Representation and Image Theories
A.Y. 2020/2021
Learning objectives
The course aims to provide students with a historical-critical in-depth investigation of the main representation and image theories. The proposed path will address the fundamental questions and authors of this specific disciplinary field, which belongs to the wider domain of the aesthetic discipline (intended both as a theory of sensibility and as a theory of art), also taking into consideration its interdisciplinary connections with other domains such as: semiotics, art history, history of literature, media history and theory, psychology, anthropology, cognitive neurosciences. The students will be able to critically analyse and employ the acquired notions particularly in the professional areas of teaching in the secondary school, operators in the field of education and popularization, editor in chief of texts and images, coordinator of cultural projects in the public and private domain.
Expected learning outcomes
Knowledge and understanding:
The students will acquire an in-depth knowledge and critical awareness of the main representation and image theories (both of continental and analytic tradition) developed throughout the history of aesthetics, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary debate. Along this path, the students will be invited to a critical confrontation with the fundamental authors and concepts of this disciplinary domain, to its methods and to its specific terminology.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The students will acquire the skills necessary to apply the conceptual framework of the main representation and image theories to situations pertaining to the strategies of representation in the widest sense of the term and to the experience of the image (both artistic and non-artistic), having recourse to an adequate specific lexicon. They will be able to critically discuss the main theoretical models (both of continental and analytic tradition) and in the corresponding literature. They will apply the acquired competences to the reading and critical comment of fundamental texts of the history of aesthetics devoted to questions of representation and image theory. They will be encouraged to propose autonomous and original solutions to problems arising from the common discussion.
The students will acquire an in-depth knowledge and critical awareness of the main representation and image theories (both of continental and analytic tradition) developed throughout the history of aesthetics, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary debate. Along this path, the students will be invited to a critical confrontation with the fundamental authors and concepts of this disciplinary domain, to its methods and to its specific terminology.
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
The students will acquire the skills necessary to apply the conceptual framework of the main representation and image theories to situations pertaining to the strategies of representation in the widest sense of the term and to the experience of the image (both artistic and non-artistic), having recourse to an adequate specific lexicon. They will be able to critically discuss the main theoretical models (both of continental and analytic tradition) and in the corresponding literature. They will apply the acquired competences to the reading and critical comment of fundamental texts of the history of aesthetics devoted to questions of representation and image theory. They will be encouraged to propose autonomous and original solutions to problems arising from the common discussion.
Lesson period: Second semester
Assessment methods: Esame
Assessment result: voto verbalizzato in trentesimi
Single course
This course cannot be attended as a single course. Please check our list of single courses to find the ones available for enrolment.
Course syllabus and organization
Single session
Responsible
Lesson period
Second semester
During the ongoing covid emergency, the course syllabus will be maintained with the following changes made to enhance the effectiveness of the online version of the course, which was originally designed for face-to-face teaching.
Online environments used:
Ariel: https://bgrespirit.ariel.ctu.unimi.it/
MSTeams: code available on Ariel
Teaching methods:
Classes will be held according to the following risk scenarios:
- maximum severity (red zone): classes will be held only remotely in synchronous mode (using MSTeams)
- high severity (orange zone): lessons will be held in mixed mode, partly in person and partly online. the face-to-face lessons will allow the participation of students connected with MSTeams as well as students in the classroom. Online lessons will be held synchronously (using MSTeams)
- severity (yellow zone): classes will be held according with the orange zone guidelines and, if conditions allow, the number of lessons on campus will be increased.
The calendar of in person lessons and updates will be published on the online course platform (Ariel).
Learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria:
The exam is oral and is held on MSTeams in any emergency situation, whether yellow, orange or red zone, in compliance with the guidelines provided by the University. The online course on Ariel will make available constantly updated details about the oral examination sessions that will be held over several days.
