Students
CUL 223 – Visual Countercultures: Graffiti, Kitsch and Conceptual Art
2014 – MQC3 Day
General Information
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| Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Moderator
Joseph Pugliese
Contact via joseph.pugliese@mq.edu.au
Unit Convenor
Lara Palombo
Contact via lara.palombo@mq.edu.au
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| Credit points |
Credit points
3
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| Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
15cp
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| Corequisites |
Corequisites
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| Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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| Unit description |
Unit description
This unit introduces students to a range of theories that question traditional hierarchies of value and that enable a critical re-evaluation of the practices of everyday life. This unit theorises key topics such as: countercultures; oppositional cultures and post-subcultures; the politics of high versus popular and low culture; and counter-cultural practices in global and local contexts. The following practices, sites and objects are examined: graffiti, hip hop and crimes of style; graffiti and the cultural politics of public space; graffiti as a form of political activism and dissent; the relation between kitsch and high art; the politics of kitsch in the context of colonialism and Indigeneity; the cultural politics of tourist sites; gigantism and miniaturism; queer culture, camp and kitsch; and celebrity kitsch.
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Important Academic Dates
Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment Tasks
| Name | Weighting | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Class Test | 30% | Week 6: Wednesday 17 December |
| Active Participation | 5% | Ongoing |
| Tutorial Presentation | 25% | On assigned tutorial week |
| Final Essay | 40% | Tuesday 17 February 2015 |
Class Test
Due: Week 6: Wednesday 17 December
Weighting: 30%
Students will be given a test that requires them to offer brief definitions of the key terms that organise the conceptual framework of the unit. The definitions of the key terms must be based on the readings and lectures of the opening three weeks of the unit, specifically, the Michel de Certeau, Stuart Hall, Dick Hebdige, Jeff Ferrel, Greg Tate and Bell Hooks and Nancy Macdonald readings.
In their responses, students need to demonstrate a clear and effective grasp of such terms as 'tactics,' 'strategies,' 'crimes of style' and so on as discussed in the readings and lectures.
Marking Criteria:
- Clear grasp of key terms
- Lucid Expression
- Functioanal understanding of theoretical concepts
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Active Participation
Due: Ongoing
Weighting: 5%
Participation: Weight: 5%.
Students are required to read essential readings, come prepared to classes, participate in-class discussion in tutorials and lectures. Students will be graded on the basis of the quantity and the quality of participation.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Tutorial Presentation
Due: On assigned tutorial week
Weighting: 25%
Students present an oral, multi-media tutorial paper based on a selected tutorial topic. Length: 20 minutes. Students will select a topic in weeks one and two.
Please note that topics and time of presentation cannot be changed. A medical certificate will be required to reschedule the time of the presentation.
Base your tutorial presentation on the topic and readings of your selected week. Explain in your presentation the key concepts and issues outlined in the week's readings. Illustrate your presentation with examples (from media, films, videos, and so on). Pose questions to the class based on the issues and concepts you are addressing. Make sure you pose relevant questions to the class and that you generate discussion amongst the tutorial group. Generating class discussion related to the topic you present is a key aspect of your assessment for this task.
A hard copy of the presentation will be handed in class after the presentation.
Your assessment will be based on the following criteria: clear and effective grasp of the key issues raised by the relevant readings; relevant evidence used to support and illustrate your arguments; posing of relevant questions to class; creative and innovative address of the topic; and effectively engaging the class in discussion of key issues.
Marking Criteria:
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Clear communication of issues and theoretical concepts
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Substantive evidencing and illustration of the topics discussed
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Engaged communication with other students
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Final Essay
Due: Tuesday 17 February 2015
Weighting: 40%
LENGTH: 3000 Words
Choose a question from the list of essay questions below. In your essay (3000 words), critically address the essay topic with reference to the relevant readings from the Unit Reader.
NB: You cannot write on the same topic that you addressed in your Oral Presentation.
Paper must be handed in hard copy at MQC front desk and in Turntin by 4.30 pm 17 February, Tuesday .
FINAL ESSAY QUESTIONS
1. " 'Ways of operating' constitute the innumerable practices by means of which users reappropriate the space organised by techniques of social production." Michel de Certeau. Discuss how particular subcultural practices, such as graffiti for example, illustrate de Certeau's thesis on "ways of operating," "arts of making" and "strategies" and "tactics."
2. Popular culture, Stuart Hall argues, is structured by the "double movement of containment and resistance." Discuss in relation to a particular cultural practice such as graffiti or the production/consumption of kitsch.
