*Visual and Environmental Studies 15ar. Silkscreen: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 2262 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Annette Lemieux
Half course (fall term). M., 1-5 and 6-8.
For the student who is interested in the manipulation of found and original imagery. Students will create monotypes on paper and other surfaces utilizing the silkscreen process. Through slide presentations, the class will be introduced to the work of artists such as Rauschenberg and Warhol, as well as others who use the silkscreen process.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 22. Subtle Skills: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 88474 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Gerda Birgitta Sophie Tottie
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 9–12.
In this beginning-level studio course, students get
acquainted with a variety of
painting and drawing media.
Students paint and draw during and outside class, working to find their
own painterly practice. The course aims to put skill
into perspective while unassumingly practicing and studying some of the tools
used for image making. Critiques, readings, and exhibition visits are integral to the
course.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 23. Watercolor Painting: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 7975 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Michele A. Zalopany
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-5, and 6-8 p.m.
Through the medium of watercolor, we conduct an exploration of the principals of composition including color, with an emphasis on drawing what you see as well as content. Through studies in carefully constructed exercises, students can expand visual vocabulary and conceptual understanding of the media. We will work from life, photographs, and still-life.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 25x. Making Material Mean: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 52059 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Gerda Birgitta Sophie Tottie
Half course (spring term). M., W., 9–12.
In this painting course, we will study the expression of the
support of painting as well as the paint itself. We will examine classic and experimental materials that can be used as expressive support for painting, and we will make and test different possibilities together with different paints. Students work with their own images independently, but are guided regularly in
individual studio talks.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 26. Monsters - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 68416 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Drew Beattie
Half course (spring term). W., 1-4 and 6-8. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7, 8, 9
From the prehistorical to the present, the monster has been a constant in art. In our own time of hybridity, concurrent identity, the morph and the mash-up, as well as an endless supply of scientific, historical, social and psychological revelations, the monster remains a timely concern. The course will emphasize speculative making, low-tech initiative, and a diversity of embodiments and meanings available to the subject.
Note: No studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 28. Collage Sensibility - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 53309 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Drew Beattie
Half course (fall term). W., 1-4, and 6-8 p.m.
A studio course structured around collage as drawing. Students will make presentations focused on historical and contemporary practice in the medium as background to their own artistic production. Projects will emphasize the merger of appropriated and self-made materials, and the combining of imagery, abstraction and text toward a variety of goals. The course will conclude with the application of collage principles to a medium outside of two-dimensional drawing.
Note: No studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 29. Painting Day and Night - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 44403 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Drew Beattie
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-6.
A studio course emphasizing the fundamentals of oil painting. Students will capture the illusion of form, space and light through the handling of paint and color. Subjects will include still life arrangements, the interior of the studio and views out its windows. Images from the observation of daylight will be followed by those belonging to night.
Note: No studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 32. Reconstruction: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 1790 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Helen Mirra
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 1-4.
A studio course, for making things out of other things, attending to the realms of demolition, waste, surplus, and detritus.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 36. Making as Thinking: Sculpture - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 23095 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Helen Mirra
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1-4.
A studio course in which to experiment with simultaneous making and thinking, with simple yet unbounded materials and methods.
Note: No studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 37. Lay of the Land: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 3090 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Stephen Prina
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 1–4.
The pursuit of and response to the horizontal in art will be the focus of this studio class. To cite a few examples, abstract expressionist painting, cartography, earthworks, landscape photography, 19th century German Romantic landscape painting, and Rayograms will provide models of the horizontal that will be points of departure for studio projects, the forms of which will be determined by what the investigation provides. Students will shift medium from project to project.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 38. Baggage: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 43153 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Andrew B. Witkin
Half course (spring term). M., 1-4 p.m. and additional times to be arranged.
Engaging personal and public notions of authorship, veracity, legibility, history and value, this class focuses on exploration and performance in collecting. Students will examine possibilities and patterns to understand choice, advice, intuition and peculiarity with the goal of better communication. Sources include information distribution models, history, exhibitions in and out of art contexts and a focus on comfort. This will aid students in investigations into personal and collaborative projects employing a variety of media, methods and modes.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary. Students from other disciplines are highly encouraged to take the course
*Visual and Environmental Studies 40a. Introduction to Still Photography: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 2010 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Chris Killip
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). M., W., 9-12. EXAM GROUP: Spring: 2, 3, 4
Introduction to still photography through individual and group exercises, with an emphasis on the medium as a vehicle for expression, documentation, and personal vision. Covers necessary technical, historical, and aesthetic aspects of the medium.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 40b. Intermediate Photography: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 6256 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Chris Killip
Half course (spring term). M., W., 1–4.
Designed to extend the student’s understanding of the process through which meaning is produced in photography. Examines differing approaches to format, context, and presentation through a series of set projects.
Prerequisite: At least one half-course in photography or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 41a. Introduction to Still Photography: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 0705 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Sharon C. Harper
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 9–12.
Introduction to still photography with an emphasis on the medium as a vehicle for expression and personal vision. Covers technical, historical, and aesthetic aspects of the medium. Class is organized around slide lectures, individual meetings, group critiques, and readings.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 41br. Photographic Inquiry: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 9484 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Sharon C. Harper
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1-4.
