Module Catalogue 2024/25

Pre Requisite Comment

Students should have successfully completed stage 1 Art History and at least one stage 2 module.

Co Requisite Comment

N/A

Aims

The term 'Creative City' was first used in the late-1980s by urbanist Charles Landry to describe an approach to urban development and governance informed by a logic of creativity and focused on the promotion of culture and the 'creative industries'. The idea gained particular momentum in the 21st Century in the wake of the work of urban economist Richard Florida, whose influential writings have led to cities worldwide turning to cultural solutions as panacea to all manner of post-industrial urban ills. This course takes this as a backdrop against which to examine the increasingly significant role that art has played in urban space in the 20th and 21st centuries. Whilst attention will be paid to artistic representations of the city, the primary focus will lie on how art and artists function as actors in the urban environment, shaping our cities and being put to work in the service of urban regeneration. We will also consider artistic practices which take the city as their medium, from situationist derives to interventions into housing (from Rachel Whiteread’s ‘House’ to Assemble’s ‘Granby 4 Streets’.

The course is designed to encourage students to situate their study of modern and contemporary art in relation to their own experiences as inhabitants of cities. It is necessarily interdisciplinary, drawing upon art-historical methodologies and sources alongside those of the many other disciplines with a stake in the urban environment, including architectural history, economics, geography, sociology, and urban studies. This will serve as a platform for students to experiment with interdisciplinarity and discover how other disciplines might complement the practice of art history.

Outline Of Syllabus

The course is based around themes and is structured semi-chronologically, beginning with the pivotal work of urbanist Jane Jacobs in the 1950s and 60s, and extending up to the present day and speculations on the future of art in the city. The geographical focus is broad, covering North America, Europe and Asia, but will be rooted in local case studies as far as possible, drawing upon the North East’s own rich cultural resources and histories. We will examine gentrification and culture-led regeneration through the Ouseburn Valley; New Labour cultural policy in relation to the Baltic and Sage; and public art through the Angel of the North.

The course will be structured around the following themes:

•       Jane Jacobs and the origins of the Creative City
•       Performing the City
•       Loft Living and the ‘Fine Art of Gentrification’
•       Cool Britannia!: Urban Regeneration under New Labour
•       Public Art and the Privatisation of Public Space
•       Art and Housing
•       The Diplomatic Condition: Art and Gentrification Today
•       Occupy Art: Activism and the City
•       Museums and Biennales
•       Art in the Global City
•       Art and Labour in the Gig Economy
•       Future Cities

Intended Knowledge Outcomes

On completion of Art in the Creative City, students should have knowledge of:
•       Theories and practices relating to the idea of the ‘creative city’
•       Key developments in urban history over the 20th and 21st centuries
•       Major artistic interventions into the city
•       The ways in which art has been instrumentalised in the service of urban development and regeneration
•       A wide range of theoretical approaches to the city, ranging from theories of gentrification to privatisation and the ‘right to the city’
•       How art is informed by and contributes to interdisciplinary urban thinking.
•       Key developments in cultural policy since the 1990s, and how these have shaped the trajectories of contemporary art

Intended Skill Outcomes

On completion of Art in the Creative City, students should have developed skills in:
•       Presenting information and ideas in a clear and engaging manner
•       Researching in an independent, intelligent and sound manner
•       Interdisciplinary research and learning, and how it might benefit the practice of art history
•       Drawing upon policy documents and other non-academic sources in the service of their writing
•       Discussion in a group context
•       Presentation in public
•       Engaging critically with the urban, political and institutional contexts of art production
•       Critical engagement with texts
•       Dealing with works of art that resist established art-historical methods of analysis through their social, ephemeral and conceptual form.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The module will revolve around weekly lecture materials, delivered both in person (1-hr per week) and online (1-hr per week) via ReCAP. These will be supplemented by in-person seminars and asynchronous structured learning activities in order to foster group discussion and analysis.

Lectures: to allow definition of the scope of the syllabus, an introduction to a body of knowledge, and modelling of the level and nature of the analysis required.

Online lecture materials shared via ReCAP (including pre-recorded interviews, artist moving image work): to allow definition of the scope of the syllabus, an introduction to a body of knowledge, and modelling of the level and nature of the analysis required. These are broken down into smaller sections for ease of online digestion.

Seminars: to encourage interaction and the development of cognitive and key skills; to allow preparation and presentation of directed research on specific issues and case studies.

Asynchronous structured learning activities: to develop essay writing skills, close reading skills, visual analysis, and better encourage interaction between peers in their analysis and discussion of the course content.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The essay affords the student the opportunity to conduct academic research into a topic relating to the course, from a selection of questions set by the course organiser. These questions will be oriented towards encouraging students to engage closely with the practices studied on the course. This assessment will be supported by discussions during seminars.

The case study analysis offers the chance to hone writing and analytical skills in advance of the essay in a formative and less pressurised context. The formative nature of the assessment will permit faster feedback, allowing the case study analysis to really feed into the summative essay.

General Notes

N/A