In this course students have the opportunity to develop and extend their art practice beyond a specific medium or technique, and creatively grapple with urgent ideas and themes shaping contemporary art today. In close dialogue with peers and staff, students will use their existing knowledge of technical processes and apply them to new enquiries, themes or research questions. In doing so, students will develop research skills that will support the development of an increasingly independent studio practice, and produce new artworks that creatively respond to themes and questions framed by a rotating set of class topics.

Students may complete this course up to four times for a maximum credit value of 24 units, provided they enrol in a different topic in each instance/semester. Please note that the course content, assessment structure, and reading list will change depending on the topic and the expertise of the lecturer convening the course. Please refer to the class summary for the specific term in which you wish to enrol for a detailed description.

Topics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Art after Social Media

Do you find it difficult to find time to paint because you’re doom scrolling? Do you spend more time on TikTok than visiting art museums? Are you making money broadcasting live drawing sessions on Twitch? Did more people engage with your work online than your last exhibition? Whether these questions horrify or excite you, it is clear the internet is radically shifting visual aesthetics, global politics and our sense of self and cultural agency. In this practice-based course we will embark on a collective adventure to question and make sense of this media landscape, resulting in the production of artworks in any form that respond to the critical ideas and questions emerging from the topic. In seminars we will explore how contemporary artists – from painters to ceramicists, to video artists to designers – are making work that stems from concerns about our increasingly digitised and platformised lives. We will explore social media platforms both in terms of the aesthetics and sociality they produce, but also how they can be creatively harnessed to circulating artworks outside the gallery space, addressing new communities and audiences. By the end of the course students will have developed a new body of work, supported through an iterative process of research, experimentation and reflection.

• The Book as Art
• Politics of Memory: Video Installation, Sculpture, Documentary and Monuments

This course examines the politics of storytelling in contemporary art practice and the effects of historiographic methods, including video installation, documentary and public sculpture. The production of histories, the political responsibility of artistic-historical narratives and their agency in transmitting and shaping the digestion of the stories they tell is intimately entwined with the generation of possible futures. The conceptual design and the realization of student projects will be informed by analysis of various contemporary art projects that engage in the politics of memory and their approach to formats like the visual essay, the voice-over, re-enactment, the edited interview, the archival display, and the monument. Although the media students work with is dependent on the conceptual development of their projects, the course will include some technical instruction on video production, post-production and installation.

• Open to Influence: Studio Research

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

1. create works that synthesise skills with new methods;
2. interpret and critique a range of methodologies in response to set projects;
3.  conduct independent research into practice and theory relevant to class topic; and
4. analyse and discuss precedents and local and global influences on artistic practice;

Research-Led Teaching

This course responds to critical theory and creative practices in the field of global contemporary art that seeks to understand shifts in social relations, aesthetics, politics, subjectivity under what has variously been termed late capitalism, surveillance capitalism, computational or info-capitalism. As part of this move, pressure is placed upon the art object, and the agency/identity of the artist participating in, and subject to, information networks - particularly social media.

Field Trips

In week 8 we will have a virtual field trip through the back end of the internet.

Additional Course Costs

At the ANU School of Art & Design, each workshop sources appropriate specialist materials, which are made available to students to facilitate their working effectively, efficiently and safely within our programs. The School of Art & Design is able to supply materials that don’t compromise ANU obligations under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS), and that have been assessed as suitable for each course. The Materials Fee  is payable for the School of Art & Design to supply consumables and materials that become your physical property. You can choose to pay the Materials Fee and have these materials supplied to you through the School of Art & Design, allowing you to take advantage of the GST-free bulk purchasing power of the ANU. These materials are also WHS compliant. The exact cost of the Materials Fee will be updated in the Class Summary for each semester in which the course is offered. The full SOAD policy can be read here: https://soad.cass.anu.edu.au/required-resources-and-incidental-fees.

Art after Social Media:

If students require access to SOAD Workshops to develop projects, this may require supplementary fees for consumables and access based on the nature of the material/process they work with. Indicative fees for the semester are available at the link above. This does not need to be paid at the beginning of the semester, because it is best for students to wait until they have a good idea of the shape of their assessment topics before paying.

Examination Material or equipment

To be agreed with your lecturer during individual tutorials during class time.