Class emphasis will be on developing visual ideas for a self-directed photographic project. Class will be structured around regular critiques, individual meetings, readings, class discussions and museum visits. Students will create a group of photographs for a final project that are the result of a sustained, self-directed creative process.
Prerequisite: At least one half-course in photography or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 42a. Introduction to Still Photography: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 0622 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Carlin Elinore Wing
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1–4.
Introduction to still photography through individual and group exercises, with an emphasis on the medium as a vehicle for expression, documentation, and personal vision. Covers necessary technical, historical, and aesthetic aspects of the medium.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 50. Fundamentals of Filmmaking: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 4907 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
Alfred F. Guzzetti and Robb Moss
Full course. M., 1-4, W., 1-5; or Tu., 1-4, Th., 1-5. EXAM GROUP: Spring: 6, 7, 8, 9
Introductory exercises in live-action filmmaking culminating in the production of a nonfiction film as a group project in the spring term.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 51a. Fundamentals of Video: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 7526 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Robb Moss
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 1-4, and a 1-hour lab to be arranged.
A series of nonfiction projects, both individual and collaborative, designed to introduce and explore the range of expressive possibilities in digital video.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 51br. Nonfiction Video Projects: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 3838 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Ross McElwee
Half course (fall term). M., W., 1–4.
Working from a proposal approved in advance by the instructor, each student plans, shoots, and edits a documentary video of his or her design. Shooting should take place over the summer and editing during the fall term. Readings and screenings augment individual work.
Note: In exceptional cases, a student will be permitted to take the course without having filmed over the summer, but the student must have a specific proposal for a documentary that can be both shot and edited during the term. An interview with the instructor is required for admission.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course in live-action film or video.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 52a. Introduction to Video
Catalog Number: 5337 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Robb Moss
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1-4.
This course is organized to give students an immersive experience in non-fiction video production. Utilizing political and personal filmmaking assignments, weekly film screenings, and regular technical workshops, students will produce a series of short video tapes designed to explore digital filmmaking’s expressive possibilities.
Note: Admission is by interview with the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 53a. Fundamentals of Animation: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 1360 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Sarah Jane Lapp
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1-5, and weekly film screenings F., 1-3; . EXAM GROUP: 15, 16, 17, 18
Strategies for creating an alternative cosmos - imagined, utopic, glorious.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 54s. Animating Science - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 83728 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Ruth S. Lingford and Alain Viel
Half course (spring term). Th., 1-4 and film screenings F. 1-3. EXAM GROUP: 15, 16, 17
This hands-on class will investigate the cross-overs between science and animation. How can animation communicate abstract ideas? How can science inspire the artist? Students will acquire some fundamental animation skills, and will work on individual and group projects.This class will be suitable for students with an interest either in science or visual art, or both.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 57. Maya and Multi Media
Catalog Number: 4275 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
David Lobser
Half course (fall term). Th., 1-5, and film screenings F., 1-3.
This course will offer a basic introduction to 3D Computer animation, and explore hybrid forms of animation and the new thinking they enable.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 58r. Image, Sound, Culture: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 6680 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Lucien G. Castaing-Taylor
Half course (spring term). F., 9–12, F., 2–5.
Students use video, sound, and/or hypermedia to produce short works about embodied experience, culture, and nature, and are introduced to current issues in aesthetics and ethnography.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 59x. Exercises in Narrative Film with Space and Music - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 17099 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Tu., 10–12.
We will analyze films in hindsight of their use of space, architecture and landscape to create emotions and dramatic effects, as well as analyzing how music affects narration in movies. Students will select a scene and film two short scenes on video in different locations, edit them, and compare the effects.
Prerequisite: Experience in video filmmaking required.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 62. Film Fatale: Sculpture, Performance and Video Essay - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 73367 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Amie Siegel
Half course (fall term). M., 1-3, W., 1-4.
A studio art course on the avant-garde film and performance work of women artists and filmmakers including Babette Mangolte, Yvonne Rainer, Valie Export, Helke Sander, Chantal Akerman, Agnes Varda, Mary Kelly, Adrian Piper, Nancy Graves, Hannah Wilke, Martha Rosler and Marina Abramovic. We will study the interaction between sculpture, performance and cinema, as well as the "essay film" that shudders on the edge of fiction, documentary and performance. Appropriate for students of art history, film studies, visual art and video as well as the curious and committed.
Note: Priority will be given to students who have completed at least one VES course in photography, film or video, but no previous video experience is required.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 65. Tactics—Art, Politics and Performance: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 0143 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Amie Siegel
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-4, Th., 1-3.
An introductory video course that asks what makes a work of art political? Through student creation of individual and collective works, as well as reading, discussion, performance, critique and viewing, we examine (and enact) approaches to the social sphere. Over the arc of the semester, students will focus on various tactics of radical art and disturbance, participating in workshops on performance, artist collectives, appropriation and cultural critique, from which may spring forth manifestoes, actions, insertions. Special focus on video as research instrument, inscription of occurrence, performance mirror, subjective essay, and mixing turntable for heterogeneous materials.
Note: One half-course in film, video or performance useful but not required.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 68. Delirious Montage: Images in Time and Space - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 21845 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Amie Siegel
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1-4, Th., 1-3.