3. "Subcultures represent 'noise' (as opposed to sound): interference in the orderly sequence . . . a kind of temporary blockage in the system of representation." Dick Hebdige. Discuss in the context of a specific subcultural practice.
4. Dick Hebdige outlines two forms of incorporation of subcultures by a dominant culture: the commodity form and the ideological form. Discuss these two forms of incorporation in the context of an actual subcultural style, with reference to bell hooks' essay on "Eating the Other."
5. "Graffiti exists as a public art outside the control of public officials, an alternative style outside the circle of corporate style and consumption." Jeff Ferrell. Discuss.
6. Graffiti, as a subcultural practice, contests established legal notions of public space, private and corporate property and art practice. Discuss.
7. "Shouting on the wall' - animating the virtual self." Nancy Macdonald. How is graffiti about individual and/or group identity, about the construction of virtual selves in dialogue across urban spaces?
8. Gang graffiti is about regulation, respect, reputation and the signing of space into place in the face of systemic exclusion and disenfranchisement of particular racialised communities by the state. Discuss with reference to Susan Phillips' essay.
9. Discuss how graffiti is a “contentious form of political participation.” Evidence your arguments with relation to specific and culturally-situated examples of political graffiti.
10. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's work, discuss how both kitsch and art are in fact all about questions of taste and distinction and the consecration of the social order.
11. Discuss the importance of reproductive technologies in relation to kitsch. In your answer, you need to discuss Benjamin's and Olalquiaga's work on the aura, the original and the reproduction, the tactility of kitsch, and the democratisation of the image. 11. The kitsch object/souvenir promises the consumer "pieces of the aura (mythic time)." Celeste Olalquiaga. Discuss Olalquiaga's concept of notalgic kitsch and melancholy kitsch.
12. Cute kitsch is underpinned by sadism, the grotesque and mutilation. Discuss in the context of Daniel Harris' essay.
13. Aboriginalist kitsch is enabled by white supremacism: it is an "assertion of rights of ownership in the intellectual and cultural sphere to match power in the political and economic sphere." B. Hodge and V. Mishra. Discuss.
14. "Indigenous tourist wares were threatening because they blurred the boundaries, they rendered the other unrecognisable." R. B. Phillips. Discuss in the context of indigenous tourist art.
15. "We are enveloped by the gigantic, surrounded by it, enclosed within its shadow. Whereas we know the miniature as a spatial whole or as temporal parts, we know the gigantic only partially. We move through the landscape; it does not move through us." Susan Stewart. Discuss gigantism and the miniature in the context of examples in the Australian landscape and kitsch culture.
16. Art cannot exist without kitsch. Discuss in the context of the work of Marcel Duchamp and Jeff Koons.
17. Kitsch and queer "are in a lascivious embrace. They constantly transmute." Craig Judd. Discuss.
18. Queer kitsch brings into focus a concept of the self as "performative, improvisational, discontinuous, and processually constituted by repetitive and stylized acts." Moe Myer. Discuss.
19. "Representational excess, heterogeneity, and gratuitousness of reference, in constituting a major raison d'etre of camp's fun and exclusiveness, both signal and contribute to an overall resistance to definition." Fabio Cleto. Discuss.
20. "The audience's connection with celebrities, celetoids and celeactors is dominated by imaginary relationships." Chris Rojek. Discuss how celebrity kitsch is one of the key products of this imaginary relationship.
21. Construct your own essay question, with reference to the topics and readings of the unit, in consultation with your tutor.
Marking Criteria:
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Competant use of key theoretical terms adn concepts
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Evidencing of arguments with relevant material
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Substantive analysis of the essay topic
· FINAL ESSAYS THAT ARE SUBMITTED AFTER THE DUE DATE WILL RECEIVE A MARK OF ZERO, AND THE STUDENT WILL FAIL THE UNIT, UNLESS THEY SUPPLY RELEVANT DOCUMENTATION JUSTIFYING THE LATE SUBMISSION.
Special Consideration Policy
http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html
Applying for Special Consideration: Students applying for Special Consideration circumstances of three (3) consecutive days duration, within a study period, and/or prevent completion of a formal examination must submit an on-line application with the Faculty of Arts. For an application to be valid, it must include a completed Application for Special Consideration form and all supporting documentation.
The on-line Special Consideration application is found at: http://www.arts.mq.edu.au/current_students/undergraduate/admin_central/special_consideration.
