ADVANCED VISUAL STUDIES
LIVING IN BALLARDIAN TIMES
VISST-312-01
Spring Semester, 2011
California College of the Arts
Prof. Matteo Bittanti
Meeting Place & Time:
B2, Oakland Campus
Tuesdays 4:00 - 7:00 PM
Start Date: 18 January 2011
End Date: 26 April 2011
Office hours by appointment-only:
Please contact Matteo Bittanti via email at mbittanti dot cca.edu
1. Course Description
The past two decades have witnessed an explosion of interest, research and writing on visual culture within the humanities, arts, and social sciences. This emerging field recognizes the predominance of visual forms of media, communication, and information in our times. Advanced Visual Studies provides an informative and extensive analysis of key aspects of contemporary culture that rely on visual images. By using a broad spectrum of approaches that include cultural studies, literary studies, philosophy, anthropology, art history, media studies, gender studies, performance studies, and critical theory we will explore a series of works, practices, and phenomena in the fields of art, cinema, videogames, advertising, television, comic books, music videos, cartography, fashion, and digital media. Advanced Visual Studies does not limit its investigation to the study of representation alone. Rather, it investigates the material production, dissemination, semiotics, and remediation of images and imaging systems in all their various manifestations - artistic, popular, and commercial.
The course has three main goals: to provide a deep understanding of a wide range of methods, approaches, themes, and paradigms that constitute image-based research; to invite students to rethink the role and function of the critic in an image-saturated culture; to develop an innovative form of research that employs a mixture of visual methods and analytical approaches within one study. Among the others, we will be reading and discussing contributions from Anne Friedberg, Slavoj Zizek, Jean Baudrillard, Lev Manovich, Paul Virilio, Susan Sontag, Marshall McLuhan, Scott McCloud, Linda Williams, Edward Tufte, and William Gibson. In short, following Nicholas Mirzoeff's definition of Visual Culture, this class will provide students with "a tactic for studying the functions of a world addressed through pictures, images, and visualizations, rather than through texts and words".
Advanced Visual Studies presupposes a high level of participation. In addition to a final project - a critical essay - students will be required to produce several written responses on topics and issues based on readings, screenings, and class discussions.
The subtitle - actually, theme - of the 2011 edition of AVS is living in Ballardian Times.
BALLARDIAN: "(adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (J.G. Ballard; 1930-2009), the British novelist, or his works (2) resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in Ballard's novels & stories, esp. dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes & the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments". (Collins English Dictionary.)
We will be conducting a series of ballardian probes - or ad hoc studies - into our visualscapes. Our point of departure is a set of simple, yet intriguing questions: Do we live in Ballardian times? That is, have the fictional worlds imagined by J. G. Ballard become our reality? If so, what are the implications on art, politics, society, and visual culture tout court?
In order to solve these riddles, we will investigate the work of several scholars that directly and indirectly engaged in a critical conversation with J. G. Ballard, including Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard and Paul Virilio, just to name a few. We will compare-and-contrast their theories with Ballard's fiction, enjoying the cognitive dissonance resulting when encountering scholars writing like novelists, and novelists writing like scholars.
1.1 Course Format / Course Requirements
Classes will consist of lectures, screenings, in-class discussions, and student presentations. Students are required to read and discuss various essays and audiovisual material (films/documentaries/shorts), produce weekly written responses/analyses of selected texts (websites, videos, readings etc.), write and present a final critical paper.
1.2 Course Content: Important notice
The visual culture artifacts we will be covering in this course includes some works that are sexually explicit, culturally controversial and politically provocative. Some individuals may find these works disturbing or even offensive. Such works are included because they represent significant aspects of visual culture. They present important challenges to artistic conventions, social norms, standards of beauty, and definitions of culture. Students will not be asked to subscribe to any particular definition of visual culture, nor will they be required to like all the works shown. However, if you choose to take this course, you will be expected to understand the issues involved and why they are important. If you have any special concerns, please discuss them with the professor.
1.3 Learning Outcomes
In addition to the key goals described in section 1., AVS emphasizes the following learning outcomes:
- Visual Literacy: Students will learn how to recognize and decode different media aesthetics, conventions, and languages.
