Week
1
January
26
Introduction to the class, syllabus, grading,
attendance, readings, assignments
--Intro to the themes of the class: politics and poetics; from spectator to participant.
Early
history of the moving image and models
visuality at the turn of the century
First, we will examine the technological
and cultural innovations during the Industrial
Revolution at the turn of the century
that contributed to the development of
the moving image. Then, we will take a
look at early moving image devices used
from the 18th century to the turn of the
century, including among others: the camera
obscura, zootrope, stereoscopes, peepshows.
We will then take a look at the major
leap foreword of the moving image with
the invention of cinema. Once we have
technical history to reference, we will
then look at various models of visuality
that took shape at the turn of the century
and the development of the first wave
of globalization of visual cultures through
mass media. And finally, we will examine,
through a series of performative, hands-on
excersizes the phenomenon of "socialized
vision"--how our vision becomes socialized
through a variety of visual habits which
are imposed on our vision by the culture
we live in. We will also have a discussion
on how these visual habits have become
partof the language of the moving image.
Screenings:
Images
relating to Lecture 1
Precursors to Cinema, mechanical moving images
Early films:
"The
Cinema Begins, II
The Lumière Brothers' first films
[videorecording] VTC 2546
Films of George Méliès.
Volume #1 VTC 3107
Assignment 1: Socialized
Vision, visual habits, framing through
the Oculus,
Due: Week 2. Be prepared to discuss your
observations in class.
On an 8 1/2 X 11 piece of white cardboard,
cut an oculus in the middle of the page
that is a horizontal rectangle two inches
wide and one and a half inches high. The
proportions should be roughly the same
as that of a conventional television set,
the 4:3 ratio, horizontal rectangle. During
the coming week take your oculus with
you where ever you go and use it to frame
your view. As you are framing and composing
these "shots" be looking for
specific examples of socialized vision
and the visual habits (discussed in class)
you come across at home and in public
spaces.Take particular notice of the site/context
where you observe these examples of socialized
vision. Write down you observations and
hand in to me next week a one to two page
paper and also be prepared to discuss
your observations in class. You will use
this oculus throughout the semester so
bring it to every class.
Brief
Introduction of next week's visiting artist,
Sam Chen
Sam
Chen, Visiting filmmaker. http://www.eternalgaze.com
Mr. Chen will screen the "The Eternal
Gaze", his award winning animation.
Mr. Chen will be a visiting filmmaker
in residence at Cal State during February.
If you are interested in attending his
free animation workshops for all students,
contact Professor Kristine Diekman via
e-mail at: kdiekman@csusm.edu
Required
reading due for discussion:
In
preporation for visiting artist, Sam Chen,
please visit these two websites:
History of Animation:
http://animation.filmtv.ucla.edu/program/anihist.html
History of Computer Animation:
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/ph/www/nyit/morrison
Week
2
February
2
Sam Chen, Visiting filmmaker. http://www.eternalgaze.com
Mr. Chen will screen the "The Eternal
Gaze", his award winning animation.
Mr. Chen will be a visiting filmmaker
in residence at Cal State during February.
If you are interested in attending his
free animation workshops for all students,
contact Professor Kristine Diekman via
e-mail at: kdiekman@csusm.edu
Assignment 2: Review of Sam Chen's presentation.
Due week 4, Feb 19
For the second assignment you will
write a 700 word review (the typical length
of an art review in a free newspaper,
i.e., the Reader) of Sam Chen's presentation.
As you write the review, refer to specific
points I made in last week's presentation
regarding the origins of the moving image
and the first, second and third waves
of globalization. Your review should NOT
be a series of sentences describing what
you like, but rather, should be a critical
analysis of his work. I will explain in
greater detail in class today.