Required Resources

Please see the Wattle site for this course

Recommended Resources

Please see the Wattle site for this course

Staff Feedback

Students will be given feedback in the following forms in this course:

• written comments
• verbal comments
• feedback to whole class, groups, individuals, focus group etc

Student Feedback

ANU is committed to the demonstration of educational excellence and regularly seeks feedback from students. Students are encouraged to offer feedback directly to their Course Convener or through their College and Course representatives (if applicable). Feedback can also be provided to Course Conveners and teachers via the Student Experience of Learning & Teaching (SELT) feedback program. SELT surveys are confidential and also provide the Colleges and ANU Executive with opportunities to recognise excellent teaching, and opportunities for improvement.

Class Schedule

Week/Session	Summary of Activities	Assessment
1	Introduction to CourseWeb surfing competition
2	Self and Subjectivity 1	Working on Task 1
3	Self and Subjectivity 2	Working on Task 1
4	Self and Subjectivity 3	Assessment Task 1 due
5	Forms of Value 1	Working on Task 2
6	Forms of Value 2	Working on Task 2
7	Forms of Value 3	Assessment Task 2 due
8	Excursion/Guest Speaker
9	Circulation 1	Working on Task 3
10	Circulation 2	Working on Task 3
11	Circulation 3	Assessment Task 3 due
12	Preparing exhibition outcomes

Tutorial Registration

Tutorial Registration is not required for this course

Assessment Summary

Assessment task	Value	Learning Outcomes
Self and Subjectivity after Social Media	25 %	1,2,3,4
Forms of Value after Social Media	25 %	1,2,3,4
Circulation After Social Media – Rethinking Encounter, Audience, and Distribution	50 %	1,2,3,4

* If the Due Date and Return of Assessment date are blank, see the Assessment Tab for specific Assessment Task details

Policies

ANU has educational policies, procedures and guidelines , which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and implement them. Students are expected to have read the Academic Integrity Rule before the commencement of their course. Other key policies and guidelines include:

• Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
• Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure
• Extenuating Circumstances Application
• Student Surveys and Evaluations
• Deferred Examinations
• Student Complaint Resolution Policy and Procedure
• Code of practice for teaching and learning

Assessment Requirements

The ANU is using Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University's approach to managing Academic Integrity. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the Academic Skills website. In rare cases where online submission using Turnitin software is not technically possible; or where not using Turnitin software has been justified by the Course Convener and approved by the Associate Dean (Education) on the basis of the teaching model being employed; students shall submit assessment online via ‘Canvas’ outside of Turnitin, or failing that in hard copy, or through a combination of submission methods as approved by the Associate Dean (Education). The submission method is detailed below.

Moderation of Assessment

Marks that are allocated during Semester are to be considered provisional until formalised by the College examiners meeting at the end of each Semester. If appropriate, some moderation of marks might be applied prior to final results being released.

Participation

• Respectful, generous and intellectually rigorous participation in group critique and other group learning formats is required.

Examination(s)

Final assessment requires that students submit their finished projects and developmental work in an agreed upon format and file submission location before your allocated examination time during the examination period.

Assessment Task 1

Self and Subjectivity after Social Media

Value: 25%

This project invites you to explore how subjectivity is shaped, fragmented, and performed in the context of art after social media. You will create an artwork that responds to your own research interests by investigating the construction of the self - whether embodied, mediated, collective, or unstable. The project can take any form that suits your conceptual approach and chosen medium: a video work, a publication, a sculpture, a drawing, a screenprint, an installation, a performance, a digital intervention, or another format you design. What matters is that the work engages critically and creatively with the conditions under which subjectivity is produced today; conditions shaped by platforms, algorithms, aesthetics of visibility, and economies of attention.

To ground your project, you’ll focus on a ‘local’ site of inquiry - local not in a geographic sense alone, but as something specific, accessible, and researchable. This could be drawn from your own lived experience, digital practices, affective states, or cultural environment.

You will be responsible for defining your research process and proposing a compelling, thoughtful, and ethical way to develop and present your project. The outcome should reflect how you are thinking through the self in a time when identity is increasingly curated, commodified, and contested.

