| Issues in Visual Critical Studies |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
2001 (002) |
Fall 2024 |
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Description
This course plunges students into content and ideas that universities often leave until graduate school, as we consider the role played by the 'critical' in 'visual and critical studies.' For the past ten years, it has been referred to as 'a primer for the art world.' It will still, mostly, provide you with a working vocabulary and crash course as to bodies of knowledge integral to the study of visual culture. At the same time, to productively engage in a reflective critique of society and culture, it will consider 'texts' from as diverse and contemporaneous a group of scholars, theorists, critics, and cultural producers as possible, from both inside and outside the academic institution.
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Class Number
1142
Credits
3
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| Issues in Visual Critical Studies |
Visual and Critical Studies |
2001 (002) |
Fall 2024 |
|
Description
This course plunges students into content and ideas that universities often leave until graduate school, as we consider the role played by the 'critical' in 'visual and critical studies.' For the past ten years, it has been referred to as 'a primer for the art world.' It will still, mostly, provide you with a working vocabulary and crash course as to bodies of knowledge integral to the study of visual culture. At the same time, to productively engage in a reflective critique of society and culture, it will consider 'texts' from as diverse and contemporaneous a group of scholars, theorists, critics, and cultural producers as possible, from both inside and outside the academic institution.
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Class Number
1025
Credits
3
|
| Chance and Intentionality |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
2009 (001) |
Spring 2024 |
|
Description
If a society?s order of reasons disempowers its citizens, why not weaponize the irrational? This was the premise of various, systemic reactions against the ?ego? in the midlate 20th century. In Europe, the United States, and former colonies, some of this activity can be read as an extension of the historical avant garde?s investigation of altered states of consciousness and ?madness.? The neo-avant garde sometimes used the tools of rational science to deconstruct its premises, reconstruct the real, and promote a more demotic culture. This course takes an international approach and samples practices and discourses of Dadaism, Surrealism, free jazz, performance and conceptual art, dance, film, ?relational aesthetics,? and experimental poetics. We will place a special emphasis on the way indeterminacy claims to ameliorate conflicts between political commitment and aesthetic quality. Expect to encounter works by Francis Alys, Anthony Braxton, John Cage, Aime Cesaire, Fischli & Weiss, Helio Oiticica, Huang Yong Ping, Jorge Macchi, Jackson MacLow, Gerhard Richter, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Hannah Weiner, and others. Course work will vary but typically includes weekly written responses, moderate reading assignments, listening and viewing, avid participation in class discussions, one creative/curatorial project, one research presentation, and a final essay.
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Class Number
2101
Credits
3
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| LH: Agony and Protest |
Liberal Arts |
3190 (002) |
Spring 2024 |
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Description
This course is all about ugly feelings, the uglier the better. Depictions of agony often constitute forms of protest. After all, we get the word “agony” from the Greek concept of “agon,” which means contest, debate, one-upmanship. We will use the interlocking themes of agony and political dissent to read works from widely different regions and eras. Expect to find Kim Hyesoon, Mahasweta Devi, Franz Kafka, Ana Arzoumanian, Jean Genet, Richard Wright, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Amiri Baraka, as well as: The Book of Job; blues by Robert Johnson and Billie Holiday; Miyo Vestrini's poems about death; Kathy Acker's transgressive opera; Eileen Myles and Dodie Bellamy's hymns to puking; Trisha Low's interrogation of being hated; and Dolores Dorantes's allegorical guidebook to crossing the US-Mexico border.
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Class Number
1504
Credits
3
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| Top:Gilles Deleuze |
Visual and Critical Studies |
4010 (001) |
Spring 2024 |
|
Description
This course offers an introduction to the thought of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). Deleuze was one of the 20th century?s most influential critical theorists, almost single-handedly revising the reputation of Nietzsche in France, critiquing psychoanalysis in its postmodern heyday, and devising new approaches to ontology, leftist political theory, and literary and art theory. To this day, his concepts are frequently deployed in critical theory of all kinds, especially those concepts he developed in collaboration with activist and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari. Such concepts have even been accused of radical chic, and he remains a frequently cited but ?difficult? author to read. This course provides an introduction to the reading of Deleuze?s work. The goal of the course is to familiarize you with the contours of his career and acquaint you with his peculiar style of writing. It also acquaints you with a (very) few subsequent elaborations on Deleuzian thought. The course is structured into units corresponding to the core notions of becoming, encounter, schizoanalysis, and the rhizome. A fifth unit pursues Deleuze?s involvement with aesthetics and models some ways of applying Deleuzian thought. Expect to read much of Deleuze's own writing, critical reflections on it by Thomas Hirschorn and Elizabeth Grosz, among others..., and then to write two substantial essays elaborating on this material, attempting to make it serve your own interests as artists, historians, etc.
