1 DEPARTMENT of FILM YORK UNIVERSITY FACULTY of FINE ARTS COURSE OUTLINE Course: Recycled Images: from Found Footage to Digita
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DEPARTMENT OF FILM YORK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF FINE ARTS COURSE OUTLINE Course: Recycled Images: From Found Footage to Digital Remix Term: Winter 2013 Prerequisite: FA/FILM 1400 or FA/FILM 1401 or permission of the Film Department Course Instructor: Eli Horwatt Office: Centre for Film and Theatre, Room 204 Office Hours: by appointment E-mail: [email protected] Time and Location: Wednesday, 9:30-1:30PM (York ACE 004) Class Blog: http://recycledimages3360.wordpress.com/ Expanded Course Description Explores the diverse array of strategies, theories and historical trajectories of appropriation from the beginnings of cinema to current practices. The use and transformation of existing media in 20th century artworks signaled the rise of mass culture and the centrality of images in everyday life. Simultaneously, appropriated works posed provocative challenges to thinkers, artists and audiences forced to reconcile previously held positions on authorship and originality. The aesthetic and political practices of appropriated film and video will be placed in dialogue with other media like visual art and music. Major theoretical concerns will surround media critique, feminism, queer theory, post-colonial historiography and otherwise radical returns to the past. Students will engage with major forms of appropriation, including collage, readymades, essay and compilation films, detournement, parody, propaganda and documentary to examine the ethical and aesthetic motives for recasting moving images and more broadly question the emergence of this tendency in modern art. Prerequisites: FA/FILM 1400 or FA/FILM 1401 or permission of department. Course Learning Objectives: • Develop a familiarity with found footage film and video throughout the 20th and 21st century. • Examine the aesthetic, rhetorical and political strategies of appropriation in art, music and the moving image. • Develop an understanding of the transforming social and cultural contexts which brought appropriation into the forefront of artistic practices and made the strategy important for marginalized groups to use in the critical examination of media. • Begin or further develop a practical approach to the creation of derivative/recombinant works armed with knowledge of its history. 1 • Understand the ethical (and unethical) dimensions of appropriation as a strategy seeking both to improve knowledge and in some cases obfuscate knowledge while broaching the idea of theft, borrowing and piracy. After taking this course students should be able to: • Critically engage with works of appropriation art by identifying both historical antecedents and the rhetorical and aesthetic strategies deployed by the artist. • Understand theories of authorship and the transformation of the category “author” between modernist and post-modern thought. • Understand shared strategies and techniques of appropriation across media including fine art, music and literature. Method of Evaluation/Grading: • Participation: 20% (10% Attendance, 10% discussion and weekly symposium participation) • Plagiarism Project due February 6th: 15% • Reading Facilitation: 20% (2 x 10%) (Generating reading questions, facilitating discussion in the form of blog posts submitted Sunday (before midnight) to generate class discussions. See below for detailed description of the schedule) • Essay or Film Proposal, and Annotated Bibliography due March 7th: 15% • Final Research Paper or Recombinant Media Project (with artist’s statement) due April 8th: 30% All assignments due at the beginning of class. Any late assignments will be docked 10% per day. Assignment Descriptions: Weekly Symposium: This is a totally voluntary activity for students who either wish to share pertinent images, videos, music, literature or other media in class because of its relevance to the week’s readings, or an opportunity for those less inclined to engage in discussion to receive participation points. Each day before class, up to three individuals may sign up to share (for five-minutes or less). Presentations will occur after lecture and before screenings. Please keep presentations concise and on topic. Off topic videos and presentations will not be rewarded participation points. Plagiarism Project: Utilizing Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence” as a model, “write” a two-to-three page (500-750 word) text on appropriation itself, or some mode of appropriation (DJing, Collage, The Readymade, Commodity Sculpture) utilizing only words from other sources. Essays must use a minimum of five separate sources (not including Wikipedia). Sourcing should be done through footnotes, either after a series of appropriated words or after sentences. These assignments will be graded based on 1) The diversity of source materials, including the number of texts 2 found in books, magazines and other printed material, as well as internet research or even transcription from audio/video interviews, 2) The “flow” and “bridging” of multiple texts in a coherent way, or the successful juxtaposition of contrasting arguments 3) The depth of understanding expressed in the multiple sources 4) The creative interaction with existing materials. 