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Unit of Study COM20001 - Sensory Cultures (2018)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Enrolment information

    N/A

Unit description

Introduces students to the exploration of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell conceived of as embedded in cultural contexts. Students become acquainted with the philosophy and history of discourses and practices relating to sense experience. The social and political dimensions of different sensory practices and their consequences for daily life, visual art, music and the media are examined. Relationships between the senses and characteristics of individual senses are investigated, and their consequences for the production of knowledge and creative practice considered. Students will have opportunities to engage in the critical analysis of their sensory experience of places and texts throughout the unit.

Unit content

  • Discourses of sense experience.
  • Sense experience and cultural context.
  • Social and political implications of sensory practices.
  • Relationships between vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
  • Exploring the individual senses.
  • Technology and sense experience.

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Online Session 2 N/A

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: Intellectual rigour, GA2: Creativity, GA3: Ethical practice, GA4: Knowledge of a discipline, GA5: Lifelong learning, GA6: Communication and social skills, GA7: Cultural competence
Learning outcome count Learning outcome description GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 identify key concepts and discourses relating to vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell
2 articulate the relationship between sense experience and its cultural context
3 understand the social and political implications of different sensory practices and techniques
4 examine qualities of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell and consider how they relate to each other
5 critically analyse how places, texts and creative practices use sense experience to convey meaning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. identify key concepts and discourses relating to vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell
    • GA1:
  2. articulate the relationship between sense experience and its cultural context
    • GA7:
  3. understand the social and political implications of different sensory practices and techniques
    • GA1:
    • GA7:
  4. examine qualities of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell and consider how they relate to each other
    • GA2:
  5. critically analyse how places, texts and creative practices use sense experience to convey meaning.
    • GA1:
    • GA2:

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.