Art history
Sights and Sites
Module code: V4136
Level 4
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Seminar, Fieldwork
Assessment modes: Coursework
On this module, you’ll gain an introduction to field study, preparing for further on-site research. You’ll visit a range of sites, including:
- sites designed to present works of art – such as museums and galleries
- buildings and sites with other sacred, historical, social or architectural significance
- artists’ houses and studios.
Through in-person observation and analysis, you’ll cultivate your spatial analysis skills. You’ll also identify and question different aspects of a site, including:
- how it was made and what materials were used
- what its cultural role is
- what kind of labour is required to maintain or operate it
- how we might interpret it through different aesthetic and conceptual frameworks.
You’ll explore a site’s relationship to the built environment and landscape. You’ll consider the professional roles it might require related to planning, curation, conservation and environmentalism.
Module learning outcomes
- Develop confidence and skills analysing sites, architecture, materials, object and images in person.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the relationship between art and sites and their geographical location.
- Think about how to situate images and objects within their appropriate historical, social and cultural contexts
- Show initiative while working independently and collaboratively, in the classroom and on-site with the workbooks
- Produce original, persuasive and accurate written work, thinking about the specific brief.
- Demonstrate understanding of how the meanings of works of art can change according to their physical location.