VA 157-Video Art History and Criticism
Prof. Adriene Jenik
Lecture: Tuesdays 5-7:50pm
Office hours: Wed 2-3:30pm
Tel. (858)822-2059
Lecture: Tuesdays 5-7:50pm
Office hours: Wed 2-3:30pm
Tel. (858)822-2059
Fall 2004
Center Hall 216
VAF601
ajenik @ ucsd.edu
Center Hall 216
VAF601
ajenik @ ucsd.edu
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
With the release of SONY's portapak analog video camera and recorder in 1965, artists began to experiment with technologies that were until then not accessible outside of a corporate television studio. This course is designed to familiarize students with the first several decades of art made by artists working with video technology. I will trace a more or less chronological line through some of the major works to appear in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Students will be introduced to the technologies, discourses and ethics of these times, along with the recorded art documents. We will explore the themes of narcissism, consumerism, signal, surveillance, and social responsibility and will examine questions of time, gender, and power in the newly revealed yet technologically mediated global village. We will also consider many of the strategies artists used to promote, exhibit and distribute work that did not fit easily into mainstream art institutions.
Because we only have ten weeks and there are countless hours of work to consider, this is by necessity a very abridged and somewhat subjective version of this history. In considering what to show and discuss, I am focusing your attention on work that I see as a precursor to contemporary art experience.
CLASS REQUIREMENTS and EVALUATION
You are required to attend all lectures, and complete a mid-term exam and short final research paper. To get the most out of lecture, you should come to lecture in a wakeful, attentive state, having read the assigned material in the course reader. Readings are listed in the course schedule under the date of the lecture to which they apply.
With the release of SONY's portapak analog video camera and recorder in 1965, artists began to experiment with technologies that were until then not accessible outside of a corporate television studio. This course is designed to familiarize students with the first several decades of art made by artists working with video technology. I will trace a more or less chronological line through some of the major works to appear in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Students will be introduced to the technologies, discourses and ethics of these times, along with the recorded art documents. We will explore the themes of narcissism, consumerism, signal, surveillance, and social responsibility and will examine questions of time, gender, and power in the newly revealed yet technologically mediated global village. We will also consider many of the strategies artists used to promote, exhibit and distribute work that did not fit easily into mainstream art institutions.
Because we only have ten weeks and there are countless hours of work to consider, this is by necessity a very abridged and somewhat subjective version of this history. In considering what to show and discuss, I am focusing your attention on work that I see as a precursor to contemporary art experience.
CLASS REQUIREMENTS and EVALUATION
You are required to attend all lectures, and complete a mid-term exam and short final research paper. To get the most out of lecture, you should come to lecture in a wakeful, attentive state, having read the assigned material in the course reader. Readings are listed in the course schedule under the date of the lecture to which they apply.
Attendance:
Midterm Exam:
Final Paper:
Midterm Exam:
Final Paper:
20%
40%
40%
40%
40%
Grades will be assigned as below:
A (91-100)=excellent, B (81-90)=above average, C (71-80)=average, D (61-70)=below average, F (60 & below)=unacceptable
GRADING POLICY AND GENERAL RULES
Grading will be performed by assigned Readers with the oversight of the Professor.No late final papers will be accepted.
ATTENDANCE
Students must attend each lecture promptly. In the case of an excused absence, student will provide a written excuse or a doctor's note.
REQUIRED TEXT Reader compiled by Prof at A.S. Soft Reserves
OPTIONAL Resources
Additional online readings as assigned.
Additional works not screened in lecture sessions will be available through the Film & Video Reserves. You may want to avail yourselves of them in preparation for your mid-term and final.