Rubric

CRITERION	EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS	MEETS EXPECTATIONS	BELOW EXPECTATIONS
Experimentation (Creativity, risk-taking, synthesis of new methods with existing skills) (LO 1, 2)	Demonstrates a high level of creative experimentation and risk-taking. Synthesises technical skills with new methods in an innovative and conceptually ambitious way. Shows a confident and exploratory approach to media and form.	Demonstrates a sound level of experimentation. Incorporates new methods with existing skills in a coherent and appropriate way. Shows some willingness to take creative risks.	Relies on conventional approaches that reproduce status quo. Demonstrates limited or superficial experimentation. Few conceptual or formal risks taken.
Contextualisation and Research (Engagement with ideas, theory, precedents, and contemporary practice) (LO 2,3,4)	Demonstrates strong independent research that is critically engaged with relevant theory, methods, and precedents. Situates the work clearly within local and global artistic and social contexts. Shows a nuanced understanding of subjectivity in the context of art after social media.	Demonstrates adequate research and engagement with relevant theory or precedents. Shows awareness of relevant contexts and contemporary influences. Understands the core theme but may not fully extend it.	Demonstrates limited or unclear research. Minimal engagement with relevant theory or context. Shows limited understanding of the thematic concerns of the project.
3. Execution (Technical resolution, clarity of concept, communication of ideas) LO 4	Work is highly technically and conceptually resolved. Demonstrates strong attention to detail and clear communication of ideas across visual and written components. Reflective and critically aware.	Work is adequately resolved, installed, with a clear concept and competent technical execution. The work embodies key ideas with reasonable clarity.	Work is too unresolved or technically weak to engage with as an artwork. Installation of the work undermines its reception. Written and/or visual components lack cohesion.

Assessment Task 2

Forms of Value after Social Media

Value: 25%

This project invites you to investigate how value (social, economic, cultural) - is being produced, circulated, and contested in the context of art after social media. You will develop an artwork that critically explores the shifting conditions under which art, attention, labour, or identity are valued in contemporary culture.

Your project may examine (but is not limited to) how metrics such as likes, shares, and visibility shape artistic production; how aesthetic trends emerge and decay across platforms; how cultural capital is gained or lost online; or how artists and audiences navigate questions of commodification, influence, or authenticity. What forms of life, whose geographies, what messages are valorised through social networks? What new iconographies does this involve? What does it mean to log off? What kinds of social exclusion and forms of visibility does this engender? You are encouraged to reflect on your own position within these dynamics.

You are free to choose a form that suits your research and practice: a digital work, installation, performance, publication, object, or other experimental format. The work should demonstrate a thoughtful engagement with the theme of value in a networked culture.

The site of inquiry should be specific and researchable - this could be personal, social, material, or platform-based. You will be responsible for shaping your research process and proposing an approach to making that is critically aware, imaginative, and relevant to your chosen context.

Your final work should articulate a response to the question: how is value being redefined - and who or what gets to decide?

Rubric

CRITERION	EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS	MEETS EXPECTATIONS	BELOW EXPECTATIONS
Experimentation (Creativity, risk-taking, synthesis of new methods with existing skills) (LO 1, 2)	Demonstrates a high level of creative experimentation and risk-taking. Synthesises technical skills with new methods in an innovative and conceptually ambitious way. Shows a confident and exploratory approach to media and form.	Demonstrates a competent and thoughtful response to the theme. Combines relevant skills and media to explore value in a clear and appropriate way. Some experimentation or risk-taking is evident.	Demonstrates limited experimentation. Work is safe or overly familiar, showing minimal engagement with the theme or new methods. Lacks a sense of creative exploration.
Contextualisation and Research (Engagement with ideas, theory, precedents, and contemporary practice) (LO 2,3,4)	Demonstrates strong independent research that is critically engaged with relevant theory, methods, and precedents. Situates the work clearly within local and global artistic and social contexts. Shows a nuanced understanding of of how value operates across digital and cultural platforms.	Demonstrates adequate research into the theme. Engages with relevant references or examples and work reflects a general awareness of current artistic and social debates around value.	Demonstrates minimal or unfocused research. Lacks critical engagement with the theme or misrepresents key concepts. Shows little understanding of the broader context.
3. Execution (Technical resolution, clarity of concept, communication of ideas) LO 4	Resolved artwork where minimal changes required for exhibition, performance, or public presentation.	The work is adequately resolved and accessibly installed. Some aspects may lack refinement but the intent is clear.	Work is too unfinished to engage with wholly as an artwork; very unresolved or unclear in its delivery; installation of the work undermines its reception.

Assessment Task 3

Circulation After Social Media – Rethinking Encounter, Audience, and Distribution

This project invites you to investigate how artworks are circulated, encountered, and experienced in the wake of social media and consider: how do these shifting conditions challenge traditional notions of spectatorship, audience, and artistic value?

