English 172:  Introduction to Visual Culture Spring 2005 Jefferson Hendricks English Department  Centenary College of Louisiana

How to Reach Me Texts and Syllabus Policies and Requirements Writing Resources for Students Web Resources for Visual Culture

• Graham Clarke, The Photograph.  Oxford U. Press, 1997.  (PHO)
  
• Jill Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies.  3rd ed.  Routledge, 2003.   (IFS)
  
• Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, eds.  Practices of Looking:  An Introduction to Visual Culture.  Oxford U. Press, 2001.   (POL)
  

Tu Jan 11:          Introduction to Course

Th Jan 13:         On Seeing and How We Think About What We See     

• Reading: 
  
• POL, Chapter I:  "Practices of Looking:  Images, Power, and Politics"  and Chapter 2:  "Viewers Make Meaning"
• Reading Images  --  Teun Velders
• Key words:    from Words of Art and Artlex
• "art"   --    "art"
• "culture"   --   "culture"
• "representation"   --   "representation"
• "meaning"   --   "meaning"
• "ideology"   --   "ideology"
• "visual culture"   --   "visual culture"
• Images to Study: 
  
• "La Gioconda"  (The Mona Lisa)  --  Leonardo da Vinci
• "Girl with a Pearl Earring"  --  Jan Vermeer
• "Olympia"  --  Edouard Manet
  
• Nudes  --  Herb Ritts

Tu Jan 18:

• In-Class Writing -- on Sally Mann and Jock Sturge's photography
  
• Reading:
  
• POL,  Chapter 3:  "Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge"
  
• Analyzing a Photograph:  A How-To Guide  --  Julia Lesage,  U. of Oregon
• Basic Strategies in Reading Photographs  --  Nuovo Contemporary Art
• Images to Study:
• Sally Mann images   --  the Catherine Edelman Gallery
• Sally Mann images
• Sally Mann images @ Blow Up
  
• five Sturges images @ Photographs Do No Bend Gallery,  Dallas
  
• several Sturges images @ the Robert Koch Gallery
• "Misty Dawn, Northern California, 2000" -- Jock Sturges
• "Marine, The Last Day of Summer #1, Montalivet, France"  -- Jock Sturges
• Keywords:
• "gaze and glance"  -- Words of Art
• "gaze" -- Artlex
• Background Reading: 
• Sally Mann page @ PBS Art: 21   (includes images and interview)
• "Dial "P" for Panties: Narrative Photography in the 1990s"  --  Lucy Soutter,  Afterimage
• "Politicizing Puberty:  The Zoning of Child Sexuality in Art, Advertising, and the American Household" --  a forum on children and sexuality  --  Nerve.com   amd Sally Mann's response
  
• "Uncanny Resemblances:  Sally Mann's Immediate Family" -- Jane Fletcher
• "Sally Mann" (review of  Mother Land)  -- David Levi Strauss,  Art Forum
  
• review of Anne Higonnet's book Pictures of Innocence: The History and Crisis of Ideal Childhood  --  Calvin Bedient,  Art in America
• Jock Sturges page @ the Daze Reader --  extensive links to images and articles
• "Jock Sturges"  --  Charles Taylor,  Salon.com
  
• "Seeing 'Bettina'  - analysis of a Jock Sturges photograph" -- Ashley Whamond
• review of Sturges's book  New Work 1996-2000  --  Adam Cadre
  

Th Jan 20:

•  Reading:
  
• review first three chapters of POL
• Introduction to Seeing  --  Richard Gregory
• Visual Perception --  Daniel Chandler
• Images to Study:
• "Jeans"  (Bijou Phillips, Kate Moss) -- Calvin Klein
• "Be"  (Vince Gallo) -- Calvin Klein
• "Jeans" (Bruce Weber) -- Calvin Klein
• The Supermodels Tribute Site  --  Kmmod.com
• "The Dying Gaul" -- Roman copy of Greek original 
• "Monument to George Frideric Handel"  -- Louis-Francois Roubiliac
• Background readings:
• bio and interview with Calvin Klein  --  Playboy magazine (1984)
• "Toward a Critical Theory of Advertising"  --  John Harms and Douglas Kellner,  Illuminations
• "Advertising and the Voice of Authority - Men Have it, Women Don't"  --  Rebecca Zarchikoff

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Tu Jan 25:

• Reading: 
  
• POL,   Chapter 4:  "Reproduction and Visual Technologies" 
  
• Analysis of Visual Images  -- Ross Woodrow
• Images to Study:
  
• Michael Ray Charles images @ Artnet.com
  
• Michael Ray Charles images and info @ PBS  Art:21
• Michael Ray Charles images and info -- Art in Context
• Background Reading: 
  
