HFMK03025U FM, Module 2: Culture, genres and aesthetics: Precarious Aesthetics
Master in Film and Media Studies
Is it … always an advantage to replace an indistinct picture by a sharp one? Isn't the indistinct one often exactly what we need? (Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, §71)
This course will examine why non-transparent photographic imagery paradoxically can be rhetorically more seductive and produce stronger emotional affect in the viewer than ordinary transparent imagery.
This issue becomes important to interrogate in a visual culture defined by an aesthetic of noise. This is a culture where Instagram was recently bought by Facebook for 1 billion $, and where low-fidelity retrograde imagery of various kinds circulate across domains, from fiction films and documentaries to television news and art installations. Images that are blurred, noisy and non-transparent may invite us to see the world, yet at the same time, they obstruct our view, often to dazzling effect.
In order to address such images as they operate in a number of cases, the course will draw on a combination of 1) media theory, 2) film theory and 3) photography theory, 4) digital theory concerning remediation and media change, and 5) theories of audience interpretation and emotional reactions.
The course is tightly connected to the research project “The Power of the Precarious Aesthetic” supported by the Danish Research Council from 2012-2015. Thus, it allows you to get in touch with ongoing research about an important issue in the present visual culture and be part of a common effort to develop our understanding of the operational logics informing this mediation and the curious forms of fascination it can produce.
Information about the research project can be found here http://mcc.ku.dk/research/focus-areas/precarious-aesthetic/ and about our October conference here http://bcnm.berkeley.edu/index.php/precarious-aesthetics-call-for-papers/
Master in Film and Media Studies 2013-curriculum:
Module 2: Culture, genres and aesthetics: HFMK03021E
Module 7: Optionel subject 1: HFMK03131E
Module 7: Optionel subject 2: HFMK03141E
Module 7: Optional subject 3: HFMK03151E
Module 7: Optional subject 4: HFMK03161E
Curriculum for the Master’s Programme in Film Studies, The 2008
Curriculum:
Module 6: Optionel subject 1: HFVA04171E
Module 6: Optionel subject 1: HFVA04181E
Module 6: Optionel subject 2: HFVA04191E
Module 6: Optionel subject 2: HFVA04201E
Curriculum for Master's Programme in Media Studies, The 2008
Curriculum:
Module 3: Media, aesthetics and genres: HMEK03131E
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 42
- Course Preparation
- 367,5
- Total
- 409,5
Master elective for students from outside of Humanities at UCPH:
http://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/skemaer/enkeltestudieelementer.pdf/Indskrivning-enkelte-kurser.pdf
Apply on form to sn-mef@hum.ku.dk June 1, 2015 at the latest.
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- OtherThe Exam will be conducted in English
Criteria for exam assesment
Links to curriculums:
Master in Film and Media Studies, 2013-curriculum:
http://hum.ku.dk/uddannelser/aktuelle_studieordninger/film_medievidenskab/Film_and_Media_Studies_2013.pdf
Curriculum for the Master’s Programme in Film Studies, The 2008
Curriculum:
http://filmandmedia.ku.dk/curricula/upload-dokumenter/Film_Studies_KA_2008_just_2010.pdf
Curriculum for Master's Programme in Media Studies, The 2008
Curriculum:
http://filmandmedia.ku.dk/curricula/upload-dokumenter/Media_Studies_KA_2008_just_2010.pdf
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- HFMK03025U
- Credit
- 15 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree MasterFull Degree Master choice
- Duration
- 1 semester
- Placement
- Autumn
- Schedule
- .
- Study board
- Study Board of Media, Cognition and Communication
Contracting department
- Department of Media, Cognition and Communication
Course responsibles
- Karina Fleischer (6-7867683d3a3b456d7a7233707a336970)
Lecturers
Arild Fetveit