*indicates a provisional syllabus
**indicates an example syllabus
FALL 2011 MAP-UA 711 Expressive Culture: The Graphic Novel
Prof. Borenstein (Russian and Slavic Studies) syllabus
Examines the interplay between words and images in the graphic novel, a hybrid medium with a system of communication reminiscent of prose fiction, animation, and film. What is the connection between text and art? How are internal psychology, time, and action conveyed in a static series of words and pictures? What can the graphic novel convey that other media cannot? Authors include Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, Peter Milligan, Charles Burns, Carla Speed McNeil.
FALL 2011 MAP-UA 722 Expressive Culture: Architecture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Art History) syllabus
New York's rich architectural heritage offers a unique opportunity for firsthand consideration of the concepts and styles of modern urban architecture, as well as its social, financial, and cultural contexts. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to prominent buildings. Attention is given both to individual buildings as examples of 19th- and 20th-century architecture and to phenomena such as the development of the skyscraper and the adaptation of older buildings to new uses.
FALL 2011 MAP-UA 730 Expressive Culture: Sounds
Prof. Staynek (Music) syllabus
Our lives pulsate with patterns of sounds that we call music. We encounter these sounds in our homes, cars, stores, and exercise salons; they accompany us to the grocery store, the dentist's office, and the movies; yet we rarely think consciously about what they mean. Through a series of specific case studies we investigate the function and significance of music and the musician in human life. We raise basic questions about how music has been created, produced, perceived, and evaluated at diverse historical moments, in a variety of geographical locations, and among different cultural groups. Through aural explorations and discussion of how these vivid worlds "sound" in time and space, we assess the value of music in human experience.
FALL 2011 MAP-UA 750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Guerrero (Cinema Studies) syllabus
A range of utopian/dystopian visions of the future as forecast in our popular cinema, and literature, in a range of films from 'sci fi' to fantasy and horror, extending from the 1950s to the present. Questions and issues include the increasing prevalence of apocalyptic endings to present and future worlds; contrasts between a fragile democratic ‘now’ vs. an authoritarian techno-future; race, gender, and sexuality in the ‘scientifically’ engineered and overdetermined future; class, labor, and social privilege among replicants, cyborgs, and humans; the consumption of virtual reality, cyber-sex, and other commodities; post-technological tribalism; future 'hoods & cityscapes; warnings of cyber-surveillance, techno-collapse, and eco-disaster. Finally, we ask: what is 'utopia,' how is it 'imagined,' and is it still possible? Screenings and readings from the likes of George Orwell, Ray Kurzweil, Paul Vrilio, Aldous Huxley, among others.
SPRING 2012 MAP-UA 720 Expressive Culture: Images
Prof. Silver (Art History) syllabus
Avant-Garde New York, from the Armory Show to Andy Warhol. New York became the center of avant-garde art-making in the period just after the Second World War, although the city had been preparing for its modernist ascendancy since the early years of the 20th century. We focus on art and its makers--native New Yorkers and out-of-towners, Americans and foreign-born practitioners--who helped shape and refine New York’s extraordinarily rich avant-garde “tradition.” Painters, sculptors, photographers, architects, graphic artists, and set designers will be studied, including Alfred Stieglitz, Raymond Hood, Charles Demuth, Paul Manship, Piet Mondrian, Joseph Cornell, Helen Levitt, Isamu Noguchi, Jackson Pollock, Louise Nevelson, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Philip Johnson, and Andy Warhol, as will the context in which their work came into being and flourished--museums, galleries, art schools, patrons, artist neighborhoods, professional organizations, ad hoc associations, and artist “hangouts.” Topics include: the Stieglitz Circle and 291; The Armory Show (1913); the Paris/New York connection; the founding of the Museum of Modern Art; Marcel Duchamp and New York Dada; the art of the Harlem Renaissance; Frank O’Hara--poet, critic, curator; Street Photography; the birth of Abstract Expressionism; Avant-gardism in Washington Square--Judson Dance Theater; From Madison Avenue to 57th Street--Pop Art Emerges. Includes class excursions to museums, galleries, and other New York art sites.
SPRING 2012 MAP-UA 721 Expressive Culture: Images—Painting and Sculpture in New York Field Study
Prof. Broderick (Art History) syllabus
New York's public art collections contain important examples of painting and sculpture from almost every phase of the past, as well as some of the world's foremost works of contemporary art. Meets once a week for an extended period combining on-campus lectures with group excursions to the museums or other locations where these works are exhibited.
SPRING 2012 MAP-UA 730 Expressive Cultures: Sounds
Prof. Daughtry (Music) syllabus
An experimental study of and engagement with the human voice that seeks to understand the voice as: (1) the result of a complex physiological process, (2) the one truly universal musical instrument, (3) a privileged medium for communication (4) a technologically mediated commodity; (5) a potent social weapon, and (6) a vehicle for expressive culture. We attend to voices deployed to effect political change, voices used as instruments of healing, and voices that make the hair rise up on the back of your neck. We also use our own voices in unorthodox ways, composing and making a chorus of sounds together. No prior singing or music experience is expected or required; students must, however, be willing to participate in vocal exercises, ranging from whispers to primal screams.
SPRING 2012 MAP-UA 740 Expressive Culture: Performance
Prof. Meineck (Classics/Aquila Theatre Company) syllabus
Why do we still go to the theatre to watch plays? What is it about drama that can often seem to express so much about the tensions and stresses found in a given culture? Why does classical drama in particular continue to be performed and speak to so many different audiences? What is a classical play and how do theater artists interpret them for contemporary spectators, and why have so many works of drama been used to reflect the social, political, and economic situations of peoples all over the world? We explore the cultural significance of classical theater and how and why it continues to be performed today. We examine theater from four distinct period--ancient Athens, Elizabethan London, early modern Europe, and contemporary Americ--focusing on plays that are still regularly performed on contemporary stages. Students also take part in readings, exercises, and demonstrations, but they do not need to have any acting or performance ability.
SPRING 2012 MAP-UA 750 Expressive Culture: Film
Prof. Simon (Cinema Studies) syllabus
American narrative films, produced primarily during the period 1965-75, considered as an innovative cycle of filmmaking in dialogue with significant historical, political, and cultural transformations in American society. Examines developments in film genre during this period especially in relation to political and cultural change. Narrative innovations are emphasized, with special attention to the specificity of film form and style (e.g., editing, mise-en-scène, sound). Provides an introduction to the methods and principles of film analysis as well as dealing with this period of filmmaking in depth. Includes films by Kubrick, Coppola, Altman, and Scorsese.