Visual Ethnography of Everyday Life (01:070:373) Tuesday 2:15-5:15pm BIO 205 -- 3 credits Pilar K. Rau – [email protected] Office: RAB 308 Office hours: Tuesday 1:00-2:00pm or by appointment Course Description This course explores the poetics and politics of producing ethnographic images using commonly-owned digital media. Students will analyze ethnographic, documentary, vernacular and fine art media and gain competence in the aesthetic and technical dimensions of digital image production. The course explores narrative, observational and anti-narrative experimental shooting and editing, as well as the ethical, political, ethnographic, semiotic, and philosophical concerns such decisions entail Learning Outcomes Students will be able to: • Analyze the relationship of innovations in film and digital media on the production of vernacular, documentary and ethnographic visual representations • Identify and critically analyze different approaches to creating visual representations of cultural difference • Critically asses ethical, political, semiotic and philosophical consequences of technological, formal, and aesthetic choices in ethnographic image production • Learn basic technical skills of film and video production that are applicable to a variety of media • Produce short ethnographic videos Department Learning Goals - http://anthro.rutgers.edu/undergrad-program/department-learning-goals 1. Students gain knowledge that will allow them to identify, explain, and historically contextualize the primary objectives, fundamental concepts, modes of analysis, and central questions in Cultural and Visual Anthropology and demonstrate proficiency in their use of this knowledge 2. Students are able to demonstrate proficiency in the use of critical thinking skills 3. Students are able to demonstrate proficiency using current methods in Cultural and Visual anthropology, including library research skills 4. Students are able to express themselves knowledgably and proficiently in writing about central issues in Cultural and Visual Anthropology 5. Students are able to express themselves knowledgably and proficiently in speaking about central issues in in Cultural and Visual Anthropology Required Texts All reading assignments for this course will be available online through Sakai. Films to screen at home are available through the Kanopy website or app and/or Alexander Street, via the Rutgers library Policies • ACADEMIC INTEGRITY - You are responsible for adhering to these policies in all assignments http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu • SAKAI & EMAIL INTEGRITY - It is important that you familiarize yourself with how to use Sakai right away. You will need to regularly check the email attached to Sakai as it is the primary means by which I will contact you about class. • ABSENCES - Students are expected to attend all classes; if you expect to miss 1-2 classes, please use the University absence reporting website https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ to indicate the date and reason for your absence. An email is automatically sent to me. Missed presentations for reasons of religious holiday, serious illness, death in the student’s immediate family, or required participation in a university-sponsored event are, with the appropriate documentation, excused. Upload an image of your documentation to your dropbox folder in Sakai Assignments and Grading Structure (see Sakai for detailed instructions and rubrics) • Weekly Class Participation and Critique (20%) – You are responsible for completing all projects prior to scheduled critiques. In- class critiques require full class participation by actively engaging with work and offering constructive criticism. Critiques address both conceptual and technical execution of the work presented. • Weekly Group and Individual Projects (20%) – see instructions and rubrics on Sakai. • Individual Writing Assignments (20%) - brief writing assignments synthesize readings, lectures, and personal insights from the process of creating ethnographic visual representations. Please post before class, as they may shed some light on your films • Co-host class (5%) - a student will help lead discussion. Prepare provocative questions, media clips, etc. to stimulate thinking • Hack of the day (5%) - As a class we will keep up with technology that is continually changing. Find and test an inexpensive or free app, accessory, hack, or invention. Present in class and post in Sakai. • Inspirational film made with my phone (5%) – find and analyze a film shot on your camera. Read about it in the press. Did they use a special app or equipment? Was the decision based on cost, aesthetics, concept, or chance? • Final paper (15%) – Due via Sakai May 04, 2016 • Final Ethnographic short (10%) – Screen on the last day of class. Put one copy in forums on Sakai Issues Visual Media and Readings View in class: • Introduction to the course (view) Vertov, Dziga. 