- Interdisciplinarity: Students will understand various ways in which different media aesthetics intersect with other areas of social and cultural history.
- Methods of Critical Analysis: Students will learn to identify, actively engage with, and carry out interpretive analyses of individual text, both visual and textual.
- Written and Verbal Communication: Students will continue to hone their communication skills by presenting their ideas in different types of writing assignments and within class discussions.
- Professional development: In class discussions and through their written submissions, students will present their ideas in a manner that meets professional standards.
2. Evaluation
Final grades will be determined as follows:
- Attendance, participation (both in class and online): 20%
- Written Assignments: 30%
- Oral presentation: 10%
- Final paper: 40%
One of the primary goals of this class is to help the students develop a critical eye. This class presents elements of both a seminar and a lecture course. As such, students will be asked to participate regularly. Participation constitutes 20% of the final grade, so the more input on the student's part, the better.
Assignments are described in the "Course Assignment" section that follows the required material for this course.
2.1 Measurement of Student Performance
A 93-100 => Clearly stands out as excellent performance
A- 90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86 => Grasps subject matter at a level considered to be good to very good
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76 => Demonstrates a satisfactory comprehension of the subject matter
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 60-66 => Quality and quantity of work is below average, marginally acceptable
Failing 59- => Quality and quantity of work is below average and not acceptable
3. Required texts
3.1 Bibliography
Please note that the amount of texts that we will be reading and discussing this semester is considerable. It is strongly recommended to plan ahead. Among others, we will be reading the following books in their entirety
- Ballard, J.G., Crash, London: Jonathan Cape, 1973.
- Ballard, J.G, Concrete Island, London: Vintage, 1974.
- Ballard, J.G. High Rise, London: Jonathan Cape, 1975.
- Baudrillard, Jean, America, London and New York: Verso, 1988.
- Coupland, Douglas, You Know Nothing of My Work, New York: Atlas, 2010.
- Debord, Guy, Society of the Spectacle, Paris: Editions Buchet-Chastel, 1967
- Lethem, Jonathan, They Live; Berkeley, Ca: Soft Skull Press
- Sinclair, Ian, Crash, London: British Film Institute, 1999.
- Virilio, Paul, The Aesthetics of Disappearance, Semiotext(e), Boston: MIT Press, 1980.
A Writer’s Reference (6th Edition) by Diana Hacker will be our style guide. It's available at Blick Art.
Additional and optional essays/papers/articles will be provided by the instructor on a weekly basis, via the class blog.
3.2 Videography
- Moving images - such as movies, documentaries, video performances etc. - play a crucial role in this class. The students will be responsible to collect and watch prior to class all the required videos unless otherwise stated. For instance, on Tuesday February 1 we will be discussing David Cronenberg's Crash (1996) in class. That means that you should have already watched the movie before that date.
In all cases, the instructor will provide copies of the movies/docs in advance via the class blog. The vast majority of the material that we will be watching is also available via Netflix, mubi.com, ubuweb, youtube and elsewhere. Expect subtitles.
On film watching and film criticism: please remember that this is not a film studies course. Film is just one of the medium we will be investigating. However, film plays a key role in AVS. It is important to remember that interpretative, rather than evaluative, analyses are expected from each student. When viewing a film for an assignment, some are inclined to discuss is almost exclusively on evaluative criteria. Usually, their assessments are based on the idea that a successful film should provide its audience with an entertaining viewing experience. While it is certainly true that many films have been made in order to serve as popular entertainment, in this course students are required to concern themselves with other issues relevant to the academic study of the cinema. This is not a “film appreciation” or film criticism course; it is a course designed to introduce students to think and possibly understand the multifaceted relationship between notions pertaining to technology, media, speed, alienation, art through various media, including film.
Analytic thinking and informed inquisitiveness about cinema are encouraged in this class. However, the expression of subjective judgments based in taste or personal preference should not play a part in any of your contributions as a student. At every level of discourse – class discussions, written submissions, online comments etc. – students should be demonstrating that they are attempting to ask pertinent questions and hone their analytic skills.
