Educational Program

In the framework of its educational program, the Center advocates establishing and conducting an optional course entitled Introduction to Visual Studies. Such a course would give the students a basic insight into a very modern scientific discipline – the visual studies – whose importance has been steadily growing in recent years at universities worldwide. This relatively new scientific discipline is taught as an independent field of study, which has contributed to its scientific relevance and proven its practical justification in the framework of dealing with contemporary artistic and visual phenomena. The Introduction to Visual Studies is conceived as an interdisciplinary course comprising the field of present-day visuality in the broadest sense of the word: from art history, popular culture, film, television and the advertising industry to applied arts, such as visual communications design, photography, multimedia and new media practices. The course aims at demonstrating that in today's world of images the divisions into high and low, pure and applied art are no longer possible – instead, the key to understanding all visual statements lies in their appropriate interpretation and their placement into a corresponding civilizational context. The course has the purpose to demonstrate to students the interaction between the mentioned visual fields, to facilitate their value judgement and prepare them for an independent creative expression in their respective fields of specialization. The course will be held in accordance to a previously adopted, detailed program, adhering to an allocated number of lecturing hours.