Art, Politics
and New Media
Syllabus - Summer,
2003
Johns Hopkins University
Communications in Contemporary Society
Mon/Wed, 5:10 PM
- 7:00 PM
Course
Description
"The
term 'tactical media' refers to a critical usage and theorization of
media practices that draw on all forms of old and new, both lucid and
sophisticated media, for achieving a variety of noncommercial goals
and pushing all kinds of potentially subversive political issues."
–
Critical Art Ensemble
Art,
Politics and New Media overviews the ideas, strategies, and work
of the artist as a critical lens on the changing landscape of cultural
and political conditions in an increasingly technological and globalized
world. It brings the artist's role into focus by examining the historical
avant-garde, whose aspirations were to bring about social and political
transformation through aesthetic means. Included will be a broad survey
of 20th century artistic movements including: Futurism, Dada, Surrealism,
Constructivism, Situationists, and Fluxus. Critical to this investigation
will be artistic mediations that voice radical social change and utopian
ideology through such forms as site-specific installation, performance
art, street theater, artist books, manifestoes, journals, etc.
The course
will also explore a wide range of work that incorporates new artistic
strategies that take into account the evolving forms of new media, virtual
reality, digital video, and the Internet. Specific artists and art collectives
to be examined will include RTMark, Critical Art Ensemble, Electronic
Disturbance Theater, RSG (Radical Software Group), and others who are
using new media to stage projects that critique contemporary social
and political issues through parody, simulation, activist and "hactivist"
strategies. The course will conclude with an analysis of the instructor's
recent project, The US Department of Art & Technology, a virtual
government agency that provides a forum for artistic critique of the
political process. Students will are assigned weekly written assignments
that summarize historical and contemporary trends in the convergence
of art, society, new media and politics. A final project will be a prospectus
or artwork that explores artistic intervention, site-specific installation
or performance, and appropriation in the nation's capital.
Week
1 - Introduction: Artist Utopias (June 2, 4)
Review
of course objectives, assignments, and projects.
Introduction
to concepts and trends related to the role of the artist in society
– aspirations, ideologies, and tactics. A broad historical
overview of concepts, avant-garde movements, and examples of artistic
mediation.
Questions
on the role of the artist in society. US DAT Presentational
Video.
Examples
of acts
of artistic mediation:
Reading:
- Randall
Packer, “Utopianism,
Technology, & the Avant-Garde: The Artist Shaping the Social
Condition,” Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts, Baltimore,
MD (2001)
- Victor
Margolin, “The Struggle for Utopia,” University of Chicago
Press (1997)
- Marshall
McLuhan, “Understanding Media,” MIT Press, Boston, MA
(1964)
- Stewart
Home, “The Assault on Culture,” AK Press, Stirling,
England (1991)
Notes
for discussion based on the reading.
Assignments:
- 250
word response to one of the unanswered questions on the role of
the artist in society (6/4). Email to rpacker@zakros.com
- class
disscussion of readings (6/4).
- next
week's readings for 6/9, questions for discussion.
Special Discussion
Topic:
Corporate
Control of Media - The FCC is voting today (6/2) on a controversial
ruling to ease regulation on media ownership. This new ruling has
broad impact on first amendment rights and the ability of corporate
owners to increase their control over information disseminated through
the media.
Week
2 - Manifesto & the Historical Avant-Garde (June 9, 11)
The
manifesto has been used as a text-based medium to express extreme
ideologies and a call-to-action. We will look at the manifestoes of
Futurism, Dada, and Surrealism to analyze how these statements incorporate
tactics of theater, surprise, fantasy, and shock, as well as how they
articulate the artistic methodologies and aspirations of each movement.
6/11
- The instructor will give a performance of "Speech
for the End of Time." We will joined by students from the
Cornell Summer Program. Everyone will participate in the event. The
event will be held in LL7.
Reading:
- F.T.
Marinetti, “The Founding and Manifesto of Futurism,”
Documents of 20th Century Art, Viking Press, NY (1970)
-
Richard Huelsenbeck, “Dadaist Manifesto,” Dada Art and
Anti-art, Hans Richter, Thames and Hudson, London, England (1964)
-
André Bréton, “Manifesto of Surrealism (1924),”
Ann Arbor Book, Michigan, 1970
- Randall
M. Packer, “Secretary Delivers ‘Speech
for the End of Time,’” US Department of Art &
Technology (2003)
Notes
for discussion based on the reading.
Assignments:
- Prepare
one question for the Speech Wednesday evening, which critiques the
artist's attempt to confront the political conditions of war by
borrowing from (appropriating) one of the manifestoes of the historical
avant-garde. Weave the manifesto quote into your question. (6/11)
For
example: Since "art and its execution and direction is
dependent on the time in which it lives, and artists are creatures
of their epoch," what form of expression might today's
artist use in confronting such questionable policies as the
war on terror. (from the Dada Manifesto by Richard Huelsenbeck)
Week
3 - Social Transformations (June 16, 18)
The
second wave avant-garde artists, including the Situationists, John
Cage, Fluxus, and Joseph Beuys, were influential in the activation
of the social and political revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, extending
the tactics of the historical avant-garde through the exploration
of experimental forms of film, theater, performance, happenings, installation,
and site-specific art.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of the Guy Debord essay.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of the Joseph Beuys essays.