In this studio course we will use photography, film, video, digital media and appropriated or "found" material in the production of our own art works. Participants explore collage, photomontage and pastiche, and editing moving images in video. How do images shift when juxtaposed with one another? How do rhythm, pacing and structure work in moving image art works? We will take in many artists’ approaches to image juxtaposition, including those who engage via narrative, association, serial, rebus and photo-roman.
Note: Useful for beginning students in visual art and film/video as well as more advanced practitioners.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 70 (formerly Literature and Arts B-11). The Art of Film
Catalog Number: 4249 Enrollment: Limited to 35.
Edward A. Barron
Half course (fall term). M., W., at 10; a weekly film screening T., 4-6:30 and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 3
An introduction to film style and aesthetics with a focus on developing critical and formal analytical skills. Through readings and screenings of a broad range of films, the class examines the primary visual, aural, and narrative conventions by which motion pictures create and comment upon significant social experience. Issues of mise-en-scène, framing, image composition, photographic space, editing, sound, narrative structure, and point of view will be discussed as components of cinematic style and meaning.
Note: No background in film history or theory necessary. Required for all students concentrating in Film Studies. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts B.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 71. Silent Cinema]
Catalog Number: 1971
Instructor to be determined
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10-11, a weekly film screening T 1-3, and sections to be arranged. . EXAM GROUP: 12
This course will survey the development of the film medium and the film industry from the beginnings in the 1890s up to the conversion to sound in the late 1920s, covering key textual and institutional transformations and tying these together with the broader cultural and social context in which films were made, exhibited, and understood. We will discuss the main national schools and international trends of filmmaking.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No background in film history or theory necessary. Required for all students concentrating in Film Studies. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts B.
Visual and Environmental Studies 72. Sound Cinema
Catalog Number: 6997
Edward A. Barron
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10-11; screenings F., 10-12, and a weekly section to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 12
How does sound change what we see? What new stories become possible? How does the space of cinema change between 1930 and 1960? What happens when we throw color and widescreen into the mix? We’ll seek answers to these questions while investigating the political and industrial contexts of international masters of the medium. Films and filmmakers include: The Blue Angel, Citizen Kane, Rashomon, The Red Shoes; Busby Berkeley, Hitchcock, Satyajit Ray, Ozu, and Antonioni.
Note: No background in film history or theory necessary. Required for all students concentrating in Film Studies. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts B.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 80. Loitering: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 9394 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Stephen Prina
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 1–4.
You will hang out in the vicinity of culture and make things in response to it. This class is not thematic or linked to any particular discipline.
Note: No previous studio experience necessary.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 90c (formerly VES 90c. The History of Now). Art and Historical Memory, 1980-the Present
Catalog Number: 2994 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Carrie Lambert-Beatty
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4. EXAM GROUP: 7, 8
What is it about the present that is making so many artists interested in the past? How do personal and public memory take form in art, now? This art history/criticism seminar will discuss practices that range from re-staging recent riots to reciting historical speeches, modifying museums to inventing historical figures, as we explore art’s current contribution to our understanding of the past.
Visual and Environmental Studies 92. Contemporary Art - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 53514
Carrie Lambert-Beatty
Half course (spring term). M., W., 11-12 with weekly sections to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Art of the last fifty years, with an eye to issues facing artists working today. Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Installation, and New Media: in surveying these and other developments in recent art, lecture-based class will address such topics as modernism/postmodernism; changing models of artistic work and artists’ identity; and globalization and the artworld.
Note: Recommended for VES concentrators.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 96r. Directed Research: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 7299 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Stephen Prina
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). W., 6-9 pm, and additional hours to be arranged.
This course is intended for students who have developed the beginnings of a practice they are prepared to pursue. The motive is to assemble a group of disparate artists who come together to exchange thoughts across disciplines: painting next to photography next to writing next to filmmaking, and so on.
Note: Recommended for concentrators in Visual and Environmental Studies in their junior and senior year but also open to others with permission of the instructor.
Alternatively, students may wish to consider Visual and Environmental Studies 96r, Directed Research, which is intended for students who have developed the beginnings of a practice they are prepared to pursue. Please see course description above.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 91r. Special Projects
Catalog Number: 9183
Ruth S. Lingford and Members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Open to a limited number of students who wish to carry out a special project under supervision. Students wishing to enroll in VES 91r must find a member of the faculty to advise the project and submit an application to the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Note: Letter-graded only. Special Project tutorials are led by individual faculty members; however study cards should be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Visual and Environmental Studies 92. Contemporary Art - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 53514
Carrie Lambert-Beatty
Half course (spring term). M., W., 11-12 with weekly sections to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 4
Art of the last fifty years, with an eye to issues facing artists working today. Pop, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Installation, and New Media: in surveying these and other developments in recent art, lecture-based class will address such topics as modernism/postmodernism; changing models of artistic work and artists’ identity; and globalization and the artworld.
Note: Recommended for VES concentrators.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 97r. Tutorial - Sophomore Year
Catalog Number: 0450
Ruth S. Lingford and Members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Individual instruction in subjects of special interest that cannot be studied in regular courses. Concentrators wishing to take a tutorial in their sophomore year must find a member of the faculty to advise the project and submit an application to the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Note: Optional for sophomore concentrators. Letter-graded only. Tutorials are led by individual faculty members; however study cards should be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 98r. Tutorial - Junior Year
Catalog Number: 1411
Ruth S. Lingford and Members of the Department
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Individual instruction in subjects of special interest that cannot be studied in regular courses. Concentrators wishing to take a tutorial in their junior year must find a member of the faculty to advise the project and submit an application to the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Note: Optional for junior concentrators. Letter-graded only. Tutorials are led by individual faculty members; however study cards should be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 99. Tutorial - Senior Year (Thesis/Senior Project)
Catalog Number: 5141
Ruth S. Lingford and Members of the Department
Full course. Hours to be arranged.