5) Minimal interjection of “original” text to create flow between paragraphs. Please try to avoid this unless it is totally necessary. Assignment due at the beginning of class February 6th. Reading Facilitation: Students will be allocated a group (A, B, or C) which will generate responses to the next week’s readings on the class blog. If it is your group’s week to respond, you will email me ([email protected]) a response to the readings on the Sunday prior to the Wednesday class before 5PM. PLEASE SEE ME THE WEEK PRIOR TO YOUR RESPONSE so that I can assign you to a particular reading if there are multiple texts for that week. In your response you will write 1) Two or more of the central arguments made by the writer in the form of two paragraphs, 2) Two important questions the article answers, 3) Two discussion facilitation questions for other students, and 4) As a bonus: Important media texts that might relate to readings but which are not specifically mentioned in them and why they are relevant. I will post these to the class blog (http://recycledimages3360.wordpress.com/) In the next class, if you are part of the group responsible for that week’s readings, you may be called upon to help facilitate discussion. It would also help to facilitate discussion around relevant media texts. All groups will do this twice, for 10% each time (total 20% of final grade). Schedule for Weekly Reading Facilitation Responses (DUE SUNDAY @ 5PM BEFORE CLASS: January 20th, Week 3: A Group January 27th, Week 4: B Group February 10th, Week 6: C Group March 10th, Week 9: A Group March 17th, Week 10: B Group March 24th, Week 11: C Group IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR READING THE CLASS BLOG AFTER FACILITATION RESPONSES ARE POSTED. BE PREPARED TO DISCUSS THESE QUESTIONS IN CLASS. Proposal/Annotated Bibliography: Students will propose either a research paper or recombinant media project with an annotated bibliography (which may include films) to frame the research. Proposals should be 2-3 double spaced pages in length (500-750 words) and introduce 1) A major research question, 2) A working thesis for your project, 3) Films or other works you will engage with in your essay and 4) Short 1-3 sentence breakdown for each of the included texts and art objects in your essay. Recombinant media proposals should include 1) The major objectives of 3 the art-work, 2) The type or mode of appropriation with which you are engaging, 3) Antecedent practices or works which have influenced your ideas, and 4) An outline of your methodology for making the art-work. Making a creative work is not an opportunity to ease your workload. If anything, it will be more difficult, requiring research and some form of artistic production. I will evaluate these based on the rigor and thought I see put into them. Final Research Paper/Recombinant Media Project: A 10-15 page (2500- 3750 word) research essay elaborating on themes from the class and/or introducing new lines of enquiry in found footage practice. Essays must use four or more sources with at least one book cited. Please use Chicago Style for citation/bibliography formatting. Students may also complete a 5-10 minute found footage work or other work of appropriation art with an artist’s statement of approximately 4 pages (1000 words), including a description of how the work was executed. Media works must incorporate any notes made to your proposals. Resources: The York University library portal may be accessed by searching through research guides on the library catalog search page (http://www.library.yorku.ca/) Many of your assignments will require searching through articles in art, music and/or film databases. I recommend using the “Art, Architecture and Design” research guide and clicking “Indexes & databases” to use the “Art Index with Fulltext” for articles on visual art. Use the “Film Studies” research Guide, searching under “Journal articles” and using either the “International Index to the Performing Arts” or the “International Index to Film and Television Periodicals” to find research materials. JSTOR and ProQuest are also useful databases, which you can find by searching “Periodicals” in the catalog. Class Schedule Week 1 – Jan 9th - Introduction to Appropriation and the Expanded Concept of Authorship In week one we will broadly examine the development of appropriation in film, art, music, and literature at the turn