Among others, we will be watching:
Commercially released movies
| Title | Director | Year | Country |
| Art & Copy* | Doug Pray | 2009 | USA |
| Crash | Harley Cokliss | 1971 | UK |
| Crash | David Cronenberg | 1996 | Canada/US |
| Dogtooth | Giorgos Lanthimos | 2009 | Greece |
| Enter the Void | Gasper Noe' | 2009 | France |
| Home | Ursula Meier | 2006 | France |
| Manufactured Landscapes | Jennifer Baichwal | 2007 | USA |
| The Atomic Cafe* | Jayne Loader, Kevin Loader, Pierce Rafferty Loader | 1982 | USA |
| The Examined Life* | Astra Taylor | 2008 | USA |
| They Live | John Carpenter | 1986 | USA |
| Tokyo!* | Joon-ho Bong | 2008 | Japan/France |
| Videodrome | David Cronenberg | 1983 | Canada/US |
| Weekend | Jean-Luc Godard | 1967 | France |
|
* segments other films might be included in the selections |
Video art and independent productions
| Society of the Spectacle | Guy Debord | 1973 | France |
| Television Delivers People | Richard Serra | 1973 | USA |
| The Remote Controlled (People Like Us) | Rick Prelinger | 2003 | USA |
Additional titles will be announced on a weekly basis.
4. Assignment Instructions
Students are required to write and submit three kinds of written assignments:
1) Blog contributions
2) A proposal for the critical essay
2) A critical essay
All the assignments must be typed, using 12 pt. Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana or Georgia font, and the text on each page must be double-spaced, with one-inch margins. All written work should be formatted according to the standards outlined in The Chicago Manual of Style. Additional information pertaining the assignments is illustrated below.
4.1 Blog contributions (due: Mondays by 4 pm)
Students are required to submit a series of contributions to the blog– critiques of the films, videos, images or essays. These short analyses should be no longer than two double-spaced pages in length. As a critical analysis, this assignment should not summarize/describe the narrative elements of film, the plot of a novel, the main elements of an artwork, but rather analyze and synthesize the material, make connections between fiction and theory, images and texts, forms and functions.
In all cases, you should present a clear argument regarding the specific artifact that we will be investigating, in view of its strengths and limitations, making full use of the bibliographic resources provided. Your own comments should be a response to both the creator's effort and the critic's (or critics') analysis of such effort.
In other words, your entries should accomplish two main objectives: 1) they should demonstrate to the instructor that you are actively analyzing the texts you are encountering in this class, and 2) they should indicate that you are connecting ideas or information found in the readings, lectures, and/or class discussions to the texts themselves.
Suggestions:
1) Write your critique so that it reflects your thoughts about not only the film/video/image but also any of the larger contexts provided either through the readings or in class. Demonstrate that you are paying careful attention to the artifact and to the conceptual information to which you have been introduced. Focus on the description of only those aspects of artifact that you want to analyze, and try as often as possible to consider important concepts, theories, or ideas. Never summarize the plot of a film. If you do mention plot and story elements, discuss only those who are strictly connected to ideas pertaining to the theories discussed in class and in the readings (e.g. alienation, speed, sex, spectacle, simulation etc.)
2) As with every written assignment, focus on the clear communication of your original thoughts and observations. Don't merely replicate what you've heard in class or what you've read.
3) Your entries should not be impressionistic, stream-of-conscious style commentaries; organize your thoughts before you write and keep your entries as focused as possible. Your analysis should not address every major element of the artifact you have encountered. Connect the dots between different texts. In this class, you are an investigator trying to solve a riddle, or, better, a series of riddles.
Evaluation: The blog contributions will not receive individual letter grades. Each submission will be given one of the following grades:
- v+ [above average]
- v [average]
- v- [below average]
- I [incomplete/late/missing]
At the end of the semester, each student receives one letter grade for the "blog contributions" as a whole.
Any student who receives an "I" grade for more than three submissions (and has no legitimate medical excuse) fails this assignment for the entire semester.
"Blog contributions" are due on Mondays by 4 pm.
Very important: The written assignment must be emailed to the instructor (mbittanti at cca dot edu and/or mbittanti at gmail dot com). The email must contain the assignment a) as an attachment (.DOC or RTF., no .PDF allowed) and b) as plain text pasted into the body of the message.
