Course Details in 2025/26 Session

Module Title	LH Image as Witness
School	Lan, Cult, Art Hist & Music
Department	Art Hist, Cur and Vis Studies
Module Code	09 37034
Module Lead	Sophie Hatchwell School/Institute administrative
Level	Honours Level
Credits	20
Semester	Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions	None
Contact Hours	Lecture-10 hours Seminar-20 hours Guided independent study-170 hours Total: 200 hours
Exclusions
Description	Images are potent communicators. They have the power to distil and portray thoughts, feelings, experiences, actions and events: in effect, bear witness to the world and our experiences of it, good and bad. But, how accurately can images really convey these things, or does accuracy or reliability not matter? What sort of experiences, feelings, actions are portrayed, and are there any that the image cannot accommodate or represent? What moral obligation does this visual testimony place on viewers, if any? This module will explore how images can bear witness to personal and collective experiences of conflict, trauma, justice and environmental change, with a focus on 20th and 21st century visual art. It will question the limits of the image’s ability to bear witness, and explore the moral conundrums that arise from the witnessing process, as they effect not just the production of a work, but how we view and respond to it also. The idea of the image as witness foregrounds a number of problems with the representational function and capacity of pictures, notably issues of ‘truth, presence, absence, pain and death, seeing and saying, the trustworthiness of perception’ (Peters, 2016). This module will explore these through analysis of a range of 20th and 21st century works, from paintings of life in the trenches by soldier-artists such as Paul Nash, to photographs by journalists such as Don McCullin observing violence in the global south, to films and installations by artists like Omer Fast, Tim Shaw, Coco Fusco, Nan Goldin and Ana Mendieta, whose works (in different ways) present or interrogate how to (or whether we can!) represent personal, direct experiences of trauma, justice and environmental destruction.
Learning Outcomes	By the end of the module students should be able to: Demonstrate a detailed and comprehensive knowledge of the module’s taught content; Describe relationships between relevant artworks and the cultural and social environment of the period covered by the module; Identify, analyse and compare relevant artworks produced during the period covered by the module; Comment on theoretical and other matters embodied in primary or other sources relating to the period covered by the module.
Assessment	37034-01 : 2500-word essay : Coursework (50%) 37034-02 : 1.5-hour unseen examination : Exam (School Arranged) - Written Unseen (50%)
Assessment Methods & Exceptions	1 x 2500-word essay (50% of the final module mark) 1 x 1.5-hour unseen examination (50% of the final module mark) Alternative assessment if on campus activity is restricted: proctored exams will be converted to take home papers. Re-assessment: Re-submission of failed component
Other
Reading List