All students wishing to undertake a VES 99 project must have permission of the project adviser before being considered. The Director of Undergraduate Studies must approve all VES 99 projects and all theses must be approved by the VES Honors Board in advance.
Note: Optional for senior concentrators. Letter-graded only. Students must be enrolled in VES 99 to do a thesis. Students should arrange regular tutorial meetings with their project adviser. Senior theses and projects are led by individual faculty members; however study cards should be signed by the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 104. Culture Jam: Art and Activism since 1989: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 1066 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Carrie Lambert-Beatty
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4.
We are living through a period of remarkable creativity in political expression: from anti-consumerism TV ads to imposter websites; “billboard liberation” to faux corporations, digital hijacking to lifestyle performance. Sometimes labeled art, sometimes not, these activities have sources in both political and art history. In this history/theory seminar we will ask: Where is the line between art and activism today? And how are we to evaluate the efficacy, ethics, and aesthetics of the new hybrids?
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Primarily intended for junior and senior concentrators in Visual and Environmental Studies, but others admitted with permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 107. Studies of the Built North American Environment since 1580
Catalog Number: 7883 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
John R. Stilgoe
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30.
North America as an evolving visual environment is analyzed as a systems concatenation involving such constituent elements as farms, small towns, shopping malls, highways, suburbs, and as depicted in fiction, poetry, cartography, television, cinema, and advertising and cybernetic simulation.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4105.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 118. Painting into Sculpture into Painting - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 16894 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Drew Beattie
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1-6.
In a series of projects, paintings provoke or become sculpture, the discoveries of which return to painting. Individual creative development will be the emphasis.
Prerequisite: Prior experience in painting or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 123r. Post Brush: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 7463 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Annette Lemieux
Half course (spring term). Tu. 1-5 and 6-8.
Using the silkscreen printing process, students will create paintings and objects that incorporate images and text found in popular culture. Through slides, videos and informal discussions, students will be introduced to the Pop artists of the 20th century as well as other contemporary artists.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 124x. The Painted Room: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 36952 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Gerda Birgitta Sophie Tottie
Half course (fall term). M., W., 9–12.
This painting course emphasizes paintings and drawings in
relation to the rooms in which they exist. Students create images
for on-site projects while learning to build a simple scale model in which they will test
their own projects. The computer will be used as a tool to help in our exploration of translating and organizing scale. We will look
at older murals and contemporary artists’ use of painting and drawing in
relation to the site.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course or portfolio presentation.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 126r. The Way to Painting (Possibly): Studio Course
Catalog Number: 3289 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Thomas Eggerer
Half course (fall term; repeated spring term). Fall: Th., 1–5, Th., 6–8 p.m.; Spring: M., 1–5, M., 6–8. EXAM GROUP: Spring: 6, 7, 8, 9
As a “painter” I go through a multitude of preparatory activities in the process of making paintings. Curiosities in a particular subject matter may result in a collection of diverse materials. Such an archive could spark a plethora of activities aimed at focusing interests and producing objects of aesthetic qualities. This class will give equal attention to those often under-appreciated processes containing a thought or a spontaneity often lost in a “finished” piece of art.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course or permission of the instructor (portfolio presentation).
*Visual and Environmental Studies 128. The "Motor" of the Artist: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 67166 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Gerda Birgitta Sophie Tottie
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 9–12.
This painting course looks at the works of different artists to explore the motivation and driving forces of making art.
Regular individual and group critiques will inform independent studio time where students experiment with finding their own reason in making images. Exhibition visits and lectures by invited artists are important components of the course, as well as student presentations and discussions between invited artists and students.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course or portfolio presentation.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 130br. Sculpture as Analog: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 8528 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Helen Mirra
Half course (fall term). M., W., 1-4.
With a general focus on making sculpture, this course explores issues of visuality and textuality, content and form, analogy and abstraction, objectivity and subjectivity. Projects will build on intellectual work already begun by the student outside of VES.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course or permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 133. Sculpture—Making Space: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 6259 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Helen Mirra
Half course (fall term). Tu., 6-9 pm, and additional hours to be arranged.
What would it mean to make artwork that makes space as opposed to taking up space? This class is a forum for thinking about what this could mean, and for exploring different possibilities for what might be a simultaneous making and unmaking.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 134r. Useful Labor: Studio Course - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 32001 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Helen Mirra
Half course (spring term). M., W., 1–4.
Working collaboratively, the class will research and undertake urban gardening, as a model of ingenious and perhaps pirate activity.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 141r. Moving On: Examining Time, Space and Motion Within Photography - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 10898 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Sharon C. Harper
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 9–12.
Description forthcoming
Prerequisite: At least one half course in photography or the permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 143r. The Photographer as Auteur: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 2835 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Chris Killip
Half course (spring term). W., 9–12.