All contributions will be posted and the blog to encourage transparency and to foster the conversation.
4.1.1 Example of Assignment
For your first assignment, please read all the required essays, especially the selection from McLuhan's first book, The Mechanical Bride.
Then, write a 1 to 2 page critique of a contemporary advertising using a McLuhanian' style of analysis (what do we mean by "McLuhanian' style of analysis"? Read The Mechanical Bride to find out). You can select a printed ad in a magazine, online ad, or billboard as your case study.
The written assignment - as well as the image you selected - must be emailed to the instructor by Monday January 24 no later than 4 pm.
The email must contain:
a) the assignment as an attachment (.DOC or RTF., no .PDF allowed) and b) as plain text pasted into the body of the message.
c) The image you selected/took in .JPG or .PGN format.
see section 4 of the syllabus for more information. Excerpt:
What follows is selection of images and captions from Marshall McLuhan, The Mechanical Bride. Folklore of the Industrial Man, San Francisco: Ginko Press, 2009 (1951).
"The voice of the lab or the voice of the turtle decides our rapid changes of erotic styles?
Did you notice the Model-T bodies of the women in that revived 1930 movie last night?"
"Where did you see that bug-eyed romantic of action before?
Was it in a Hemingway novel?
Is the news world a cheap suburb for the artist’s bohemia?"
"Does the Bold Look mean that the crooner and his tummyache are finished?
Would the face pictured here seek its reflection in the eyes of a career woman?"
"Can the feminine body keep pace with the demands of the textile industry?
Are women’s legs getting longer? Is the sun cooling off?"
"Can you see through his adnoise?Is that guy’s slip showing?
Would this character look better in a horse opera of the gas light era?"
4.2. Critical essay (due: April 26 2011)
There will be one final paper (10 pages minimum - 15 pages maximum) due on the last day of class. The final essay must focus on one or more key ideas discussed during the entire semester, including some of the Ballardian key themes that we will discuss, e.g. speed, crash, media landscapes, sexuality, advertising, film, psychopathologies of contemporary life, violence, war, consumerism, simulation, topography, celebrity culture, death of affects, death of reality, technology and more.
Before submitting a final paper, students will be required to write and submit a final paper proposal. Such proposal should be at least one page long and explain cogently what you are trying to accomplish, demonstrate, illustrate. It should also include a full bibliography and filmography.
The final paper proposal is due by March 29 2011 at 4 PM. Please email your final paper proposal to the instructor. The email must contain the proposal as an attachment (.DOC or RTF., no .PDF allowed) and as plain text pasted into the body of the message. Important: A written copy should also submitted to the instructor brevi manu in class on March 29 2011 at 4 PM.
The writing recommendations for "blog contributions" also apply to the critical essay.
Evaluation: The critical essay will receive individual letter grades.
The final paper is due April 26 2011 at 4 pm. Please email your written assignment to the instructor. The email must contain the assignment as an attachment (.DOC or RTF., no .PDF allowed). Important: A written copy should also submitted to the instructor brevi manu in class on April 26 2011 at 4 pm. There will be no make-up final papers.
4.3 "Final Presentation" (due: April 19-26 2011)
In addition to the final paper, students are required to give one oral presentation based on their critical essay. Depending on the number of students enrolled, the duration of the presentation will range from 20 to 25 minutes. Students are strongly encouraged to make full use of audio-visual resources for their presentation (film clips, slide-show of still images, powerpoint etc.). All students are expected to comment on their peers' presentations.
Please note that
- Your presentation may be scheduled a week before the critical essay deadline, so plan ahead.
- Students are expected to collect and use the equipment needed for their presentation (e.g. a laptop and the required software).
- Students are required to attend both presentation days.
- There will be no make-up presentations.
5. Writing Recommendations, Assignment Regulations, Classroom Conduct & Attendance Guidelines (modeled after Federico Windhausen's rules of engagement)
5.1 Writing Recommendations
1) Always make sure to italicize the title of each film you mention. In an essay or paper, you must also provide its official year of production/display in parentheses (sans italics), and the name of the director but only the first time you mention the work.
Ex: Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982).