Students wishing to participate in face-to-face lessons must refer to the following University provisions:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/frequentare-un-corso-di-laurea/seguire-il-percorso-di-studi/didattica-presenza
Students wishing to participate in MSTeams lessons must refer to the following technical guides:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/servizi-gli-studenti/servizi-tecnologici-e-online/microsoft-office-365-education
To participate in the exam sessions, students must refer to the following provisions:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/frequentare-un-corso-di-laurea/seguire-il-percorso-di-studi/esami/esami-distanza-faq-gli-student
Online environments used:
Ariel: https://bgrespirit.ariel.ctu.unimi.it/
MSTeams: code available on Ariel
Teaching methods:
Classes will be held according to the following risk scenarios:
- maximum severity (red zone): classes will be held only remotely in synchronous mode (using MSTeams)
- high severity (orange zone): lessons will be held in mixed mode, partly in person and partly online. the face-to-face lessons will allow the participation of students connected with MSTeams as well as students in the classroom. Online lessons will be held synchronously (using MSTeams)
- severity (yellow zone): classes will be held according with the orange zone guidelines and, if conditions allow, the number of lessons on campus will be increased.
The calendar of in person lessons and updates will be published on the online course platform (Ariel).
Learning assessment procedures and evaluation criteria:
The exam is oral and is held on MSTeams in any emergency situation, whether yellow, orange or red zone, in compliance with the guidelines provided by the University. The online course on Ariel will make available constantly updated details about the oral examination sessions that will be held over several days.
Students wishing to participate in face-to-face lessons must refer to the following University provisions:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/frequentare-un-corso-di-laurea/seguire-il-percorso-di-studi/didattica-presenza
Students wishing to participate in MSTeams lessons must refer to the following technical guides:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/servizi-gli-studenti/servizi-tecnologici-e-online/microsoft-office-365-education
To participate in the exam sessions, students must refer to the following provisions:
https://www.unimi.it/it/studiare/frequentare-un-corso-di-laurea/seguire-il-percorso-di-studi/esami/esami-distanza-faq-gli-student
Course syllabus
The course is divided into three teaching units. The first unit, entitled "Ontologies/rethinking the photographic", will deal with the nature of the technical image from the theory of the photographic to the theory of the digital. The second unit, entitled "Affect/doing things with images", will tackle the topic of the engagement produced through the images, both as an affection of the subject and as an agency of the image itself. The third part will be devoted to the relationship between body and image in a twofold way: the represented body between art and science and the body as a medium for producing visuality.
Prerequisites for admission
No prior knowledge is required.
Teaching methods
Lectures, discussions, watching and analyzing still and moving images.
Teaching Resources
Assignments for both 6 and 9 ECTS exams (Unit A + Unit B, Tot. 552 pp.):
Unit A - Ontologies/rethinking the photographic (Tot: 263 pp.)
S. Sontag, On Photography (1977), Rosetta Books, New York 2005, pp. 1-19, 39-64 (tot: 43)
R. Krauss, A Note on Photography and the Simulacra, in "October", Vol. 31 (Winter, 1984), pp. 49-68 (tot: 19)
A. Robins, Peirce and Photography, in "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy",
Vol. 28, No. 1 (2014), pp. 1-16 (tot. 15) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jspecphil.28.1.0001?seq=1)
A. Bazin, The Onotology of the Photographic Image, in "Film Quarterly", vol. 13, No. 4 (Summer, 1960), pp. 4-9 (tot: 6) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1210183?seq=1)
H. Farocki, Reality Would Have to Begin, in T. Elsaesser (ed.), Harun Farocki: Working on the Sightlines, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, pp. 193-202 (tot: 9) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mzvn)
G. Didi-Huberman, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2012, pp. 3-4, pp. 6-17, 30-40, 51-88 (tot: 47).
V. Flusser, Toward a Philosophy of Photography, European Photography, Göttingen 1984 (ed. it. Per una filosofia della fotografia, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2006), pp. 64.
H. Steyerl, In defence of the poor image, e-flux journal #10, November 2009 (tot. 10 pp.)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/)
I. Hoelzl, R. Marie, Softimage. Toward a New Theory of the Digital Image, Intellect, Bristol/ Chicago 2015, pp. 61-80 (tot. 20)
T. Elsaesser, 'Digital Cinema', in Film History as Media Archaeology: Tracking Digital Cinema, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2016, pp. 231-252.
Unit B - Affects/doing things with images (tot: 284 pp.)
R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflection on Photography, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981, Part I, pp. 3- 60 (Tot: 57).
