Intermediality in the Avant-Gardes

• To understand the characteristics of different language systems and their carriers, especially the differences between verbal and visual signs and the forms of their relationship that develop in artistic avant-gardes;
• to be able to recognize and analyze the intermediality of verbal and visual creations both in art and in wider visual culture and marketing;
• to get acquainted with key examples of avant-garde movements of the 20th century through intermediality;
• to become familiar with the connection between changes in literary and artistic history with the development of technology and political, social and scientific novums;
• to understand the theoretical implications of artistic procedures such as montage, collage, ready-made, happening, etc., and the social and aesthetic effect of radical artistic practices that subvert the language system (excess or lack of meaning in the meaningless signs of Dadaism and Surrealism, the inseparable connection of form and content in the Bauhaus and Vkhutemas school);
• encourage the combination of different media and the use of interdisciplinary approaches.

There are no enrolment or degree requirements for the course.

Intermediality refers to works in which several media are used, whereby the characteristics of one medium do not disappear, but gain a new meaning and are often exposed reflexively and critically. The theoretical knowledge and understanding of intermediality is deepened in the course through 1. a critical analysis of key examples from the history of artistic avant-gardes of the 20th century and contemporary visual culture, and 2. a broader understanding of the context of intermediality in the field of avant-garde cultural history. In the seminar, special emphasis is devoted to the promotion of interdisciplinary research and dialogue between different disciplines with the aim of clearer and richer communication of one’s own ideas.

The elective course consists of the following thematic sections:
- History of semiotics or scientific study of the sign: the sign as a two-part (de Saussure) or three-part (Pierce) structure, convention and arbitrariness of the sign, denotation and connotation, motivation of the sign by external factors (cultural, social, historical context), sign systems and sign carriers, characteristics of verbal and visual signs.
- Development of visual communication from print and posters to contemporary digital media. Appropriation of artistic processes in marketing; graphic design, storytelling.
- Review of the works and characteristics of the early artistic avant-garde (Futurism, Suprematism, Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism) and neo-avant-garde (conceptualism, fluxus, happening and performance, mail art, video art) in a global perspective, their cultural and historical context.
- Analysis of intermediality on the example of prominent works from the history of the avant-garde, which combine word with image (collage, photomontage, graphic design, avant-garde magazines and samizdat – books, posters, leaflets...), introduce cinematic elements into the text (simultaneism, cinema-novel, film language), and sound and spatial aspects (“zaum” and parole in libertà of the futurists, constructivist poetry, visual poetry), characteristics of performance art, haptics and physicality in experiential ambients and performative art forms.

The final part of the course will be the practical application of knowledge in the production of a poster based on the analyzed case and the acquired concepts.

Knowledge and understanding:

Student:
- understands the specifics of different language systems and their carriers and the meaning of combining media, especially verbal and visual codes (film, photography, image, illustration), which contributes to visual literacy;
- gets acquainted with the history of the study of signs (semiotics) and understand the embeddedness of sign systems in the cultural, social and historical context,
- is able to recognize key works and expressive forms of artistic avant-gardes in a global perspective, as well as examples from contemporary visual culture;
- is able to analyze artistic creations and works from the field of visual culture through intermediality (how the use of a certain language and medium characterizes the meaning, structure and reception of the work).

Skills:

Student:
- develops the ability to understand the social, cultural and political contexts that shaped the avant-gardes in a global perspective,
- develops critical thinking about artistic practices, media, technological and social contexts,
- develops creativity in combining different media and interdisciplinary collaboration in artistic/research work, and also understands the importance and effect of such procedures in the communication of own ideas.

• Barthes, Roland. Image – Music – Text. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977. E-version
• Belting, Hans. Antropologija podobe. Osnutki znanosti o podobi. Ljubljana, 2004. Catalogue
• Benson, Timothy O., Eva Forgacs. Between Worlds. A Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes, 1910-1930. Cambridge: MIT Press. E-version
• Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics: The Basics. 4th Edition. London: Routledge, 2022.
• Foster, Hal, et al. Art since 1900: Modernism, Antimodernism, Postmodernism. Vols. I and II. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2016.
• Janecek, Gerald. The Look of Russian Literature: Avant-Garde Visual Experiments, 1900-1930. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. E-version
• Matajc, Vanesa (ur.). Medij v sodobni družbi in kulturi (Multimedialnost in intermedialnost). Ars & Humanitas 5.1 (2011). E-version
• Pranjić, Kristina. Zvočna destabilizacija jezika: zaum in glosolalija. Zbornik Matice srpske za slavistiku 93 (2018). 231–247. E-version

• Oral presentations of texts and artworks and active participation in discussions 30 %,
• analysis of works of art and works from the field of visual culture 30 %.
• a physical or digital poster, made on the basis of the analyzed case and the acquired concepts, as well as a presentation with an oral defense 40 %.

Assoc. prof. dr. Kristina Pranjić graduated in comparative literature, and Russian language and literature at the University of Ljubljana. She defended her doctoral thesis on the concept of objectlessness and non-representational poetry and visual art in symbolism and the avant-garde at the same institution. From 2019 to 2021 she led the research project Yugoslav Avantgardes and Metropolitan Dada (1916–1927): A Multidirectional and Transnational Genealogy, financed by the Slovenian Research Agency. She is employed as an associate professor at the Research Centre for Humanities and the School of Humanities of the University of Nova Gorica.

Selected articles:

1. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Change must come: Yugoslav avant-gardes and metropolitan Dada. In: BRU, Sascha (ed.). Crisis: the avant-garde and modernism in critical modes. European avant-garde and modernism studies, vol. 7. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter, 2022, pp. 297–312.
2. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. The emergence and establishment of Yugoslav dada: from Prague to Zagreb (1920–1922). Svět literatury, 2021, vol. 31, no. 64, pp. 89–103.
3. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Zenitistični koncept barbarogenija kot kritika zahodnoevropske kulture = Zenithist Concept of a Barbarogenius as a Critique of the Western European Culture. Primerjalna književnost. 43.3 (2020). 139–157.
4. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Premagati silo gravitacije na presečišču umetnosti in tehnologije: primer ruskega konstruktivizma = Overcoming Gravity at the Intersection of Art and Technology: The Example of Russian Constructivism. Časopis za kritiko znanosti Journal for the Critique of Science, Imagination & New Anthropology. 277.47 (2019). 102–116.
5. PRANJIĆ, Kristina. Brezpredmetnost in ekonomičnost v poeziji = Objectlessness and Economy in Poetry. Slavica Tergestina 22 (2019). 50–68