THEROBERT GORDON

UNIVERSITYABERDEEN

Gray’s School of Art

Stage 2 & 3: 2007-2008Contextual and Critical Studies – Mini-Programme 1

From Here to Modernity

Tutor: Andrea Peachemail: a.peach@rgu.ac.uk (tel: 263692)

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FROM HERE TO MODERNITY

What was modernism all about and why is it of interest to artists, architects and designers today? What is modernity and what does it really mean to ‘be modern’?

This programme will look at the ongoing impact of Modernism on contemporary art, design and culture and consider its relevance to 21st century practice. We will revisit key images and texts in twentieth century modernism, locate modern art, design and architecture in a variety of contexts, and look at modernism’s ongoing presence in today’s arguably post postmodern society.

1. INTRODUCTION AND TIMETABLE

This programme comprises one of two mini-programmes running in Semester One 2007/08. Each programme runs across 3 weeks, and includes a lecture on Mondays at 1.00 pm, SB42 Scott Sutherland School, followed by seminars for Stage 2 on Tuesdays in SA46 Scott Sutherland and seminars for Stage 3 on Thursdays in in SA46 Scott Sutherland. Seminar and workshop groups and times will be posted on the

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CCS noticeboard (by the art school shop). Students must come to the seminars prepared participate in the seminar. Assessment will be based on attendance, seminar participation, and written coursework (critical notebook and essay).

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2. OVERALL OBJECTIVES OF THE CONTEXTUAL AND CRITICAL STUDIES MINI-PROGRAMMES

The Contextual and Critical Studies mini-programmes aim to encourage discussion of contemporary practice and theory with a view to situating that discussion in a wider cultural and historical framework, and enable you to make links with your studio practice. At the end of this series of mini-programmes you will be expected to:

Demonstrate an increased understanding of both the historical and contemporary context relating to art and design theory and practice.

Demonstrate, by way of a critical notebook and essay, the ability to analyse and criticise in relation to a wider cultural context.

Demonstrate an ability to undertake research relevant to the critical aims of the programme, using both paper based and electronic sources.

Build up confidence in discussing and sustaining a critical argument that is clear and consistent. Begin to develop self- directed areas of research in Contextual and Critical studies related to your

studio practice and emerging critical interests

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3. COURSEWORK

Seminar Participation and AttendanceThere are three seminars for each mini-programme. The seminars will follow the theme of the lectures and will address a particular issue each week. Students are expected to contribute to the seminars as part of their assessment. For this reason, it is essential that students attend all lectures and seminars for their elected mini-programme. If for any reason, you are unable to attend, please email the mini-programme tutor (a.peach@rgu.ac.uk) or leave a message with the CCS office (263692). Details of the seminar tasks and groups will be found in the weekly schedule that follows.

There are two components to the assessment: a Critical Notebook and an Essay. Assessment criteria can be found on: www.studioit.org.uk (under Contextual and Critical Studies).

STAGES 2 & 3 – CRITICAL NOTEBOOKYou are required to keep a Critical Notebook evidencing your ongoing personal reflection and academic research inspired by the mini-programme theme. It should contain your responses and thoughts in relation to the lectures and seminars (in particular, the weekly seminar tasks), as well as any additional research and development you have undertaken in relation to these. Do not use the notebook simply as a ‘scrapbook’ for filing your lecture notes and photocopies of readings etc! Where possible, try to make connections between the mini-programme theme and your own studio activity and interests. Your Critical

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Notebook should be a hard-backed notebook, no larger than A3, and can comprise personal writing, drawings, photographs, sketches and any other materials relevant to the analysis and criticism of the mini-programme.

STAGE 2 - ESSAYFor the essay, you are required to select a work of art, architecture or design (historic or contemporary), which you feel embodies the ideals of ‘modernity’ and argue why. In order to critically contextualise your example, you should focus on one of the three lecture themes. You should also make reference to at least two or more readings from the programme, and include images and relevant quotations to back up your ideas. Make sure you explain, in your own words, what is meant by the term ‘modernity’. Try to make links, if appropriate, between your own studio interests and this subject.

Your essay should be approximately 1,500-2,000 words, must be fully word-processed and include a comprehensive bibliography. You should reference all sources used in your text, using the Vancouver referencing system (see section 4: ‘Referencing Sources’ for details). Your Essay should be securely attached to your Notebook.

