Curricular Unit:			Code:
Esthetics of Communication			774ESTC
Year:	Level:	Course:	Credits:
2	Undergraduate	Communication Sciences	6 ects
Learning Period:		Language of Instruction:	Total Hours:
Winter Semester		Portuguese/English	78
Learning Outcomes of the Curricular Unit:
Application of theoretical principals to the critical identification, use and problematization of aesthetic objects. To enable the student to handle, select and organize aesthetically relevant texts and problems, as well as to use and optimize the aesthetic symbols and values within media communication. In short, it is the purpose of this syllabus to guide the student towards the adoption of a philosophical attitude (in its reflexive, speculative and pragmatic components) and thus finding a better sustainability for professional outlets in the communication areas.
Syllabus:
1. Art as a communication process 2. Representation, expression and artistic forms 3. Aesthetic experiences and their social consequences 4. Philosophical foundations of Aesthetics 5. Plato, Aristotle, Benjamin: the path of images 6. Contemporary definitions of Art 7. The artistic movements of the 20th century 8. The plastic, photographic and filmic languages 9. Contemporary design and the new paradigms in communication 10. Creation and thought: utopias and dystopias in the contemporary artistic discourse
Demonstration of the Syllabus Coherence with the Curricular Unit's Objectives:
The programatic contents articulate the perception of the historical diversity of the artistic manifestations in relation to the communicational phenomena. It enhances the emotional, creative and epistemological dimension of art. It questions the artistic act of creation, the diversity of languages, means and supports. These also enlighten the fundamental notions of the aesthetic vocabulary; cross practices and experiences with mediatic happenings of contemporary society. It is possible for the student to skill and apply highly relevant cultural knowledge considering the theoretical context learned, which will enable to understand and justify the importance of the issues. Only with perfect control over these aspect, will the student start to organize autonomously the experience of the world as a discourse and put it across the ethical and aesthetical values to the professional sphere of the communication and artistic production.
Teaching Methodologies (Including Evaluation):
Exams, projects and oral presentations
Demonstration of the Coherence between the Teaching Methodologies and the Learning Outcomes:
The adopted methodologies contemplate theoretical and practical modules dedicated to the study of theoretical or visual texts, which reveal and support the aesthetical contemporary thought. The methodolgies signpost the great art history references, from modernism until today; systematise the artistic experience in relation to three areas: art as a form of communication with unique characteristics; the symbolic specificity of the artistic language and its transversal character; the socio political value of art. The module also underlines the concern for the use of theoretical principles for a critical identification and the use and the problematization of the aesthetic object. Through this process, one leads the student to a conscious awareness about the intellectual and philosophical aesthetic and ethical value of communication. This is an essential condition to learn and understand the artistic text and content. Therefore, through these tools the student will enlarge the critical concept of communication. The use of knowledge inherent to the aesthetic reflection allows one to dwell professionally with the relations between technics, sensibility and the artistic creation in a society ever more oriented and organised by images.
Reading:
Antologia de textos a indicar nas aulas Aristóteles, Poética, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa, 2007, Prefácio de Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, tradução e notas Ana Maria Valente Carroll, Noel Filosofia da Arte, Texto & Grafia, Lisboa, 2015 Cauquelin, Anne Arte Contemporânea, Martins Fontes, S. Paulo, 2005 Eco, Umberto História da Beleza, Difel, Lisboa, 2004 Jennifer Bass and Pat Kirkham, Saul Bass: A Life in Film & Design Laurence King Publishing