Though there are no discussion sections for this course, I will be maintaining a course webboard. Though posting on the webboard is not a requirement, you may find it helpful as a way to think through particular questions about readings or video works. You will be provided with accounts and passwords the first week of class. Access the webboard at http://webboard.ucsd.edu
DISCLAIMER
In this class I reserve the right to show a broad range of course materials, some of which assume the audience to be adult in age and demeanor. Should you at any time in the course of the class feel offended by something you have seen or heard, we would appreciate you staying to be part of a dialogue. If you feel that you cannot stay, please remove yourself from the classroom as discretely as possible. You may be asked to report on your response.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
Week One: Tues 09/28
THEME: Portable Video, People's Video
VIEW: TVTV, Serra/Schoolman, AntFarm (Media Burn)
READ:
Fiske & Hartley - Transmission Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" - Pages 217-252 The Spaghetti City Video Manual: a guide to use, repair and maintenance by VIDEOFREEX
Week Two: Tues 10/5
THEME: What can this do? Artists messing around
VIEW: Wegman, Fox, Acconci, Holt, Benglis, Graham, Baldessari, Nauman, Campus, Conrad, McCarthy
READ:
Rosler - Illuminations Society of the Spectacle by Guy deBord, Black & Red, Detroit, 1983, no copyright Chapter I - Separation Perfected "The Aesthetics of Narcissism" by Rosalind Krauss
Week Three: Tues 10/12
THEME: Narrative and Duration
VIEW: Video Free America (Carol & ferd), AntFarm (Eternal Frame), Oursler (Grand Mal), Viola
READ:
Viola - Chott el-Djerid - pages 54-55 ADD - Radical Software #4
Week Four: Tues 10/19
THEME: Feminisms Part I: Performers
VIEW: Wilke, Benglis, DeVito, Segalove, Montano, Angelo & Compton, Rosler, Cohen Antin, Montano, Wilson, Abramovic, Gustafson
READ:
Gever - pages 226-241 Antin
Week Five: Tues 10/26
THEME: Surveillance Aesthetics
VIEW: Acconci, Hock, Klier, Miller
READ:
CTRL+Space: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother, ed. By Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne and Peter Weibel,
Nauman - pages 64-67
Graham - pages 68-73
Weibel - pages 74-79
Ira Schneider/Frank Gillette Ð pages 80-81
Klier - pages 82-85
Week Six: Tues 11/02
THEME: Alternative Networks & the Beginnings of Public Access TV
VIEW: PTTV, Deep Dish TV, DCTV, Portable Channel
READ:
Boyle - pages 203-214
Gever - pages 215-234
Hand-Held Visions: The impossible possibilities of community media by DeeDee Halleck, Pages 97-1008 DEEP DISH PROGRAM DIRECTORY
Week Seven: Tues 11/09
THEME: Installations and Interactions
VIEW: Lucier, Viola, Graham, $29.95, Hershmann, Paik
READ:
Graham - pages 168-188
Lucier - pages 457-464
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings, by Bill Viola Intro by Jean-Christophe Ammann - Pages 13-27
Nam June Paik: Video Works 1963-88, Herzogenrath - Pages 6-31
Week Eight: Tues 11/16
THEME: New Ethnographic Fiction
VIEW: Feingold, Kunuk, Reeves, Tanaka, Veliz, Downey, Fagin
READ:
Frota - pages 258-282
Woman, Native, Other by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Grandma's Story - Pages 118 Ð 151
Yellow Peril Reconsidered by Paul Wong, Wong Ð Pages 6-12
Week Nine: Tues 11/23
THEME: Feminisms Part II: Gender & First Person Transgression
VIEW: Greene, Millner, Benning, Thornton, Dougherty, Braderman, Dunye
READ:
Kipnis - pages 333-345
Week Ten: Tues 11/30
THEME: Testing the Limits Ð Activist Video/Art
VIEW: Testing the Limits, Riggs, Kalin, Spiro, Kuchar, Fung
READ:
Bordowitz - pages173-184
Kipnis - pages 333-345
AIDS/DEMO/GRAPHICS, ed. Dougless Crimp with Adam Rolston, Pages 130 Ð 141
A Tool, A Weapon, A Witness: The New Video News Crews, Spiro
"Black Macho Revisited, Reflections of a Snap!Queen," Riggs
FINALS WEEK
Tuesday Dec. 7, 7pm
Turn in final research papers
*Please note: this schedule is subject to revision and may be modified during the quarter.
A (91-100)=excellent, B (81-90)=above average, C (71-80)=average, D (61-70)=below average, F (60 & below)=unacceptable
GRADING POLICY AND GENERAL RULES
Grading will be performed by assigned Readers with the oversight of the Professor.No late final papers will be accepted.
ATTENDANCE
Students must attend each lecture promptly. In the case of an excused absence, student will provide a written excuse or a doctor's note.
REQUIRED TEXT Reader compiled by Prof at A.S. Soft Reserves
OPTIONAL Resources
Additional online readings as assigned.
Additional works not screened in lecture sessions will be available through the Film & Video Reserves. You may want to avail yourselves of them in preparation for your mid-term and final.
