B5357 - Displaying Photography in Cultural & Creative Industries (1) (LM)

Learning outcomes

Students acquire the fundamental historical and theoretical knowledge that puts photography at the heart of artistic practices and of the cultural and creative industry. In particular, they develop methodological tools and interpretative skills useful to recognize the styles and poetics of the photographic display. They are also able to analyse and comment on display types with critical awareness.

Course contents

The course will analyse the development of the photographic language, from its origins in the 19th century to recent experiences, focusing on artistic practices and those of the cultural and creative industries. Special attention will be paid to exhibitions, both public and private, and their capacity to help the photographic language change its meanings and identities. Following a theoretical and historical approach, classes will explore artistic poetics, creative ideas, and curatorial choices from an aesthetic point of view, reading photography as a social, political, and communicative issue.
Several historical exhibitions will be analysed as case histories of the development of curatorial language and photographic display.

Readings/Bibliography

Attending and non attending students

Mandatory Texts:

Graham Clarke, The Photograph. A Visual and Cultural History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Alessandra Mauro (edited by), Photoshow. Landmark exhibitions that defined the history of photography (Roma: Contrasto, 2014).

PAY ATTENTION: Other drafts, papers and pictures will be available further

Suggested Readings:

Michel Frizot et al. (edited by), Identités. De Disderi au photomaton, (Paris: Centre National de la Photographie, 1985).

Federica Muzzarelli, The Photo Booth and the photographic automatism, in "Notebook 2016" (Milan: Pearson, 2016).

Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998; especially pp. 44-50, 101-110, 209-259).

Kristina Wilson, The Modern Eye: Stieglitz, MoMA, and the Art of the Exhibition, 1925–1934 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 17-53.

Teaching methods

Traditional lectures will integrate with active classes.

Assessment methods

Methods for the assessment of the attending students

During classes, attending students should complete multiple-choice and true/false questionnaires, as well as iconographic and bibliographical research exercises. The assessment of these activities will influence the final grade.

In addiction, the students will have to plan theoretical and historical concepts for displaying photographic exhibitions on topics discussed during the classes.

Additional details will be provided at the start of the classes.

 

Methods for the assessment of the non-attending students

Non-attending students will be evaluated on a written paper.

Non-attending students must write a paper on a topic chosen from the teacher's slideshow and readings listed in this Course's Bibliography. They must arrange the topic with the teacher in advance by e-mail.

The paper must be typed using Times New Roman 12 and be 20,000 characters (blank spaces included).

The paper must include:

• Student name and surname and identification number ("Matricola")
• Title of the paper
• Main Text (structured in sections or not)
• At least 15 photographic images accompanied by the relevant captions (photographer's name, title or brief description of the image, year)
• Bibliography

Students must send the paper to the teacher as email attachment (in .pdf format) at least 15 days before the day of the exam call published on AlmaEsami.

PAY ATTENTION: In order to be considered an attending student an attendance of 75%, that is about 24 hours, is required

 

Teaching tools

Multimedia tools

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Pompa