Poetics of the Body 1

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2012:

lecture and tutorial

36 hours per semester

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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 Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject explores the intricate links and parallels between the arts, science, philosophy, architecture, nature, cultural traditions, mysticism, medicine (both western and eastern), law, and economics, through understandings of the human body. The VCA campus providing a unique classroom environment for this subject, with a teaching staff of working artists, academics and guest speakers, all experts in their fields. The Poetics of the Body combines lectures and tutorials with workshops/hands-on approaches in formal and more informal creative applications of theoretical knowledge, as well as student-led collaborative projects.
Since the begining of the scientific revolution in the 17th century the investigation of the body has concentrated primarily on discipline-specific fields of study. In an increasing global and collaborative world the need to have a sense and knowledge of the whole, the interconnections between disciplines, their languages and approaches, histories and cultural expressions, is essential to understanding and shaping the 21st century. A central concern in the Poetics is a creative approach to the study of all disciplines and the practical application of this knowledge to global issues.
Undepinning the Poetics of the Body is recognition of the value of interdisciplinarity and the role it plays in understanding critical vocabularies and new areas of research. The focus on the exchange of ideas between students and teachers across the schools and campuses, shapes the range of issues that the human body presents to us, in all the ways that we experience it - intellectually, personally, kineaesthetically and in multi disciplinary forms.

The Poetics of the Body aims to:

• Introduce students to historical representations and interpretations of the body;
• Familiarize students with a range of discipline-specific technical and theoretical terms by bringing them into plain English to facilitate communication;
• Enrich student’s vocabularies and to explore a range of assumptions within disciplines, eg: the “objectivity” of science verses the “subjectivity” of aesthetic judgement;
• Provide the ground for new modes of understanding and representation of the body;
• Integrate practice with theory through aligning studio/laboratory with lecture/tutorial based learning;
• Contribute to and enrich current debate on the human body;
• Engage students with culturally diverse practices and customs associated with the body;

• Intellectual Journal: (30%) the journal will serve as repository for ideas taken from lectures, tutorial/ workshops, readings from the Course Reader, as well as performances, exhibitions and museum visits. Students will map and connect ideas encountered in this subject to their main disciplines. The journal should reflect each students growing intellectual curiosity and capacity to link specific themes to their broader context. Diversity of writing, graphic notation and imaging will be encouraged. The journal is also a place to record the different vocabularies and definitions encountered in lectures.
• Project: (40%) project to include both theoretical and practical components . Students will select from a menu of projects.
• Group Presentation: (30%) Students will form small groups to present to the tutorial group some of the key ideas from the weeks reading from the Course Reader.

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

• Bachelor of Arts
• 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.

At the completion of the Poetics of the Body subject students should be able to:

• Exhibit a sound working knowledge of the role of the human body across its various discipline specific domains;
• Demonstrate interpretive abilities across a range of academic disciplines;
• Confidently communicate, both orally and in writing, opinions, ideas and observations with regard to theory and practice of the body, in group and individual situations;
• Participate effectively as a team member in interdisciplinary projects with a shared focus;
• Embody an informed respect for the principles, protocols, discipline and ethics of interdisciplinary scholarship and practice;
• Demonstrate capacities for scholarly analysis and artistic imagination, creativity, transformation and interpretation;
• Contribute to a range of disciplines as collaborators and leaders;
• Contribute in an informed and considered manner to current scientific and ethical debates on the human body.