Concepts and Creativity

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

120 hours

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, 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 Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

This first year level subject will introduce students to a brief history of arts practice, and to ways of seeing, understanding and thinking about their own art form and its relationship to other forms of performing arts. Two approaches will be introduced concurrently:

1. A series of one and a half hour lectures on key aspects of the history and modern context of the respective art forms – e.g. Dance, Production or Theatre.

2. A series of one and a half hour seminars, in which practical examples of the art forms will be viewed, and ways discussed of how to view them in relation to their form and their intentions. All first year Performing Arts students will attend these seminars and a seminar group will consist of representatives from each training area.

This subject includes an embedded program in academic literacy skills of analysis, discussion, essay writing, research and information retrieval.

This subject will:
• provide a comprehensive overview of arts forms (specifically, dance, production and theatre), and enable students to contextualise their own work within its larger historical and theoretical framework;
• introduce new ways of viewing arts practice, in order to deepen appreciation of the work of practitioners;
• encourage and facilitate discussion amongst students from different training courses, to enable them to understand, appreciate and learn from the work of other artists;
• develop an appreciation and understanding of the aspects of different artistic languages and the specific materials with which artists work

• Class participation, in class throughout the semester (10%)
• Research presentation: Students will work in assigned groups to prepare a Pecha Kucha presentation demonstrating research into a social or artistic movement. Presentation 10 minutes, during week 7 (12.5%)
• Referenced presentation transcript and image files (900 words) due during week 7 (22.5%)
• Research Paper: Students will write a research-based essay on an artist with a large and prominent body of work who inspires them (1500 words), week 9 (40%)
• Manifesto: Students will frame a short artistic statement for their own practice reflecting on information gained from the lecture and tutorial content, due during week 11 (15%)

Hurdle requirements: Students must attend 80% of all scheduled classes and attempt all elements of assessment to be eligible for a pass in this subject.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• On completing this subject students will be able to:
• understand how to place their own practice within a wider historical (political, social, aesthetic) context;
• discuss work with other practitioners in a constructive and informed manner;
• lead a discussion and to present ideas articulately and clearly;
• listen and respond to the ideas of others without pre-judgment.
• understand research practices as a result of preparing materials for online discussion and essays;
• present opinions and analysis in classroom discussion;
• argue clearly and logically as a result of the planning and writing of essays;
• utilise effective library research skills, including the development of search strategies to find information from a variety of quality information resources, including online databases, books, journals, internet, and a variety of multimedia-rich resources;
• demonstrate effective time-management skills.