February
9
A history of the modern and contemporary
moving image; modern and contemporary
models of visuality; construction of the
subject; representation; the concept of
montage
We
will contunue the history of the moving
image by first looking at the developments
of "telematic culture" at the
turn of the century and also the second
wave of globalization of visual culture
through the development of electronic
mass media. We will look at early broadcast
television, the introduction of cable
TV and video tape in the 1950s, video
art in the late 1960s, cable television
and the VCR and camcorder boom in the
early 1980s. We will look at very recent
transformations of the moving image by
the third wave of mass media and globalization
with the introduction of the the
computer, the Internet, virtual reality,
interactive multimedia, computer animation
and digital cinema and other computer-based
moving image production. We will also
look at modern and contemporary models
of visuality. And finally, we will conclude
with a discussion of the construction
of the subject, representation and the
concept of montage in film. This discussion
will also include your observations of
examples of socialized vision you made
with/through the oculus.
Video
Art in the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 1990s
“Velvet Water” Chris Burdon
(video tape)
“Mosaic For the Kali Yuga” Daniel
Reeves (video tape)
“From Here To LA” Toni la Bone
(video tape)
Links
Professor
Lev Manovich, UCSD,
"Little
Movies"
Desktop
Theater, Prof
Adriene Jenik, UCSD
"Synthetic
Pleasures"
"Final
Fantasy"
Required
reading due for discussion:
Peter
Weibel. "The World as Interface:
Towards the Construction of Context-Controlled
Events-Worlds". Electronic Culture,
Technology and Visual Representation.
Ed. Timothy Druckery. Aperture, 1996.
338-351
Recommended reading:
" The Cinematographic
Principle and the Ideogram:", Film
Form: Essays in Film Theory, Sergei
Eisenstein.
Assignment
1 due today: Socialized Vision, visual
habits, framing through the Oculus
Be prepared to discuss your observations
on socialized vision in the culture at
large.
February
16
The
Avant Garde and Experimental Cinema--Europe
and U.S.
The
“Avant Garde” is a French military
term originally used to describe the advancing
troops at the front line of battle. It
has also been used to describe artists
and filmmakers who are at the advanced
edge of experimentation and innovation
in the arts. In this class we will look
at the development of “first”
and “second” cinema for mass
audiences. We will look at this development
in relationship to the work by early avant
garde, post WWI Dada and Surrealist filmmakers
in Germany and early experimental, post
WWII filmmakers in the U.S. We will conclude
with further discussion from last week
on the construction of the subject, representation
and the concept of montage in film. We
will finish with a discussion of the Brakhage
article and avant garde strategies for
alternative story telling (narratives)
and abstract film.
Images relating to the lecture
Some
theoretical terms you mayt need to know
Screenings:
The
Movies Begin II
Fritz Lang “Metropolis” (1926)
The films of Oskar Fischenger, "Optical
Poetry"
Rene Clair “Entre Act” (1924)
Luis Buneul & Salvador Dali
“Un Chien andalou (An andalusian
Dog)” (1928)
Dziga Vertov “Man With a Movie Camera”
Vittorio De Sica “The Bicycle Thief”
Francois Truffaut “The 400 Blows”
(1959)
Jean-Luc Godard “Breathless”
(1959)
Stan Brakhage, “Hand Painted Films”
(film on video)
Jim Shedden “Brakhage” documentary
George
Melies “The Magic of George Melies”
Required
reading due for discussion:
Stan Brakhage. from "Metaphors on
Vision". Film Theory and Criticism,
Introductory Readings. Ed. Leo Braudy
and Marshall Cohen. Oxford Press, 1999.
228-234
Assignment 2 Due: Review of Sam Chen's
presentation
Week
5
February
23
Experimental
Film, Video and Television: From
Audience to Interactor
Recently,
the viewer, spectator or audience has
been incorporated into the moving image,
whether through identification with the
camera or through psychological response.
Today "interactivity" is the
buzzword in the world of art and commerce.
This class will consist of a performance
lecture during which I will introduce
early interactive electronic art as experienced
in the work of Nam Jun Paik, and other
video artists and filmmakers working the
late 60's, 70s early 80's. The viewer
becomes interactor, actually manipulating
the apparatus itself. We will conclude
with a discussion of the assigned readings
and on interactive, hands-on experimentation
with a closed circuit television setup.