Though there are no discussion sections for this course, I will be maintaining a course webboard. Though posting on the webboard is not a requirement, you may find it helpful as a way to think through particular questions about readings or video works. You will be provided with accounts and passwords the first week of class. Access the webboard at http://webboard.ucsd.edu
DISCLAIMER
In this class I reserve the right to show a broad range of course materials, some of which assume the audience to be adult in age and demeanor. Should you at any time in the course of the class feel offended by something you have seen or heard, we would appreciate you staying to be part of a dialogue. If you feel that you cannot stay, please remove yourself from the classroom as discretely as possible. You may be asked to report on your response.
Week One: Tues 09/28
THEME: Portable Video, People's Video
VIEW: TVTV, Serra/Schoolman, AntFarm (Media Burn)
READ:
Fiske & Hartley - Transmission Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" - Pages 217-252 The Spaghetti City Video Manual: a guide to use, repair and maintenance by VIDEOFREEX
Week Two: Tues 10/5
THEME: What can this do? Artists messing around
VIEW: Wegman, Fox, Acconci, Holt, Benglis, Graham, Baldessari, Nauman, Campus, Conrad, McCarthy
READ:
Rosler - Illuminations Society of the Spectacle by Guy deBord, Black & Red, Detroit, 1983, no copyright Chapter I - Separation Perfected "The Aesthetics of Narcissism" by Rosalind Krauss
Week Three: Tues 10/12
THEME: Narrative and Duration
VIEW: Video Free America (Carol & ferd), AntFarm (Eternal Frame), Oursler (Grand Mal), Viola
READ:
Viola - Chott el-Djerid - pages 54-55 ADD - Radical Software #4
Week Four: Tues 10/19
THEME: Feminisms Part I: Performers
VIEW: Wilke, Benglis, DeVito, Segalove, Montano, Angelo & Compton, Rosler, Cohen Antin, Montano, Wilson, Abramovic, Gustafson
READ:
Gever - pages 226-241 Antin
Week Five: Tues 10/26
THEME: Surveillance Aesthetics
VIEW: Acconci, Hock, Klier, Miller
READ:
CTRL+Space: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother, ed. By Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne and Peter Weibel,
Nauman - pages 64-67
Graham - pages 68-73
Weibel - pages 74-79
Ira Schneider/Frank Gillette Ð pages 80-81
Klier - pages 82-85
Week Six: Tues 11/02
THEME: Alternative Networks & the Beginnings of Public Access TV
VIEW: PTTV, Deep Dish TV, DCTV, Portable Channel
READ:
Boyle - pages 203-214
Gever - pages 215-234
Hand-Held Visions: The impossible possibilities of community media by DeeDee Halleck, Pages 97-1008 DEEP DISH PROGRAM DIRECTORY
Week Seven: Tues 11/09
THEME: Installations and Interactions
VIEW: Lucier, Viola, Graham, $29.95, Hershmann, Paik
READ:
Graham - pages 168-188
Lucier - pages 457-464
Reasons for Knocking at an Empty House: Writings, by Bill Viola Intro by Jean-Christophe Ammann - Pages 13-27
Nam June Paik: Video Works 1963-88, Herzogenrath - Pages 6-31
Week Eight: Tues 11/16
THEME: New Ethnographic Fiction
VIEW: Feingold, Kunuk, Reeves, Tanaka, Veliz, Downey, Fagin
READ:
Frota - pages 258-282
Woman, Native, Other by Trinh T. Minh-ha, Grandma's Story - Pages 118 Ð 151
Yellow Peril Reconsidered by Paul Wong, Wong Ð Pages 6-12
Week Nine: Tues 11/23
THEME: Feminisms Part II: Gender & First Person Transgression
VIEW: Greene, Millner, Benning, Thornton, Dougherty, Braderman, Dunye
READ:
Kipnis - pages 333-345
Week Ten: Tues 11/30
THEME: Testing the Limits Ð Activist Video/Art
VIEW: Testing the Limits, Riggs, Kalin, Spiro, Kuchar, Fung
READ:
Bordowitz - pages173-184
Kipnis - pages 333-345
AIDS/DEMO/GRAPHICS, ed. Dougless Crimp with Adam Rolston, Pages 130 Ð 141
A Tool, A Weapon, A Witness: The New Video News Crews, Spiro
"Black Macho Revisited, Reflections of a Snap!Queen," Riggs
FINALS WEEK
Tuesday Dec. 7, 7pm
Turn in final research papers
*Please note: this schedule is subject to revision and may be modified during the quarter.