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Study online with Curtin University through Open Universities Australia. Explore all degrees, subjects and short courses now.

The Undergraduate Certificate in Art History is designed for people who are interested in pursuing a career in Art History. The Undergraduate Certificate may give students entry (and credit for the four units completed) for the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) among others at Curtin.

Gain a head start in fine arts studies with this introduction to art history’s key ideas and events. You’ll explore Australian art, modernism, and issues in contemporary art. Build your appreciation of art and design and work towards a fine arts degree.

Undergraduate Certificate in Art History

This degree offers a choice of two single majors: BA (Fine Art) or BA (Visual Culture). Students may choose to study both single majors to obtain the BA (Fine Art) (Visual Culture).
If you would like to explore the full breadth of art practice including theory and history, combining the two majors into a BA (Fine Art) (Visual Culture) is highly recommended. The combination of these majors will offer you broad experience in visual arts , theory and practice. 
If you aspire to become a professional artist and want to contribute to the artistic, aesthetic and social needs of our society, the Fine Art major may suit you. The Fine Art major draws upon the diverse and complex traditions of Fine Art and calls for a high degree of self-discipline, a capacity for self-criticism and dedication to the demanding profession of being an artist. 
In the Visual Culture major students explore the history and theories of art and learn to critically evaluate how art informs our world. Students have the opportunity to extend and apply research methods through theoretical and/or practical investigations in contemporary art.

Artistic professions shape society’s aesthetic and social needs. Aspiring artists can choose Fine Art or Visual Culture (art history, theory and critical evaluation) for work in curation, policy development, public relations and tourism.

Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) (Visual Culture)

This degree was previously known as Bachelor of Arts (Digital Design).
The Digital Experience and Interaction Design major allows you to experience the exciting, creative fields within digital design and interactive media.
This major provides you with a comprehensive theory and practice-based education in digital design, focusing on key principles and techniques in website design, user interaction / experience design (UI/UX) and app design. You will use digital technologies to develop forward-thinking and innovative design solutions to real-world problems. The major has a strong industry and design research focus, and you will work on real-world projects, facilitated by experienced staff and industry specialists. There is emphasis on concept generation, creative problem-solving, aesthetics and advanced technical skills in digital technologies using the latest digital production software. Students may choose to study the following combinations of two single majors to obtain the double major award:
<ul><li>Digital Experience and Interaction Design and Fine Art</li><li>Digital Experience and Interaction Design and Digital and Social Media</li><li>Digital Experience and Interaction Design and Professional Writing &amp; Publishing</li><li>Digital Experience and Interaction Design and Visual Culture</li></ul>
Please refer to the respective degree pages for more details.

Design products and applications using current and emerging technologies in web design, 3D animation, illustration and rendering. Find work in the interactive, mobile, game, user experience (UX) and experiential design fields.

Bachelor of Arts (Digital Experience and Interaction Design)

In the Visual Culture major students explore the history and theories of art and learn to critically evaluate how art informs our world. Students have the opportunity to extend and apply research methods through theoretical and / or practical investigations in Contemporary art practice.
Students may choose to study the following combinations of two single majors to obtain the double major award:
<ul><li>Fine Art and Visual Culture</li><li>Digital Design and Visual Culture</li><li>Digital and Social Media and Visual Culture</li><li>Professional Writing &amp; Publishing and Visual Culture</li></ul>
Please refer to the respective degree pages for more details.

Explore how culture is expressed in visual images. Understand how art informs our world, through the history and theories of art. Work in sectors where initiative, creativity and critical thinking are valued—curation, policy development, and tourism.

Bachelor of Arts (Visual Culture)

The Curtin University Professional Writing and Publishing degree prepares students for writing careers in the private, public and creative sectors through the study and practice of a range of different writing forms, including feature articles, speeches, reports, discussion papers, travel writing, history, humour, writing for the internet, promotional writing, creative non-fiction and media releases. In the Visual Culture major students explore the history and theories of art and learn to critically evaluate how art informs our world. Students are also trained in practices of seeing and representation through technical and intuitive skills based in drawing.

Draft up and edit your writing career that combines art and culture. Get critical and gain perspective about writing in various forms and for diverse genres. Visualise contemporary art and design. Brush up on your critical art evaluation skills.

Bachelor of Arts (Professional Writing and Publishing) (Visual Culture)

This degree was previously known as Bachelor of Arts (Internet Communications and Visual Culture).
The Bachelor of Arts (Digital and Social Media) provides you with an opportunity to learn in detail about the human dimensions of the internet: how people network, collaborate and share information through internet communications, media and design. You will develop advanced skills in creating, maintaining and managing online communications for personal and commercial interactions, as well as gaining knowledge of the social and cultural contexts within which those interactions occur. In the Visual Culture major students explore the history and theories of art and learn to critically evaluate how art informs our world. Students are also trained in practices of seeing and representation through technical and intuitive skills based in drawing.

Visualise and articulate how people network and connect online. Express culture through design. Get critical and recognise the value of cultural diversity versus technology. Explore art history and theory. Draw on your technical and intuitive strengths.

Bachelor of Arts (Digital and Social Media) (Visual Culture)

This degree was previously known as Bachelor of Arts (Digital Design and Visual Culture).
This degree offers a choice of studying two single majors together and introduces students to the complementary fields of digital design and visual culture. This degree enables students to understand web-based design, 2-D and 3-D animation design, digital photography, digital illustration and rendering, interactive and experience design, simulations and modelling, and electronic game design along with exploring the history and theories of art and learn to critically evaluate how art informs our world. Students are also trained in practices of seeing and representation through technical and intuitive skills based in drawing.