2) Students should use secondary sources judiciously. It will be easy to locate informative and/or interpretive texts about the films we view in class. In footnotes (if necessary) and a bibliography, cite any and all texts that provided you with contextual, historical, biographical, or interpretive information which impacted upon your understanding and interpretation of the work. Make sure to format your citations correctly, according to the standards outlined in A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker.
3) Some works of art are more readily grasped once relevant contextual, historical, or biographical information has been considered. Students must avoid relying heavily upon received interpretations when presenting their own analyses of films/videos/docs, however. Someone else’s interpretive analysis should not substitute for or eclipse your own.
4) Another cautionary note on plagiarism, written by another professor (Murray Sperber, of Indiana University at Bloomington) but thoroughly applicable to this class: "An experienced...teacher can easily tell the difference between original student writing and plagiarized work. Because you will have to write various exercises in class, I will have an excellent idea of your true writing abilities. Thus, when you turn in longer pieces of writing -- although more careful and polished than your in-class work -- they will still reflect your abilities. Your writing is like your signature, unique to you. To turn in someone else's writing -- published critic, friend, tutor, doofus on the Web -- is foolish, easily recognized, an insult to your instructor and fellow students, and a good way to get yourself into serious trouble." Heed those words.
5) I will hold students to high standards of spelling and grammatical usage. Proofread carefully.
6) Avoid slang, jargon, and colloquialisms. "LOL", "ROTLF", "OMG", et similia are strictly forbidden.
7) Use prepositional phrases sparingly, and never end a sentence with a preposition.
8) Eliminate all contractions (e.g., doesn't, isn't, don't, won't).
9) Discuss the actions of works of art in the present tense, and the activity of the artist in the past tense.
Example: The director allowed the actors to conduct themselves in a scene that proceeds without cuts. Partly as a consequence of the lack of editing, the acting in that scene seems especially naturalistic, imbued with the flows and rhythms of everyday social interaction.
10) Avoid the use of intensifiers (e.g., absolutely, extremely, very, interestingly) and vague phrases (e.g., somewhat, to some degree, more or less, seems, appears) whenever possible.
11) Avoid the use of passive voice or forms of the verb "to be." Replace both with active verbs.
Example 1: Landscapes were understood as more than innocent depictions of nature.
Revision: Many contemporary scholars and critics understood landscape paintings as more than innocent depictions of nature.
Example 2: The film premiered in 1965.
Revision: The MGM studio released the film in 1965.
Example 3: The color blue is seen throughout the mise-en-scene.
Revision: The color blue dominates the mise-en-scene.
12) Do not make qualitative judgments about the works or the artists you choose to analyze in your essay and weekly entries.
Example: Francesco Vezzoli is a pervert.
13) Make your last paragraph conclusive, without being repetitive. Do not simply regurgitate your introduction, and keep any summary of your paper to no more than two sentences. Instead, try to talk about your topic in a new way. This may be a time to discuss the importance or the implications of your argument or essay (think of this as the "so what?" factor).
14) If you are looking for a helpful book on grammatical rules and norms please rely on A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker.
15) If you anticipate that you will have problems with spelling and/or grammar, see a writing counselor as soon as possible. The earlier you establish a relationship with someone who can help you, the sooner your work will improve.
16) Problems guaranteed to result in a lower grade for your essay:
a) Too much description, not enough analysis (or, sketchy descriptions that are not clearly linked to points made in the analysis; or, too much opinion and not enough analysis)
b) Lack of coherence, either linguistic (poor grammar; misusing Spell Check [selecting the wrong word for your intended meaning]; weak overall grasp of written English) or conceptual (the various parts of the paper are not clearly connected; transitions between paragraphs or points are weak or disjunctive)
c) An excessive reliance on quotations (as when they are used to appropriate analytic points that the student does not complement with his or her own analyses; or when they are inserted into the text without further explanation of the quotation's main points in the student's own words)
d) Super-sized margins or font, pictures inserted into the main body of the paper, and various other page-augmentation tricks
5.2 Assignment Regulations
1) Students who are absent for a class in which an assignment is due and whose absence cannot be accounted for by a medical professional must email the assignment to me by 11 p.m. on the day it is due. The email must contain the assignment as an attachment and as plain text pasted into the body of the message. (If my word processing program cannot open your emailed document and you did not include the plain text version in your message to me, the assignment will be counted as late and graded down.)
