Face, Place, Race: Images of Australia

This subject is not offered in 2011.

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Objectives, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and the Disability Liaison Unit: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

Combining visits to museums, galleries and key city sites, and with lectures by specialist academics and industry professionals, this interdisciplinary subject offers an exciting look at Australian visual culture. Taught intensively over two weeks Face, Place, Race examines the role of visual images and exhibiting practices in the development of Australian culture and identity, as well as the place of the 'creative industries' in contemporary urban life. Students analyse the cultural meanings of 'places', both real and imagined: the city, the suburbs, the bush, and the beach, alongside iconic 'faces': Australian cultural icons and monuments, the visualisation of gender, and the complex representations of Indigenous and 'ethnic' Australians. From the shores of Bondi to Melbourne's thriving laneways, students engage with the diversity of visual culture from the traditional visual forms of painting and photography, to film, street art and the power of visual culture in everyday life. This subject will appeal to anyone interested in the power of images to shape our understanding of the nation.

• Use visual evidence to think critically and analyse complex issues about Australian culture, society and identity.
• Understand the historical, cultural and media contexts of visual representations of Australian life.
• Employ techniques of visual analysis with reference to a wide range of media.

A 750 - 1000 word Map Exercise: Walking the City 20%, 1000 word Exhibition Review 20%, 2000 word research essay 50% (due after completion of classes) and class attendance 10%.

Hurdle requirement: students must attend a minimum of 75% of tutorials in order to pass this subject. Assessment submitted late without an approved extension will be penalised at 10% per day; after five days, no late assessment will be accepted. In-class tasks missed without approval will not be marked. All pieces of written work must be submitted to pass this subject.

A subject reader will be available.

James Elkins, Visual Studies: A Skeptical Introduction (Routledge, 2003) Nicholas Mirzoeff, The Visual Culture Reader (Routledge, 1995) Anne-Marie Willis, Illusions of Identity: The Art of Nation (Hale and Iremonger, 1993) R.D.Haynes, Seeing the Centre: The Australian Desert in Literature, Art and Film (Cambridge University Press, 1998) Leone Huntsman, Sand in our Souls: The Beach in Australian History (Melbourne University Press, 2001) Chris McAuliffe, Art and Suburbia (Craftsman House, 1996) K. A. Marling, As Seen on TV: The Visual Culture of Everyday Life in the 1950s (Harvard University Press, 1994) Michael Meadows, Voices in the Wilderness : Images of Aboriginal People in the Australian Media (Greenwood Press, 2001).

This subject potentially can be taken as a breadth subject component for the following courses:

• Bachelor of Biomedicine
• Bachelor of Commerce
• Bachelor of Environments
• Bachelor of Music
• Bachelor of Science
• Bachelor of Engineering

You should visit learn more about breadth subjects and read the breadth requirements for your degree, and should discuss your choice with your student adviser, before deciding on your subjects.

• be able to use visual evidence in critical thinking and analysis of complex issues.
• develop the ability to research in depth primary materials of a visual nature relating to such issues.
• be able to present their views orally in tutorial discussion, and to communicate their ideas intelligibly and economically through essay writing.