Explores the way in which some photographic practitioners have questioned accepted photographic conventions and are rejecting the historical orthodoxy in favor of a more subjective statement. Each student is expected to complete a major photographic project that reveals his or her own personal photographic style and preoccupations while still retaining a direct and discernible relationship to the subject.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one half-course in photography or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 146r. The Photographic Portrait: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 5743 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Chris Killip
Half course (fall term). M., W. 1-4.
An examination of the practical, sociological, historical, and aesthetic issues surrounding portrait photography in parallel with the active participation of each student in his/her own photographic project.
Prerequisite: VES 40a or VES 40b or equivalent preparation (portfolio presentation).
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 147r. The Constructed Image—Art Between Architecture, Landscape and Photography: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 2011 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Using the Latin meaning of camera (chamber, or room) as a point of departure, students will explore the relationship between the literal construction of spaces for living and photography as a tool for constructing images of such human improvements. Through examining precedents from pre-photographic history to the work of contemporary practitioners, a heightened awareness of the interdependence between photographic apparatus and subject will instigate pictorial investigations in the form of studio projects.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one half-course in photography or permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 148r. Conceptual Strategies in Photography: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 2429 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
There has been a shift from the traditional notion of art work to the idea of art project. The art project could be understood as a concept structured in a constellation of different but independent elements, in which the author is able to master not only the implicit creative aspects but also a certain social dimension. We deal with the sequential steps of a photography project: creative conception, documentation, practical realization, and critical evaluation.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one half-course in photography or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 150ar. Intermediate Film Production: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 4692 Enrollment: limited
Jan Schütte
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1-4, Th., 1-4.
Class will focus on narrative fiction film. Students will explore the technical and artistic possibilities of narrative fiction film by writing, directing and editing several short exercises as well as developing a script for a spring term project. The work will be discussed extensively in class. Students will also learn the techniques of lighting, sound recording and editing.
Note: Interview with instructor required for admission.
Prerequisite: VES 50.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 150br. Intermediate Film Production: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 3934 Enrollment: Limited
Jan Schütte
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1-4, Th., 1-4:00.
Students will prepare, shoot and edit a short fiction film based on a script developed in the fall term. Students will be required to be involved in shooting, sound recording and editing on other student films. The work will be discussed extensively in class.
Note: Students seeking to enroll should come to the first class meeting with a fully developed short narrative fiction screenplay.
Prerequisite: VES 150ar.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 152r. Intermediate Video Workshop: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 8012 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Alfred F. Guzzetti
Half course (spring term). F., 1–5:30.
An extended nonfiction or experimental video project of the student’s design, supplemented by brief exercises aimed at exploring the capabilities of the medium.
Note: Students seeking to enroll should come to the first class meeting with a proposal for a video project to be completed in the course.
Prerequisite: One VES half-course in video production.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 153ar. Intermediate Animation--Making an Animated Film: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 5211 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). W., 1-5, and weekly film screenings F., 1-3.
Each student will design and produce a single short animation project based on an original idea, or a literary, mythic, or folkloric source of their choice. We will explore the possibilities and problems matching form and content in animated films, and develop conceptual tools each student can employ in the creation of individual project work.
This course will accept both introduction level and intermediate level students.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 153br. Intermediate Animation Workshop: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 3477 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Sarah Jane Lapp
Half course (spring term). W., 1-5, and weekly film screenings F., 1-3.
A sanctuary for animators in media res, or for those generating a new project.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course in animation or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 154br. Animation Workshop: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 1484 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Daniel A. Sousa
Half course (fall term). M., 1-5, and weekly film screenings F., 1-3.
This course allows each student to make a short animated film, taking it through all the stages from idea to post-production. Open to beginners and experienced animators.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 155p. Combining Animation and Live Action: An Exploration of the Many Ways to Make a Composite Film: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 3943 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
This intermediate level animation class will explore creative potentials, and technical challenges, of combining live action and animation within a single film. Each student will create an individual short film project. At each stage, from early concepts to final grading, we will address the particular possibilities of such fabricated filmic worlds: developing aesthetic approaches, techniques, and a workflow tailored to such projects.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course in animation or permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 156r. Animating to a Soundtrack]
Catalog Number: 3340 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Ruth S. Lingford
Half course (spring term). Th., 1-5, and weekly film screenings F., 1-3.
In this course, students start from a 1-3 minute soundtrack. Some students with an interest and ability in music or sound design may generate the track themselves, but students are encouraged to make links with the rich and diverse music scene in the Cambridge and Boston area, including the huge number of Harvard-based groups. Inspired by the soundtrack, students make films which may be abstract or figurative, narrative or free-form, using any animation technique or combination of techniques.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one VES half-course in animation or a related subject (or with permission from the instructor).
*Visual and Environmental Studies 158r. Living Documentary: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 9385 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Alfred F. Guzzetti and Mary M. Steedly
Half course (fall term). M., W., 1–4.
Students produce a substantial work of ethnographically informed nonfiction using video. Principal recording should take place prior to enrolling in the course.
Note: An ideal follow-up course to VES 58r, but students may enroll independently.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 160. Modernization in the Visual United States Environment, 1890-2035
Catalog Number: 6668 Enrollment: Limited to 20.
John R. Stilgoe
Half course (spring term). Tu., Th., 10–11:30.
Modernization of the US visual environment as directed by a nobility creating new images and perceptions of such themes as wilderness, flight, privacy, clothing, photography, feminism, status symbolism, and futurist manipulation as illustrated in print-media and other advertising enterprise.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4303.
