Constellations: HAA 2401 Special Topics Contemporary - Modernities and Modernisms: Times, Values, Worlds
The main aim of the seminar will be to explore historical and current understandings of modernity in relation to modern social formations and modernism within visual cultures, especially those of the visual arts, architecture, film and mass media. Drawing on a number of classic, recent and new texts we will focus on the ways in which a number of artists, critics and theorists have identified the key constituents of modernity and modernism, and contrast them to other explanations of similar and related phenomena. While the initial focus will be on the etymology of the concept "modern", we will develop a sense of the history of its having been experienced and thought, noting differences in approach in different parts of the world. Finally, we will explore how modernity and modernism look today, from within their aftermath.