On successful completion you will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Delivery and Resources
CLASSES:
Students are required to attend and come prepared to all tutorials and lectures. Students must attend all lectures and tutorials as they supply important multimedia information not available in the lecture notes. As per MQC rule, all students are expected to attend 80% of classes to avoid a Fail. The final essay for this course wont be marked if students have not complied with the 80% attendance rule.
Technology Used and Required
Lectures will be delivered via PowerPoint. I recommend students present their Oral Tutorial Presentation via PowerPoint.
There will be lectures for all tutorial topics and lecture notes will be available at the unit's iLearn site.
REQUIRED TEXT:
The set readings for the unit is are available in E-reserve.
What Has Changed:
I have replaced an existing lecture on kitsch with a new lecture on political graffiti.
Unit Schedule
UNIT SCHEDULE
LECTURE SCHEDULE:
Week One: Introduction
Week Two: Graffiti: Crimes of Style
Week Three: The Cultural Politics of Graffiti and Public Space
Week Four: Graffiti as Contentious Form of Political Participation
Week Five: Test
Week Six: Kitsch, Bad Taste and Distinction
Week Seven: Kitsch, Mechanical Reproduction and Modernity
Week Eight: The Politics of Kitsch: The House of Aboriginality and Indigenous Tourist Art
Week Nine: Kitsch, Gigantism and Miniaturism
Week Ten: Kitsch/Art
Week Eleven: Queer as Kitsch
Week Twelve: Celebrity Trash
Week Thirteen: Summary Lecture
TURTORIAL and READING SCHEDULE
Week One:Introduction/ Selection of tutorial topic
Week Two: Introduction: Key concepts
Michel de Certeau, “Introduction,” The Practice of Everyday Life. Trans. Steven Rendall. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Stuart Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’,” in John Storey (ed.), Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Hempel Hemstead, UK: Harverster Wheatsheaf, 1994.
Dick Hebdige, “Subculture: The Unnatural Break,” Subculture: The Meaning of Style. New York: Routledge, 1987.
Week Three: Graffiti: Crimes of Style
Jeff Ferrell, “Crimes of Style,” Crimes of Style. Boston: Northwestern University Press, 1996.
Greg Tate, “Nigs R Us, or How Blackfolk Became Fetish Objects,” in Greg Tate (ed.), Everything But the Burden. New York: Harlem Moon Broadway Books, 2003.
bell hooks, “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance,” Black Looks. Boston: South End Press, 1992.
Remi Calzadaa and Henke Pijenburg, “The Hip-Hop Movement”and “An Interview of Bernard Stiegler by Elizabeth Caillet,” Graffiti Art. Paris: Musee National des Monument Fracais, 1991.
Week Four: The Cultural Politics of Graffiti and Public Space
Nancy Macdonald, “Making a Difference,” The Graffiti Subculture. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2001.
Frances Butler, “Youth Art and Mobile Galleries,” Artlink 14.3 (Spring 1994). Susan A. Phillips, “Bloods and Crips in the City of Angels” and “The Gang Manifesto,”
Wallbangin’: Graffiti and Gangs in L.A. Chicago: Chicago University Press.
Week Six: Graffiti as Contentious Form of Political Participation
Lisa K. Waldner and Betty A. Dobratz, “Graffiti as a Contentious Form of Political Participation,” Sociology Compass, 7.5 (2013): 377-389.
Julie Peteet, “The Writing on the Wall: The Graffiti of the Intafada,” Cultural Anthropology, 11.2 (1996) 139-159.
“Muslim Women and Graffiti: Taking Art, Politics and Gender to the Streets,” 30 May 2013, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2013/05/muslim-women-and-graffiti-taking-art-politics-and-gender-to-the-streets.
Fair Soliman and Angie Balata, “Egyptian Women Fight for Equality with Graffiti,” 29 April 2013, http://observers.france24.com.
Nicholas Casey, “Graffiti is Redefining Public Spaces in Post-Revolutionary Cairo,” The Wall Street Journal, 26 May 2013, http://blog.wsj.com/middleeast/2013/05/26/graffiti-is-redefining-public-spaces-in-post-revolutionary-cairo.
“She’s Making Graffiti at the Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” Green Prophet, 19 February 2013, http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/02/fighting-the-taliban-with-paind-draft/.