Prerequisite: VES 107 or permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 161r. Media Anthropology: Technology, Technique, Techné: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 5710 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Lucien G. Castaing-Taylor
Half course (fall term). M., 10–12.
Students receive hands-on training, in the Lab and in the field, with digital video and audio production and post-production technology. Emphasis is on both mastering the technology and developing a technique consonant with one’s relationship to one’s subject.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: VES 58r or 158r.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 163. Soft and Hard: Studio Jean-Luc Godard: Studio Course]
Catalog Number: 9696 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Amie Siegel
Half course (fall term). W., 10-12 and W., 1-4. EXAM GROUP: 3, 4, 6, 7, 8
Students explore Godard’s films while producing work as studio artists. We will look at genre, pictorial flatness vs. depth, text and image, camera movement, still images, color, asynchrony, and Brechtian tropes in Godard’s cinema of reversed time, perverse interviews, critical politics, and gender. Participants try out processes of inspiration, derivation, and notation in relation to Godard’s ouevre to enrich their cinematic vocabulary and investigate filmic practices within their own work (video, film, drawing, sculpture, installation, performance).
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 165. Moving Image—Installation, Production and Spectacle: Studio Course
Catalog Number: 8258 Enrollment: Limited to 10.
Amie Siegel
Half course (spring term). M., 1-3, W., 1-4.
Where are the boundaries between art gallery and film set, theatrical stage or production studio? All have been appropriated and/or re-staged in installations by contemporary artists. Participants in this studio course, through the creation of their own works, will explore various strategies using cinema, video, and photography as material or metaphor in art. Students will work with materials of 16mm film, slides, film projectors and video projection. We will consider various approaches to video installation, sound and cinematic spectacle with regard to space, staging, production and demands on viewer experience as well as gestures of genre and excess.
Prerequisite: At least one VES studio half-course, preferably in film, video or photography, or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 166. North American Seacoasts and Landscapes, Discovery to Present: Seminar
Catalog Number: 5873
John R. Stilgoe
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1–3.
Selected topics in the history of the North American coastal zone, including the seashore as wilderness, as industrial site, as area of recreation, and as artistic subject; the shape of coastal landscape for conflicting uses over time; and the perception of the seashore as marginal zone in literature, photography, film, television, and advertising.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4304.
Prerequisite: VES 107 and VES 160, or permission of the instructor.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 167. Adventure and Fantasy Simulation, 1871-2036: Seminar
Catalog Number: 4902
John R. Stilgoe
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3.
Visual constituents of high adventure since the late Victorian era, emphasizing wandering woods, rogues, tomboys, women adventurers, faerie antecedents, halflings, crypto-cartography, Third-Path turning, martial arts, and post-1937 fantasy writing as integrated into contemporary photography, advertising, video, computer-generated simulation, and designed life forms.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4305.
Prerequisite: VES 107, VES 160, and VES 166, or permission of the instructor.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 170 (formerly 174c). Film and Photography, Ontology and Art]
Catalog Number: 8352
D. N. Rodowick
Half course (spring term). Tu., 1–3.
A critical survey of the principal authors, concepts, and films in the classical period of film theory. We will study the aesthetic debates of the period in their historical context, whose central questions include: Is film an art? If so, what specific and autonomous means of expression define it as an aesthetic medium? What defines the social force and function of cinema as a mass art?
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. Weekly readings and discussion will examine major film movements—for example, French Impressionism and Surrealism—as well as the work of key figures such as Hugo Münsterberg, Rudolf Arnheim, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac, Béla Balázs, Erwin Panofsky, Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, André Bazin and Stanley Cavell.
Prerequisite: Literature and Arts B-11 or permission of the instructor.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 172a (formerly 186c). Film and Photography, Image and Narration]
Catalog Number: 4152
D. N. Rodowick
Half course (spring term). M., 3–5.
A survey of debates on photography and film carried out in the contexts of semiotics, structuralism, and narratology from the end of World War II until the early 1980s. In what ways can the image be considered a sign and how do images come to have meaning? Readings will include work by Roland Barthes, Christian Metz, Jean Mitry, Noël Burch, Raymond Bellour, Umberto Eco, Pier Paolo Pasolini, David Bordwell, and Gilles Deleuze.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: Literature and Arts B-11 or permission of the instructor.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 172b (formerly 173t). Contemporary Film Theory]
Catalog Number: 9562
D. N. Rodowick
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
A critical and historical survey of the major questions, concepts, and trends in film theory since 1968. Weekly readings and discussion will examine how the study of film and spectatorship have been influenced by semiotics, psychoanalysis, Marxism, postmodernism, feminism, and gay and lesbian criticism, as well as multiculturalism.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: Literature and Arts B-11 or permission of the instructor.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 175a. Framing the I: Autobiography and Film]
Catalog Number: 3084
Dominique Bluher
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Cinema offers many ways of telling one’s own story which range from fictional features to essay films and works that use found footage. This seminar examines film history’s various modes of autobiographical discourse in the context of philosophical and psychoanalytic considerations of the self as well as of experiments in literary and pictorial self-representation.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 176n. Facing Reality: A History of Documentary Cinema]
Catalog Number: 4394
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
The history of cinema as representation and interpretation of “reality,” focusing on masterworks of nonfiction film and video from a variety of periods and geographic locales. Emphasis on the ways in which nonfiction films can subvert viewers’ conventional expectations and their personal security. Forms to be discussed include the city symphony, ethnographic documentary, propaganda, the nature film, direct cinema, cinéma vérité, the compilation film and personal documentary.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 177e. Critical Cinema: A History of Experimental and Avant-Garde Cinema]
Catalog Number: 0898
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
A history of alternatives to commercial movies, focusing on surrealist and Dadaist film, visual music, psychodrama, direct cinema, the film society movement, personal cinema, the New American Cinema, structuralism, Queer cinema, feminist cinema, minor cinema, recycled cinema and devotional cinema. While conventional entertainment films use the novel, the short story and the stage drama as their primary instigations, experimental and avant-garde films are analogous to music, poetry, painting, sculpture and collage.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 178. Documents of Childhood - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 48768 Enrollment: Limited to 18.
