise the cumulative and complex ways in which knowledge is formed;
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develop strong documentary processes;
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understand the role of accounting and project management; and,
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be able to disseminate information and publicly promote their project.
Assessment:
The group project must be presented before the end of the semester, to be reviewed by two academic members of staff (100%). Hurdle requirement – 80% attendance. Groups will be issued with a group mark.
Time Commitment:
6 hours per week including class preparation
| Credit Points: | 6.25 |
|---|---|
| Coordinator: | Dr Elizabeth Presa |
| Prerequisites: | World in the Artist 2nd year seminars |
| Contact hours: | 2 hours per week |
| Supervised Studio hours: | 6 hours per week |
| Semester: | Semester 2 |
Subject description:
This subject will provide an integrated and generic introduction to the key issues and skills necessary to enhance a student’s artistic career. The aim is to develop a base upon which all students can build their own specialist skills. This subject will complement the existing specialist subjects on professional development on offer in each School. The presentation of the subject will be in the form of lectures by invited experts in the fields of intellectual property, copyright, ethics, small business development, financial management, taxation, marketing and publicity, and occupational health and safety. Extracurricular workshops will be offered in negotiation, time management, grant writing and presentation skills.
Seminar /Lecture Program
Fridays 9:30am – 11.30 am Federation Hall
Objectives:
On completion of the Professional Development subject students should be able to:
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exhibit sophisticated professional communication skills;
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undertake preparation of a curriculum vitae;
-
demonstrate an understanding of ethical issues;
-
identify career management strategies;
-
identify problem solving and conflict resolution skills;
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exhibit experience of team processes; and,
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demonstrate knowledge of issues relating to personal safety, teaching aids, access to information,and financial and legal advice.
Assessment:
Students select from a menu of discipline related written assessment projects (100%). Hurdle requirement – 80% attendance.
Time Commitment:
6 hours per week