Artists' Film and Video

Module title	Artists' Film and Video
Module code	AHV3019
Academic year	2023/4
Credits	15
Module staff	Dr Marcus Jack (Lecturer)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	11

Module description

This module examines the emergence and popularisation of the moving image as an artistic medium and political technology. You will explore the development of film and video from the invention of photochemical processes in the 19^th century to the democratised present, navigating transformations in art and society through the artist’s lens. Between the ‘black box’ and the ‘white cube,’ you’ll consider the moving image beyond (and often against) theatrical conventions, examining its adoption and adaption by visual artists to challenge the form itself and produce alternatives to the dominance of Euro-American narrative cinema. Through lectures, seminars, and student-led screenings, you will engage with key theories and debates that intersect art history and film studies. No pre-requisite modules are required, open to students with an interdisciplinary interest in 20^th/21^st century art and/or film.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to:

• Introduce you to histories of the moving image, plotting a long and co-contaminating relationship between visual art and cinema from the nineteenth century to the present day.

• Introduce you to a broad range of historic and contemporary artistic and filmmaking practices, comprising diverse global case studies.

• Provide you with an understanding of the fundamental technologies, techniques and materials of analogue filmmaking, experimental animation, video and digital.

• Provide you with an awareness of the key concerns and processes involved in curating a screening.

• Develop your abilities in visual analysis and close-looking through assigned viewing and in-class discussion.

• Establish a link between art history and film studies, introducing students to interdisciplinary pathways including film programming, criticism, distribution and preservation.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Demonstrate an informed understanding of the historical, theoretical, social, political and technological development of artists film and video.
2. Demonstrate an ability to identify and contextualise key methods and techniques used in the production and exhibition of artists film and video.
3. Demonstrate basic practical skills in researching, curating and presenting an original screening event.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

4. Demonstrate an ability to interpret and apply a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches to the interpretation of visual media, and artists film and video in particular.
5. Demonstrate an ability to independently research, present, and critically evaluate relevant visual artefacts in relation to the wider social, cultural, political and intellectual environments in which they have been produced and circulated.
6. Demonstrate an ability to communicate and re-present art historical research to diverse audiences.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

7. Through essay writing, demonstrate an ability to write construct coherent arguments using clear prose, supported by a proficiency in research and bibliographical skills, information retrieval, and analysis.
8. Through oral presentation, demonstrate skills in interpretation and communication, alongside the capacity to work creatively.
9. Through group work, demonstrate basic skills in project management and the application of scholarship.

Syllabus plan

Lectures will be structured chronologically to address an evolving material context. Indicatively, weekly topics could include:

• Protocinema: Magic and Science

• Nitrate Dreams: Towards Avant-Garde Film

• Organising Vision: The Transatlantic Film Co-ops

• Expanded Cinema, Expanded Consciousness: Counterculture and Projection

• The Tyranny of Structuralism

• Artists on TV: Video Interventions

• Seeing Ourselves: Community, Politics and Protest

• The Cinematic Turn, New Media and their Discontents

• Media Post-Media: Spectacle and Market

• The work of art in the age of infinite scroll

Lectures are supported by six seminars in which we will view key works of artists’ film and video in-class and discuss these case studies in relation to assigned literature, offering a first-hand encounter with the material.

In preparation for the task of researching, curating and presenting a screening programme, we will also undertake a field trip to the University’s Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	8	8 x 1-hour lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	12	6 x 2-hour seminars
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	2	Field trip to the Bill Douglas Museum
Guided Independent Study	20	Group research and planning
Guided Independent Study	108	Reading, individual research and assessment preparation

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Short essay	500 words	1-2,4-5,7	Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up
Group presentations	10 minutes	6,8-9	Oral

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	75	2500 words	1-2,4-5,7	Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up
Creative Programme Notes	25	750 words	1-7,9	Written feedback with opportunity for follow-up
	0
	0
	0
	0

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	Essay (2500 words)	1-2,4-5,7	Referral/Deferral Period
Creative Programme Notes	Creative Programme Notes (750 words)	1-7,9	Referral/Deferral Period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Balsom, E. (2016) After Uniqueness: A History of Film and Video Art in Circulation. New York: Columbia University Press.
Balsom, E., Reynolds, L., and Perks, S. (2019) Artists’ Moving Image in Britain Since 1989. London: Paul Mellon Centre.
Bishop, C. (2005) Installation Art: A Critical History. London: Tate.
Bovier, F. and Mey, A. (2015) Exhibiting the Moving Image. Zurich: JRP Ringier
Clayton, S. and Mulvey, L. (2017) Other Cinemas: Politics Culture and Experimental Film in the 1970s. London: I.B. Tauris.
Cubitt, S. and Partridge, S. (2012) REWIND: British Artists’ Video in the 1970s & 1980s. Eastleigh: John Libbey.
Curtis, D. (2007) A History of Artists’ Film and Video in Britain. London: British Film Institute.
Gidal, P. (1976) Structural Film Anthology. London: British Film Institute.
Kholeif, O. (2015) Moving Image. London: Whitechapel Gallery.
Krauss, R. (1976) ‘Video: The Aesthetics of Narcissism,’ October, 1(Spring), pp. 50–64.
Krauss, R. (1999) A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition. London: Thames and Hudson.
Knight, J. (1996) Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art. Luton: John Libbey
Leighton, T. (ed.) (2008) Art and the Moving Image: A Critical Reader. London: Tate.
Leighton, T. and Büchler, P. (2003) Saving the Image: Art After Film. Glasgow: Centre for Contemporary Arts.
Sitney, P. A. (1978) The Avant-Garde Film: A Reader of Theory and Criticism. New York: New York University Press.
Uroskie, A. V. (2014) Between the Black Box and the White Cube: Expanded Cinema and Postwar Art. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Wollen, P. (1975) ‘The Two Avant-Gardes,’ Studio International, pp. 171–175.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

Key words search

Artists’ Film; Video Art; Avant-Garde; Cinema; New Media

Credit value	15
Module ECTS	7.5
NQF level (module)	6
Available as distance learning?	No
Origin date	19/01/2024