Course News

Television is Dead, Long Live Television

OK so, I have two things that everyone needs to look at by Tuesday... one is a text, one is a video (although it, too is all text). These are to give us a kind of formal/historical/political introduction to television as a communication technology. Both are roughly from the same time - the early to mid 1970s, so these are reflections on the media roughly half way between its introduction and our current moment, but closer to its beginning in many important ways - pre-cable, pre-WWW, pre-satellite.
1. Raymond Williams: " The Technology and the Society"
2. Artists Carlotta Schoolman & Richard Serra: "Television Delivers the People"
But we can take the discussion up to the present... let's take Google's Youtube. Just the other day the New York Times ran a story about new implementations of data-mining technologies for Youtube videos. This kind of data-mining puts traditional tv ratings systems to shame - we're not talking statistical averages anymore - the individuated mass media of the web supplies real-time and automated meta data.
About two years ago, some ambitious directors/writers began a covert drama on Youtube called Lonelygirl15. It was created in tandem with other media (like myspace pages) to create the appearance that this was actually a 15-year-old girl's life - it got major coverage, and hundreds of people watched it and even wrote advice to lonelygirl15. And more recently, the writers of Scrubs produced a pilot sitcom that the WB network turned down. So, they put it on Youtube.
In class, we'll look at a few more things related to art and advertising and get into the project parameters.
Have a great weekend.

posted by ryan griffis at 9:07 PM Thursday, March 27, 2008

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First Part of Class on Thursday

The first candidate (of 4) for a position in sculpture/studio will be giving a talk that coincides with our class time, from 4-5pm in room 229. Because of the significance of this position, we will attend this talk before reconvening for a critique of the interview projects, which we will try to conduct in 229 as well.
This particular candidate looks especially relevant to our interests in time arts and moving image. Roxana Perez-Mendez creates installations and video works that blur the line between official and speculative histories, mostly surrounding Puerto Rican identity.
Some additional info:
images
short review

posted by ryan griffis at 11:55 AM Monday, March 24, 2008

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Interview project due Thursday March 27

posted by ryan griffis at 8:45 AM

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New For-Educational-Use-Only

The next screening will be Monday, March 24, 7pm in room 229 as usual.
For anyone who's followed the DC punk scene that began in the early 80s (resulting in record labels Dischord, Simple Machines, DeSoto, etc) Jem Cohen might be of interest. He's documented that scene in photography and film and was the film maker behind "Instrument," the documentary on Fugazi.

Jem Cohen
Chain
01:39, 2004, color, sound

As regional character disappears and corporate culture homogenizes our surroundings, it's increasingly hard to tell where you are. In "Chain", malls, theme parks, hotels and corporate centers worldwide are joined into one monolithic contemporary "superlandscape" that shapes the lives of two women caught within it. One is a corporate businesswoman set adrift by her corporation while she researches the international theme park industry. The other is a young drifter, living and working illegally on the fringes of a shopping mall. Cohen contrives to turn the entire planet into a stretch of New Jersey commercial property--a universe that feels entirely real yet has the distinct smack of J.G. Ballard otherness. (VDB)

"Jem Cohen's Chain is a hypnotic, highly original piece about what it's like to live in the new global corporate landscape."
--Daily Telegraph

"Dreamlike... transforms a mundane world into something strange and new... formidable power... fierce political intelligence."
---Village Voice

posted by ryan griffis at 6:24 PM Saturday, March 22, 2008

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Podcastic

Here it is, with the files I've received up to the point you're looking at it. You can add it to your iTunes (if you use it) by going to "advanced" in the iTunes menu and "subscribe to podcast" - just paste the url into the field. Otherwise, you can use most Mac-based browsers to access it.

posted by ryan griffis at 6:36 PM Thursday, March 6, 2008

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Reading for Tuesday, March 11. (Not the 6th as previously posted)

Martha Rosler's In, Around and Afterthoughts

posted by ryan griffis at 11:37 AM Monday, March 3, 2008

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Previous Posts

| Television is Dead, Long Live Television | First Part of Class on Thursday | Interview project due Thursday March 27 | New For-Educational-Use-Only | Podcastic | Reading for Tuesday, March 11. (Not the 6th as pre... | Podcasting | For Next Week | Next Reading (for Thursday 2/28) | For Tuesday, Feb 19

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