Art History and Theory

All students must complete the following core courses:

Please note:

– ART 1 HUSO2399  & ART 4 HUSO2405  are only offered in Semester 1.
– Year 2 students doing ART 3 can choose to do this unit in either Semester 1 OR Semester 2 (you simply need to enrol into a university elective in the semester you are not studying ART 3)
– HUSO2401 ART 2 and HUSO 2403 ART 3 may have a range of class options available. Preferencing is done through RMIT MyTimetable.
– You must not repeat a course you have already completed.
– Courses are subject to viability and may not run if numbers are too low.

Semester 1, 2025
Art History and Theory

  • ART 1: HUSO2399: Place, Materiality and Colour

  • ART:3 HUSO2403: Art, Technology and Culture

  • ART4: HUSO2405: Contextualising Practice

Art1

KAWS, INSTALLATION VIEW OF THE EXHIBITION KAWS: COMPANIONSHIP IN THE AGE OF LONLINESS, NGV 2019, PHOTO TOM ROSS, SOURCE: HTTPS://WWW.TIMEOUT.COM/MELBOURNE/ART/KAWS-COMPANIONSHIP-IN-THE-AGE-OF-LONELINESS

HUSO2399: Place, Materiality and Colour (ART 1)

    • Course Coordinator: Benjamin Sheppard
    • Mondays 1hr lecture followed by a 2hr tutorial (see MyTimetable)
    • Year 1 students

    This course introduces you to select themes and practices in contemporary art. You will explore how these themes have been addressed in critical theory and different historical and cultural contexts. You will be introduced to a broad range of ideas, methods and cultures of art practice, including how to analyse, research and write about art. These will provide you with the skills and knowledge to establish a strong critical foundation for your studio practice and will expand your experience of art.

Art, Society and Politics

BANKSY, GIRL WITH BALLOON (2002), STENCILED MURAL FORMERLY ON WATERLOO BRIDGE IN LONDON. SOURCE: BANKSY.CO.UK

HUSO2403: Art, Technology and Culture (ART 3)

  • Course Coordinator: Ian Haig
  • Mondays 1hr lecture followed by a 2hr tutorial (times TBC, please preference using MyTimetable)
  • Year 2 students

This course will provide a broad overview and critical understanding of the role of technology in art practice. You will discuss and explore the computer in art practice, gender and art & technology, utopianism and art & technology, the de-materialisation of the art object, the body and technology, post-internet art practice and AI politics and aesthetics. You will also consider the ways in which digital media has fundamentally changed the role of the artist and how one can consider the changing definitions of contemporary art practice through the lens of emerging technologies.​

Contextualising Practice

RON MUEK, MASS, 2017, INSTALLATION VIEW AT NGV TRIENNIAL (2017). PHOTO SEAN FENNESSEY. SOURCE: HTTPS://MYMODERNMET.COM/RON-MUECK-MASS-SKULL-SCULPTURES/

HUSO2405: Contextualising Practice (ART 4)

  • Course coordinator Clare McCracken
  • Mondays 1hr lecture followed by a 2hr tutorial (Times TBC, please use MyTimetable to preference)
  • Year 3 students

This class will help you develop an understanding of, and write about, the critical and theoretical context for your own art practice. The class will focus on specialised theoretical and critical approaches and topics to help you develop a critically reflective approach and to provide you with the skills and methods for applying this to your own practice. This class builds on and extends your previous skills and experiences in Art: History+Theory+Cultures to enable you to critically analyse, evaluate and write about your own art practice and locate it within the broader context of art.


Semester 2, 2025

The Art History and Theory courses that run in second semester are for both first and second year students. They will be offered under the following course codes:

    • ART 2: Art History and Theory HUSO2401 (1st year)
    • ART 3: Art History and Theory HUSO2403 (2nd year)

Please use enrolment online to enrol into AHTC courses and MyTimetable to preference and select tutorial classes. 

  • Eco-Visionaries: Making Art on a Changing Planet 
  • Re-Shaping Worlds: Histories, Connections and Global Futures

MyTimetable Important Dates Semester 2 2025

  • TBC@ 10am – MyTimetable available in read-only mode
  • TBC June 2024 @ 10am – Preferencing Opens
  • TBC June 2024 @5pm – Preferencing Closes
  • TBC July 2024 @10am – Review and allocation adjustment opens (based on availability)
  • TBC @ 5pm –Allocation adjustment closes

 

Important Note for Year 2 students: if you would like to take one of these classes, you need to have completed your university elective course in Semester 1.

Eco-Visionaries: Making Art on a Changing Planet

  • Course Coordinator Daniel Palmer 
  • Mondays 1hr lecture followed by a 2hr tutorial (times TBC, please use MyTimetable to preference)
  • Open to art & photography students

This course introduces you to a wide range of contemporary art practices responding to the climate emergency and the interconnected impacts of colonisation, global economics, war, histories of contamination and late capitalism. It also takes a close and critical look at how artist visions of the world have historically contributed to, legitimised and shaped processes of ecological awareness and damage. In doing so, the course provides you with a critical foundation and specialised context for practicing in the 21st century as it interrogates the required innovations, opportunities and challenges of practicing ethically, and with currency, in the era of climate change.

 

Blak Douglas, Moby Dickens

BLAK DOUGLAS, MOBY DICKENS, 2022 ARCHIBALD PRIZE-WINNING PORTRAIT OF KARLA DICKENS. SYNTHETIC POLYMER PAINT ON LINEN 300 X 200CM. HTTPS://WWW.ARTGALLERY.NSW.GOV.AU

 

Re-Shaping Worlds: Histories, Connections and Global Futures   

  • Course Coordinator: TBC
  • Mondays 1hr lecture followed by a 2hr tutorial (times TBC, please use MyTimetable to preference)
  • Open to art & photography students

This course introduces you to a wide range of contemporary art practices and curatorial approaches in the Asia region, with a focus on China, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Australia. Key topics will include diaspora, cultural identities, gender identities, performance, decolonialism, communities and collectives, ecological futures, art writing and publishing, critical perspectives in institutional representation and structural racism, and language.  The course aims to give you an expanded perspective on art that will help you situate your own work and position in critical conversations in contemporary practice.

Further, the course aims to develop or refine your art writing skills, with the opportunity to publish your work online (see previous work here: Reshaping Worlds website ).

Contempory Asian Art

KAWITA VATANAJYANKUR, THE SCALE 2 (2015), VIDEO STILL. SOURCE: NEXUS ARTS