• "Watermelons and Aunt Jemima: Satire or Racism?  --  Young African-American Artists' Use of Stereotypes Causes Debate in Black Arts Community"

Th Jan 27:

•  POL, Chapter  5:  "The Mass Media and the Public Sphere"
• Quiz  # 1

Tu Feb 1:

• Reading: 
  
• POL, Chapter  6:  "Consumer Culture and the Manufacturing of Desire"
• "on Publicity and Consumer Culture"  --  from John Berger's Ways of Seeing
• Images to Study:  
• music videos from Madonna's Immaculate Collection  (in class)
• 1992 photos of Madonna from Vanity Fair and Vogue  -- photography by Steven Meisel @ Retro Crush
• Background Readings:  
• "Madonna's Revenge" --   Annalee Newitz
• Adbusters  spoof ads
• "Taking ADvantage -- You and Me, Babe: Sex and Advertising" -- Richard F. Taflinger
• Adbusters magazine home page
• a consumer culture bibliography

• Reading: 
  
• POL, Chapter  7:  "Postmodernism and Popular Culture"
• interview with Sherrie Levine  --  Journal of Contemporary Art
  
• Images to Study:  
• music videos from Madonna's Immaculate Collection (in class)
• Marcel Duchamp, "Fountain"
  
• Sherrie Levine, "Fountain (after Marcel Duchamp: A.P.)"
• Sherrie Levine, "After Walker Evans" 
  
• Sherrie Levine, "(Walker Evans)"
• Sherrie Levine, "Newborn"
• Keywords: 
  
• "modernism"
• "postmodernism"
  
• "popular culture"
• "appropriation"
• "appropriation"  (Words of Art)
  
• "aura"
• "conceptual art"
• Background Readings:
• Sherrie Levine -- Artnotart.com
  
• AfterSherrieLevine.com
  
• Innocent or Guilty?  Deciding thte Fate of Sherrie Levine  --  Artjunction.org
  
• American Popular Culture:  Resources for Critical Analysis  --  American Studies Program,  Washington State U.   --  excellent site
• Quiz # 2
  

Week Five:  Feb. 8-10

Tu Feb 8:       No Class -- Mardi Gras Break 

• Reading: 
  
• POL, Chapter 8:  "Scientific Looking,   Looking at Science"
• POL, Chapter 9:   "The Global Flow of Visual Culture"
  
• Images to study:
  
• Images from Science  --  R.I.T.
• Sombrero Galaxy -- Hubble telescope
• Spiral Galzxy  NGC 3370  --  Hubble telescope
• Fartherest known galaxy --  Hubble telescope
• DNA and DNA Protein Complexes
• Virus & Bacteriophage
• Background Reading:
  
• "Landscapes of Capital: Representing Time, Space, & Globalization in Corporate Advertising"  --  Robert Goldman, Stephen Papson, Noah Kersey
  

Week Six:  15-Feb. 17

Th Feb 17:

• In-depth quiz/exam on Practices of Looking:  An Introduction to Visual Culture

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Week Eight:    Mar. 1-3

Tu Mar 1:  

• Reading:
• Clarke, The Photograph,    Chapters 6:  "The Portrait in Photography"   &  7:  "The Body in Photography" 
  
• Images to Study:  
• The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation -- many images and a biography
  
• Robert Mapplethorpe -- Masters of Photography
• Robert Mapplethorpe -- artnet.com
• Robert Mapplethorpe -- Orazio Centaro
• images of the human figure in painting and photography -- USC
• images of the portrait in painting and photography -- USC
• images of self-portraits in painting and photography -- USC
  
• Background Reading (on Mapplethorpe):  
• excerpts from criticism on Mapplethorpe  --  Masters of Photography
• Mapplethorpe page @ the Guggenheim
  
• bio-criticism of Robert Mapplethorpe -- Brain-Juice.com
  
• Robert Mapplethorpe --  Jennifer Jankauskas 
• brief critique of a Mapplethorpe photograph of Patti Smith  --  The Guardian

Th Mar 3: 

• Reading:
  
• Clarke, The Photograph,   Chapter 8:  "Documentary Photography" 
  
• Images to Study:
  
• Lewis Hine --  Masters of Photography
• "(Lewis Hine)  The History Place -- "Child Labor in America, 1908-1912"
  
• Walker Evans -- Masters of Photography
• Walker Evans images @ The Metropolitan Museum
  
• Dorothea Lange  --  Masters of Photography
  
• Background Reading: 
  
• Walker Evans bio @ The Metropolitan Museum
• Walker Evans:  Photographer  -- Hilton Kramer, artnet.com
  
• PBS interview about Walker Evans's photography
  
• "Walker Evans Revolutionizes Documentary Photography" --  Landon Nordeman
• "The Passion of Walker Evans"  --  Daniel Mark Epstein,  New Criterion
  
