Crossmedial Exhibitions

URL study guide

https://studiegids.vu.nl/en/courses/2025-2026/L_ZAMAACW015

Course Objective

Course objectivesKnowledge: Students will acquire knowledge on the theory, history and practice of exhibitions that clearly cross the borders of different media and arts, taking into account the exhibition curators, exhibition designers, policy makers and financiers, marketing managers and the press.Knowledge: Students will acquire knowledge on how museums of the 21th century deal with space and time, needs for narrativity, education versus spectacle, new media, interactivity, and audience diversification.Application: To apply the knowledge acquired during the course to written blogposts, discussions with professionals, oral presentations and a final essay.Insight: To show in your assignments you have acquired insight in the issues raised within the courseSkills: Students will learn to undertake independent scientific research related to the course.Skills: Students will practice a sound academic presentation and the writing of an academic essay.

Course Content

This course focuses on one or two cross-medial events (a major temporary or permanent exhibition) in which different stakeholders have dealt with the problem of intermediality: policy makers, sponsors, curators, designers, multimedia creatives, p.r. agents and the press. How did these various parties deal with artistic practices that surpass medial boundaries, when their backgrounds are mostly mono-medial? At the same time, this course focuses on developments in museum exhibition practices in the 21st century, involving issues of e.g. narrative, space, sound, audience participation, new media, and interactivity. The course is embedded within both a historical and a theoretical perspective. Previous exhibitions analysed were The Art of Fashion. Installing Allusions (Museum Boijmans, 2009), Illusions of Reality: Naturalist Painting, Photography and Cinema, 1875
- 1918 (Van Gogh Museum, 2010), Amsterdam DNA (Amsterdam Museum, 2012), Oskar Fischinger (Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam 2013), Jeff Wall (Stedelijk Museum, 2014), Anthony McCall/ Jean Desmet's Dream Factory (Eye, 2015), Michelangelo Antonioni/ Close Up (Eye, 2015-16), Happy Birthday Marilyn/ 1917. Romanovs & Revolutie (De Nieuwe Kerk/Hermitage, 2016-17), Locus/ Jesper Just (Eye, 2017-18), Ryoji Ikeda/ Jan Svankmajer. The Alchemical Wedding (Eye, 2018-19), Andrei Tarkovsky: The Exhibition/ Francis Alÿs
- Children's Games (Eye, 2019-20), Slavery (Rijksmuseum, 2021), All About Theatre About Film/ Guido van der Werve (Eye, 2021-22), UFO/ 18000 Worlds (Nxt Museum/ Eye)..

Teaching Methods

Seminar. Weekly meetings (max. 4 hours), including lectures, discussions with professionals, excursions, and presentations. Students read texts in advance, prepare questions to the professionals, give updates on their own research. They hold a (single or group) presentation, focusing on museums, exhibitions, and art or media, in relation to crossmediality. The presentation is the prologue to the (individual) final essay.

Method of Assessment

textual analysis (P/F): course objectives 1, 2 blog posts (P/F): course objectives 3, 4 discussions with professionals (P/F): course objectives 3,4 presentation (30%): course objectives 3, 4, 5, 6 final essay (70%): course objectives 3, 4, 5, 6 The course corresponds with the following end terms of the MA programme Arts and Cultures: 1-9.

Literature

Articles, either e-book or on Canvas.

Target Audience

MA students of CAMS (Comparative Arts and Media Studies). Students of other tracks of the MA Arts & Culture, Heritage Studies, and the RMA Humanities, Critical Studies in Art & Culture. MA Exchange students with a background in media, art, or cultural studies.

Custom Course Registration

Students wishing to take this course as an elective or exchange course may be admitted upon request and need to email the coordinator of the course no later than November 1, as the course might demand preparatory exhibition visits already in the Fall. Please note that the number of places for non-CAMS students is limited and dependent on the size of the CAMS group in the respective year. Students need to have seen the exhibition(s) in focus, even if exhibitions may have ended before the course begins.

Recommended background knowledge

Basic knowledge relevant for the field of CAMS, e.g. evidenced by a BA degree that covers a minimum of 30 ECTS in either art, film, television, digital media or (visual) cultural studies.