2) For each week that an assignment is overdue, the final grade of the late submission will be lowered by one full letter grade. So, a paper that is submitted two weeks late by a student who cannot provide a valid medical excuse (and who did not attempt to meet my email requirements) will first be graded without consideration of the penalty. Once the initial grade is determined, it will be lowered for the paper's final grade. Thus, an A paper submitted two weeks late becomes a C paper.
3) Students who know ahead of time that they will not be able to meet these requirements on a particular date must contact me. Students who claim illness after the due date will always be required to provide medical verification.
4) Furthermore, any assignment (late or otherwise) sent to me over email must adhere to the format described above.
5) No student is automatically allowed a revision of an assignment that received a low grade. I will make decisions about revisions on a case-by-case basis.
6) Students who produce work under the assumption that the assignments for this class are less important than those for their studio classes will be duly penalized. The demands that this course makes on your time are to be taken seriously. From the very beginning of the semester, you will be expected to plan ahead, taking into account the fact that assignments for studio classes can be exceptionally time-consuming.
5.3 Classroom Conduct & Attendance Guidelines
1) Promptness is a basic requirement. Persistent lateness lowers your class participation grade considerably.
2) Students cannot use electronic devices during class. Note-taking on a laptop is not allowed. Cell phones should always be shut off.
3) Sleeping, chatting in the back of the room, reading external materials, working on external projects during the class session - any of these can result in immediate ejection from the class.
4) Any student with more than two unexcused absences during the semester will find that each additional absence, after the second, lowers his or her class participation grade by one full letter. In other words, the third unexcused absence would lower a B+ to a C+; the fourth would result in an F.
5) Students are not allowed to eat during class.
6) Students who miss a class must collect the material discussed in class. In most cases, such material will be available on the class blog. At any rate, always make sure to contact me via email about the availability of such materials.
Thank you for your cooperation.
|
Date |
Topic |
Keywords |
Words |
Moving Images |
Still Images
|
Notes |
|
01/18/2011 |
Introduction |
survival guide |
Introduction to Advanced Visual Studies 2011 Introduction to J.G. Ballard Introduction to Marshall McLuhan |
In-Class: "The South Bank Show: J.G. Ballard", 2006, 30 minutes McLuhan's Wake, Kevin McMahon, 2002, excerpts
|
|
|
|
01/25/2011 |
Marshall McLuhan |
mass media, communication theory, effects of technology, visual culture, advertising, consumerism |
Required: Marshall McLuhan, TheMechanical Bride: Folklore of the Industrial Man, San Francisco: Ginko Press, 1951. Excerpts. 25 pages. Edgar Allan Poe, "A Descent Into the Maelstrom", 1841. 13 pages. Douglas Coupland, You Know Nothing of My Work, New York: Atlas, 2010. 209 pages
|
In-Class: McLuhan vs. Norman Mailer, CBC, 1968, 20 minutes (excerpts) |
|
First written assignment due Monday 1/24/2011 at 4 PM |
|
02/01/2011 |
Marshall McLuhan |
mass media, technology, visual culture, advertising, consumerism |
Required: Excerpts from Marshall McLuhan's Understanding Media: New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964: "The Medium is the Message", "Media Hot and Cold", "Reversal of the Overheated Medium", "The Gadget Lover: "Narcissus and Narcosis". 1-41 + "Cinema. The Reel World" and "Television. The timid Giant". 43 pages. Marshal McLuhan, "The Playboy Interview", Playboy, March 1969. 38 pages. => Scot Bukatman, "The Image Virus", inTerminal Identity: the Virtual Subject in Postmodern Science Fiction, Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. 69-103.
|
Home:Videodrome,David Cronenberg, 1983, 88 minutes.
