syllabus

Week 1: 1960s- Present Day: Performance and Video Art

Vast technological progress has correspondingly empowered new forms of performance and
reached global communities whose multiform perspectives and performances have been explored
through moving image. Korean-American artist Nam June Paik is credited as the first artist to
create a performative video work with his Sony Portapak in 1960s. Here, we will examine the
role of video in historical and contemporary performance.

Week 2 Selfie: The Virtual Body

Since the Daguerre type, pictorial representations of the self have been created by artists.
However, the spontaneity, circulation amongst mass audiences, framing, instantaneity, technique
and importantly, its uses beyond artistic and intellectual exploration, distinguishes the Selfie from
traditional photographic processes. Further, the social phenomenon of selfies revolutionize how
we gather and disseminate autobiographical information in the digital age. Comparably, in both
processes, the body becomes an apparatus, recording space, sharing narratives and shifting
temporalities.

Week 3: Gender, Race and (Self)Representation in Performative Lens-Based Practice

The 1970s feminist movement addressed a host of questions about identity politics and
representation. Artists such as the Guerrilla Girls mounted posters with now famous dictums to
shed light on male-centricity in museums and on screen. The art produced thereafter coincided
with rise of third wave feminism and critical race theory and centred the discourse around
inclusivity and intersectionality. Black Feminist artists Faith Rinngold and Kay Brown
spearheaded the movement with their collective Where We At (WWA) and carved space for the
racialized, classed and gendered body and experience. Artists around the globe have similarly
used their body and lens-based practice as a vehicle to explore themes of war, language and
identity politics.

Week 4: Collections, Archives and Distribution

“ Video is infinitely reproducible, one copy the same as the next,” states the video artist Hermine
Freed. The reproducibility of video art does pose some economic challenges for artists but there
are several marketing tools that can help artists reach broader audiences. How does a collection,
archive and distributor differ and how do these institution preserve and circulate video artworks,
how do they contribute to the multifaceted field of media art?