Art history
The Order of Things: The Museum and its Objects
Module code: V4137A
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework
Drawing from the extensive collections of objects from around the world at the Victoria and Albert Museum, you’ll examine the fundamental questions of how and why these global objects were brought into the Museum.
The focus will be on how 19th-21st century art history has interpreted these objects. You’ll aslo undertake general reading in the history of museums and debates in museology.
You’ll examine a specific body of material from the museum’s collections, dating from a specific time and place. This is employed as a basis to study issues in museology and museum history, as well as in art history and cultural history.
You’ll also explore:
- the material histories of global objects
- the cultural origin of global objects
- the motivations and mechanisms involved in the movement of objects to the museum
- the contexts in which they were displayed and received
- the history of global collecting at the V&A
- the legacy of the Universal Exhibitions
- the practices of copying and replication, radically changing the way we view objects and their images today.
Module learning outcomes
- Demonstrate detailed and coherent critical evaluation of the visual culture relating to this subject within its historical context.
- Develop an independently researched critical approach to the subject and present it in a written format.
- Demonstrate critical understanding of the differing approaches of current art-historical scholarship about this subject.
- Have an awareness and understanding of materials and techniques, and of some of the museological issues involved in collecting and exhibiting the art works studied.