Visual Culture and Communication I

The course is an introduction to the several meanings of Visual Culture dealing with the notions of representation and “vision” from the Renaissance period to the era of Photography and after. Theoretical issues related to the nature of visual arts before and after the birth of photography and cinema are also discussed as well as the sociopolitical frame and the messages of the photographic image from mid-19th to the first fity years of the 20th century. This includes all aspects of Modernism in visual arts in Europe and the United States of America. Several leading artists and movements are also dicussed within this context. Greek photography is also discussed through leading case studies. Finally, aspects of ideology and media propaganda, with an emphasis on the relation between art and advertisement, are also included in the course’s frame.

Objectives

The course is a first contact with the concepts of Visual Culture. After the completion of the course students should: - understand the scope and the time limits of the terms "image" and "Visual Culture", and the relationship between image and society. - know the basics of the History of Photography and the effect of this new instrument in our perception about the representation. - Be able to handle the methodology of Visual Communication and its basic theories. - understand the cultural context and artistic movements of the 19th and 20th century. - understand the role of the photographic image and the moving image (cinema) in the evolution of visual engagement from the mid-19th century to the present day.

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites

Syllabus

- Representation and vision - Theoretical questions on the relationship of painting and photography - Photography from the beginning to the end of the 19th century - Photography at the late 19th - early 20th century - 20th century - Photography in Europe and America from the late 1920s until the - 2nd World War - On the eve of the 2nd World War to the eve of the Cold War (1935-1945) - Painting and Photography in the end of Modernism 1950 - The Greek Photography - Photography and art after 1960