The Poetics of the Body

The Poetics of the Body is a University-wide Breadth Subject offered through the Centre for Ideas to University of Melbourne undergraduates. In 2008 it will be offered as a 1st Year University-wide Breadth Subject.

This subject will explore the ways in which historical and contemporary discourses are constructed around the human body in the visual and performing arts, politics, law, philosophy, medicine and science. Within university departments, study of the human body is the object of discrete and sometimes competing areas of knowledge. The Poetics of the Body challenges this compartmentalization. It offers a wide, multidisciplinary perspective on the body.

During the Renaissance the practice of drawing upon various traditions – humanist and scholastic, literary and scientific, theoretical and practical – led to rich theoretical interpretations and representations of the human body. Much of this knowledge was framed by deep spiritual, aesthetic and ethical concerns. Since the 17th century, investigation of the human body has splintered into discipline-specific fields of study. By the beginning of the 21st century the fragmentation of knowledge about the body has dominated. The Poetics of the Body offers a unique and inclusive approach. The assumption is that the body can direct research. It is not only an object of investigation, but also the vehicle through which knowledge of the world is gathered.

Underpinning the Poetics of the Body is a recognition of the value of interdiscipinarity and the role it plays in invigorating and enriching critical vocabularies and representations. There is also recognition of the value of theory derived in practice. Through experiential studio/ laboratory, and lecture/ tutorial based learning, students will explore the ways in which historical and contemporary discourses are constructed around the human body

First, Second, and Third Year

Visual and Performing Arts, Anthropology, Architecture, Indigenous Studies, Islamic studies, English, Law, Philosophy, Politics, Psychoanalysis, Psychiatry, Behavioural Science, Anthropology.

No prerequisites for the First Year.

The Poetics of the Body aims to:

• Introduce students to historical representations and interpretations of the body;
• Familiarize students with a range of discipline-specific technical and theoretical terms by bringing them into plain English to facilitate communication;
• Enrich student’s vocabularies and to explore a range of assumptions within disciplines, eg: the “objectivity” of science verses the “subjectivity” of aesthetic judgement;
• Provide the ground for new modes of understanding and representation of the body;
• Integrate practice with theory through aligning studio/laboratory with lecture/tutorial based learning;
• Contribute to and enrich current debate on the human body;
• Engage students with culturally diverse practices and customs associated with the body;

The Poetics of the Body starts from the premise that the body is not only the object of investigation but the medium through which this investigation takes place. It explores ways of knowing through the complex dialectic that develops between the human body and its physical and intellectual environment. Experiential and experimental studio /laboratory work will be integrated with more discursive, theory based learning to enhance student’s conceptual, analytical and critical skills.

By integrating traditionally discrete, discipline-specific bodies of knowledge, including pedagogical practices, methodologies and values, into a broader educational context, the Poetics of the Body will generate new modes of understanding and representations of the human body.

• Intellectual Journal: (30%) the journal will serve as repository for ideas taken from lectures, tutorial/ workshops, readings from the Course Reader, as well as performances, exhibitions and museum visits. Students will map and connect ideas encountered in this subject to their main disciplines. The journal should reflect each students growing intellectual curiosity and capacity to link specific themes to their broader context. Diversity of writing, graphic notation and imaging will be encouraged. The journal is also a place to record the different vocabularies and definitions encountered in lectures.
• Project: (40%) project to include both theoretical and practical components . Students will select from a menu of projects.
• Group Presentation: (30%) Students will form small groups to present to the tutorial group some of the key ideas from the weeks reading from the Course Reader.

• Dr David Bennett (School of Culture and Communication, Department of English, Arts)
• Dr Barbara Bolt (School of Culture and Communication, Department of English, Arts)
• Professor Paul Carter (Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning)
• Dr Justin Clemens (School of Culture and Communication, Department of English, Arts)
• Professor John Clement (School of Dental Science, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences)
• Dr Simon Cropper (School of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Dr Health Sciences)
• Professor Sean Cubitt (Media and Communications, School of Culture and Communications, Arts)
• Dr Adrian John Gully (Arabic and Islamic studies, Asia Institute)
• Helen Herbertson (Dance, Victorian College of the Arts)
• Dr Eugen Koh (Senior Lecturer Art in Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Director of the Cunningham Dax Collection)
• Dr Tamara Kohn (Department of Anthropology)
• Professor Marcia Langton (School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies, Arts)
• Dr Vera Mackie (The Department of History, Arts)
• Professor David Macmillan (Zoology, Faculty of Science)
• Associate Professor Campbell Paul (Department of Psychiatry, Medicine)
• Dr Elizabeth Presa (Centre for Ideas, VCA)
• David Shea (Centre for Ideas, VCA)
• Leisa Shelton (Centre for Ideas, VCA)
• Dr Frances Thomson- Salo (Department of Psychiatry, Medicine)
• Amanda Whiting (Law School)
• Professor Alison Young, Department of Criminology

Dr Elizabeth Presa
The Centre for Ideas
Faculty of The Victorian College of the Arts
The University of Melbourne

234 St Kilda Road
Southbank, Vic 3006
Phone: + 61 3 9685 9343
Fax: + 61 3 9682 1841
Email: epresa@unimelb.edu.au

Poetics of the Body
First Year
Subject Code 800166

LECTURE PROGRAMME  SEMESTER 2, 2009
VENUE: Federation Hall, 234 St Kilda Road VCA  ( cnr St Kilda Road and Grant Street)              
TIME:   MONDAYS 12.30-2.00PM

July 27 – Introduction – David Shea – Why we bother to breathe in and breathe out

August 3 – David Castle – Chair of Psychiatry, St. Vincents – Body Image Disorders

August 10 – Elizabeth Presa –  Sculptor and Head of the Center for Ideas –  Touch, Rilke and Rodin

August 17 – Jusitin Clemens –  Professor of culture and Communications -  All things Sigmund Freud

August 24 – Master Liu – Martial artist and teacher – Martial Arts and the body – Chan Buddhism and Meditation

August 31 – Eugen Koh – Psychiatrist and director of the Cunningham Dax collection – Introduction to the collection

September 7 – Vist to the Cunningham Collection

September 14 – Jeff Craig – Developmental Epigeneticist at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute – An overview of the field of Epigenetics  –Environmental influences on our genes

Break: September 21 and 28

October 5 – Stelarc – Performance artist and technological body artist

October 12 –Martin Flanagan – Novelist and  AFL Football columnist –  Australian sport, Indigenous culture and the divide between the arts and sport

October 19 – POB Film Fest – Curated by David Shea and Victoria Duckett

October 26 – Student Presentations