Whether your practice is materially grounded (e.g. painting, ceramics, textiles, sculpture, printmaking) or time-based and digital (e.g. video, photography, installation), you are asked to consider what it means to make work for a public that is no longer confined to the white cube. How might your work move - across screens, platforms, hands, or networks - and how might it invite forms of attention, interaction, or interpretation shaped by contemporary modes of circulation?

This is not simply a task about working “online,” but about rethinking the social, technological, and aesthetic systems through which art now travels. You might consider documentation, reproduction, distributed authorship, collective spectatorship, algorithmic visibility, or unexpected encounters. Your work could take the form of a physical object, a digital artifact, a participatory system, or a hybrid mode of address. Your work might live on a phone, arrive by email, hide in plain sight, appear on a screensaver, or perform autonomously online.

You are encouraged to reflect critically on how your chosen media respond to these challenges. What happens when the aura of the crafted object meets the logic of the feed? When the temporality of print or clay is set against the scroll, the stream, or the swipe? When audiences encounter your work asynchronously, in fragments, or through acts of sharing, remixing, or translation?

Your task is to design and produce a resolved artwork that explores these questions through your own materials, tools, and conceptual interests. Your research process should guide both the form and the circulation strategy of the final work - and consider not just what the artwork is, but how it moves, and what kind of encounter it makes possible.

In the final week of class, we will explore how to combine the group's collective work into a distributed, experimental, public exhibition outcome.

Rubric

CRITERION	EXCEEDS EXPECTATIONS	MEETS EXPECTATIONS	BELOW EXPECTATIONS
Experimentation (Creativity, risk-taking, synthesis of new methods with existing skills) (LO 1, 2)	Demonstrates ambitious and original experimentation with how the artwork is circulated, encountered, or experienced. Takes creative risks. Offers a compelling rethinking of spectatorship or distribution.	Demonstrates sound experimentation appropriate to the chosen medium. Explores circulation and audience in a clear and relevant way. Shows some innovation or expansion of conventional presentation modes.	Demonstrates limited or conventional experimentation. Circulation and audience are minimally addressed or uncritically handled. Work adheres closely to familiar or default presentation models. Few conceptual or formal risks taken.
Contextualisation and Research (Engagement with ideas, theory, precedents, and contemporary practice) (LO 2,3,4)	Demonstrates strong, independent research that critically informs the development of the work. Engages insightfully with relevant precedents (e.g. networked practices, audience theory, distribution strategies). Shows a nuanced understanding of how circulation reshapes meaning and reception.	Demonstrates adequate research. Shows general awareness of how circulation and audience shape contemporary practice.	Demonstrates minimal or superficial research. Little evidence of contextual awareness. Engagement with key ideas around circulation or spectatorship is absent or unclear.
Execution (Technical resolution, clarity of concept, communication of ideas) LO 4	The work is technically and conceptually resolved, and thoughtfully designed for its intended mode of circulation, ready for public launch.	The work can be coherently experienced by a viewer and is adequately resolved. Circulation is addressed and the choice of outcome supports the underlying concept.	Work may be too unfinished to engage with as an artwork, and/or the installation of the work undermines its reception. Thematic is either not addressed or inappropriately matched to the concept.
Exhibition Development and Participation LO 1	Highly engaged, supportive of peers, committed to excellent outcomes in group exhibition outcomes evidenced by highly informed contribution to discussion/execution.	Is present and engaged in class discussions that actively contribute to the class exhibition outcome.	Unexplained absences, poor communication, demonstration dis-engagement with group exhibition outcome and may hamper participation.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a core part of the ANU culture as a community of scholars. The University’s students are an integral part of that community. The academic integrity principle commits all students to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support, academic integrity, and to uphold this commitment by behaving honestly, responsibly and ethically, and with respect and fairness, in scholarly practice.

The University expects all staff and students to be familiar with the academic integrity principle, the Academic Integrity Rule 2021, the Policy: Student Academic Integrity and Procedure: Student Academic Integrity, and to uphold high standards of academic integrity to ensure the quality and value of our qualifications.

The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 is a legal document that the University uses to promote academic integrity, and manage breaches of the academic integrity principle. The Policy and Procedure support the Rule by outlining overarching principles, responsibilities and processes. The Academic Integrity Rule 2021 commences on 1 December 2021 and applies to courses commencing on or after that date, as well as to research conduct occurring on or after that date. Prior to this, the Academic Misconduct Rule 2015 applies.