Week Seven: Kitsch, Bad Taste and Distinction
Gillo Dorfles, “Kitsch” and “Conclusion” in Gillo Dorfles (ed.), Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste. New York: Universal Books, 1969
John Codd, “Making Distinctions,” in R. Harker, C. Mahar and C. Wilkes (eds.), An Introduction to the Work of Bourdieu. Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1990.
Week Eight: Kitsch, Mechanical Reproduction and Modernity
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Illuminations. Ed. Hannah Arendt. New York: Schoken Books, 1985.
Celeste Olalquiaga, “The Souvenir “ and “The Debris of the Aura,” The Artificial Kingdom. London: Bloomsbury, 1999.
Week Nine: The Politics of Kitsch: The House of Aboriginality and Indigenous Tourist Art
Glenn R. Cooke, “Kitsch or Kind: Representations of Aborigines in Popular Art,” Artlink 15.4 (Summer 1995).
Vivien Johnson, “Introduction: Aboriginal Art in the Age of Reproductive Technologies,” Copyrites. Sydney: National Indigenous Arts Advocacy Association and Macquarie University, 1996.
Ruth B. Phillips, “Why Not Tourist Art? Significant Silences in Native American Museum Representations,” Gyan Prakash (ed.), After Colonialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
Week Ten: Kitsch, Gigantism and Miniaturism
John Cross, “Kings of Kitsch: Big Things” and Paul Ryan, “Bigs R Us,” Artlink 15.4 (Summer 1995).
Susan Stewart, “The Gigantic,” On Longing. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1999.
Stephanie Stockwell and Bethany Carlisle, “Big Things: Larrikinism, Low Art and the Land,” Journal of Media-Culture, 6.5.
Week Eleven: Kitsch/Art John Caldwell, “Live Now,” and Brian Wallis, “We Don’t Need Another Hero: A Critical Reception of the Work of Jeff Koons,” in F. W. Simpson (ed.), Jeff Koons. San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1992.
David Joselit, “Investigating the Ordinary,” and Roberta Smith, “Rituals of Consumption,” Art in America (May 1988).
Week Twelve: Queer as Kitsch
Fabio Cleto, “Introduction: Queering the Camp,” in F. Cleto (ed.), Camp: Queer Aesthetics and the Performing Subject. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999.
Craig Judd, “Kitschville: The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras,” Artlink 15.4 (Summer 1995).
Richard Dyer, “It’s Being so Camp as Keeps Us Going,” The Culture of Queers. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
Moe Myer, “Introduction,” The Politics and Poetics of Camp. New York: Routledge, 1994.
Week Thirteen: Celebrity Trash
Chris Rojek, “Celebrity and Celetoids,” Celebrity. London: Reaktion Books, 2001.
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Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy.html
Grading Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Grievance Management Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grievance_management/policy.html
Disruption to Studies Policy http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html The Disruption to Studies Policy is effective from March 3 2014 and replaces the Special Consideration Policy.
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
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Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
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http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/grading/policy.html
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http://universitycouncil.mq.edu.au/legislation.html
Grade Appeals and Final Examination Script Viewing
If, at the conclusion of the unit, you have performed below expectations, and are considering lodging an appeal of grade and/or viewing your final exam script please refer to the following website which provides information about these processes and the cut off dates in the first instance. Please read the instructions provided concerning what constitutes a valid grounds for appeal before appealing your grade.
http://www.city.mq.edu.au/reviews-appeals.html
Special Consideration Policy
The University is committed to equity and fairness in all aspects of its learning and teaching. In stating this commitment, the University recognises that there may be circumstances where a student is prevented by unavoidable disruption from performing in accordance with their ability. A special consideration policy exists to support students who experience serious and unavoidable disruption such that they do not reach their usual demonstrated performance level. The policy is available at:http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/special_consideration/policy.html
The University defines serious and unavoidable disruption to studies as resulting from an event or set of circumstances that:
- could not have reasonably been anticipated, avoided or guarded against by the student; and
- was beyond the student's control; and
- caused substantial disruption to the student's capacity for effective study and/or the completion of required work; and
- substantially interfered with the otherwise satisfactory fulfilment of unit or course requirements; and
- was of at least three (3) consecutive days duration within a study period and/or prevented completion of the final examination.
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· The Special Consideration application is completed by the student and submitted online through www.ask.mq.edu.auwithin five (5) working days after the due date of the associated assessment task / final examination.
· The application contains supporting evidence to demonstrate the severity of the circumstance(s) and that substantial disruption has been caused to the student’s capacity for effective study. (The University will not follow up on outstanding evidence, nor contact any person or body on behalf of the student. The application will be considered as submitted.)