Screenings:
Images and text relating to lecture 4:
Part 1: Post Modernism
Part 2: Experimental Film and Video
“Meshes of the Afternoon” Maya
Deren (film)
“Fireworks” Kenneth Anger (film)
Cut up Films” William Burroughs (film)
Stan Brakhage “Hand Painted Films”
(film)
“Brakhage”, a documentary by
Jim Shedden
"Edited For Television" Nam
June Paik (video)
“Stamping in the Studio” Bruce
Nauman (video)
“TV add” & “Back to
You” Chris Burdon (video)
Vertical Roll” Jone Jonas (video)
“Drift
to Dust” Kristine Diekman
“Incidences of Catastrphy” Gary
Hill
"From the Quotidian: a de_standardized
dictionary" Prophet of @
Required
reading due for discussion:
John Hanhardt,
“Paik’s Video Sculpture”.
David Ross, “Nam Jun Paik’s
Videotapes”. Nam Jun Paik.
Whitney Museum of American Art. 1982.
91-110
--How does Nam Jun Paik's work challenge
our assumptions about television? What
are the ways he uses and critiques popular
culture?
--Brakhage
suggests that through art we can have
an increased ability to perceive. Imagine
your perception unruled by the laws of
perspective, logic, socialized vision.
Imagine if you had no words for the objects
around you, no preconceived models in
which to place the things you see. How
many colors are in the grass?
Assignment 3: Observation and Hypothetical
proposal for a site-specific video installation
Using your oculus, choose a familiar place
and look very carefully at this site.
What do you see? What kinds of activities
are happening or not happening there?
Who enters the space, etc. Write a short
narrative description about it. After
you have described the site, create a
hypothetical installation for this site
which would include one or more monitors
installed at the site. The content of
what is seen on the monitors should relate
to what happens at that site. For instance,
if you chose the front entrance to the
library as your site, the images seen
on the monitor might include close-ups
of pages of books being turned by the
wind. You can create this proposal for
a hypothetical video installation by creating
sketches, still images and writing.
Introduction
of Assignment 4: "Exquisite Corpse"
In preparation for next week's in-class
assignment, I will introduce the Surrealist
Parlor Game, the "Exquisite Corpse"
and give you a detailed list of what you
will need to bring to class.
Week 6
March 1
For
Discussion: Before coming to
class, research the history of copyright.
Please turn in your research to me. Can
you explain why the title of today’s
reading contains the word "utopian"?
What is recombination and how do you experience
this in your life? Why do we give such
high status to work which is "original"?
What are the functions of reproductions
in any culture?)
Professor Diekman requests that you bring
to class a picture (most likely an advertisement)
that is an example of recombinant culture,
that is, an example of an artist, designer,
photographer who has borrowed images from
other artists and used them in their own
work. She will also hand out study questions
that you will answer in class and hand
in at the end of class. I will check these
questions to see that you have done the
in-class work.
Hypertextuality
and the New Narrative
In
this section we will look at recent developments
of the moving image in the context of
further advances of "telematic culture".
We will look closely at the third wave
of globalization of visual cutlure brought
about by the introduction of the computer,
the "Net", the World Wide Web
and world wide wireless and satellite
telecommunications networks. We will begin
with the development of the GUI (Graphical
User Interface) in the 1960s and early
70s. We will also look at the early 1980s
when Apple introduced the first Graphics-based
(windows) computer interface and PC on
a mass scale). We will then move to the
present with the development of hypertextual,
interactive environments within cyberspace.
We will also look at the new modes of
visuality that have emerged in hypertexts,
hypermedia computer environments and cyberspace
in general. We will then hold a discussion
on the assigned article and cover three
important topics related to postmodern
cultural production: hypertext or new
narrative strategies which are immersive,
interactive and nonlinear; the challenge
to the notion of plagiarism, authorship
and ownership; and finally, the ubiquitous
use of appropriation in recombinant culture.
We will conclude the class with a hands-on
in class experiment in appropriation and
recombination by Constructing an "Exquisite
Corpse".
