AR7060 - Media Voices (2014/15)
Module specification | Module approved to run in 2014/15 | ||||||||||||||||
Module title | Media Voices | ||||||||||||||||
Module level | Masters (07) | ||||||||||||||||
Credit rating for module | 20 | ||||||||||||||||
School | The Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design | ||||||||||||||||
Total study hours | 200 | ||||||||||||||||
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Assessment components |
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Running in 2014/15(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change) | No instances running in the year |
Module summary
Media Voices.
This module addresses the theoretical, cultural, technical and creative interface between architectural writing and media in terms of its panoply of ‘voices’. These refer to who is doing the architectural writing and how cultural contexts and different media shape the writing
Assessment: 70% Written Project; 30% Class Presentations; Satisfactory Attendance 0%.
Prior learning requirements
None
Module aims
The module aims to develop a sophisticated and imaginative understanding of the possibilities open to architectural writing. The theoretical foundation of the module resides in the (contested) idea of the ‘voice’ in writing and how it is shaped by different forms of media as well as cultural expectations. The module will focus in particular on the impact of new media on architectural writing. The practical orientation of the module will allow students to experiment with writing for different media including television, radio, digital media and the internet, as well as the art of writing in relation to illustrations and the visual image, sound and aural environments.
Syllabus
Media voices aims to develop a theoretical understanding of the relationship between information, language and its medium, from oral tradition, writing and printing to a fast growing, and ever faster moving range of communication media and technology.
More specifically, the module examines the emergence of critical (and popular) architectural publishing and writing as a discipline in its own right and its relationship to architectural practice. It examines the idea of ‘voices’ – different techniques of writing at large in different forms of media, including books and magazines as well as television, radio, digital media and the internet; as well as the idea of ‘format’ – the physical nature of all information (including digital media) and the aesthetic aspect of architectural publishing and writing.
Students explore these questions through a first-hand experience of historical material and primary sources, secondary texts and theoretical writing as well as a range of theoretical and practical exercises exploring the integration of writing with digital and other media.
Learning and teaching
The teaching and learning will be based on weekly mixed seminar sessions that include talks, on-line, digital and classroom based seminars, visits to libraries, workshops and presentations.
Opportunities for pdp are available through the development of the assessment project via student choice of media skills and different types written work, supported by individual tutorials
Learning outcomes
On completing the module the student should be able to:
1. demonstrate a critical awareness of the theoretical, cultural and practical relationship between architectural writing and the new media;
2. present a clear analysis of the techniques of writing involved in one or more of the new media;
3. produce a robust and sophisticated piece of writing showing skill and confidence in the application of at least one of the new media.
Assessment strategy
The assessment will comprise of a media based written project equivalent to an essay of 4000 words (70%), class presentations on a text and/or a media based aspect of architectural writing (30%).
Bibliography
1. Barthes, Roland, Image Music Text (Fontana, 1993)
2. Baudrillard, Jean, Simulacra and Simulation (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan, 1994)
3. Baudrillard, Jean, The System of Objects (Verso, 2005)
4. Bertrand, I and P. Hughs, Media Research: Audiences, Institutions, Texts (Palgrave, 2005)
5. Bourdieu, Pierre, The Field of Cultural Productions: essays on art and literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993)
6. Boyd, Andrew, Peter Stewart, and Ray Alexander, Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News (Focal Press, 2008)
7. Chapman, N. and J. Chapman, Digital Multimedia (John Wiley, 2000)
8. Debord, Guy, Society of the Spectacle (Detroit: Black and Red, 1983)
9. Eisenstein, Elizabeth, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communication and Cultural Transformations in Early-modern Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
10. Hilliard, Robert, Writing for Television, Radio, and the New Media (9th ed) (Thomson, 2011)