David Cooke MacDougall
Half course (spring term). W., 1–3 and a weekly film screening T., 3-5:30. EXAM GROUP: 6, 7
How well do nonfiction films represent children and childhood? What
factors have shaped our views of children? The course will explore
these questions from a variety of perspectives, including those of
filmmakers, social scientists, television journalists, parents, and
children themselves.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 180. Film, Modernity and Visual Culture]
Catalog Number: 2874
Giuliana Bruno
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Cinema has changed the way we see and think. Modern visual culture develops with the art of film. Course considers this major 20th century shift in visual perception. We look at “motion” pictures as a product of modernity, born of scientific motion studies, aesthetic and cultural mobility. We relate film to the moving experience of urban space. Key writings and films engage sites of modern movement: home(land) and city, voyage and transport, gender and body.
Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4131.
Visual and Environmental Studies 181. Frames of Mind: Film Theory
Catalog Number: 0648
Giuliana Bruno
Half course (spring term). Th., 10-11:30, and a weekly film screening W., 7-9 pm, and weekly sections to be arranged.
Introduction to the language of film theory aimed at developing analytic skills to interpret films. Historical survey of classical and contemporary theory beginning with turn-of-the-century scientific motion studies to emotion studies of Hugo Münsterberg, to the virtual movements of our new millennium. Considers Eisenstein’s theory of montage, cultural history of the cinematic apparatus, and the body of physical existence from Kracauer to gender studies. Different theoretical positions open our understanding of films and guide us in reading them.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4132.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 182. Film Architectures: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 6864 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Giuliana Bruno
Half course (fall term). W., 2-4, and a weekly film screening Tu., 7-9pm.
What is our experience of architecture in cinema? Considering the relation of these two arts of space, we look at how film and architecture are linked in history on the “screen” of the modern age. Highlighting the interaction of modernity, urban culture and cinema, we explore the architecture of film in relation to the architectures of transit and the culture of travel. Emphasis on readings and case study analysis to pursue research projects and conduct presentations.
Note: Expected to be given in 2011–12. Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4351.
Prerequisite: A course in film studies or the equivalent course in cultural studies.
Visual and Environmental Studies 184. Imagining the City: Literature, Film, and the Arts
Catalog Number: 5736
Giuliana Bruno and Svetlana Boym
Half course (fall term). Th., 11:30-1, and a weekly film screening W., 7-9 pm, and weekly sections to be arranged. EXAM GROUP: 13, 14
How do visual representation and narrative figuration contribute to construct urban identity? Explores the urban imagination in different artforms: architecture, cinema, literature, photography, and painting. Topics to be mapped out include: cities and modernity, metrophilia and metrophobia, the museum and cultural archaeology, the ruin and construction site, interior space and public sphere, technology and virtual cities. We will focus on the European city, as we travel through Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Naples and Rome.
Note: Cannot be taken for credit if Literature 184 has been taken. Cannot be taken concurrently with Literature 184. Also offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4353. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts B.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 187x. From Postwar to Postwall German Cinema]
Catalog Number: 1196
Eric Rentschler
Half course (fall term). Tu., Th., 10, and , with weekly film screenings W., 4-6. EXAM GROUP: 12
West German filmmakers gained world-wide acclaim in the 1970s for interventions marked by subversive narrative strategies and unique formal approaches. We will examine representative features by Fassbinder, Herzog, Kluge, Schlöndorf, von Trotta, and Wenders, probing these films’ aesthetic shapes as well as their socio-political implications. We will also frame our discussion by looking at important films that both precede and come after the so-called New German Cinema.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No knowledge of German required. Readings, films, and discussions in English. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Foreign Cultures or Literature and Arts B, but not both.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 189. Exploring Culture Through Film]
Catalog Number: 9619
Lucien G. Castaing-Taylor
Half course (spring term). Tu., 6:30-9:30 pm, and weekly film screenings Tu., 4-6 pm.
Introduction to the history and theory of documentary and ethnographic film. A wide variety of works from 1895 to today will be screened and discussed. Different cinematic styles which have been used to depict human existence and the relationships between individuals and the wider cultural and political contexts of their lives will be compared.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. First meeting for this course will take place at 4pm on Tuesday, Feb. 5. This course, when taken for a letter grade, meets the Core area requirement for Literature and Arts B.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 189m. Reading Ethnographic Film: The Construction of Visual Knowledge - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 33661 Enrollment: Limited to 18.
