L CU LTU R ES
VISUA
gold.ac.uk/
history-of-art Undergraduate
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Study the fascinating topic of history Why choose Visual Cultures
at Goldsmiths?
of art in our Department of Visual
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Cultures. Youll investigate the
INTRODUCTION Were modern. Youll focus on modern
and contemporary art, art theory and
artefacts you might see in galleries and visual culture from around the world,
in the context of present-day cultural,
museums, but also those that make social and political concerns.
up our everyday environment from
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adverts to architecture and street style. Were innovative. Youll take a thematic
approach rather than a chronological
Goldsmiths is ranked 11th in the approach to the discipline, which means youll
have the opportunity to examine changing
country for History of Art and historical conceptions of art and the artist.
And youll challenge traditional assumptions
5th in the UK for Art. about the history of art.
(Guardian University Guide 2016 league tables
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by subject) Were active. Youll be able to take part in
the discussions and debates offered through
Our students run the Goldsmiths our Visual Cultures public programme and
other university-wide events. And youll
Students Unions Visual Cultures learn how to source, select and handle
works for display by getting involved in
Society find out about their activities our student-run gallery space and other
at www.facebook.com/goldsmithsvcs curatorial projects at Goldsmiths.
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Modernities
TYPICAL MODULES
Youll discuss the concept of modernity and how
it has arisen. How has its meaning varied and
evolved in recent history, in terms of art, ideas,
events and technological change?
Year 1
Seeing and Showing
Compulsory modules:
Youll explore how the meaning and effect of a
work depends on the way we see it. What factors Modernities
are at play in terms of subjectivity, aesthetic ideas Seeing and Showing
and concepts of realism? Space and Time
Space and Time Beyond Boundaries
How have space and time and their interaction come
OUR DEGREES
to play a central part in modern and contemporary Year 2
practices? Youll consider this question under
Compulsory module
different headings: the photographic instant,
memory, the present time of everyday experience, Contemporaneities
and imaginary dimensions of space and time. Plus
Up to six options from
Beyond Boundaries a wide range available
Youll consider how contemporary art has gone (see page 8)
beyond the limits of traditional practice. How and
why has this come about? How can we make sense
of and evaluate these innovations? Year 3
Up to six options from a wide
BA (Hons) History of Art In your second year, there is one compulsory range available (see page 8)
module, Contemporaneities, in addition to which Dissertation
3 years full-time youll choose up to six options, at least four of which
gold.ac.uk/ug/ba-history-of-art will be from the Department of Visual Cultures.
In your third year, youll take up to six modules,
At Goldsmiths, visual culture includes artefacts you might including at least four from Visual Cultures. You will
see in museums and art galleries, plus those that make also produce a supervised dissertation on a topic of
up our everyday environment: architecture, city and your choice.
landscapes, adverts, TV and film, websites, the body, and
street style. On this degree you can explore them all. Some students take a wide-ranging mix of modules,
while others prefer to specialise along thematic
Much of your learning will take place in Londons pathways, choosing modules linked by theme.
galleries, art spaces, museums, cultural facilities and The five thematic pathways are: Space and Place,
specialist libraries. Sound and Image, Art and Philosophy, The
Curatorial, and Embodiment. Our current modules
In your first year youll start with four compulsory This degree can be taken
are listed on page 8-9 and you are welcome to get in
as a Four-Year Degree (with
modules. These will develop your independent critical touch for more details. International Foundation Year).
involvement with works of art and visual culture: Designed especially for international
students, it includes modules that
support language and academic skills
development. For information, visit
gold.ac.uk/study/four-year-degrees-
international-foundation
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BA (Hons) Fine Art TYPICAL MODULES BA (Hons)
& History of Art Curating*
3 years full-time 3 years full-time
gold.ac.uk/ug/ba-fine-art-history-of-art gold.ac.uk/ug/ba-curating
On this degree youll navigate your way through Do you want to advance your knowledge
theory and practice, various fine art media, and Year 1 of contemporary curating and pursue a
thematic strands within the study of art history Studio Practice 1 professional career in the field of curatorial
and visual cultures. practice?
Compulsory module:
Your studies will draw from our wide-ranging Modernities The term curating is used to refer to a wide
expertise that crosses our strengths in the range of activities including organising art
Plus one module from:
creative and visual arts as well as the humanities. exhibitions, festivals and professional events,
Seeing and Showing
Youll learn under the guidance of practising staging of lecture series, public conversations,
Space and Time reading groups, and even the management of
artists, curators, academics and writers who
are here to help you develop your practice Beyond Boundaries our lives on social media.
and focus your research.
This course explores how curating allows
Youll be provided with specialist advice Year 2
us to stage culture and put knowledge into
to complement your studies from artists, Studio Practice 2 circulation in multiple ways, and to place its
curators, gallerists, administrators and Four History of Art practices in a historical and critical context.
funders visiting Goldsmiths. options (see page 8)
Your programme is made up of two elements: Throughout this degree you will:
Fine Art Studio Practice (50%) Year 3 Study core modules in the history and theory
of curating, alongside electives in art history
Youll develop your work through Studio Practice 3
and visual culture.
experimentation, achieving a thorough and either
understanding of your chosen media and its Four History of Art options Gain practical experience of working on
relevance within contemporary culture. Three (see page 8) a group project with one of several public
years of intensive studio and workshop practice sector partner organisations.
culminate in a final year exhibition which is or
assessed and then opened to the public. This History of Art Dissertation Have the opportunity to join historical and
element is taught by the Department of Art. and theoretical study with curatorial practice in
the contemporary public realm.
