Module outline (updated February 2014)

The module is open to all first year students within the Faculty and the School welcomes students from Social Sciences backgrounds with an interest in images of all kinds.
An excellent opportunity for students with an interest in `the visual` to be introduced to the discipline of Art History and to explore the wide ranging transferable skills employed by Art Historians


From paintings of dead politicians and photographs of tattooed ladies, to art house films and advertisements for perfumes, if you have an interest in the visual and would like to know more about `why` and `how` the visual works in the much wider context of the everyday, then a one term module in the skills of art history will be of interest to you. `Ways of Seeing` is an introductory skills module for students of art history and those interested in the visual and in visual culture.

Designed to offer you the key skills of visual analysis which will enable you to engage with a broad range of art works, this module is intended to develop your understanding of why images and things appear as they do. This module is also designed to develop your transferable skills as we consider the visual arts in various broad contexts and the impact that art has on our lives.

The study skills required in `Ways of Seeing` will develop your skills of description, comparison, analysis and interpretation - all of which are now vital for future career paths within the creative industries and which are likewise crucial for personal development. This skills module compulsory for all students of Art History at Essex will provide a foundation for your individual research methods and for progression through your undergraduate degree course and beyond, to the levels of postgraduate study.


Aims

This introductory module aims:

to introduce students to a wide range of methods, research materials, scholarly approaches and relevant terminology associated with a study of art history and the visual;

to stimulate students to develop skills in oral and written communication through essays, debate in seminars and written exercises;

to introduce students to original works of art and architecture in galleries, museums and in situ as appropriate, in addition to their classroom studies.