6 ECTS credits
164 h study time

Offer 2 with catalog number 1006998AER for all students in the 1st semester at a (A) Bachelor - preliminary level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Possible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
Dutch
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Communication Sciences
Educational team
Karel Deneckere
Liesbeth Van de Vijver (course titular)
Activities and contact hours
24 contact hours Lecture
12 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
132 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study
Course Content

Images are all around us. They play an important role in information and communication, in politics, and in questions related to identity and culture. Images are found not only in TV, film or paintings, but there are many visual languages such as design, graphic design and architecture. In this course we learn to engage critically with these various visual languages: we learn to understand where they come from, how we can look further to understand them, and how we can make them ourselves. The necessary historical and theoretical knowledge is linked to practice through exercises and examples. In this course we also get acquinted with different traditions in communication studies and cultural studies.

Course material
Digital course material (Required) : Slides, wetenschappelijke teksten bij een aantal lessen, eventuele extra informatie en links naar beeldmateriaal, Canvas
Handbook (Required) : Beeldtaal, Jos van den Broek, willem Koetsenruijter, Jaap de Jong & Laetitia Smit, 3de, Amsterdam: Boom, 9789024424870, 2019
Additional info

Handbook: "Beeldtaal" (3e editie), van den Broek et al., 2019, Boom

Learning Outcomes

General competencies

By the end of this course, students are expected to:

  • Define core definitions, situate the most important authors and describe the key historical evolutions in the field of visual culture;
  • Ennumerate and explain the main paradigms and research traditions in visual culture within diverse disciplines such as communication studies and art history;
  • Differentiate different components of images, both at a theoretical level as well as at an applied level with specific cases;
  • Analyse images and visual languages with regard to 'Gestalt', semiotics and visual rhetoric;
  • Explain the structures and processes that influence meaning making of images and explain these processes using historical and contemporary examples;
  • Discern links between different components of the course, to capture the complexity of visual culture
  • Take on a critical stance vis-à-vis images, based on solid arguments and in a clear and structured manner;
  • Develop an individual assignment based on the insights of the course, under the supervision of the lecturer.

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 70% of the final mark.
Practical Exam determines 30% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 70% of the final mark.

Within the Practical Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Individual assignment with a relative weight of 1 which comprises 30% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Evaluation is based on an individual assignment (30% of total) and a written exam (70% of total).

Example questions and responses are provided and discussed during the semester.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Adult Education: Profile Cultural Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Adult Education: Abridged Profile Cultural Studies (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Art Studies and Archaeology: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Communication Studies: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Master of Teaching in Behavioural Sciences: agogische wetenschappen (120 ECTS, Etterbeek) (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Science in Adult Education: Profile Culturele Agogiek (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Science in Adult Education: Profile Cultural Studies (only offered in Dutch)