History of Art and Theory Modules (50%) Two History of Art options Please note that modules
(see page 8) At the end of the degree you will take part in
Your fine art studio practice will be listed in this booklet were
complemented by the lectures, seminars and an exhibition of group projects with partner
correct at the time of
tutorials in your history of art compulsory and institutions.
printing (September 2016)
option modules, taught by the Department of
*New programme: subject to validation. and may change year to year
Visual Cultures.
depending on staff research
The Link Seminar, taught across both leave. You can find the most
departments, explores the dynamic relationships
up-to-date information about
between art history, theory and practice in large
seminar and small workshop formats. our degree programmes
on our website.
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Year 2
Options include:
Each year youll be allocated a studio Beckett and Aesthetics 1 & 2
STUDIO PRACTICE
VISUAL CULTURES
space to suit your needs, where you Contemporaneities (Double module, worth
30 credits)
can develop your practice in a range Cohabitations
of media including: Emancipating Images and Sounds
Electronic Resistance
Drawing Feminist and Queer Technoscience
Inhabitations
Painting Materiality
Museums, Galleries,
Constructed textiles Exhibitions 1 & 2
Objects of Difference:
Printmaking Race and Capital
Ornamentation
Sculpture Patterns of Perception 1 & 2
Popular Modernism 1 & 2
Stitch Radical Imaginations and Speculative
Fabric Voyages 1 & 2
The Arts of Surveillance
Photography The Fact of Blackness: Subjects of Difference
Printed textiles Year 3
MODULES
Options include:
Video After the Internet
Installation Animalities
Animating Architecture
Performance Archive and Spectacle
Autobiographies 1 & 2
Curating and the Curatorial
Curatorial Events and Affects
Documentary Lives
Studio teaching is supported and Fashion as a Dialectical Image 1 & 2
complemented by workshop areas, Fictioning 1 & 2
Film Fables
which will introduce you to the Landscape and Power 1 & 2
techniques and skills relevant to the Philosophies of Nature
Sensing the Commons
practical development of your work. Sexual Poetics
The Aesthetics and Politics of the Face
The Truth in Painting 1 & 2
Youll be assigned a Studio Practice Theorising the Commons
Urban Revolutions and Spatial Biopolitics
Tutor each year wholl support you Utopias
throughout the programme. Visual Cultures as Public Practice
(placement module)
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Emily (BA Fine Art &
History of Art, 2009),
freelance artist and
MA student
Since graduating I have
continued to make work,
exhibit and curate. This
year I have completed two
residencies one in Harlow
New Town (UK) and one in
Rotterdam. In the past two
YOUR FUTURE
years I have shown work
at Bold Tendencies, South
London Gallery and TENT.
Im now studying for an
Art Science MA at The
Royal Academy of Art
in The Netherlands.
Talk the talk and walk the walk the specialist tutors, Watch Goldsmiths
a combination which I feel graduates talk about
Our degrees will help Many of our alumni are is very unique and special how their experiences
develop your critical and active in the contemporary to Goldsmiths. at university have given
analytical skills as they art world, working for them a real advantage in
relate to modern and major art and cultural Since graduating, the their career: vimeo.com/
contemporary art, ideas institutions. Many have set research and open- channels/career
and visual culture. Youll up cultural initiatives of mindedness I developed
be able to express ideas their own. at university has helped in
clearly and have expertise my career, as Im mainly
Employers of our recent Kat (BA History of Art,
in gathering insights from researching and having to
graduates include Tate 2011), Editorial Director
a range of subjects. think creatively and quickly
Modern, the Victoria at Saatchi Gallery
every day. Also being
These are skills that are and Albert Museum, and immersed in everything
My studies helped me to
appropriate to careers in Edinburgh Castle. going on in South-East
approach projects creatively
museums and galleries London, from the friends
Explore our Google map and analytically, and I feel
as administrators or I made to the opportunities
featuring Visual Cultures lucky to have been able to
curators, as artists or art to get involved with local
graduates around the world choose from the modules
historians, in journalism art projects, prepared me
at: goo.gl/Wq4YCV which were more diverse
and the media, teaching, for the busy and vibrant
than other History of Art
and research, and the art world.
courses and to learn from
commercial world.
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Find out more about the
department and the degrees at:
FIND OUT MORE
gold.ac.uk/history-of-art
Watch our departmental film at:
vimeo.com/goldsmiths/
visual-cultures
Get in touch with our
Enquiries team: The information in this publication was
correct in September 2016. Every effort
+44 (0)20 7078 5300 is made to ensure that the information is
accurate, and Goldsmiths will undertake to
[email protected] inform students of any material changes to
the information contained in it. Examples
may include, but are not limited to: the
timetable, location and methods of delivery;
and the content, syllabus and mode
assessment of any programme.
You can read our most up-to-date disclaimer
at www.gold.ac.uk/disclaimer
Goldsmiths, University of London 2016
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