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Class Number
1635
Credits
3
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| Top:Gilles Deleuze |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
4060 (001) |
Spring 2024 |
|
Description
This course offers an introduction to the thought of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). Deleuze was one of the 20th century?s most influential critical theorists: almost single-handedly revising the reputation of Nietzsche in France; critiquing psychoanalysis in its postmodern heyday; and devising new approaches to ontology, leftist political theory, and aesthetic theory. To this day, his concepts are frequently deployed in critical theory of all kinds, especially those concepts he developed in collaboration with activist and psychoanalyst Felix Guattari. This course provides an introduction to the reading of Deleuze?s work. The goal of the course is to familiarize you with the contours of his career and acquaint you with his peculiar style of writing. It also acquaints you with a few subsequent elaborations on and critiques of Deleuzian thought. We read Deleuze's book on Francis Bacon's paintings, his book on Henri Bergson, and also excerpts from A Thousand Plateaus, Logic of Sense, and What is Philosophy? We also read critical responses and elaborations of Deleuzian thought. Expect a steady, dense, and provocative reading schedule. Students complete a reading journal, a major term paper, and a collaborative presentation on intersections between contemporary art practice and Deleuze's philosophy.
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Class Number
1054
Credits
3
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| Top:Art, Language, Concept |
Visual and Critical Studies |
5010 (001) |
Fall 2024 |
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Description
This course spans centuries but focuses on the thin line between looking and reading, imagining and writing. Considering the question, ?What is language?? leads us to readings in linguistics from art historical, literary-theoretical, philosophical, and ethnographic disciplines. We also pursue connections between ?seen words? in movements such as pop art, conceptual art, concrete poetry, language poetry, and conceptual writing by comparing works in various media that revolve around distinctions between speech, writing, the static and moving image. Notable authors and artists include Vito Acconci, Bob Brown, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Jacques Derrida, Carl Dryer, Paul Friedrich, Luce Irigaray, Roman Jakobson, Rene Magritte, Ed Ruscha, Sapir-Whorf, Hannah Weiner, Ludwig Wittgenstein and others.
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Class Number
1027
Credits
3
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| Top: Art, Language, Concept |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
5060 (001) |
Fall 2024 |
|
Description
This course focuses on the thin line between looking and reading, imagining and writing. It is a course about the ''linguistic turn,'' a critical paradigm shift occasioned by Ferdinand de Saussure and carried on through what we now know as ?post-structuralism.? It is also an exploration of the condition of language after the internet. Considering the question, ?What is language?? leads us to readings in linguistics from art historical, literary-theoretical, philosophical, and ethnographic disciplines (Benjamin Lee Whorf, Jacques Derrida, Boris Groys, Liz Kotz, Roland Barthes, etc.). The course culminates in units focused on important conceptual and/or contemporary artists who critically intersect questions of signification, medium, materiality, and identity. Such artists include Adrian Piper, Tan Lin, Marcel Broodthaers, William Pope L., Edgar Heap of Birds, etc. We read a lot each week. Active participation in free-associative class discussion, occasional lectures, a research presentation, and a major term paper are required.
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Class Number
1131
Credits
3
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| Thesis II |
Visual and Critical Studies |
6999 (003) |
Spring 2024 |
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Description
This independent study course is a continuation of Thesis I and is taken with the student's primary thesis advisor to facilitate completion of the thesis. Research and approval (by the advisor and the rest of the student's committee) of the thesis topic and approach should have been completed during Thesis I. Students work closely with a thesis advisor during this semester in addition to scheduling meetings with other faculty on his or her committee whose input may prove useful in their research. This course covers the final completion and submission of the master's thesis. It is required for the Master of Arts in Visual and Critical Studies.
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Class Number
2524
Credits
3
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