Related links
History
of Virtual Reality
Screenings:
Images
and text relating to lecture #5
Eastgate
and Storyspace
Interactive Cinema Group at MIT
Waxweb,
David Blair
Desk
Top Theater, Prof Adriene Jenik, UCSD
Webcam
at Evergreen Beach, Ephraim, Wis
"{any three
letters.com" interactive computer
installation, John Bruneau (Quicktime
movie)
Adriene Jenick " Mauve Desert"
(CD-ROM "translation")
"From the Quotidian" Tony Allard,
Herron School of Art, Internet performance
and Installation (video)
"Prophet of @" Toni La Bone,
Internet performance with CUSeeMe Desktop
Teleconferencing Software (Quicktime movie)
Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (Quicktime
movie)
Macintosh Commercial (Quicktime movie)
Required reading: Critical Art Ensemble.
"Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality,
and Electronic Cultural Production."
The Electronic Disturbance.
Autonomedia, 1994. 83-101
Discussion:
Before coming to class, research the history
of copyright. Please turn in your research
to me. Can you explain why the title of
today’s reading contains the word
"utopian"? What is recombination
and how do you experience this in your
life? Why do we give such high status
to work which is "original"?
What are the functions of reproductions
in any culture?
Assignment
4: 'Exquisite Corpse
Note: We will do this assignment at the
beginning of class, March 8th. The resulting
video will be edited, compressed
and posted on the class website.
Finished "VSAR
422 Exquisite Corpse" Spring
03
Finished "VSAR
422 Exquisite Corpse" Spring
04
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Part
II
The
Politics of the Moving Image
March
8
Colonialism: Privilege of the Gaze
In
this class we will discuss the tropes
or convention used to observe or represent
others, how these act to colonize or objectify.
We will also examine the origins of the
observer. And finally, we will discuss
the phenomenon of the panopticon and we
will experience in reality the panopticon
as it is expressed in the architecture
at the CSUSM campus.
Cinematic Representation and
the Gaze
Some
theoretical terms you mayt need to know
Screenings
Panopticon
“Images
of an Assasination: A New look at the
Zapruder Film"
"Star
Trek the Next Generation"
Required
reading due for discussion: from The
Rhetoric of Empire, "Surveillance,
Under Western Eyes", Chpt. 1, pgs.
13-27.
Discussion:
What are the tropes or conventions discussed
in this reading through which we see or
represent other cultures or people? How
are the conventions present in your everyday
life? What are some of the solutions the
authors suggest to break with "objectivist
models" of experiencing other cultures
and people?
Assignment 3 due today at end of class: Hypothetical proposal for a site-specific video installation
Hand in your work at the end of class and be prepared to talk about it during a brief discussion.
Assignment 5: Observations of the panopticon
in everyday life
This
is a hands-on assignment.
Introduction
to the Panel Presentations
Panel
Presentation Grading Criteria
Examples
of Abstracts from Previous Years
Using
Teshome Gabriel's essay on black cinema,
we will entertain the notions of "nomadic
aesthetics" and how they are a sign
of resistance to mainstream Hollywood
film while viewing work from Australian
Aboriginal filmmaker, Tracey Moffet, and
African documentarian, Cesar Paes.
Screenings:
"Relocating
the Remains", Keith Piper (CD-ROM)
"Angano..Angano..Tales
from Madagascar", Cesar Paes, Africa
"Bedevil"
Tracy Moffatt, Australia (video)
Related
link
"the
Virtual Barrio @ the Other Frontier"
by Guillermo Gomez-Pena
Required
reading: Teshome H. Gabriel, "Thoughts
on Nomadic Aesthetics and Black Independent
Cinema: Traces of a Journey." Out
There: Marginalization and Contemporary
Cultures. MIT Press, 1990. 395-410.
Discussion:
What are the characteristics of "nomadic"
or "traveling" aesthetics? List
its attributes. Merata Mirta has a quote
on the bottom of page 401 which suggests
that film is "memory pictures."
