Performance and Identity in Media Art

2009-12-10T20:31:00.001-06:00

Week 12

2009-11-21T17:49:00.004-06:00

OK, peoples. I'm going to give you some options! You can choose to write about EITHER Pierre Huyghe's video The Third Memory or Harrell Fletcher and Miranda July's Learning to Love You More. Here is Huyghe's video The Third Memory. According to the SFMOMA website,

This work retraces John Wojtowicz's famous bank robbery of August 22, 1972, an event that inspired the 1975 film Dog Day Afternoon, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino. With a setup that seemed made for TV — Wojtowicz committed the robbery to pay for his lover's gender-reassignment surgery — the resulting news coverage, the first-ever live television broadcast of a crime, even interrupted network transmission of Richard Nixon's speech at the Republican National Convention.

Huyghe's split-screen video projection combines footage from the feature film with commentary by Wojtowicz himself, who reenacts the crime and comments on the movie's veracity. It is contextualized by postrobbery newspaper clippings and a segment from a January 1978 episode of The Jeanne Parr Show, in which the host interviews Wojtowicz (in prison) and his lover. Through this work, Huyghe attempts to deconstruct the ways in which the news media and Hollywood have reshaped even the original participants' recollections of actual events.

Here is the link to a video "assignment" from Fletcher and July's Learningtoloveyoumore.com: http://learningtoloveyoumore.com/reports/3/3.php

Since I'm posting these works later than usual (I've been barfing like nobody's business due to the stomach flu, GACK!), I'm going to give you all until Tuesday at 3pm to post your responses. Please email me if you have any questions.

Week 11

2009-11-11T21:16:00.002-06:00

Here is documentation of Nauman's piece Live Taped Video Corridor (1970). Please incorporate into your response an answer to the following question: what would Michael Fried think of this piece in light of his criticism of theatricality? Additionally, please respond to the piece in regards to Kraynak's article.

Week 10

2009-11-06T16:46:00.002-06:00

Here is Guillermo Gomez-Pena's Instant Identity Ritual from 2005:

Here is documentation of a live performance piece exhibited at the De Young Museum (San Francisco) in 2006:

Both of these pieces may have been developed in collaboration with fellow members of the group La Pocha Nostra.

Week 9

2009-11-01T13:21:00.002-06:00

There's no blog response due. Just do the reading and come prepared to discuss. I look forward to the next group presentation. Y'all did a really good job last week!

Week 8

2009-10-22T09:51:00.002-05:00

Here is a short documentary on the artist Patty Chang. I'd like you to use the article and the interview to discuss the work you see in the video. See you soon!

Week 5

2009-10-01T12:24:00.006-05:00

The first section of the course--which introduced you to performance art, video art, and net-based video art--is over. Now, I'd like you to get to know this word "performance" a little better. Please read the article (or articles, if you are a grad student) very carefully. This is a theoretical text chosen to give you a broader background on performance and its many meanings and uses.

There is no blog post due this week. Please start working on Project #1.

Week 4

2009-09-25T15:02:00.005-05:00

Ryan Trecartin's Tommy Chat Just E-Mailed Me (2006):

Natalie Bookchin's Mass Ornament (2009):

Week 3

2009-09-17T18:31:00.004-05:00

Here we have Vito Acconci's Undertone (1972):

Don't forget to include quotations from BOTH articles you read for this week. I'm looking forward to Tuesday's class!

Week 2

2009-09-12T14:56:00.000-05:00

OK, so some folks have had trouble with D2L. I don't know why. I'm hoping that the problem has been fixed.

The assignment for Tuesday's class is to read pgs. 183-198 and 213-225 of the Kristine Stiles chapter. Also, I'd like you to consider the following artworks in relation to the reading assignment. I will cut you a break this week, though. In light of the problem with D2L, I won't require you to post to the blog. Instead, be prepared to discuss the two pieces during class on Tuesday. I may begin Tuesday's class by asking everyone to write his/her response in a short paragraph to be handed in to me.

Here you'll find two videos. The first is documentation of Marina Abramovic's piece "Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful" (1975). This piece was originally performed in front of an audience, but then re-enacted for the camera because the artist was unsatisfied with the original documentation.

Here is Abramovic and Ulay's piece "Relation in Time" (1977).

This will be a great semester! I'm looking forward to class on Tuesday.