• "Story of a Photographic Session:  Dorothea Lange's 'Migrant Mother'" 
  
• American from the Great Depression to World War II:  Black and White Photographs from the FSA - OWI, 1935-45
• America from the Great Depression to World War II:  Color Photograhs from the FSA - OWI, 1935-45
  
• "Every Picture Tells a Story:  Documentary Photography and the Great Depression"
• New Frontiers in American Documentary Film  --  Nicole Huffman

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Tu  Mar 8:  Special Guest:  Jonathan Stack, documentary filmmaker

Th Mar 10: 

• Reading:
• Clarke, The Photograph, Chapter 9:   "The Photograph as Fine Art"
  
• Images to Study: 
  
• Alfred Stieglitz -- Masters of Photography
• Imogen Cunningham  --  Masters of Photography
• Edward Weston  --  Masters of Photography
• Clarence John Laughlin -- Masters of Photography
  
• Background Reading: 
  
• Alfred Stieglitz page -- Minneapolis Institute of the Arts
• Alfred Stieglitz bio -- Robert Leggat,  A History of Photography
• Alfred Stieglitz bio --  from Encyclopedia of Photography
• Alfred Stieglitz images and bio --  Blow Up 
  
• "Imogen Cunningham:  Beginnings"  --  Anita Ventura Mozley
  
• "Imogen Cunningham:  The Modernist Years" -- Richard Lorenz
• Edward Weston bio -- PhotoSeminars.com
• Edward Weston bio -- from A World History of Photography
• Clarence John Laughlin bio --  from Encyclopedia of Photography
• page on Clarence John Laughlin

Tu Mar 15:

• Clarke, The Photograph, Chapter 10:  "The Photograph Manipulated" 
  
• Images to Study:
• Photomontages of Hannach Höch
• John Heartfield's photomontages
• Man Ray @ Artcyclopedia
  
• Loretta Lux @ Yossi Millo Gallery
  
• Loretta Lux home page
  
• Background Reading:
  
• Cut and Paste:  A History of Photomontage
• John Heartfield -- Towson U.
  
• Political Photomontage in Europe  --  Peter Marshall,  About.com
  

Th Mar 17: 

• Reading:
• Clarke, The Photograph, Chapter 11:  " The Cabinet of Infinite Curiosities" 
  
• Images to Study:  
• Diane Arbus photography-- Masters of Photography
• Joel Peter Witkin  --  (click on pictures)
• Joel Peter Witkin
• Joel Peter Witkin @ Art Forum.org
  
• Background Reading:
• excerpts from criticism on Diane Arbus -- Masters of Photography
• bio-criticism of Diane Arbus (with good notes on her most important monographs) --  Brain-Juice.com
• a Diane Arbus page -- ArtandCulture.com
  
• Diane Arbus quotes on photography --   Photoquotes.com
  
• "The Photography of Diane Arbus" -- Sara Ironman, Temple U.
  
• "'We're All Born Naked - and All the Rest is Drag': On the Photography of Diane Arbus" -- John Osborne
• "Retinal Detachment" (on Diane Arbus's photography)  --  Bernard Cooper
• "Joel Peter Witkin"  --  Cintra Wilson,  Salon.com
• an interview with Joel Peter Witkin
• review of Witkin's opening at the Fraenkel Gallery  --  Christa Palmer
• "Joel Peter Witkin:  An Eye for the Forbidden"  --  Richard Woodward,  Vanity Fair

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Tu Mar 29:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 1:  "Cinema as Institution"  &  Chapter 2:  "Film Form and Narrative" 
  
• Film in Class:
  
• Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton shorts
  

Th Mar 31:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 3:  "Spectator,  Audience,  and Response" 
  
• Film in Class: 
  
• D.W. Griffith shorts
  

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Tu Apr 5:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 4:  "Critical Approaches to Hollywood Cinema:  Authorship, Genre, and Stars"
  

Th Apr 7:   

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 5:  "The Documentary Form:  Personal and Social 'Realities'"
  

Tu Apr 12:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 6:  "Animation:  Forms and Meanings" 
  
• Film in Class:
  
•   Looney Tunes 
  

Th Apr 14: 

• Reading: 
  
• Film in class:
  
• Quay Brothers

Tu Apr 19:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 7:  "Gender and Film"
• Film in Class: 
  
• Popeye and Betty Boop cartoons
  

Th Apr 21:

• Reading: 
  
• Nelmes,  An Introduction to Film Studies,    Chapter 8: "Lesbian and Gay Cinema"
  
• Film in Class: 
  
• Pee-Wee's Playhouse and SpongeBob Square Pants 
  

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Week Sixteen:  Apr. 26-28

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