Credit Points: 15
Study Time: 150 Hours

This purpose of this unit is to consider photography in the context of „realism‟. The idea of reality was largely unchallenged until the arrival of postmodernism when photography became central to debates about hyper-reality and representation, and the conflicts for truth in the document as evidence.

You are required to respond visually to these well-established debates that are now subject to an increased relevance through the advancements in digital technologies, the rise of „virtual‟ reality, and the increasingly complex representations of our world.

In developing your area of practice the choice of subject remains yours but notions of „realism‟ must remain as the central theme of the unit outcome.

Outline Syllabus
An indicative guide to the content covered by this unit:

• Representation and photography 
• Modernity and post-modernity 
• Hyper-reality and other „simulacra‟
• Interpretation of „the real‟ 
• Mimetic function 
• Virtual reality 
• Ambiguity, the fake and the false

Method of Delivery 
Lectures, seminars, practical workshops, independent learning, tutorials.

Aims

A1 To provide an opportunity for the exploration and discussion of „the real‟, „realism‟ and „reality‟ within historic and contemporary creative photographic practice.
A2 To consider the possibilities for the photographic image as it relates to realism.
A3 To provide sound understanding of the visualisation and production, and theoretical judgements required in the construction of notions of „the real‟, „realism‟ and reality.
A4 To provide sound understanding of basic techniques and technical processes involved in challenging notions of „realism‟ and „reality‟.

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this unit you will able to:

LO1 Demonstrate a sound understanding of realism as it relates to historic and contemporary creative practice.
LO2 Demonstrate the possibilities that contemporary technologies offer to notions around the constructs of realism in photographic practice.
LO3 Locate your own developing ideas and creative practice in the context of contemporary photography.
LO4 Demonstrate a sound understanding of basic techniques and technical practices involved in contemporary visual production.

Reference Material

Key
Bourdieu, Pierre (1965) (trans.1990 Shaun Whiteside) Photography – A Middle-brow Art. Cambridge: Polity Press.
McQuire, Scott (1998) Visions of Modernity. London, Thousand Oaks, CA. and Delhi: Sage Publications.
Roberts, John (1998) The Art of Interruption: Realism, Photography and the Everyday. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Sutton, Damian with Susan Brind and Ray McKenzie (eds) (2007) The State of the Real, Aesthetics in the Digital Age. London and New York: I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd.
Wells, Liz (ed.) (2003) The Photography Reader. London and New York: Routledge.

Recommended
Armstrong, Nancy (1999) Fiction in the Age of Photography: The Legacy of British Realism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Baudrillard, Jean (1983) Simulations (trans P. Foss et al.) New York: Semiotext(e).
Beaumont, Matthew, (ed.) (2007) Adventures in Realism. Malden, MA., Oxford and Victoria, NSW: Blackwell Publishing.
Burgin, Victor (ed.) (1982) Thinking Photography. London:Macmillan.
Nelson, Robert S. and Richard Shiff (1996) (2nd edn 2003) Critical Terms for Art History. Chicago: Chicago University Press

Technical Reference Material
Technical reference material will vary according to the particular needs of individual students and their specific area of practice. Tutorial advice will help to define relevant texts and/or other support material that will inform this aspect.