M. Fried, Barthes's Punctum, in "Critical Inquiry", vol. 31, No. 3 (Spring 2005), pp. 539-574 (tot. 35) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/430984?seq=1)
Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Clarednon Press, 1998), pp. 96-154 (tot. pp. 60)
W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005, pp. 5-56 (tot: 51)
H. Bredekamp, Image Acts: a Systematic Approach to Visual Agency, De Gruyter, Boston 2017, pp. 11-35, 77-136 (tot: 83)
A. Thain, Bodies in Suspense: Time and Affect in Cinema (Minneapolis-London: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), pp. 89-118 (tot. 29)
Additional assignment for 9 ECTS exam (Unit C, Tot. 840 pp.):
Unit C - Biopictures/ body matters (Tot: 288)
H. Belting, An Anthropology of Images. Picture, Medium, Body, Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford 2011, pp. 1-62 (Tot. 61)
A. Sekula, The Body and the Archive, in "October", vol. 39, 1986, pp. 3-64 (tot. 31) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/778312.pdf?seq=1)
T. Gunning, Tracing the Individual Body. Photography, Detectives and Early Cinema, in L. Charney, V. R., Schwartz (eds.), Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles 1995, pp. 15-45 (tot. 30)
V. Dünkel, X-Ray Vision and Shadow Image. On the Specificity of Early Radiographs and Their Interpretations around 1900, in H. Bredekamp. V. Dünkel, The Technical Image. A History of Style in the Scientific Imagery, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2015, pp. 116-128 (tot: 12)
K. A. Gates, Our Biometric Future. Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance, New York Press, New York 2011, pp. 25-62 (tot: 37)
N. Steimatsky, The Face on Film, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017, pp. 143-179 (36)
D. Greene, Drone Vision, in "Surveillance & Society", 13 (2), 2015, pp. 233-49 (16) (https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/drone_vision)
E. Weizman, Violence at the threshold of detectability, in "e-flux journal", 64, 2015 (tot. 12)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/64/60861/violence-at-the-threshold-of-detectability/)
G. Agamben, Notes on Gestures, in Id., Means without end. Notes on Politics (1996), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis-London 2000, pp. 49-59 (Tot. 10)
B. Grespi, The Technical Object and Somatic Thought. Theories of Gesture between Anthropology, Aesthetics and Cinema, in "Aisthesis" 12(2), 2019, pp. 63-75 (12) (https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/aisthesis/article/view/10726)
B. Grespi, The Power of the Mechanism. Cinema and the Machinery of Desire, in G. Calorio, S. Tongiani (eds.), Technophilia/Technophobia, Aracne, Roma 2020 (pp. 15).
Slides and other digital resources available on Ariel.
Unit A - Ontologies/rethinking the photographic (Tot: 263 pp.)
S. Sontag, On Photography (1977), Rosetta Books, New York 2005, pp. 1-19, 39-64 (tot: 43)
R. Krauss, A Note on Photography and the Simulacra, in "October", Vol. 31 (Winter, 1984), pp. 49-68 (tot: 19)
A. Robins, Peirce and Photography, in "The Journal of Speculative Philosophy",
Vol. 28, No. 1 (2014), pp. 1-16 (tot. 15) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jspecphil.28.1.0001?seq=1)
A. Bazin, The Onotology of the Photographic Image, in "Film Quarterly", vol. 13, No. 4 (Summer, 1960), pp. 4-9 (tot: 6) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1210183?seq=1)
H. Farocki, Reality Would Have to Begin, in T. Elsaesser (ed.), Harun Farocki: Working on the Sightlines, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2004, pp. 193-202 (tot: 9) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mzvn)
G. Didi-Huberman, Images in Spite of All: Four Photographs from Auschwitz, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2012, pp. 3-4, pp. 6-17, 30-40, 51-88 (tot: 47).
V. Flusser, Toward a Philosophy of Photography, European Photography, Göttingen 1984 (ed. it. Per una filosofia della fotografia, Bruno Mondadori, Milano 2006), pp. 64.
H. Steyerl, In defence of the poor image, e-flux journal #10, November 2009 (tot. 10 pp.)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/10/61362/in-defense-of-the-poor-image/)
I. Hoelzl, R. Marie, Softimage. Toward a New Theory of the Digital Image, Intellect, Bristol/ Chicago 2015, pp. 61-80 (tot. 20)
T. Elsaesser, 'Digital Cinema', in Film History as Media Archaeology: Tracking Digital Cinema, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2016, pp. 231-252.
