Handbook

This course explores contemporary and recent art and design in the context of new thinking about affect. The 'affective turn' crosses cultural and political theory and aesthetics and places emphasis on the role and status of affect in relation to perception, cognition and experience in the world today. You will proceed from this broader context of discussion and debate about affect to examine how art and design contribute to and modulate new concepts of affect. We will explore how human and more-than-human bodies produce and transmit affect and how this has been taken by artists and designers. You will gain an understanding of the debates, context and vocabulary around affect and will be able to identify art and design that contributes to affective aesthetics. You will develop skills that facilitate affective art and design practices especially in relation to art forms that enhance embodied experience, sensory engagement, and immersion.