Class/Date	Subject	Screening	Reading	Assignment
Part I Technical Inventions and Histories	In the first two weeks of this class we will study histories of the moving image, and their social impact.
#1: Feb. 6 Introduction: The Marvelous and the Mundane	Intro to the themes of the class: politics and poetics; from spectator to participant Fascination with the technology of the moving image at the turns of the centuries	Early films:  Lumiere Bros Georges Melies Edison Productions excerpts: Synthetic Pleasures
#2 Feb. 13 The Apparatus as Social Technology	This class will cover the early image making devices and the construction of the subject The panopticon as an architecture and apparatus	Slide presentation of early imaging devices Muybridge Laser Disc Screening: "BIT: Bureau of Inverse Technology"; Barsimian, "Behind the Iris"	see reading due for next week: readings are due for discussion on the day they are listed. All readings can be found in the class reader unless otherwise specified.	Writing, research and observation: During the coming week, note and document instances of the panopticon in your own life, either actually, architecturally or symbolically. Be aware of how the panopticon works as a system of visual control, power or punishment. Have your observations ready for discussion and to turn in next class (two pages). You can use photos, video, web or text to document your observations. Also, how does the campus exhibit instances of the panopticon?
Part II The Politics of the Moving Image	It has been said that looking is never innocent. In the second part of this class we will analyze the pleasure and power of looking, studying various theories and screening a variety of films/videos which problematize the "gaze".
#3 Feb. 20 Colonialism: Privilege of the Gaze	In this class we will discuss the tropes or conventions used to observe or represent others, how these act to colonize or objectify.	"Dia de la Independencia: A Coming Attraction Parody", Alex Rivera and Lalo Lopez, Mexico/USA Selected Excerpts: "West Side Story" "End of Violence" "Triumph of the Will" and others....	Required: "Surveillance, Under Western Eyes", David Spurr, pgs. 12-27	Assignment #1: Have panopticon assignment ready (see above) #2: Discussion: What are the tropes or conventions discussed in this reading through which we see or represent other cultures or people? How are the conventions present in your everyday life? What are some of the solutions the authors suggest to break with "objectivist models" of experiencing other cultures and people?
#4 Feb. 27 Self-representation: Aspects of Subjectivity Notes	Indigenous producers offer alternatives to visualism and objectification through content, form, structure and the unique uses of the video/film medium.	"Morayngava", David Carelli and Virginia Valadao, 17:00, 1997, Brazil "Imagining Indians", Victor Masayesva, USA "LA Familia", Harry Gamboa, USA	Required: Monica Frota. "Taking Aim: The Video Technology of Cultural Resistance". 258-282. "Through Native Eyes: The Emerging Native American Aesthetic", Victor Masayesva. 20, 21, 27.	Prepare for Discussion: In the essay, "Taking Aim", the writer suggests various ways in which indigenous videomakers can use video to challenge dominant cultural assumptions--what are these ways? In "Through Native Eyes", the writer suggests there is an indigenous aesthetic which is different from dominant cinema. What are some of aesthetics?
#5 March 6 Third Cinema: Film for social change	In this section, we will continue our discussion concerning colonialism and cinema. "Battle of Algiers" will be discussed as a possible example of narrative cinema which encourages identification with the revolutionaries.	"Battle of Algiers", dir. Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966, French/Algierian	Robert Stam and Louise Spence."Colonialism, Racism, and Representation", 235-250 Elizabeth Hutchinson,"The Critical and Practical Dialectics of Third Cinema", 53-66	Discussion: The writers criticize dominant cinema in the ways it creates masterful subjects and colonized objects. Why do Stam and Spence think that the creation of positive images is a limited strategy to counter racism? How do cinematic codes construct or destroy voyeuristic, colonial viewpoints? Are the strategies and structures used by Third Cinema different from dominant (Hollywood) cinema or do they borrow or build on dominant cinematic practice? How does the camera shift our identification to the rebels in "Battle of Algiers"?
#6 March 13 Introduction to Feminist Film Theory: The Male Gaze  "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" is considered a seminal essay in the formation of psychoanalytic and feminist film theory.  Notes	In this class we will discuss some of the most important ideas embodied in the Mulvey essay and its relation to the preceding topic of objectivist models of representation in post-colonial film theories. However, we will shift our analysis to gendered looking. We will use many of the tropes or conventions Spurr outlined in his essay, "Under Western Eyes", to deconstruct Rear Window.	"Rear Window", Alfred Hitchcock, 1954, USA	Due today: Patricia White. "Feminism and Film". 117-134 Due today:Mulvey, Laura. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." 14-26 Read for writing assignment (see midterm writing assignment):John Berger, "Ways of Seeing", Chpt. 3, 45-64	Prepare for discussion:How is the gaze "male"? Why does Mulvey use psychoanalysis to understand filmic representation? How does camera technology work to bind us or "suture" us the image? How does she suggest we disrupt this powerful gaze? How do you find her solutions similar to Spurr in "Under Western Eyes". Please review "Under Western Eyes" for today's class.  Rear Window Study Questions: print out and use these study question during today's screening. Write brief answers based on your observations of the film. Turn in next week. Midterm writing assignment due 2 weeks: please see attached or click here for linking page for details of your assignment.