Reading:
- Guy
Debord, “Report on the Construction of Situations and on the
Terms of Organization and Action of the International Situationist
Tendency (1957),” Guy Debord and the Situationist International
(edited by Tom McDonough), MIT Press, October Book, Cambridge, Massachusetts
(2002)
-
Dick Higgins, “Intermedia,” (1966), Multimedia: From
Wagner to Virtual Reality (Edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan),
Norton, New York (2001)
-
John Cage, “Diary: Audience,” (1966), Multimedia: From
Wagner to Virtual Reality (Edited by Randall Packer and Ken Jordan),
Norton, New York (2001)
-
Joseph Beuys, “Introduction (1979),” Joseph Beuys in
America (Compiled by Carin Kuoni), Four Walls Eight Windows, New
York (1990)
-
Joseph Beuys, “I am Searching for Field Character,”(1973)
Joseph Beuys in America (Compiled by Carin Kuoni), Four Walls Eight
Windows, New York (1990)
Assignment:
-
As
a midterm assignment, write an approx. 1500 word essay (based
on the writings with references/examples) describing artistic
activity as a force for social and political tranformation.
As we have seen, artistic activity can take many forms, have various
intentions, be produced by various individuals. Consider the following
questions in your analysis:
- Define
artistic activity (as specifically or generally as you like)?
- What
form does this activity take?
- How
does this activity interact with the social realm?
- Who
carries out this activity?
- Where
does this activity take place?
- What
results from this activity?
- How
does this activity relate to the larger culture, particular
mass media?
Week
4 - Cultural Intervention & Tactical Media (June 23, 25)
In the
1980s and 1990s, artists (no longer under the banner of the avant-garde),
influenced by post-modernist strategies of cultural appropriation,
popular forms and new media, explored new methods of inserting the
artist statement into the public sphere though a wide range of tactics
and electronic technologies.
We will
hold class on Monday, June 23rd at the Vietnam Memorial in the National
Mall to critique Maya Lin's work.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of the Maya Lin interviews.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of Jenny Holzer and Critical
Art Ensemble.
Reading:
- Maya
Lin, “Untitled Statements,” (1983, 1993, 1995), Theories
and Documents of Contemporary Art (Edited by Kristine Stiles), UC
Berkeley Press (1996)
-
Jenny Holzer, “Language Games: Interview with Jeanne Siegel,”
(1985), Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art (Edited by Kristine
Stiles), UC Berkeley Press (1996)
-
Guillermo Gómez-Pena, “The Virtual Barrio @ the Frontier,”
Clicking In (Edited by Lynn Hershman), Bay Press, Seattle, WA (1996)
-
Critical Art Ensemble, “Recombinant Theater and Digital Resistance,”
Digital Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media, Autonomedia,
Brooklyn, New York (2001)
Week
5 - Net Strategies (June 30, July 2)
In
the mid 1990s, the Internet transformed communications, opening
up new
access for artist to stage socio-political projects in broadly distributed
public space. The medium also enabled artists to extend the possibilities
for cultural intervention through "hactivist" strategies,
as well as enabling many-to-many forms of collective agency.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of Ricardo Domingues
and RTMARK.
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of Natalie Bookchin and
Peter Weibel.
Reading:
- Ricardo
Domingues, “Electronic Disturbance: An Interview,” Cultural
Resistance Reader (Edited by Stephen Duncombe), Verso, London (2002)
-
Natalie Bookchin, “Introduction to net.art (1994-1999)
-
Peter Weibel, “Art/Politics in the Online Universe,”
Net_Condition, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (1999)
-
Heath Bunting, “Interview with Heath Bunting: Street Artist,
Political Net Artist or Playful Trickster,” (Interviewed by
Josephine Bosma), Telepolis (1997)
-
RTMARK, “Etoys Finally Drops Lawsuit,” RTMARK (2000)
-
Alex Galloway (RSG), “How we Made our own ‘Carnivore,’”
(2002)
Week
6 - The Artist as Mediator (July 7, 9)
Notes
for discussion based on the reading of Alex Galloway and
US DAT.
The
US Department of Art & Technology is a virtual government
agency created by the instructor. The class will review the project's
website,
analyzing its content constructed through appropriation and implantation
of government systems, and how it inserts itself into the political
process and a critique and a construction of a utopian model
for
artist-driven
government.
On
the last day, the class will present and critique final projects.
Assignments
and Grading
Readings, Discussion,
and Summaries (50%)
Attendance
(on time) is mandatory and will be incorporated into the grade. Each
student is required to participate in class discussion focusing on
readings and lectures, as well as write weekly summaries.
Final Project
(50%)
A final
project will involve staging an "event" or "situation"
in Washington, DC, which critiques the political process from the
artist's perspective. The event may be staged conceptually (on paper),
or it may be physically placed in a location as a site-specific project,
or it may be virtually placed on the internet. The instructor's Department
of Art & Technology and Experimental Party projects provide examples,
but other forms may involve a new monument for the National Mall,
introducing a fictitious bill in Congress that supports the arts and
culture, an artist-driven lobbyist organization, transforming the
Pentagon into a contemporary arts museum, town hall meetings in the
White House open to the public, etc.
Miscellaneous
Required Reading
Course
Reader, available 6/11.
Internet Access
Everyone
is required to hand in weekly written assignments via email.
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