1929. Man With a Movie Camera (80 min) Kanopy • The Flaneur: Modernity and (view) Ruttmann, Walter. 1927. Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (79 min) Kanopy Ways of Looking (view) Examples of “Actualities” Week 1: • Innovations in Film Technology (images) Frank, Robert. 1958. The Americans. http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2009/frank/ Jan 16 • Possible cameras: smartphone, (images) Weegee. cellphone, laptop, tablets, SLR, (selection)Taylor, Dyanna. 2014. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning. PBS. (1:59) Kanopy Walking and go-pro, shoulder rig, etc. looking: Read/view at home before classs Flaneurs and Street (images) Evans, Walker. 1939. American Photographs Questions: What does a camera Benjamin, Walter. “The Flaneur.” Photography do? Is it a “Kino-fist” or window to (selection) DeCerteau, Michel. 2004 [1980] The Practice of Everyday Life. your soul? Do you feel vulnerable Cole, Tom. 2009. “'The Americans: The Book That Changed Photography.” NPR All things Considered. with camera? Do you hide behind it Louis Römer Podcast. 13 Feb. http://www.npr.org/multimedia/2009/01/frank/ at events? Do you feel like hiding Thurs., 1/18, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100688154 the camera? Do you use the 2:15 p.m., Keroac, Jack. 1958. Introduction. The Americans. camera to create/provoke RAB 001. Low, Setha. 1996. “The Anthropology of Cities.” Annual Review of Anthropology. 383-409 relationships with other people? Voicing the Pink, S. 2007. “Walking with Video.” Visual Studies. 22:3, Dec. What are differences between Populist Vertoz, Dziga. 1922. A manifesto. using a smart phone and a larger, Everyman:” professional camera? Follow: Orphan Films www.facebook.com/groups/orphan.films/ and Humans of New York https://www.facebook.com/humansofnewyork (optional at home) Burns, Ken. 2012. The Dust Bowl. Episode 2. (Amazon Prime) PROJECT 1: 50 Seconds of every day life. In-class screening during week 2 2 View in class: (images) Goldin, Nan • Vernacular photography (view) Maier, Vivian 8mm home movie. (10 min) • Snapshot aesthetic in fine art (view) Maloor, John. 2014. Finding Vivian Maier • “Authenticity” (view) Star, E. and Zeitlin, S. 1975. Home Movie: An American Folk Art. (19 min). • Anthropology’s emit/etic pov. Week 2: • Democratization of media Read/view at home before classs Jan 23 • Introduction to production Boquet, M. 2000. “The Family Photographic Condition.” VAR. 16:1 Spring-Summer. 2-18. elements (camera angles, Cutshaw, S. & Barrett, R. 2008. In the Vernacular: Photography of the Everyday. From Instamatic lighting, acting, etc.) Edwards, E. & Thomas, N. 2012. Camera as Historian:Amateur Photographers & Historical Imagination 1885-1918 to Instagram: Snyder, Stephanie et al. 2006. Snapshot Chronicles: Inventing the American Photo Album Snapshots **Spence, L. and Navarro, V. 2010. Introduction. “Ch 1. Authenticity.” Crafting Truth. Rutgers U. and Home **Kalow, N. 2011. Introduction. Visual Storytelling: The Digital Video Documentary. (4-6) movies Questions: What are the Wolf, K. 2013. “Is documentary-style photography dead? The rerelease of Nan Goldin's "The Ballad of differences between snapshots, Sexual Dependency" reminds us what we've lost in the Internet age.” LA Review of Books. 1 Jan. home movies and street Recommended photography? What distinguishes Maya Stovall (Romanek, M. 2002. One Hour Photo. (98 min) Mon,1/ 22 2:30 amateur, artistic, ethnographic, Zuromskis, C 2013.Snapshot Photography: The Lives of Images RAB 104 and commercial photography? Greenough, S. Introduction. 2007. 1-6. And pick one of the following from 2007. Art of the American “Liquor Store Theatre:: (Explain in terms of technique/ Snapshot 1888-1978. Ed. Greenough, S. National Gallery of Art. Ethnography and technology, pov, intent, Waggoner, D. “Photographic Amusements, 1988-1919.” 2007. 7-72 Contemporary Art relationship with subject, etc) o o Kennel, S. “Quick, Casual, Modern, 1920-1939.” 73-146 o Witkovsky, M. “When the Earth Was Square, 1960-78.” 227-270 Christien Tompkins Wed 1/24 2:15pm RAB 104 Unbundling Race: Design Thinking & Education PROJECT 2: Entrepreneurs Insider and in Post-Katrina outsider New Orleans shooting. In- class screening during week 3 3 • From Forensic Evidence to View in class: Cultural Records (view) Wiseman, Frederick. 1972. Essene. Zipporah Films Week 3: • Semiotic & Post-structuralist (clips) Wiseman TBA Jan 30 approaches to Images (clip) Myrick, Daniel and Sánchez, Eduardo. 1999. Blair Witch Project. (105 min) • Realism and “Reality” (clip) Examples of Reality TV Signs of • Observational, Verite, Direct. (images) Historical examples of ethnographic and anthropometric