Critical Thinking on Art and Society FINE3109
Sept - Dec 1997
University of Colorado - Dept. of Fine Art
This course will explore readings from working artists,, writers, critics, and technologists as they attempt to create a context for art and the socio-cultural milieu in which it is produced. Readings will be both contemporary (direct off the Web) and from the recent past (20th Century) with a concentration on the inter-relationship of Art and Technology. The course meets the Core Curriculum requirements for the category Critical Thinking.
The course will consist primarily of discussions conducted as seminars and focusing on specific readings. A spirit of dialogue where the Other is recognized as an equal will be the means of discussion. Attendance is always mandatory, but participation in class discussions is of the utmost importance! The preparation of three short projects and one final project will measure the students development of their own point-of-view relating to the chosen topics and to the world in general.
Monday - Wednesdays - Fridays 1300 - 1350, Muensinger E114
Instructor: John Hopkins
Office Hours: N206 (Fine Arts Building) Wednesdays 1830 - 2030 by appointment only
Contact information:
email jhopkins (at) uiah.fi
telephone/voicemail 492-0864
Calendar
| Week |
Dates |
Material Covered |
| Week 1 |
August 25
27
29
|
Introduction to class
|
| Week 2 |
Labor Day (Holiday)
September 3
5
|
What is Critical Thinking?
State/Intended: Some Reflections Parallel to The Book of All the Dead, Bruce Elder (handout)
|
| Week 3 |
September 8
10
12 |
(John is at Ars Electronica in Austria)
Genuine Dialogue and the Possibilities of Peace, Martin Buber (handout)
|
| Week 4 |
September 15
17
19 |
Infobahn Blues, Bob Adrian (web)
Pandemonium and Absurdity, Timothy Druckery (web)
|
| Week 5 | September 22
24
26 |
On the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky (p.87)
Is It Okay to Be a Luddite?, Thomas Pynchon (web)
The Finished Work of Art is a Thing of the Past, Tom Sherman (web)
|
| Week 6 | September 29
October 1
3 |
Organizing Divinity (ZKP4 editorial)
Special Lecture Wednesday 1/10 Econ #117 5-7pm hyped-up media/art, with Tapio Mäkelä and Susanna Paasonen
Computer Lab Tutorial
First Paper Due |
| Week 7 |
October 6
8
10 |
Art is in Danger, George Grosz (p.450)
Speech Inaugurating the Great Exhibition, Adolf Hitler (p.423)
Aspects of the Aesthetic of Telecommunications, Eduardo Kac (web)
|
| Week 8 |
October 13
15
17 |
The Web Site of documenta X, Kathy Rae Huffman (web review)
actual (pirate) documenta X website
Technology and its mediated use, Raoul Vaneigem (web)
from Assemblages, Environments, and Happenings, Allan Kaprow (p.703)
|
| Week 9 | October 20
22
24 |
from Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan (p.739)
Sentences on Conceptual Art, Sol LeWitt (p.837)
Computer Lab Tutorial
|
| Week 10 | October 27
29
31 |
From Kaleidoscomaniac to Cybernerd: Towards an Archeology of the Media, Erkki Huhtamo
Special Lecture by Mark Amerika of AltX and Grammatron fame -- what's a name, what's a name, what's a name...
Regimes, Pathways, Subjects, Félix Guattari (Norlin Reserve)
Second Project Due
|
| Week 11 | November 3
5
7 |
The Postmodern Impasse, Félix Guattari (Norlin Reserve)
Postmodernism and Ethical Abdication, Félix Guattari (Norlin Reserve)
Subjectivities: for Better and for Worse, Félix Guattari (Norlin Reserve)
|
| Week 12 | November 10
12
14 | Computer Cynicism, Joseph Nechvatal (web)
Track Organology, Douglas Kahn (Norlin Reserve) |
| Week 13 | November 17
19
21 | Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality, and Electronic Cultural Production, Critical Art Ensemble (Norlin Reserve)
A Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (Norlin Reserve) |
| Week 14 | November 24
26 | Dominant, Residual, and Emergent, Raymond Williams (p.979) |
| Week 15 | December 1
3
5 | Opponents, Audiences, Constituencies, and Communities, Edward Said (p.1086)
Third Project Due
The Role of Language, Ian Burn and Mel Ramsden (p.879) |
| Week 16 | December 8
10 | Closing Discussions |
| Week 17 | December 18 | Dialogues |
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Required text -- Art in Theory, 1900-1990 ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood, 1993
Reading links:
Media and Ethics Conference Proceedings
Hypertext Theory
Rhizome
Net.time Archive
ZKP1
ZKP2
ZKP3
ZKP3.2.1
ZKP4
C-Theory
Teleopolis
ISEA94 Helsinki Proceedings
ISEA96 Rotterdam
ISEA97 Chicago
Fluxus Online
Art links:
John's Bookmark file with endless Art links...
