Admission requirements
The following courses need to be passed:
Freshman's Class
Academic Skills II
Description
Apart from our individual memories, we all have access to - and help construct - memories we share with our cultural communities. Think for instance of events like the Holocaust or 9/11. Even though many of us have not lived through these events ourselves, we relate to them in ways that go beyond historical knowledge and involve a shared, cultural memory. This concept of cultural memory is often in the news nowadays, where it helps explain cultural identities, for instance based on ideas of nationalism or shared origins. This rising interest is memory is also seen in contemporary art, with many artists reflecting on either the events we collectively remember (like the Holocaust) or on the processes of remembrance and commemoration themselves. Furthermore, the public space is full of monuments, which help us remember (in various ways) and which have often been commissioned from artists we have encountered in previous courses.
In this course, we will read texts from a wide range of authors discussing the workings of monuments, countermonuments and art dealing with the phenomenon of cultural memory. We will encounter a broad selection of influential (contemporary) artworks and monuments. The difficulties of usefully representing something as complex and fickle as memory will be discussed and students will work on research projects that will force them to not only passively consider existing monuments, but also actively work through the process of designing their own monument.
The first half of the course will consist of readings and discussions, in order to create a thorough framework of knowledge about cultural memory and artistic strategies dealing with commemoration and monumentalisation. This part will be ordered thematically and will concern topics like the archive, nostalgia, photography, and active forgetting. The second half of the course will be focused on research. Students will work in groups on the design of a monument; each group will decide what event, person or group of people will be commemorated and how. Plans for the design (considering question like: where should the monument be placed, should it be accompanied by text, what medium should be used, etc.) will be presented to the other groups and discussed in class. Finally, each student will write a 2000 word individual research paper, which may be (but does not have to be) related to the group assignment.
Course Objectives
At the end of the course:
students will have obtained insight into the contemporary debates about cultural memory, monuments and artworks dealing with cultural memory;
students are familiar with a range of influential monuments and contemporary artworks;
students will be able to collaborate on research projects in culturally and nationally diverse groups;
students will be familiar with the audio guide as a medium to communicate information about contemporary art to a larger audience;
students will have gained more insight into the relevance of art in society and cultural identity;
students will be able to initiate and execute a research project, in which they position themselves critically in contemporary scholarly debates, and in which they explicitly frame their own reading/approach.
Timetable
See the timetable on the AMS website
Mode of instruction
- Seminar series
Course Load
Total course load for the course: 5 x 28 hours= 140 hours, broken down into:
Attending lectures: 2 hours per week x 12 weeks = 24 hours
Studying compulsory literature (around 280 pages, at 7 pages per hour, depending on difficiulty): 40 hours
Working on group assignments (research, group meetings and writing): 16 hours
Preparing individual research presentation: 10 hours
Individual research and writing essay: 50 hours
Assessment method
Presentation of individual research proposal (15%)
Group project: design plans for a new monument (25%)
Individual paper of 2000 words, exluding bibliography and notes (60%)
Resit
re-sit
Inspection and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will be organized.
Blackboard
Blackboard will be used for communication, submission of assignments and distribution of reading material.
Literature
Relevant texts will be made available through Blackboard.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Not applicable
Contact
Remarks
The admission requirement for the course AMS on Site is one succesfully completed BA2 Seminar. This course is offered simultaneously with AMS on Site in the second semester, which means it can not be used to fulfil the admission requirement.
The admission requirement for the BA3 Seminar and Final Paper Arts, Media and Society is two succesfully completed BA2 Seminars.