Understanding contemporary art: from installation to performance art
This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries...
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
Discourse on climate change is not limited to social science disciplines. Artists also address environmental issues in their artistic practices and support the transformation to sustainability.
On this course, we will look at a wide range of art-historical ideas and artistic practices across diverse geographies, temporalities and discourses. The questions we will examine include how art intersects with socio-environmental issues and how international artists drive discourse on climate change and sustainability.
We will explore works by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Pinsky, and Leo Fitzmaurice, among others. By the end of the course, you will gain a broad understanding of how contemporary artists engage the five senses to deepen, disrupt, or reimagine our relationship with the environment.
What will we cover?
• An introduction to different ways in which environmental issues are visualised in contemporary art.
• An exploration of how touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight are activated in artistic practices that address social and ecological issues.
• An investigation of how contemporary art can act as a sensorial bridge between humans and non-humans, and as a catalyst for climate action.
What will I achieve? By the end of this course you should be able to...
· Explain how contemporary artists engage the human senses to explore, interpret, and challenge environmental relationships.
· Demonstrate a critical understanding of the important role that art and landscape architecture play in increasing environmental awareness and sustainable development.
· Identify and engage with key art-historical concepts and discourses associated with the role of sensory experience in shaping environmental consciousness and artistic expression.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable for all levels.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information. This course takes place on Zoom and uses a Google Classroom to share materials. Please be familiar with or be willing to learn how to operate elements of Zoom, specifically camera, microphone and chat functions. For more on how our online learning works, please click here.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught by lecture with slide images and you will be invited to participate in group discussion. There will be handouts provided by your tutor; these handouts will be available digitally via a Google Classroom. You will be invited to join the Google Classroom within a week of your course start date.
Please note: this is a live lecture course and will not be recorded for playback for reasons of copyright, digital infrastructure and data protection.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You might wish to purchase a notebook for taking notes. You might wish to buy some of the books on any reading list provided.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Art and critical theory: rethinking 'nature'
Study Day: Monet and Hokusai, rethinking the landscape
Xinrui Zhang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York. She specialises in art and landscape architecture in China from a global perspective, with a focus on the contemporary period. She has taught art history at the Courtauld Institute of Art, SOAS and York. She holds a PhD in History of Art from the University of York, an MA in History of Art from the Courtauld and a BA in History of Art (Asia, Africa and Europe) from SOAS. Before starting her PhD, she worked as a curator in London and previously worked at Christie’s.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
product
https://www.citylit.ac.uk/understanding-contemporary-art-from-installation-to-performance-art3104809Understanding contemporary art: from installation to performance arthttps://www.citylit.ac.uk/media/catalog/category/Early_Modern_World-1080.jpg129129GBPInStock/Courses/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Art history/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Courses/Online courses/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Art history/Early modern world228511361177173118891228511771136<p>This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p>003094918Understanding contemporary art: from installation to performance art129129https://www.citylit.ac.uk/media/catalog/category/Early_Modern_World-1080.jpgInStockEveningWedOnlineAvailable courses5-10 weeksWeekday2027-02-03T00:00:00+00:00Beginners, Some experience, Advanced, Suitable for allFeb 2027Culture, history & humanitiesVB297129129Understanding contemporary art: from installation to performance art12984129Xinrui Zhangunderstanding-contemporary-art-from-installation-to-performance-art/vb297-2627<p>This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p>0000-Available|2027-02-03 00:00:00<p>Discourse on climate change is not limited to social science disciplines. Artists also address environmental issues in their artistic practices and support the transformation to sustainability.</p><p>On this course, we will look at a wide range of art-historical ideas and artistic practices across diverse geographies, temporalities and discourses. The questions we will examine include how art intersects with socio-environmental issues and how international artists drive discourse on climate change and sustainability.</p><p>We will explore works by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Pinsky, and Leo Fitzmaurice, among others. By the end of the course, you will gain a broad understanding of how contemporary artists engage the five senses to deepen, disrupt, or reimagine our relationship with the environment.</p><p>This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p><p>• An introduction to different ways in which environmental issues are visualised in contemporary art.</p><p>• An exploration of how touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight are activated in artistic practices that address social and ecological issues.</p><p>• An investigation of how contemporary art can act as a sensorial bridge between humans and non-humans, and as a catalyst for climate action.