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Class List
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Grading will be based on the timely completion of all assigned readings and projects. Class attendance is absolutely essential. Each student will be allowed two unexcused absences. The final grade will be lowered by one grade for each unexcused absence beyond two. Students will be expected to take a pro-active role in each class discussion. It is therefore important that readings be finished by the discussion date. Any assignment turned in after the due date will be downgraded for each class day it is late.
Papers must demonstrate a creative and thoughtful approach to the subject in question. The final grade will be based on the three term papers/projects, the final project, active participation, and attendance.
texts must be delivered in a standard electronic format, posted to a web-site, or emailed to the instructor (subject to the instructor prior approval). They may be illustrated as is appropriate to the subject.
The Department of Fine Arts is committed to upholding the University Uniform Grading System. Grades will be assigned according to this system, which reads:
A superior/excellent
B good/better than average
C competent/average
D minimum passing
F failing
Any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a disability is requested to speak with the professor no later than Monday, September 15 1997.
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The first assignment is be a position paper on a selected portion of one of the readings to date. The text generated by the student will join with the selected text as a hyperlinked portion of the class web-site. It is intended that the phrase position paper be an open-ended though carefully thought-out personal response to a segment of any of the readings discussed so far in the class. The 2-3 page (as measured double-spaced, 12-pt font) text, which will include an accurate transcription of the passage referenced, must be submitted in one of the following formats: Microsoft Word for Windows, Microsoft Word for Macintosh, RTF format, or standard HTML format and can be delivered as an email attachment, on a 3-1/4-inch floppy disk, or posted to a personal web site and the URL be sent by email. This paper is due no later than OCTOBER 3 at the end of the class period.
The second assignment is be a collaborative effort with the following formal characteristics: the class will be (optionally) grouped into pairs that will subsequently collaborate in the construction of a sequence of texts designed as a world-view. By using the phrase world-view, it is intended that the sequence constitute the viable viewpoint of a real or fictive being who is alive in a present moment of the world. These texts fragments will be sequenced on the class web site as navigable hypertext. The fragments sources are not limited to papers discussed in class, Web sources, or statements/manifestations by the (two) authors. Reference style need only attribute the author (when available), a title of the article or source document, and perhaps a URL when from the web. The sequences need to include a minimum of 20 text fragments. This project is due no later than OCTOBER 31 at the end of the class period. As with the first paper, this project needs to be delivered in a standard digital format. Enter worldview.
The third project has two independent parts to it. The first part (a) is to research a significant web site and write a review of that site that addresses both formal and content issues. This review and a link to the site in question will be added to your area of the class web site. The second part (b) will be an extension of the worldview project. In order to increase the richness and complexity of the worldview, the possibility of cross-linking in the following form need be considered. Bridging the gap between disparate worldviews is a real and theoretical problem facing the both the macro- and micro-cosmic world mapped around us. The intent of this part will be to construct stepped bridges between separate worldview sequences. By selecting two source/destination pages and creating a pertinent text to insert in a hyper-linked page between these two, ideological gaps may be traversed, bringing the possibility of dialogue to the surface. A total of seven or more bridges are required. This project is due no later than DECEMBER 3 at the end of the class period.
(this text to develop over the next weeks) The final project will consist of a dialogue between the individual student and the instructor (for lack of a better word). The subjective structure of this project will be collaboratively determined by the two parties. The duration of the dialogue will also be determined by the course of the interaction itself, with a minimum set at one hour. This final dialogue will explore boundaries between the two individuals and measure the gaps in outlook between them. Within these gaps the participants will move, exercise free will, and explore the limitless possibilities of Martin Buber's genuine dialogue.
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updated Dec.31.97
hopkins/neoscenes
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