Unit information: Vision in 2020/21

Unit name	Vision
Unit code	HART30040
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Donkin
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of History of Art (Historical Studies)
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

The unit explores changing understandings of vision, asking how far the way in which we perceive objects and experience sight is culturally constructed. Attention will be given to the technologies used to view and create images and the impact of these on the finished work, such as the role of lenses in the development of seventeenth-century Dutch painting or the Claude Glass on the formulation of picturesque landscapes in the eighteenth century. The unit will also explore the relationship between art and science as it relates to the workings of the eye, and/or the links between art and religion expressed in ideas of visionary experience and interior sight. In any given year, the unit may explore these themes over time, and/or may concentrate on a particular period such as the Renaissance or the nineteenth century.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. demonstrate an understanding of different interpretations of vision in Western culture;
2. evaluate historical and critical approaches to the topic of vision;
3. identify and evaluate pertinent evidence/data in order to advance a cogent argument;
4. demonstrate skills in evaluating, analysing, synthesising and (where apt) critiquing material and ideas appropriate to level H/6.

Teaching Information

Classes will involve a combination of discussion, investigative activities, and practical activities. Students will be expected to engage with readings and participate on a weekly basis. This will be further supported with drop-in sessions and self-directed exercises with tutor and peer feedback.

Assessment Information

One 1000-word review or proposal for non-academic audience (25%) One timed assessment (75%) [ILOs 1-4]

Reading and References

• Svetlana Alpers, The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century (London 1983)
• Michael Baxandall, Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style (Oxford, 1988)
• Jonathan Crary, Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1990)
• Robert Nelson, ed., Visuality Before and Beyond the Renaissance: Seeing as Others Saw (Cambridge, 2000)
• Barbara Maria Stafford and Frances Terpak, Devices of Wonder: From the World in a Box to Images on a Screen (Los Angeles, 2001)