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European Identities - Aspects of European Visual Culture
Monika Schwärzler-Brodesser July 20 – July 31 4 ECTS credits

The course will deal with images and visual culture phenomena specifically
developed in and for the European context. It will familiarize students with
a number of strategies and concepts for delivering messages that come in
visual form. The corresponding visuals will be mostly drawn from the field
of art, but also from popular culture and the media. While the aesthetic
parameters of the presented visuals will be important, the main focus will
be on the social practices reflected in these images. Priority will be given to
visualizations that are daring, subversive, and play on common and already
familiar pictorial codes. M. Schwärzler-Brodesser

Course objectives:
• To train and enhance students’ visual literacy and turn them into critical
readers of visual information, which is becoming increasingly important
in today’s communication
• To make them aware of the codes and genres on which most of today’s
visuals are based
• To familiarize them with some of the most influential European players in
the field of photography and art
Specific course topics:
• Staged and digitally enhanced photography and the realities these
photos create
• Visual concepts of commemoration and of dealing with the past
• Visuals and gender codes / picturing femininity and masculinity
• Artistic interventions and subversive re-definitions of public space
• Visual narratives and their parameters
• Bodies, sculptures, 3-D hybrids as carriers of meaning
• The design of social activities and engagement
For this course, no specific prior background in art or visual culture is needed.
Students with a strong interest in visuals, their aesthetic qualities, and their
analytic appeal will find this course stimulating.
Requirements: Attendance and active participation (30% of the grade),
final exam on the course material (40%), project (30%).

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