STAGE 3 – ESSAYYou should use either seminar task 2 or 3 as the starting point for your essay (if you base your essay on seminar task two, you should approach the essay as an exhibition curator – in other words, your essay

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should take the form of a catalogue essay, explaining the rationale for your ‘exhibition’ and choice of objects and contextualise them using research material from the mini-programme). As well as addressing your chosen seminar task, your essay should include an explanation, in your own words, of what is meant by the term ‘modernity’. You should also make critical reference to at least three or more readings from the programme, and include images and relevant quotations to back up your ideas. The essay should be 2500-3000 words in length, fully word-processed and include a comprehensive bibliography. You should fully reference all sources used in your text, using the Vancouver referencing system (see section 4: ‘Referencing Sources’ for details). Your Essay should be securely attached to your Notebook.

STAGE 2 & 3 COURSEWORK SUBMISSION DATE: The submission date for Stages 2 & 3 (critical notebook and essay) is: Friday 23 November 2007.

4. REFERENCING SOURCES

RGU has two systems for referencing sources: Harvard (also known as Author/Date) and Vancouver (also known as ‘endnotes’ or ‘footnotes’). For your essay, we recommend that you use Vancouver. You will find information on Vancouver in handouts available from the CCS website, at www.studioit.org.uk See Contextual and Critical Studies / Support Files 2007/8 / General CCS Documents:

Vancouver Referencing System – Sheet of examples

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Guide to Academic Referencing

Please note: if you do not reference quotations and sources properly, you risk committing plagiarism - a serious academic offence with corresponding penalties!

The study skills sessions offered below will help you with referencing and writing.

5. STUDY SKILLS: STAGE TWO / STAGE THREE

This semester we will be offering taught sessions on plagiarism, referencing and writing skills. We strongly recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity. The sessions will be held on the following dates:

Plagiarism Monday 22 October / 12-1pmSB225 (School of Management)

Referencing Sources Monday 29 October / 12-1pmSB225 (School of Management)

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Writing Skills Monday 5 November / 12-1 / SB 225 (School of Management)Monday 12 November / 12-1 / SB 225 (School of Management)Monday 19 November / 12-1 /SB 225 (School of Management)

In addition to these Study Skills sessions, there will also be sessions on how to use Refworks software. This software will facilitate the creation of bibliographies and will help you organise your research material.

Refworks Seminars (Must sign up on CCS noticeboard for these sessions. First come, first served)Wednesday 31 October / 12-1pm / SB205 (School of Management)Wednesday 7 th November / 12.30-1.30 / SB204 (School of Management)

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WEEK2007/08

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Sept

21

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522 Oct

629 Oct

75 Nov

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Plagiarism Monday12-1SB 225

Referencing Monday12-1SB 225

Writing Skills12-1SB 225

Writing Skills12-1SB 225

Writing Skills12-1SB 225

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Refworks Wednesday31 Oct12.00-1.00SB 205

Refworks Wednesday7 Nov12.30-1.30SB 204

6. ADVANCED STUDY SKILLS: STAGE THREE ONLY

This semester we will also be offering training for Stage Three students on advanced study skills. These sessions will familiarise students with academic databases on art and design, and advanced research techniques (searching for journals etc). Three sessions will be held on the following dates: Mini-programme 1: Thursday 11 October - 9.15 / 10.45 / 12.00Mini-programme 2: Thursday 15 November - 9.15 / 10.45 / 12.00 See CCS noticeboard for details on groups, times and rooms.

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WEEK2007/08

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21

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75 Nov

812 Nov

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MINI PROG 1 Advanced Research Skills Thursday 11 October9.15 H403 Fohsc10.45 434 Library12.00 434 Library

MINI PROG 2 Advanced Research Skills Thursday 15 November9.15 434 Library10.45 434 Library12.00 434 Library Re

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7. EXTENSION REQUESTS

Extensions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances, which include serious problems or events which genuinely affect your ability to complete coursework on time. Such circumstances might include: serious physical or mental illness (must have doctor's certificate), serious illness or death of an immediate family member or close friend.  'Exceptional circumstances' do not include colds, headaches, hangovers, poor time management, problems caused by English not being your first language, and circumstances within your control (such as: absence due to holidays, weddings, jobs etc). To request an extension, please complete a Coursework Extension Request Form (available from the School Office). This form must be submitted before the coursework submission date, and include written documentation (medical certificates etc.) where relevant. Claims are reviewed by your CCS tutor and treated as confidential.

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Coursework handed in after the hand-in date, which is not supported by a fully approved Coursework Extension Request Form will be recorded as a non-submission. There will be no exceptions.

8. MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES

If you feel that you have genuine and legitimate circumstances that may affect your performance on this mini-programme, and therefore your coursework, you should fill out a Mitigating Circumstances form. Mitigating circumstances are exceptional, serious and acute problems or events which have genuinely affected your performance in your assessments or your ability to complete coursework (these do not include ongoing issues – such as dyslexia etc.). Mitigating Circumstances forms are treated confidentially and are considered at the end of year Examination Board when making final decisions about your mark. To make a claim for mitigating circumstances you must complete a Mitigating Circumstances Request Form (available from the School Office). This form must be submitted no later than the coursework submission date. See the form for further details.