How can you understand the work we will
be viewing today in those terms?
Assignment 4 due: 'Exquisite Corpse
Assignment
5 due: Observations of the panopticon
in everyday life
Have panopticon assignment ready for discussion.
(See above in week 6)
Week 9
March
22
Introduction
to Feminist Film Theory: The Male Gaze
"Visual Pleasure and Narrative
Cinema" is considered a seminal essay
in the formation of psychoanalytic and
feminist film theory. In this class we
will discuss some of the most important
ideas embodied in the Mulvey essay and
its relation to the preceding topic of
objectivist models of representation in
post-colonial film theories. However,
we will shift our analysis to gendered
looking. We will use many of the tropes
or conventions Spurr outlined in his essay,
"Under Western Eyes", to deconstruct
Rear Window.
Screening:
terms and concepts on Feminist Film Theory:
The Male Gaze
Rear Window, Alfred Hitchcock
Rear
Window Study Questions: Please make
notes on study questions while watching
film in class-hand in next week.
Required
reading due:
Patricia
White. "Feminism and Film".
The Oxford Guide to Film Studies.
Ed. John Hill and
Pamela
Gibson. The Oxford University Press, 1998.
117-134
"Visual
Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.",
1975. Screen Magazine, Mulvey, Laura.
Read
for writing assignment (see midterm writing
assignment): John Berger, Ways of Seeing,
Chpt. 3, 45-64
Discussion:How
is the gaze "male"? Why does
Mulvey use psychoanalysis to understand
filmic representation? How does camera
technology work to bind us or "suture"
us to the image? How does she suggest
we disrupt this powerful gaze? How do
you find her solutions similar to Spurr
in "Under Western Eyes". Please
review "Under Western Eyes"
for today's class.
Assignment
6: Midterm Writing Assignment
Due in 2 weeks: please see attached
or click
here for the details of your assignment.
March
29 - April 4
Spring Break
Week
11
April
5
Signs of Resistance
We will screen the work of activist and
filmmaker, Lourdes Portillo and discuss
the role of documentary film/video making,
particulary in relationship to so called
"reality tv" shows. The Documentary
form is now, according to San Diego activist
and writer, Mike Davis, in a permanent
state of crisis and is ineffectual because
there is no active political resistance
to support the statements made in these
documentaries. The effectiveness the documentary
form to communicate and speak to a wide
audience is further nullified by mainstream
media's dominant formula to turn all information
into entertainment.
Required reading due:
"Devils
and Ghosts, Mothers and Immigrants; A
CRITICAL RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WORKS OF
LOURDES PORTILLO", Rosa Linda Fregoso,
Lourdes Portillo: The Devil Never Sleeps
and Other Films.
Assignment
6 due: Midterm papers
Turn in papers at the begining of class.
Assignment 7:
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Part
III
April
12
Digital
Cinema
"specflic"
Professor Adriene Jenik UCSD
"Soft
Cinema", Lev Manovich
David Blair (USA). "Wax
Web"
Screenings:
"Felix
the Cat" (video
clip)
Road Runner & Wily Coyote
(video)
Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy
"Final
Fantasy"
"Tomb Raider" Laura Croft (game
demo, CD-ROM)
"Tomb
Raider" the movie (Video clip)
"The Final Fantasy", Hiranoubu
Soggaguchi (Video Clip)
Assignment
7:
Assignment
8: Flip book animation
In the lower right hand corner of
your reader make a simple flip book animation.
The drawings can be as elaborate as you
want to make them. In class we will shoot
video of each of the animation and make
a compilation of your annotations. This
video will be edited, compressed and posted
on the class website.
Spring 2003 Finished Flip
Book Animations
Spring 2004 Finished Flip
Book Animations
April
19
Virtual
Reality, immersive environments; the prosthetics
of the new moving image; electronic bodies
and the psychology of electronic alter
egos.