#7 March 20 Signs of Resistance: Female Transgression	In this class we will screen several works by women artists who transgress culturally accepted notions of standard female behavior, and how they represent this on camera. Not for the prim and proper!	-"Vital Statistics of a Citizen", Martha Rosler, 1977, USA -"Spy in the House that Ruth Built", Vanalyne Green. 1989, USA -"White Trash Girl", Jennifer Reeder1995, USA -"Hey Baby Chicky", Nina Sobell, USA -excerpt: "Gone with the Wind", 1939, USA	Laura Kipnis. "Female Transgression.",333-345. "Pornography". Laura Kipnis, 153-157	Discussion: What does transgression mean? How are taboos established? Are there gendered double standards in terms of appropriate behavior? Why is important for women to take control of their representations, and to have the freedom to represent themselves as they wish?
Part III Poetics of Film and Video: Experiments in New Media Throughout this course we have been studying the problematic space between the subject and object, artist and artwork, or spectator or image and how this has been constructed or collapsed.	In this section we will focus our attention on poetic and experimental strategies as a way to draw the viewer into the work. We are asked to move from spectator to participant, viewer to interactant, distant observer to involved subject. Storytelling, poetry, interactivity, new media, and electronic experimentation are the subject of this section.
#8 March 27 Signs of Resistance: Cultural Resistance and Nomadic Aesthetics	Using Teshome Gabriel's essay on black cinema, we will entertain the notions of "nomadic aesthetics" and how they are a sign of resistance to mainstream Hollywood film while viewing work from African, African American and Australian Aboriginal filmmakers and video makers.	excerpts from: "Angano..Angano..Tales from Madagascar", Cesar Paes, Africa "Black is, Black Ain't", excerpt, Marlon Riggs, U.S.  "Bedevil", Tracey Moffat, Australia	Teshome H. Gabriel, "Thoughts on Nomadic Aesthetics and Black Independent Cinema: Traces of a Journey." 395-410.	Midterm paper due today-no late papers. For information on this paper, see click here to link to details of the assignment. Discussion: What are the characteristics of "nomadic" or "traveling" aesthetics as discussed by Gabriel? List its attributes. Hand this list in to me.
No class April 2: Spring Break April 2 - April 7
#9 April 10 Experimental Video and Film: From Audience to Interactor Recently, the viewer, spectator or audience has been incorporated into the moving image, whether through identification with the camera or through psychological response. Today "interactivity" is the buzzword in the world of art and commerce.  notes	This class will introduce early interactive electronic art as experienced in the work of Nam Jun Paik, and other video artists and filmmakers working the late 60's and early 70's. The viewer becomes interactor, actually manipulating the apparatus itself. The time-based nature of film and video will also be discussed.	Film and video excerpts by: Nam Jun Paik, Korean/USA Stan Brakhage, USA Bill Viola, USA	"Paik's Video Sculpture", John Hanhardt "Nam Jun Paik's Videotapes", David Ross. 91-110 "From Metaphors on Vision", Stan Brakhage. 228-234	Prepare for discussion: How does Nam Jun Paik's work challenge our assumptions about television? What are the ways he uses and critiques popular culture? Brakhage suggests that through art we can have an increased ability to perceive. Imagine your perception unruled by the laws of perspective, logic, socialized vision. Imagine if you had no words for the objects around you, no preconceived models in which to place the things you see. Assignment: take a familiar place and look very carefully at it--use an increased ability to see. What do you see? Write a short narrative/description/poem about it.Or make a video which explores the world outside the frame. Hand in at next class.
#10 April 17 New Media: Hypertext as a new moving image	In this section we will cover two important topics related to postmodern cultural production: one is the hypertext (hypermedia) or new narrative strategies which are immersive, interactive and nonlinear; the other is a challenge to the notion of plagiarism and ownership.	Screening of selected CD ROMs and Websites	"Utopian Plagiarism, Hypertextuality, and Electronic Cultural Production", Critical Art Ensemble, 83-101 Discussion: Before coming to class, research the history of copyright. Can you explain why the title of today's reading contains the word "utopian"? What is recombination? Why do we give such high status to work which is "original"? What are the functions of reproductions in any culture?	Assignment: We will create a group hypertext based on the text which is due for today. Visit this text on line before class. What kinds of meaning addition, deletions, annotations, etc. would you contribute to the text? http://courses.csusm.edu/vsar422kd/ UP/UtopianPlagiarism.html  In this class I will teach you how to download this text, make your own annotations, and upload this text. While reading the text in your reader, make notes as to passages you would like to explicate, append, or comment on. Make at least two intelligent entries before the end of the semester. This is an ongoing, shared text which incorporates several individual's contributions to the text over a period of years. Please look at this text on-line before coming to class.  Online help: http://www.csusm.edu/garrett/electures/index.html
#11 April 24 Digital Cinema and Independent Production	In this class, we will explore new movements in using digital technology in low budget, narrative film.	Lars Van Trier "Breaking the Waves", "The Kingdom", and "Dancer in the Dark", Denmark excerpts from other Dogma directors	"Cinema Purite", Anne Thompson also visit website: http://www.dogme95.dk/	prepare for panel presentations
#12 May 1 TBA				abstract due for Panel #1 test technical aspects of presentation
Panel Presentations Website	Guidelines	For information on topics, click here
#13 May 8 Presentations	Panel Topic: Histories of Media			abstract due for Panel #2 test technical aspects of presentation
#14 May 15 Presentations	Panel Topic: Transgression and Subjectivity			abstract due for Panel #3 test technical aspects of presentation
#15 May 22 Presentations	Panel Topic: Gender and Media