David Cooke MacDougall
Half course (spring term). Th., 10–12 and weekly screenings W., 4-6:30. EXAM GROUP: 12, 13
This course will examine the concept of ’visual knowledge’ as it was
regarded in 19th century photography and as it has been construed since
in ethnographic and documentary cinema. How does the knowledge
conveyed by films differ from that in written texts? What are the
implications of this for ethnographic filmmaking and film viewing?
[Visual and Environmental Studies 190f. Contemporary French Cinema]
Catalog Number: 7722
Dominique Bluher
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
A new generation of French filmmakers has emerged in recent years, including Assayas, Breillat, Denis, and Dumont, among others. They have been instrumental in creating innovative approaches to cinematic narrative, form and style worldwide. Course readings will include interviews with filmmakers, analyses of their films as well as contributions by Deleuze, Foucault, Jameson and Williams which will provide theoretical frameworks for considerations of modernity and postmodernity, gender and sexuality, violence, and ethnicity.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No knowledge of French required; readings, films and discussions in English. No background in film studies necessary.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 190n. French New Wave Cinema]
Catalog Number: 9358 Enrollment: Limited to 15.
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Th., 1–3.
This course is meant to help situate French New Wave cinema historically, both generally within the contexts of French social and political attitudes, and more specifically, within the realms of film history and theory. Structuring our analysis around the question, "What was so new about the French New Wave?" this course explores the ways in which the movement both broke from established filmic conventions, and importantly, participated within them.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
Prerequisite: No knowledge of French required; readings, films and discussions in English.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 194w. World Cinema Today]
Catalog Number: 4865
Dominique Bluher
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
An in-depth study of works by some of contemporary world cinema’s most significant filmmakers in pertinent artistic, historical, and theoretical contexts. Provides close consideration of representative features by Wong Kar-Wai, Hayao Miyazaki, Abbas Kiarostami, Agnès Varda, David Cronenberg, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jim Jarmusch, and others.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No background in film studies necessary.
[Visual and Environmental Studies 196. Women’s Film and Video in France: Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman and Claire Denis]
Catalog Number: 9812
Dominique Bluher
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman and Claire Denis are undoubtedly three of the most significant contemporary film directors working in France today. Having started making films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, respectively, this class examines some of their landmark works in historical, cinematic and theoretical contexts.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. No knowledge of French required. Readings, films and discussions in English. Previous coursework in Film Studies or related fields helpful, but not required.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 270. Proseminar in Film and Visual Studies: History
Catalog Number: 1741
Eric Rentschler
Half course (spring term). M., 2-4, and a weekly film screening F., 1-4. EXAM GROUP: 7
Considers film history and the relations between film and history as well as pertinent theoretical approaches to historiography. Critical readings of exemplary film historical studies and careful scrutiny of films both in and as history.
Note: Required of all graduate students intending to declare a secondary field in Film and Visual Studies.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 271. Proseminar in Film and Visual Studies: Theory
Catalog Number: 0159
Giuliana Bruno
Half course (fall term). W., 2–4.
An advanced survey of current debates on the place of the moving image in contemporary visual culture and art practice with respect to concepts of space, time, movement, and affect.
Note: Required of all graduate students intending to declare a secondary field in Film and Visual Studies.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 285x (formerly *Visual and Environmental Studies 185x). Visual Fabrics: Film, Fashion and Material Culture: Seminar
Catalog Number: 1575 Enrollment: Limited to 12. Open to undergraduates with instructor’s permission.
Giuliana Bruno
Half course (spring term). W., 2-4, and a weekly film screening Tu., 7-9 pm.
Explores the common language of film and fashion, both powerful image makers and objects of material culture. Film and fashion share a role with architecture and contemporary art creating narratives and atmospheres, conveying identity and shaping visual expression. We explore their common language, particularly the current intersection with contemporary visual arts, treating these elements as part of our cultural “fabric” through a text(ur)al analysis of Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love.
Note: Offered jointly with the Graduate School of Design as 4354.
Prerequisite: A course in film studies or the equivalent course in cultural studies.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 288. Dziga Vertov and His Time: Left-Wing Art, Avant-Garde Filmmaking, Radical Politics]
Catalog Number: 1816
Instructor to be determined
Half course (spring term). Tu., 3–5; M., 7–9 p.m.
The class explores the work of this seminal Soviet documentary filmmaker, his theory, its international impact, its cultural and political implications, various ways of how Vertov’s films and theories are viewed and interpreted nowadays.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11. All readings in English. Open to qualified undergraduates with the permission of the instructor.
[*Visual and Environmental Studies 292r. Philosophy and Film: Seminar]
Catalog Number: 5659
D. N. Rodowick
Half course (fall term). Tu., 1–3.
Explores relationship of film and film theory to problems in contemporary philosophy. Topics and themes change from year to year; students should review the course description in the term when the seminar is next offered.
Note: Expected to be given in 2010–11.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 310. Reading and Research
Catalog Number: 5851
Members of the Department
Note: Conducted through regular conferences and assigned writing. Limited to students reading specifically on topics not covered in regular courses. Open only by petition to the Department; petitions should be presented during the term preceding enrollment, and must be signed by the instructor with whom the reading is to be done. All applicants for admission should first confer with the Director of Graduate Studies.
*Visual and Environmental Studies 320. Directed Study
Catalog Number: 0441
Members of the Department