 

The University commits to assisting all students to understand how to engage in academic work in ways that are consistent with, and actively support academic integrity. All coursework students must complete the online Academic Integrity Module (Epigeum), and Higher Degree Research (HDR) students are required to complete research integrity training. The Academic Integrity website provides information about services available to assist students with their assignments, examinations and other learning activities, as well as understanding and upholding academic integrity.

Online Submission

You will be required to electronically sign a declaration as part of the submission of your assignment. Please keep a copy of the assignment for your records. Unless an exemption has been approved by the Associate Dean (Education) submission must be through Turnitin.

Hardcopy Submission

For some forms of assessment (hand written assignments, art works, laboratory notes, etc.) hard copy submission is appropriate when approved by the Associate Dean (Education). Hard copy submissions must utilise the Assignment Cover Sheet. Please keep a copy of tasks completed for your records.

Students should develop work for assigned critique times and present all work for review and assessment. Oral Presentations should be given in the scheduled timeframe. Students will submit their work for assessment at the allocated time in the designated place during the examination period. Work must be displayed appropriately. All work must be removed from the workshop after assessment.

Late Submission

Individual assessment tasks may or may not allow for late submission. Policy regarding late submission is detailed below:

• Late submission not permitted. If submission of assessment tasks without an extension after the due date is not permitted, a mark of 0 will be awarded.
• Late submission permitted. Late submission of assessment tasks without an extension are penalised at the rate of 5% of the possible marks available per working day or part thereof. Late submission of assessment tasks is not accepted after 10 working days after the due date, or on or after the date specified in the course outline for the return of the assessment item. Late submission is not accepted for take-home examinations.

Referencing Requirements

The Academic Skills website has information to assist you with your writing and assessments. The website includes information about Academic Integrity including referencing requirements for different disciplines. There is also information on Plagiarism and different ways to use source material. Any use of artificial intelligence must be properly referenced. Failure to properly cite use of Generative AI will be considered a breach of academic integrity.

Returning Assignments

Students must deinstall and remove all of their work at the completion of their assessment.

Extensions and Penalties

Extensions and late submission of assessment pieces are covered by the Student Assessment (Coursework) Policy and Procedure. Extensions may be granted for assessment pieces that are not examinations or take-home examinations. If you need an extension, you must request an extension in writing on or before the due date. If you have documented and appropriate medical evidence that demonstrates you were not able to request an extension on or before the due date, you may be able to request it after the due date.

Privacy Notice

The ANU has made a number of third party, online, databases available for students to use. Use of each online database is conditional on student end users first agreeing to the database licensor’s terms of service and/or privacy policy. Students should read these carefully. In some cases student end users will be required to register an account with the database licensor and submit personal information, including their: first name; last name; ANU email address; and other information.
In cases where student end users are asked to submit ‘content’ to a database, such as an assignment or short answers, the database licensor may only use the student’s ‘content’ in accordance with the terms of service – including any (copyright) licence the student grants to the database licensor. Any personal information or content a student submits may be stored by the licensor, potentially offshore, and will be used to process the database service in accordance with the licensors terms of service and/or privacy policy.
If any student chooses not to agree to the database licensor’s terms of service or privacy policy, the student will not be able to access and use the database. In these circumstances students should contact their lecturer to enquire about alternative arrangements that are available.

Distribution of grades policy

Academic Quality Assurance Committee monitors the performance of students, including attrition, further study and employment rates and grade distribution, and College reports on quality assurance processes for assessment activities, including alignment with national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary standards, as well as qualification type learning outcomes.

Since first semester 1994, ANU uses a grading scale for all courses. This grading scale is used by all academic areas of the University.

Support for students

The University offers students support through several different services. You may contact the services listed below directly or seek advice from your Course Convener, Student Administrators, or your College and Course representatives (if applicable).

• ANU Health, safety & wellbeing for medical services, counselling, mental health and spiritual support
• ANU Accessibility for students with a disability or ongoing or chronic illness
• ANU Dean of Students for confidential, impartial advice and help to resolve problems between students and the academic or administrative areas of the University
• ANU Academic Skills supports you make your own decisions about how you learn and manage your workload.
• ANU Counselling promotes, supports and enhances mental health and wellbeing within the University student community.
• ANUSA supports and represents all ANU students