Week 2 Semester 1 Monday 1 October

1.00 SB42Scott Sutherland School

LECTURE 1: What is MODERNITY?Key Issues and Questions What is modernity? When was it? Can it be now? What does it mean to be modern? Revisiting the modernist ‘canon’Key Writers Charles Baudelaire

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Roger Fry Clive Bell Clement Greenberg

Required Reading Wood, P. ‘Art of the Twentieth Century’, in Graiger, J. (ed) Frameworks for Modern Art. London: Open University; 2003. Try to read the whole chapter if you can, but as a minimum you should look at the section ‘Modernity and Modernism’ pp. 16-27.

Additional Reading Greenberg, C. ‘Modernist Painting’, Art in Modern Culture – An Anthology of Critical Texts. London: The Open University; 1992 pp. 308-314.

Graiger, J. and Wood, P. ‘Modernism and the Crisis of Modernism’, Art of the Twentieth Century – A Reader, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003, pp. 3-52.

Hopkins, D. After Modern Art 1945-2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press; pp. 25-34. Meecham, P. and Sheldon, J. ‘What is and When Was Modernism?’ Modern Art: A Critical Introduction,

London: Routledge; 2000, pp. 1-31. Williams, R. ‘When Was Modernism’, The Politics of Modernism. Verso: London, 1989, pp. 31-35.

Seminar Assignment Reflect on the ideas raised in Lecture 1 and in the Required Reading. Make notes in your Critical Notebook and come to the seminar with preliminary questions about what is and when was Modernity and Modernism.

Week 3 Semester 1 Monday 8th October

1.00 SB42Scott Sutherland School

LECTURE 2: Modernity and The Machine Age Key Issues Form Follows Function The Machine Aesthetic Utopia and DystopiaKey Practioners and Writers Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe (1886-1969) Le Corbusier (1887-1965) Adolf Loos (1870-1933)

Required Reading Meecham, P. and Sheldon, J. ‘From the Machine Aesthetic to Technoculture’ Modern Art: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge; 2000. It would be helpful to read the whole chapter, but as a minimum read: pp. 113-119.

Wilk, C. ‘Introduction: What was Modernism?’ in: Modernism – Designing a New World. London: V&A

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Publications, 2006, pp.11-21. The issue of modernity is explored on page 17!

Additional Reading Green, C. ‘The Machine’ in: C. Wilks (ed) Modernism – Designing a New World. London: V&A Publications, 2006, pp.71-111. This chapter is long but packed with great information and images.

Le Corbusier. ‘Mass Production Houses’ and ‘Architecture or Revolution’, Towards a New Architecture, London: Butterworth Heinemann; 1989 (1923) pp.6-8.

Loos. A. ‘Ornament and Crime’ (1908) in Greenhalgh, P. (ed) Quotations and Sources on Design and the Decorative Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1993, pp.14-15.

Marcus, G. ‘Machine Art’ Functionalist Design. New York: Prestel; 1995, pp. 115-126. Read, H. ‘The Function of Ornament’ (1936) in Greenhalgh, P. (ed) Quotations and Sources on Design

and the Decorative Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1993, pp.19-20 Films Modern Times – Charlie Chaplin (1936) – V2772

Things to Come - William Cameron Menzies, (1936) – V2573 Metropolis - Fritz Lang (1926) – DVD12 Modernism Exhibition V& A Museum 2006 (website has some good links)

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1331_modernism/flash.htmlSeminar Assignment Imagine that you are curating an exhibition on Modernity and the Machine Age. You must

choose 3 objects that you feel best exemplify the spirit of the age. Which objects would you choose? Why? Can you write a short label for each object and explain your reasons for why they have been chosen. You may wish to do this in small groups.

Week 4 Semester 1 Monday 15 October

1.00 SB42Scott Sutherland School

LECTURE 3: From Here to Modernity Key Issues and Questions Less is more? – or is Less is a bore? The end of modernity? Minimalism and neo-ModernityKey Practioners Donald Judd /Sol LeWitt /Dan Flavin John Pawson / Rem Koolhaas Droog Design Tomma Abts

Required Reading Danto, A. ‘Introduction: Modern, Postmodern and Contemporary’ in After the End of Art. Princeton:

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Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 3-10. Hadid, Z. ‘The Eighty-Nine Degrees’ in Jencks. C. (ed) Theories and Manifestoes of Contemporary

Architecture. Chichester: Academy Editions; 1997, p. 280. Ramakers, R. ‘Introduction’, Less is More – Droog Design in Context. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers; 2002,

pp.6-10. Additional Reading Andre, C. ‘Minimalism’, Cuts – Texts 1959-2004, Cambridge, MIT Press, 2005, pp. 149-151.

