New approaches to Art and visual culture
CHArt Nineteenth Annual Conference
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CONVERGENT PRACTICES New approaches to Art and visual culture |
Irina Costache, California State University Channel Islands, USA
Visual Culture/ Virtual Art
Being an art historian in the new millennium is both a wonderful experience and a rewarding challenge. New technologies have not only affected the identity of (contemporary) art, but they have also reconfigured the visual and theoretical operational framework of art history.
The wide range of visual and textual resources, part of the (virtual) reality of contemporary culture and available to both faculty and students, have facilitated new modalities of thinking, looking, and analyzing art and its history. For several years I have integrated new technologies in my analysis and teaching of art history from both a practical as well as theoretical point of view. Critical and comparative discussions of web museums, digitized images, and electronic exhibitions, to mention only a few, have enabled me to transform the static format of art history courses into a dynamic and more interactive mode of exploring and reflecting upon the complex contemporary visual environment. I am in the process of developing what might be called a “hybrid” modality of teaching visual culture/art history.
This presentation will analyse specific visual and theoretical implications of new technologies for art history. I will also discuss the “hybrid” teaching paradigm I am developing and present some of the projects that led to the creation of this new methodology. The presentation will be a metaphor of the innovative approach I am developing.