In
this final lecture we will look at the
present and future of the moving image,
examining recent developments in VR and
immersive environments. We will examine
recent developments in the human-computer
interface and the implications of greater
prostheticisation of the body in this
process. We will also look at the development
in cyberspace of what Sherry Turkle calls
the “second self”, the electronic/digital
body and the psychology behind these electronic
alter egos. We will conclude with a discussion
about the future of the moving image.
Required
Reading due:
Turkle,
Sherry. "Constructions and Reconstructions
of the Self in Virtual Reality.",
Electronic Culture, Technology and
Visual Representation. Ed. Timothy
Druckery. Aperture. 354-365.
Cyberspace:
History of the Concept
Virtual
Worlds (VR)
VR,
AR (Augmented Reality)
VRML
Char
Davis "Osmose"
AR
(Augmented Reality)
VRML
(Virtual Reality Modeling Language
http://www.rpi.edu/%7Eruiz/toolbar/StudentWorks_Frameset.html
Immersive
environments, a short chronology
Early
Virtual Communitys
Example:
The
first on-line bulletin board services
(BBS) of the middle 1970s.
CommuniTree #2 followed
quickly.
SIMNET
(1980s
--)
Habitat
"many-player online virtual environment"
(mid 1980s)
Current multi-user online graphical virtual
worlds.
Examples:
These
are examples of the current trend toward
graphical, interactive domains on the
internet, sometimes referred to as "habitats,"
"GMUKS" (Graphical Multi-user
Konversation), or, "multimedia chat."
Telegarden
Jaron
Lanier, a VR Pioneer, is currently
the director of the Internet
2
Tele-Immersion
(National Tele-immersion Initiative -
NTII)
Internet
2
John Bruneau's "any3letters.com"
(Quicktime)
Sheldon
Brown
Mi Casa Tu Casa
Feng
Shui of Virtual Environments
Network
Communicate Kaleidoscipe
Interactive
story links
Lambda
Moo
deskswap
Habbohotel
ActiveWorlds
2)
The psychology of Telepresence
Asthetic distance
The second half of this presentation
will be done remotely, via streaming technology.
I will be located in another part of the
campus and will be present in 240 telematically.
Telepresence:
the shared “consensual hallucination”
--The prefix, “tele” means
distance, distant. When added as a prefix
to the beginning of words it implies the
person place or thing that comes to you
from a distance through some kind of mediating
technology, such as the television
Tele + gram = telegram, or a message sent
from a distant place
Tele + vision = television, or vision
from afar
Tele + phone = telephone, or sound transmitted
from a distance
Tele + presence = telepresence,
or presence transmitted from a distance
The
Mind/Body split
Observations on the Psychology of Telepresence
Life
on the Screen” Sherry Turkle
A
discussion of Sand Stone's article
"Will
the Real Body Please Stand Up"
Related articles
The
Psychology of Cyberspace
Gender
Swithching in Cyberspace
Example:
Synthetic Pleasures, A Virtual Wedding
(Video)
Electronic
Body building: Agency, Avatars, text,
images, sound and hybrid computer interfaces.
Jaron Lanier Protests Agents
Lanier Protests Development of Agents
Lainer's
Home Page
Tele
Immersion Inniciative
Artists
approach to the hybrid body:
Roy Ascott has
been pushing artificial life art based
on self-replicating and evolving software
algorithms.
Max More and his group
of “Extropians”
plot out digitally driven life extension
techniques in their battles against entropy.
Stelarc
http://stelarc.va.com.au/
http://www.cicv.fr/creation_artistique/online/orlan/
Wim Delvoye's "Cloaca,"
Aaron, the first robot artist, is the
brainchild of UCSD Professor Harold Cohen,
the British abstract painter.
Harold
Cohen and Arron
The future taboo of falling in love with
a machine
Example:
Blade
Runner
Assignment
8: Flip book animations
due
______________________________________________________________________________
Presentations
Assignment
9: Final Presentations
Panel
Presentation Schedule
Panel
Presentation Grading Criteria
Examples
of Abstracts from Previous Years
April
26
Panel Presentations
May
3
Panel Presentations
May
10 (Finals Week)
Panel Presentations