Berman, M. ‘Modernity, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow’, in P. Greenhalgh (ed) Quotations and Sources on Design and the Decorative Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1993, pp.19-20

Causey, A. ‘Modernism and Minimalism’, Sculpture Since 1945, Oxford: Oxford History of Art; 1998, pp.109-129

Crouch, C. ‘After Modernism? Or Developing Modernism?’ Modernism in Art, Design and Architecture, London: St Martin’s Press; 1999, 162-179.

Freedland, Jonathan, Is Less More? The Guardian newspaper, Saturday, December 1, 2001 http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,609721,00.html Hopkins, D. ‘Modernism in Retreat: Minimalist Aesthetics and Beyond’, After Modern Art 1945-2000.

Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000, pp.131-159. Marcus, G. ‘Where are we at?’ Functionalist Design, New York: Prestel; 1995, pp.152-165. Pawson, J. Minimum, London: Phaidon; 1996, pp.7-21.

Films Modern Times: Bare – V256 Three Minute Wonder – Tomma Abbts http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/turnerprize/2006/tommaabts.htm

Seminar Assignment Is modernism still relevant in the 21st century? Bring in an example of early modernism (art, design, architecture) and try to find a contemporary example of art, design, architecture which you feel might be in some way connected or indebted to this early example. It may compliment or contradict, but should relate to the overall concept of modernity in some way.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY AND ADDITIONAL SOURCES

Berman, M. All that is Solid Melts into Air – The Experience of Modernity. London: Vergo; 1983Brettell, R. Modern Art 1851-1929. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1999Causey, A. Sculpture Since 1945. Oxford: Oxford History of Art; 1998

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Crouch, C. Modernism in Art, Design and Architecture. London: Macmillan Press; 1999Danto, A. After the End of Art. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1997Foster, H. (ed), The Anti-Aesthetic – Essays on Postmodern Culture. New York: The New York Press; 1983Franscina, F. and Harris, J. Art in Modern Culture – An Anthology of Critical Texts. London: Phaidon Press; 1992Graiger, J. and Wood, P. Art of the Twentieth Century – A Reader. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2003Greenhalgh, P. (ed), Modernism in Design. London: Reaktion Books; 1990Greenhalgh, P. (ed) Quotations and Sources on Design and the Decorative Arts. Manchester: Manchester University Press; 1993Harris, J. Writing Back to Modern Art – After Greenberg, Fried and Clark. London: Routledge; 2005Harrison, C. and Wood, P. (eds), Art in Theory 1900-2000 An Anthology of Changing Ideas. London: Blackwell; 2003Harrison, C. Modernism. London: Tate Publishing; 1997Hopkins, D. After Modern Art 1945-2000. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2000Jencks, C. Critical Modernism – Where is Post Modernism Going?: Wiley Academy; 2007Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. London: Butterworth Heinemann; (1923) 1989Marcus, G. Functionalist Design. New York: Prestel; 1995Meecham, P. and Sheldon, J. Modern Art: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge; 2000Pawson, J. Minimum. London: Phaidon; 1996

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Ramakers, R. Less is More – Droog Design in Context. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers; 2002 Weston, R. Modernism. London: Phaidon; 2001Wilk, C. (ed). Modernism – Designing a New World. London: V&A Publicataions; 2006Williams, R. The Politics of Modernism. London: Verson; 1989Wood, P. Frameworks for Modern Art. London: Open University; 2003Wood, P. (ed), Varieties of Modernism. New Haven: Yale University Press; 2004Wood, P., Franscina, F., Harris, J., and Harrison, C. Modernism in Dispute – Art Since the Forties. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993Woodham, J. Twentieth Century Design. Oxford: Oxford History of Art; 1997

An excellent interactive website on Modernism in Britain:www.open2.net/modernity/home.htm

Also try Tate Modern website:www.tate.org

Ubu Web: Check out this brilliant site for sound/film (Kurt Schwitters, Fortunato Depero, John Cage, Marcel Duchamps etc.)www.ubu.com/historical

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www.ubu.com/sound

Let me know if you find others!

10. ACADEMIC RESERVE

Core texts will be placed on Academic Reserve in the Library. Academic Reserve is the desk at the far end of the Issue desk as you enter the Library. Most books on Academic Reserve are issued as a one-day loan and must be back by 10 the next morning. Books can be booked in advance, and 2 can be borrowed at a time. Fines for overdue Academic Reserve books are charged at the following rate: £1 per hour for the first hour overdue, 50 pence per hour thereafter, every hour, with a maximum fine of £15 per item.

TUTOR FOR PROGRAMME: Andrea Peach(a.peach@rgu.ac.uk)

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