· The original supporting documentation has been sighted by MQC reception staff within five (5) working days after the due date of the associated assessment task.
· Where the particular circumstances are medical in nature, a Professional Authority Form including the health professional’s Medicare Provider Number is included. (If a Professional Authority Form cannot be obtained, an original medical certificate indicating the severity (serious / not serious) and impact of the circumstances must be included with the application.)
· Where the particular circumstances are non-medical in nature, appropriate supporting evidence indicating the severity (serious / not serious) and impact of the circumstances is included with the application.
· The student was performing satisfactorily in the unit up to the date of the unavoidable disruption. (If a student’s work in the unit was previously unsatisfactory, subsequent unavoidable disruption will not overcome the fact that the earlier work was unsatisfactory).
Unacceptable grounds for Special Consideration
The University has determined that some circumstances are not acceptable grounds for claiming Special Consideration. These grounds include, but are not limited, to:
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The University defines acute problems as those involving fewer than three (3) consecutive days within a study period. In these cases, students should not apply for special consideration via ask.mq.edu.au, but contact their Unit Convenor within 5 working days of the assessment due date so that a local solution may be discussed, except where the disruption affects completion of a final examination. (If a final examination is affected, the student should submit a special consideration application via ask.mq.edu.au.)
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Unavoidable non-attendance due to illness or circumstances beyond your control must be supported by appropriate documentation to be considered for a supplementary test. Other non-attendance will obtain zero for the test. You should refer to the section below on Special Consideration for more details about this.
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IT Help at Macquarie City Campus
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Graduate Capabilities
Capable of Professional and Personal Judgement and Initiative
We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment task
- Active Participation
Commitment to Continuous Learning
Our graduates will have enquiring minds and a literate curiosity which will lead them to pursue knowledge for its own sake. They will continue to pursue learning in their careers and as they participate in the world. They will be capable of reflecting on their experiences and relationships with others and the environment, learning from them, and growing - personally, professionally and socially.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment task
- Active Participation
Discipline Specific Knowledge and Skills
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Class Test
- Active Participation
- Tutorial Presentation
- Final Essay
Critical, Analytical and Integrative Thinking
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Class Test
- Active Participation
- Tutorial Presentation
- Final Essay
Problem Solving and Research Capability
Our graduates should be capable of researching; of analysing, and interpreting and assessing data and information in various forms; of drawing connections across fields of knowledge; and they should be able to relate their knowledge to complex situations at work or in the world, in order to diagnose and solve problems. We want them to have the confidence to take the initiative in doing so, within an awareness of their own limitations.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Presentation
- Final Essay
Creative and Innovative
Our graduates will also be capable of creative thinking and of creating knowledge. They will be imaginative and open to experience and capable of innovation at work and in the community. We want them to be engaged in applying their critical, creative thinking.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Tutorial Presentation
- Final Essay
Effective Communication
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Class Test
- Active Participation
- Tutorial Presentation
- Final Essay
Engaged and Ethical Local and Global citizens
As local citizens our graduates will be aware of indigenous perspectives and of the nation's historical context. They will be engaged with the challenges of contemporary society and with knowledge and ideas. We want our graduates to have respect for diversity, to be open-minded, sensitive to others and inclusive, and to be open to other cultures and perspectives: they should have a level of cultural literacy. Our graduates should be aware of disadvantage and social justice, and be willing to participate to help create a wiser and better society.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Demonstrate critical skills, informed by cultural theories, that will enable students to re-evaluate those practices of everyday life that are too often dismissed as worthless or ephemeral.
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Active Participation
- Final Essay
Socially and Environmentally Active and Responsible
We want our graduates to be aware of and have respect for self and others; to be able to work with others as a leader and a team player; to have a sense of connectedness with others and country; and to have a sense of mutual obligation. Our graduates should be informed and active participants in moving society towards sustainability.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Learning outcomes
- Develop analytical skills that will enable students to examine and critique the presuppositions that constitute those hierarchies of value that classify, judge and position cultural objects and practices.
- Producer research skills that will enable students to present theorised, contextualised and informed accounts of key issues and problems in the context of subcultural and counter-visual practices.
- Demonstrate ommunication skills in order effectively and creatively to present research across different genres and cultural media.
- Employ cultural literacy skills designed to educate students on the importance of issues of cultural difference and ethical relations in social and political contexts.
Assessment tasks
- Active Participation
- Final Essay