Visualise an artistic journey through the past to see the present and find the future of art and design. Draw on techniques using paper and screen. Illustrate how creativity shapes society and culture. Get interactive with experience design.

Bachelor of Arts (Digital Experience and Interaction Design) (Visual Culture)

Collecting Power: Museums, Colonialism, and Restitution

Icons and Anti-Icons: Ten Works of Art

Visions of Modernity: Art, Film and Visual Cultures

Issues in Contemporary Art

This subject was previously known as VIS18 Historical Issues in Art and Design.
This subject provides students with an introduction to some of the key ideas and events in the history of art and design. It is intended as a basic introduction to the history of ideas and the effects such ideas have had on the recent evolution of art and design. While this unit has a Euro-centric bias, ideas from other cultural histories are introduced. Students are taught the visual literacy and analysis needed to be able to understand historical and contemporary art and design.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Travel back through centuries of art history. Traverse European and Eastern countries as you learn what inspired and influenced artistic movements. Identify hallmarks of artworks created under the banner of modernism, romanticism and expressionism.

Introduction to History of Art and Design

This subject was previously known as VIS25 Australian Aboriginal Art.
In this subject you will explore the richness, complexity and diversity of Aboriginal art in Australia. Learn about the importance of art in Aboriginal culture, the impact of British colonisation and the strategies that Aboriginal artists use to maintain cultural knowledge, fight for political rights, and bear witness to the ongoing survival and resilience of Aboriginal Australians.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Witness the impact history, aesthetics and politics has had on Indigenous Australian art practice. Visit the pre-colonial era. Examine artistic representations of The Dreaming. See how Indigenous Australians have wielded art to create commentary.

Australian Aboriginal Art

Learn about the relationship between art and fashion in historical and contemporary contexts. Influences on art and their reflection in fashion are considered both chronologically as well as thematically. Explore links between the development of industrialised societies, their customs, desires and the development of consumerism.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Strut through the decades of the 20th century while examining the collision of art and fashion. Walk the catwalks of 1920’s Paris. Witness the birth of ‘cool’ fashion in the sixties. Analyse how fashion intersects with consumerism and visual culture.

Art and Fashion

This subject will examine the concept of beauty as it operates in visual culture from a range of historical and contemporary perspectives. The subject explores the idea of &#39;beauty&#39; in the everyday sense of the word and also in relation to philosophy and aesthetics. The subject will cover such topics as biological beauty, the beautiful landscape and the Sublime.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Engage with what beauty can mean in relation to philosophy and aesthetics. Look back on historical conceptions of beauty. Examine landscapes, religion and the body. Tie these thoughts back to how the art world has represented beauty across the ages.

Perspectives on Beauty in Art

This subject provides an introduction to the major theoretical issues of contemporary art with a strong emphasis given to contemporary practice. Theories of seeing and of cultural production are examined and illustrated through examples of contemporary art practices.
Please Note: If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Question the last fifty years of arts practice from social, political and cultural points of view. Put recurring themes in contemporary art up for discussion. Dig into modernism and post-modernism. Focus your art history study on theory and context.

Explore the theoretical perspectives that underpin developments in modernism in art and design in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Gain an understanding of the shifts in the production of visual culture that led to the emergence of Modernism. Examine the notion of the Avant-garde, technological change, the ideals of utopia, the Modernist myths of Primitivism, Surrealism, Futurism and feminist re-appraisals of Modernism.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Visualise the changing world of the 19th and early 20th centuries and discover its impact on artistic expression. Be there for the birth and death of the avant-garde movement. Measure the effects that rapid technological change had on the art world.

Modernism in Art and Design

This subject explores a range of concepts and contexts in which ideas about nature operate, both historically and in contemporary culture. You will gain a broad introduction to many ideas relating to the natural environment and culture, from the western ideal of the &#39;Garden of Eden&#39; to contemporary gardens as cultural projects. You will explore links between nature and religion, an international history of gardens, the use of nature in political contexts and the role of the natural environment in an age of climate change.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Grow an understanding of humanity’s attitude towards landscape and beauty. Explore Japanese ideas of beauty and the natural world. Unpack the western ideal of the Garden of Eden and how it impacts historical and contemporary gardening practices.

Art and the Environment

From the pre-colonial period to the present day, Australian art explores issues of place, identity, narrative and ideas. In this unit you’ll learn about the complex social, cultural and political histories that have shaped the development of Australian art and its place on the international stage, including the Heidelberg movement, Aboriginal Australian art and contemporary art.
Please Note:  If it’s your first time studying a Curtin University subject you’ll need to complete their compulsory ‘Academic Integrity Program’. It only takes two hours to complete online, and provides you with vital information about studying with Curtin University. The Academic Integrity Program is compulsory, so if it’s not completed your subject grades will be withheld.
Find out more about the <a href="https://www.curtin.edu.au/students/essentials/rights/academic-integrity/aip/" target="_blank">Academic Integrity module</a>.

Take a closer look at Australian art through the years. Jump from pre-colonial times to the dawn of modernism and through to today. Explore the successes of Aboriginal art on the global stage. Analyse it all from philosophical and historical viewpoints.

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