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Theory of Clouds

Overview

Module description

This module investigates questions accessed in relation to clouds. It ranges from clouds of water vapour or of data, from clouds painted, filmed or imagined. It considers clouds as metaphors, for dreaming, for data storage. Clouds are considered as mappable forms (beginning with the International Cloud Atlas project), as ecological questions, as questions of the common and commons, as political bodies, as fantastic bodies, as objects of beauty, as metaphors and meterological entities. In the more metaphorical register, the accent is on the demands and possibilities of complexity, questions of theory and obscurity, knowledge-sharing and the mobility of thought.

The module roams over various disciplinary and methodological frameworks, in order to provide content alongside a meta-reflection on how work is carried out in the humanities. This module works across disciplines, using various materials, periods and contexts for study, as well as incorporating contemporary scholarship, including the module leader’s research interests. Its assessment allows you to formulate an original and imaginative research project, which will demand archival work and/or a rich engagement with a variety of secondary sources.

Indicative module syllabus

  • What is a Cloud? From Cloud to Cloud to Cloud
  • Clouds in Painting
  • Clouds as Metaphor - Clouds as Theory
  • Where is Cloud Cuckoo Land? Clouds and Dreaming
  • Clouds in the Films
  • Clouds and Power: Mushroom and Other Synthetic Clouds
  • Clouds, Architecture and Contemporary Art
  • Cloud Computing - Cloud as Data
  • Student Clouds - Project Week

 

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will:

  • be confident in reading and developing approaches to an object of study, in relation to a variety of disciplinary concerns
  • be able to engage confidently with multiple forms of representation: written, visual, sonic, scientific, virtual etc
  • demonstrate the capacity to work in a variety of contexts and to foreground questions of approach
  • understand the disciplinary pressures on different modes of analysis
  • be able to formulate an original and imaginative research project for the essay, as well as for the student-led week.