2019/20 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

ARTF5052M Adventures in the Archive

30 creditsClass Size: 18

Module manager: Dr Azadeh Fatehrad
Email: a.fatehrad@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2019/20

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

Adventures in the Archives is an interdisciplinary module that overlaps discourses such as photography & moving image, curatorial studies, historical studies, anthropology, critical studies, architecture, and cultural studies. We invite students from a range of disciplines, to consider ideas around the notions of archive, memory and history; and their relation to contemporary life today.

Objectives

On this module students will be asked to consider the notions of archive, memory and history; and their relation to contemporary life today.
They will be expected to explore in-depth, the ways that archive could be reflected on, investigated and disseminated through artistic research.
They will be asked to envisage, experiment, evaluate and estimate various methods and initiatives that could make an archive accessible to a larger audience. They will also be expected to evaluate and respond to the processes of digitalisation and its effect on archival material/ archival research.
In doing this they will be expected to rethink the relationship between individual and collective subjectivity i.e. how artists encounter an archive, how practitioners write about it, and the variety of forms that artists use to restage their findings either visually or textually.
One of the main archives ‘Women in Work’ (Leodis Collections in Leeds) would be explored as part of the module syllabus.

Learning outcomes
By the end of this module students will be able to:
1. consider the notions of archive, memory and history; and their relation to contemporary life today.
2. understand the ways that the archive can be reflected on, investigated and disseminated through artistic research by various activities (i.e. group seminars, fieldwork, reading groups and studio tutorials).
3. envisage, experiment, evaluate and estimate various methods and initiatives that could make an archive accessible to a larger audience i.e. by creating a new body of work in response to an archive, by curating an exhibition and by planning different public programmes that could activate the archive (workshop, symposium and screenings).
4. evaluate and respond to process of digitalisation and its effect on archival material/ archival research.
5. rethink the relationship between individual and collective subjectivity i.e. how artists encounter an archive, how practitioners write about it, and the variety of forms that artists use to restage their findings either visually or textually.

Syllabus

Engagement, exploration and critical engagement with archives/texts, including a selection from the following:

Students will read range of key texts such as:
• Osborn, Peter (2012). Aesthetics and Contemporary Art. Sternberg Press
• Foster, Hal (2004). ‘An Archival Impulse’. October
• Didi- Huberman, Georges (2009). Confronting Images. Pennsylvania State University Press.
• O’Neil, Paul (2012). The culture of curating and the curating of culture (s). MIT Press
• Dean, Tacita & Millar, Jeremy (2005). Place (Art Works). Thames & Hudson.
• Ernst, Wolfgang (2012). Digital Memory and the Archive. University of Minnesota Press.
Archives and resources may include:
▪Jon Rafman
▪Amie Segal
▪Marysia Lewandowska
▪Documenta 13 Carolyn Christov- Bakargiev
▪Azadeh Fatehrad
▪Thomas Hirschhorn
▪Edward Muybridge
▪Archive of Modern Conflict
▪The Archive as Project
▪Walid Raad
▪Akram Zaatari
▪Georges Didi- Huberman notes on Archive
▪Zoe Leonard
▪Oliver Ressler (Disobedience Archive).
▪Exhibition Laboratory
▪Karen Di Franco
▪Fiona Tan: Inventory
▪Ryan Trecartin
▪Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art by Okwui Enwezor

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Fieldwork	2	4.00	8.00
Group learning	2	2.00	4.00
Lecture	3	1.50	4.50
Practical	3	2.00	6.00
Reading Group	2	1.50	3.00
Seminar	3	2.00	6.00
Tutorial	2	0.50	1.00
Private study hours			267.50
Total Contact hours			32.50
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

Students will be expected to spend time exploring a range of artists work, critical texts and curatorial projects related to archive in order to develop a contextual understanding of archival practice.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Formative feedback will be given verbally during participatory seminars, in writing on interim exhibition analysis, and verbally after presentation. Student progress will be monitored through participation in group seminars and the interim exhibition analysis assignment

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	3,000 words	40.00
Report	500 word project outline	10.00
Presentation	10 min presentation	10.00
Practical	Creative outcome exhibition/ art work such as an exhibition of multimedia installation	40.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

500 word project outline: combination of image and text for their final project planning 10 minute presentation outlining their adventure of a specific archive Practical work may include an exhibition of an exhibition of multimedia installation at The Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery (date tbc) that consists of both original archival materials alongside work by students (such as artistic and/or curatorial production). If a student fails or cannot complete the practical assignment because of illness etc, there would be a written/reflective assignment scheduled.

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 08/05/2019

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