|
|
Written assignment due Monday 01/31/2011 at 4 PM |
|
02/08/2011 |
Guy Debord |
spectacle, consumerism |
Required: Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle, Paris: Editions Buchet-Chastel, 1967 [Black & Red, 1970] Neal Gabler, "The Mediated Self", fromLife: The Movie. How Entertainment Conquered Reality, New York: Vintage, 1998. 192-244
|
Home: Society of the Spectacle, (Guy Debord, 1973),88 minutes In-Class: Richard Serra, "Television Delivers People", 1973 (6'45") Excerpt from "Cinemania" (Angela Christlieb, Stephen Kijak, 2002), 2"
|
Andy Warhol, Francesco Vezzoli, Jeff Koons |
Written assignment due Monday 02/07/2011 at 4 PM |
|
02/15/2011 |
Jean Baudrillard |
simulation and simulacra |
Required: Jean Baudrillard, America, London and New York, Verso, 1988. 130 pages. David Hopkins, "Postmodernism. Theory and Practice in the 1980s" inAfter Modern Art 1945-2000, London: Oxford Press. 197-233. Benjamin Noys, "Crimes of the Near Future, Ballard/Baudrillard", ballardian.com, March, 2007. 13 pages
|
Home: Sebastiaan Knoops, Aiming for The Point of No Return: Travels Through Baudrillarian America, 2009, 40 minutes
|
Cindy Sherman, Hans Haacke, Philip Guston, Jenny Holzer |
Written assignment due Monday 02/14/2011 at 4 PM |
|
02/22/2011 |
Jean Baudrillard |
simulation and simulacra, image culture, consumerism |
Jonathan Lethem, They Live; Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press, 2010. 162 pages. J.G. Ballard "The Subliminal Man", 1963, 10 pages.
|
Home: They Live, John Carpenter, 1986 In Class: Art21, PBS, episode: Consumption, 2001, 30 minutes (excerpts) Los Angeles Plays Itself, Thom Andersen, 2003 (2004), excerpt:They Live
|
Barbara Kruger |
Written assignment due Monday 02/21/2011 at 4 PM |
|
03/01/2011 |
Paul Virilio |
The accident, the disaster, eschatology |
Required: Paul Virilio, The Aesthetics of Disappearance, Semiotext(e), Boston: MIT Press, 1980. 120 pages. Paul Virilio, The Original Accident, New York: Polity, 2007. 128 pages. Paul Virilio, The University of Disaster, New York: Polity, 2010. Chapter 4: 94-136. Paul Virilio, The Vice Interview, Sept 2010. 13 pages
|
Home: Enter The Void, Gaspar Noe, 2010 |
|
Written assignment due Monday 02/28/2011 at 4 PM |
|
03/08/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
aesthetics of apocalypse |
Required: J.G. Ballard, Concrete Island, London: Vintage, 1994. 176 pages. Mike Bonsall, "The Real Concrete Island," ballardian.com, Dec 3 2008. 17 pages. Paul Roth, "Edward Burtynsky: Oil – A Ballardian Interpretation", Ballardian, 2010, 17 pages Optional: William Viney, "A fierce and wayward beauty": Waste in the Fiction of J.G. Ballard, ballardian.com, Dec 11, 2007, 31 pages
|
In-Class:Manufactured Landscapes, Jennifer Baichwal, 2007, Excerpts. "Slavoj Zizek on Ecology" inThe Examined Life, Astra Taylor, 2008, 10 minutes The Atomic Cafe, Jayne Loader, and brothers Kevin and Pierce Rafferty, 1982, Excerpts.
