20 – NEW – Being Human? Contemporary Art in Context
On campus
Course 20 – Summer School on campus
Monday 7 – Friday 11 July 2025
Dr Andrew Cummings
£645
We regret that this course has had to be cancelled due to circumstances beyond our control.
Course description
In the face of phenomena such as the rise of AI, pandemics, forced displacement, and widespread environmental degradation, it is as urgent as ever that we question our assumptions about what it means to be ‘human’. Contemporary art is one site where such questions are engaged most profoundly, particularly in an age of accelerated globalisation, in which once distant cultures and peoples are brought into closer proximity than ever before.
This course explores how contemporary artists from across the world have grappled with shifting conceptions of the human. Our discussion will be grounded in a close examination of the formal and experiential properties of artworks produced since the 1980s across media, from painting and photography to installation and performance, by artists such as Lee Bul, Candice Lin, Kara Walker, and Jake Elwes. We will examine works that undermine the notion of a universal or shared humanity by highlighting exclusions based on race, gender, queerness, ability, and class. We will also take up contemporary art’s invitations to consider the entanglements of the human with new technologies, bacteria, and microplastics. Without losing sight of the harms caused by the technological divide or environmental destruction, our exploration will also take us to artworks that, curiously, see these phenomena as an opportunity to imagine more expansive and equitable ways of conceiving what the human is, or to throw out the category ‘human’ altogether. Combining classroom activities with exhibition visits and conversations with practising artists, this course will introduce students to key debates in contemporary art, philosophy, and the environmental humanities, and provide an understanding of what contemporary art has to teach us about being human today.
Lecturer's biography
Dr Andrew Cummings is a historian of contemporary art with research interests in globalisation and queerness. Andrew’s PhD thesis, a collaboration between The Courtauld and Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational, focused on queer politics and science fiction in work by contemporary artists with East and Southeast Asian heritage. Andrew is currently a Research Fellow at the Decolonising Arts Institute, University of the Arts London, and has lectured at The Courtauld and Goldsmiths.