DIGITAL ICONOGRAPHY AND ICONOLOGY STUDIES

The subject of the course is the study of digital and digitized images in art history and visual culture, addressing issues related to the relationship between image and technology, reproduction and digital representation, digital art history, and media art history. The course, divided into 30 hours, is part of the Master’s Degree Programme in ‘Digital and Public Humanities’ and is connected to the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities (VeDPH) in the Department of Humanities.

- knowledge and understanding: students will learn the theoretical basis of iconology and iconography related to the method of Aby Warburg and applied to the study of the digital images; students will acquire a basic knowledge of contemporary art practices affected by the diffusion of digital visual culture; students will understand the main differences between digital and digitized images with specific reference to digital resources for the history of art;
- ability to apply knowledge and understanding: ability to recognize the different ways of presenting digital images in the online collections of museums, archives, and cultural institutes and to understand the use of specific digital devices for the different purposes of research, study, and communication; to conduct iconographic research within online art collections and to distinguish specific interfaces developed by Digital Art History projects to facilitate comparison with works, texts, and digitized documents.
- understanding: ability to analyze digital platforms for the study of art history, to identify their specific thematic features and new strand for research; knowing how to use graphic tools for the presentation of projects or critical analysis; knowing how to discuss with a property of language and a correct formal analysis;
- communication skills: ability to use proper terminology, to comment and communicate the outcome of student's work; to interact with peers and professors in a respectful and effective way.

Basic knowledge of the history of art from the 16th to the 20th century is preferable.

Starting from the theoretical concepts of iconography and iconology the course addresses the digital transformations of artwork images. The main topics of the course will be Digital Art History theories, projects, and tools for the studying of art images; then, subjects will address the evolution of electronic media iconography in contemporary artist practices. The first part of the course investigates major repositories of art images as part of Digital Art History projects. Specific case studies will take exams on the different elements in image reading, descriptive metadata, thesauri, and classification standards such as ICONCLASS. The course will go through digitized images and the role of the technologies enhancing perception and studying of art history as well as museums’ collections. Art collections, digital archives, photo archives, and digital art history projects will be analyzed in order to underline the challenges and threats of a hyper visualization of artworks. The second section will focus on the theories of image production inherent to the age of mechanical reproduction and developed toward an image science, from photography to digital art. The interpretation of visual culture through the means of art productions will be analyzed as well as the changing role of archives of digital art in art historical investigations, and the role of art practices in unveiling the ambiguity of contemporary digitized images.

Chapters and essays will be defined during the lessons.

H. Belting, An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, Body, Princeton University Press, 2011 (Chapters from).
C. Bishop, Against Digital Art History, in «International Journal of digital Art History», 3 (2018), pp. 123-132.
J. Drucker, Is there a “Digital” Art History? in «Visual Resources. An international journal on images and their uses», 29 (2013), pp.5-13.
J. Drucker, The Digital Humanities Coursebook: An Introduction to Digital Methods for Research and Scholarship, London: Routledge 2021.
E. Huhtamo, Art in the Rear‐View Mirror. The Media‐Archaeological Tradition in Art, in C. C. Paul, Companion to Digital Art, Wiley Blackwell 2016.
E. Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts. Papers in and on art History, Anchor Books edition,1955, https://monoskop.org/images/0/0c/Panofsky_Erwin_Meaning_in_the_Visual_Arts.pdf
V. Stoichita, The Pygmalion Effect. From Ovid To Hitchcock, The University of Chicago Press, 2008 (Chapters from).
W. Beshty, Th picture Industry. A provisional history of the Technical Image 1844-1918, Luma Arles, October 12, 2018-January 6, 2019 (Chapters from).

The final exam will consist of an oral presentation of a project developed on one of the topics covered during the course. It will be accompanied by a critical essay of at least 2500 words.
The evaluation will take into account the following elements
- The scholarly quality of the critical essay on the project developed (30%);
- The theoretical depth of the topics (30%);
- The clarity and accuracy of the project presentation (30%);
- The level of interaction in the lectures, seminar activities, and conferences offered (10%)..

The exam program for non-attending students remains the same, but they must contact the teacher to agree on the topic to develop.

oral

The oral examination requires students to present the topic developed in their written essay, which focuses on an exempted design subject. The criteria for the assessment are: a) the academic quality and thoroughness of the essay, including in-depth bibliographic research and the clarity and coherence of the topic’s presentation; b) knowledge of the main theories and themes related to iconology and image science in the context of Digital Art History; c) critical analysis of projects and technologies within Digital Art History, particularly those related to image pattern recognition and iconographical standards; d) In-depth study of specific topics and the use of relevant technologies.

Grading will be based on the evaluation of the following knowledge, skills, and competencies:

Insufficient (≤17) – Limited knowledge. Inadequate to reflect and present ideas.
Sufficient (18-20) – Uncertain or partially reworked knowledge. Basic or adequate skills.
Fair (21-23) – Sufficient or fair knowledge, reworked with some uncertainties. Decent skills.
Good (24-26) – Correct or complete knowledge, confidently reworked. Good skills.
Distinct (27-28) – Complete and confident knowledge. Notable skills.
Excellent (29-30) – Extensive knowledge, independently reworked. Excellent skills.
Outstanding (30 with honors) – Broad and in-depth knowledge, independently reworked. Full mastery of the language.

Slides and power-points will be used in class, and there will be discussion of specific case studies, interaction between professors and students, critical reading of texts, and use of digital art historical resources.
The texts covered and discussed in class, with any supporting tools, are provided by the teacher during the course and made available on the Moodle platform. These texts, collected in a list at the end of the course, are an integral part of the exam program.

Attendance strongly encouraged.

The program is provisional and there could still be changes in its contents and texts.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development