</p><p>· Explain how contemporary artists engage the human senses to explore, interpret, and challenge environmental relationships.</p><p>· Demonstrate a critical understanding of the important role that art and landscape architecture play in increasing environmental awareness and sustainable development.</p><p>· Identify and engage with key art-historical concepts and discourses associated with the role of sensory experience in shaping environmental consciousness and artistic expression.</p><p>This course is suitable for all levels.</p><p>You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information. This course takes place on Zoom and uses a Google Classroom to share materials. Please be familiar with or be willing to learn how to operate elements of Zoom, specifically camera, microphone and chat functions. For more on how our online learning works, please <a href="https://help.citylit.ac.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/11281000258205-Zoom-joining-a-class-Step-by-Step-Guidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">click here</a>.</p><p>You will be taught by lecture with slide images and you will be invited to participate in group discussion. There will be handouts provided by your tutor; these handouts will be available digitally via a Google Classroom. You will be invited to join the Google Classroom within a week of your course start date.</p><p><strong>Please note</strong>: this is a live lecture course and will not be recorded for playback for reasons of copyright, digital infrastructure and data protection.</p><p>You might wish to purchase a notebook for taking notes. You might wish to buy some of the books on any reading list provided.</p><p>Art and critical theory: rethinking 'nature'</p><p>Study Day: Monet and Hokusai, rethinking the landscape</p>Art historyEarly modern worldvirtual12912984VB297NONEWed03/02/27 - 03/03/2718:15 - 19:4518:1519:455 sessions (over 5 weeks)55-10 weeksEveningWeekdayOnlineOnlineXinrui ZhangBeginners, Some experience, Advanced, Suitable for allAvailable courses2027-02-03T00:00:00+00:00Feb 2027Culture, history & humanities129129Understanding contemporary art: from installation to performance artunderstanding-contemporary-art-from-installation-to-performance-art/vb297-2627<p>This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p>0000-Available|2027-02-03 00:00:00<p>Discourse on climate change is not limited to social science disciplines. Artists also address environmental issues in their artistic practices and support the transformation to sustainability.</p><p>On this course, we will look at a wide range of art-historical ideas and artistic practices across diverse geographies, temporalities and discourses. The questions we will examine include how art intersects with socio-environmental issues and how international artists drive discourse on climate change and sustainability.</p><p>We will explore works by artists such as Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Olafur Eliasson, Michael Pinsky, and Leo Fitzmaurice, among others. By the end of the course, you will gain a broad understanding of how contemporary artists engage the five senses to deepen, disrupt, or reimagine our relationship with the environment.</p><p>This course will look at contemporary art that invites audiences to touch, see, taste, smell, and hear in order to experience the environment and the tangible effects of climate change. We will explore sensory experience in the environment through the lens of installation art, performance art, participatory art, site-specific art, socially engaged art, and landscape architecture in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries.</p><p>• An introduction to different ways in which environmental issues are visualised in contemporary art.</p><p>• An exploration of how touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight are activated in artistic practices that address social and ecological issues.</p><p>• An investigation of how contemporary art can act as a sensorial bridge between humans and non-humans, and as a catalyst for climate action.</p><p>· Explain how contemporary artists engage the human senses to explore, interpret, and challenge environmental relationships.</p><p>· Demonstrate a critical understanding of the important role that art and landscape architecture play in increasing environmental awareness and sustainable development.</p><p>· Identify and engage with key art-historical concepts and discourses associated with the role of sensory experience in shaping environmental consciousness and artistic expression.</p><p>This course is suitable for all levels.</p><p>You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information. This course takes place on Zoom and uses a Google Classroom to share materials. Please be familiar with or be willing to learn how to operate elements of Zoom, specifically camera, microphone and chat functions. For more on how our online learning works, please <a href="https://help.citylit.ac.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/11281000258205-Zoom-joining-a-class-Step-by-Step-Guidance" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">click here</a>.</p><p>You will be taught by lecture with slide images and you will be invited to participate in group discussion. There will be handouts provided by your tutor; these handouts will be available digitally via a Google Classroom. You will be invited to join the Google Classroom within a week of your course start date.</p><p><strong>Please note</strong>: this is a live lecture course and will not be recorded for playback for reasons of copyright, digital infrastructure and data protection.</p><p>You might wish to purchase a notebook for taking notes. You might wish to buy some of the books on any reading list provided.</p><p>Art and critical theory: rethinking 'nature'</p><p>Study Day: Monet and Hokusai, rethinking the landscape</p>Art historyEarly modern worldconfigurable
18891136Early modern worldhttps://www.citylit.ac.uk/courses/humanities/art-history/early-modern-world1/2/285/1177/1136/18891/Courses/Culture, history & humanities/Art history/Early modern world
