Universität Wien
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080062 SE Seminar: Cultural Citizenship: Constructing and Contesting "the Commons" (2014W)

from the Fall of the Berlin Wall to the Arab Spring

10.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 8 - Kunstgeschichte und Europäische Ethnologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Tuesday 07.10. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 14.10. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 21.10. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 28.10. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 04.11. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 11.11. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 18.11. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 25.11. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 02.12. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 09.12. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 16.12. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 13.01. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 20.01. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20
  • Tuesday 27.01. 16:15 - 19:15 Seminarraum 2 d. Inst. f. Kunstgeschichte UniCampus Hof 9 3F-EG-20

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The aesthetic production of cultural citizenship is arguably one of the most significant issues faced by contemporary art practices. Framed historically by the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the uprisings of the Arab Spring, two seminal moments in Europe and the Middle East that resonated well beyond their sited geographic locations, this seminar asks whether artists, architects, and cultural institutions can offer singular iterations of ‘cultural citizenship’ and how these contribute to constructing and contesting different models of ‘the commons.’
Some questions that will motivate our study will be: 1) Can we identify novel visual forms, aesthetic strategies, and institutional models through which cultural citizenship has been mediated in different national contexts? 2) How can a distinct demos, which represents the complexity of global, national, local, and regional identifications, be aesthetically conceived and what is its political potential? 3) How have artistic practitioners and institutions responded to existing notions of the imagined social unity connoted by ‘the commons’ and iterated new models through acts of negotiation, interaction, and exchange? 4) What is the relation between these issues and the broader struggles over the meaning of democracy (i.e., an ideal of equal accessibility, rights, and representation), the principles of individual and collective sovereignty, and definition of forms of life as they has been related to the construction of the public sphere, forms of media and publicity, and the intensification of capitalist modernization?

Assessment and permitted materials

The final grade consists of attendance and participation in class meetings and discussion (weighting of 10%), evaluation of the seminar presentation (weighting of 30 %) and the written paper (weighting of 60 %). In order to pass the seminar, all sections must receive a positive assessment.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The aim of the seminar is to bring into relief that intertwined problematic of cultural citizenship and ‘the commons’ in contemporary artistic practices from circa 1989 to the present. It is to engage with these issues along multidisciplinary pathways, including urban geography, sociology, cultural studies, feminist criticism, postcolonial theories, and political philosophy,

Examination topics

This is a conceptually and theoretically driven seminar that approaches the study of contemporary art as an expanded and entwined constellation of representational artifacts, discursive objects, and material practices. Within this multidisciplinary constellation, we will be attentive to the ways in which artistic production relates and responds to forces, techniques, and effects of power and is implicated in the constitution of new subjectivities.

Reading list

A bibliography will be distributed at the initial session.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:31