Unit B - Affects/doing things with images (tot: 284 pp.)
R. Barthes, Camera Lucida. Reflection on Photography, Hill and Wang, New York, 1981, Part I, pp. 3- 60 (Tot: 57).
M. Fried, Barthes's Punctum, in "Critical Inquiry", vol. 31, No. 3 (Spring 2005), pp. 539-574 (tot. 35) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/430984?seq=1)
Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Clarednon Press, 1998), pp. 96-154 (tot. pp. 60)
W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want? The Lives and Loves of Images, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2005, pp. 5-56 (tot: 51)
H. Bredekamp, Image Acts: a Systematic Approach to Visual Agency, De Gruyter, Boston 2017, pp. 11-35, 77-136 (tot: 83)
A. Thain, Bodies in Suspense: Time and Affect in Cinema (Minneapolis-London: University of Minnesota Press, 2017), pp. 89-118 (tot. 29)
Additional assignment for 9 ECTS exam (Unit C, Tot. 840 pp.):
Unit C - Biopictures/ body matters (Tot: 288)
H. Belting, An Anthropology of Images. Picture, Medium, Body, Princeton University Press, Princeton/Oxford 2011, pp. 1-62 (Tot. 61)
A. Sekula, The Body and the Archive, in "October", vol. 39, 1986, pp. 3-64 (tot. 31) (https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/778312.pdf?seq=1)
T. Gunning, Tracing the Individual Body. Photography, Detectives and Early Cinema, in L. Charney, V. R., Schwartz (eds.), Cinema and the Invention of Modern Life, University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles 1995, pp. 15-45 (tot. 30)
V. Dünkel, X-Ray Vision and Shadow Image. On the Specificity of Early Radiographs and Their Interpretations around 1900, in H. Bredekamp. V. Dünkel, The Technical Image. A History of Style in the Scientific Imagery, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London 2015, pp. 116-128 (tot: 12)
K. A. Gates, Our Biometric Future. Facial Recognition Technology and the Culture of Surveillance, New York Press, New York 2011, pp. 25-62 (tot: 37)
N. Steimatsky, The Face on Film, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2017, pp. 143-179 (36)
D. Greene, Drone Vision, in "Surveillance & Society", 13 (2), 2015, pp. 233-49 (16) (https://ojs.library.queensu.ca/index.php/surveillance-and-society/article/view/drone_vision)
E. Weizman, Violence at the threshold of detectability, in "e-flux journal", 64, 2015 (tot. 12)
(https://www.e-flux.com/journal/64/60861/violence-at-the-threshold-of-detectability/)
G. Agamben, Notes on Gestures, in Id., Means without end. Notes on Politics (1996), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis-London 2000, pp. 49-59 (Tot. 10)
B. Grespi, The Technical Object and Somatic Thought. Theories of Gesture between Anthropology, Aesthetics and Cinema, in "Aisthesis" 12(2), 2019, pp. 63-75 (12) (https://oajournals.fupress.net/index.php/aisthesis/article/view/10726)
B. Grespi, The Power of the Mechanism. Cinema and the Machinery of Desire, in G. Calorio, S. Tongiani (eds.), Technophilia/Technophobia, Aracne, Roma 2020 (pp. 15).
Slides and other digital resources available on Ariel.
Assessment methods and Criteria
The final examination consists of an oral exam concerning the course topics and testing the knowledge and skills acquired by students, with a particular focus on concepts and examples.
The grading system (based on a 0-30 scale, 18 being the lowest passing mark) will correspond to:
- knowledge level of the theoretical aspects;
- the ability to apply concepts to case studies;
- making judgments;
- ability to argue through a specific conceptual and linguistic property
The grading system (based on a 0-30 scale, 18 being the lowest passing mark) will correspond to:
- knowledge level of the theoretical aspects;
- the ability to apply concepts to case studies;
- making judgments;
- ability to argue through a specific conceptual and linguistic property
Unita' didattica A
M-FIL/04 - AESTHETICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica B
M-FIL/04 - AESTHETICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Unita' didattica C
M-FIL/04 - AESTHETICS - University credits: 3
Lessons: 20 hours
Professor(s)
Reception:
From December 2024: On Monday from 10 to 13 (please send me an email at least a day before).
Dipartimento di filosofia, second floor, and/or Teams