|
Edward Burtsinky, Yang Yongliang |
Written assignment due Monday 03/07/2011 at 4 PM |
|
03/15/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
technology, violence, sexuality |
Required: J.G. Ballard, The Atrocity Exhibition, London: Jonathan Cape, 1970 (excerpts). Andrzej Gasiorek, "Deviant Logics" from J.G. Ballard, 58-100. Jake Huntley, "Disquieting Features: An Introduction Tour of The Atrocity Exhibition" in Jeannette Baxter (Ed.),J.G. Ballard, London: Continuum, 2010, 23-34. Simon Sellars, "The Fusion of Science and Pornography", ballardian.com, July 1 2008. 8 pages [contains explicit images of sexual nature]
|
In-Class: The Atrocity Exhibition, Jonathan Weiss, 2001, excerpts Home: Ben Lewis, Art Safari: Wim Delvoye, 2003, 25 minutes
|
Wim Delvoye, "Sex Rays", series, 2000-2002 John Currin Chris Burden |
Written assignment due Monday 03/14/2011 at 4 PM |
|
03/22/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
dromology, sexuality |
Required: J.G. Ballard, Crash,London: Jonathan Cape, 1973. Victor Sage, "The Gothic, the Body, and The Failed Homeopathy Argument: Reading Crash" in Jeannette Baxter (Ed.), J.G. Ballard, London: Continuum, 2010, 35-49 Jean Baudrillard, "Crash", in Simulacra et Simulation, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 1991. 111-120. Optional: Heathcome Williams,Autogeddon, (1991) Simon Sellars, "Crash! The Full Tilt Armageddon", ballardian.com, August 10 2007, 17 pages Nick Ruddick, Ballard/Crash/Baudrillard, #58 = Volume 19, Part 3 = November 1992, 6 pages
|
Home:Weekend, Jean Luc Godard, 1967
In-Class: Crash. Harley Cokliss, 1971, 17 minutes |
Andy Warhol's "Car Crash" Series - in class screenings of various documentaries about Andy Warhol (excerpts). Steven Meisel, "DSquared2 ad campaign", 2008
|
Written assignment due Monday 03/21/2011 at 4 PM |
|
03/29/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
dromology, sexuality |
Required: Ian Sinclair, Crash,London: British Film Institute, 1999. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurist Manifesto, 1909 Enda Duffy, "Crash Culture" in The Speed Handbook. Velocity, Pleasure, Modernism. Durham: Duke University Press, 2009. 199-263. Lars Svenden, "On Boredom, Body, technology and Transgression: Crash" in A Philosophy of Boredom, London: Reaktion Books, 2005. 82-93.
|
Home: Crash, David Cronenberg, 1996. 100 minutes. |
Troy Paiva Francis Bacon, Richard Prince, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Douglas Gordon, Jenny Saville, Edward Hopper, Damien Hirst |
Written assignment due Monday 03/28/2011 at 4 PM
Final paperproposal due Tuesday 03/29/2011 at 4 PM |
|
04/05/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
space/place; urbanism, architecture |
Required: Simon Sellars, "Stereoscopic Urbanism: JG Ballard and the Built Environment" in Nic Clear (Ed.), Architectures of the Near Future: Architectural Design, September-October 2009, pp. 82-7. J.G. Ballard, "The Enormous Space", 1989, 8 pages. J.G. Ballard, High Rise, London: Jonathan Cape, 1975. 173 pages. Andrzej Gasiorek, "Uneasy Plasures" inJ.G. Ballard, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005. 107-133. |
Home: Home, Ursula Meier, 2008, 98 minutes Dogtooth,Giorgos Lanthimos, 2009, 94 minutes In class: Home, Richard Curson-Smith, 2003, 15 minutes High-Rise, Chris Moore, 2010, 3 minutes Tokyo!, Joon-ho Bong, 2008, segment. Dan Holdsworth at "Inner Space", London, 2010, 6 minutes |
Dan Holdsworth Michael Wolf
|
Written assignment due Monday 04/04/2011 at 4 PM |
|
04/12/2011 |
J.G. Ballard |
art, advertising, images |
Required: Rick McGrath, "What exactly is he trying to sell?" J.G. Ballard's Adventures in Advertising, ballardian.com, May 4 & 8, 2009 Bret Easton Ellis, Glamorama, New York: Knopf, 1998, excerpts. |
Excerpts fromMad Men, Matthew Weiner, 2006-2010, Seasons 1-4
In Class: Doug Pray, Art & Copy, 2009, excerpts
|
Selection from the "CRASH" Gagosian exhibition, New York, 2010 Steven Meisel, "State of Emergency",Vogue Italia, Sept 2006 Selection from Dolce & Gabbana ads |
Written assignment due Monday 04/11/2011 at 4 PM |
|
04/19/2011 |
Final Presentations
|
1 2 3 4
|
|
|
|
|
|
04/26/2011 |
Final Presentations |
1 2 3 4
|
|
|
|
Final paper due at 4 PM |
Please note that this schedule is tentative and subject to change.
Comments