ART 1A WEEK 6 (JULY 28-30) SHANA MOULTON & WHISPERING PINES

Shana Moulton. My Life as an INFJ, video installation, 2016, photo by Aurélien Mole, courtesy of Galerie Crevecoeur.

Shana Moulton, who is a professor in The Department of Art at UCSB, is one of the most important video and performance artists today. She has been featured by Art21 and has an impressive international exhibition record. This week you will be watching several episodes from her video series Whispering Pines.

About Shana Moulton:

With a savvy fusion of humor and poignancy, Professor Moulton’s multidisciplinary work in video and performance explores contemporary anxieties though her filmic alter ego, Cynthia. Moulton’s cosmology of symbols, everyday objects, and altered states coalesce to form an alchemical snapshot of ambivalent self-awareness in trying times. Moulton, widely considered to be a leader in the field, has been broadly exhibited nationally and internationally including at the Palais De Tokyo, Paris, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, Kunsthaus Glarus, Switzerland, Art in General, New York, Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Galeria Arsenał, Białystok, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, La Loge, Brussels, and The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. Group exhibitions include Migros Museum Für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea do Chiado, Lisbon, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, Guangdong Times Museum, Guangzhou, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Göteborgs Konsthall, Göteborg, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, and Wiels Center for Contemporary Art, Brussels. She has performed at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, The Kitchen, New York, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, The Getty, Los Angeles, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, South London Gallery, London and Cricoteka, Kraków among many others. Moulton's work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times, ArtReview, Art in America, Flash Art, Artpress, Metropolis M, BOMB Magazine, and Frieze among others. Her work is distributed by Electronic Arts Intermix and she is a featured artist on Art21’s New York Close Up.

http://www.shanamoulton.info

 Shana Moulton. Restless Leg Saga, 2012, video still, courtesy of the artist.

According to Art21,

Should an artist separate herself from the character she creates? In this film, artist Shana Moulton traces the development of her ongoing video and performance series Whispering Pines and its central protagonist Cynthia.

Moulton charts the various ways in which fiction and autobiography meld and diverge in the character of Cynthia, played by the artist herself. The title of the series is an homage to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and adopts the name of Shana’s childhood home: a trailer park for seniors near Yosemite, California.

Featuring video and music from several episodes of Whispering Pines—a mix of live action, computer animation, and original songs by Jacob Ciocci and Nick Hallett.

 Shana Moulton. Morning Ritual, 2016 video still, courtesy of the artist.

Before you watch Whispering Pines, please watch this Art21 interview with Shana Moulton:

https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/a-brief-history-of-shana-moulton-whispering-pines

Watch Whispering Pines HERE: whisperingpines10.com

This interactive website will force you to figure out the password to unlock the last chapter.

 Shana Moulton. MindPlace ThoughtStream, 2014, video still, courtesy of the artist.

WEEK 6 (July 27-30): Shana Moulton & Whispering Pines

According to Art21, "Moulton charts the various ways in which fiction and autobiography meld and diverge in the character of Cynthia, played by the artist herself. The title of the series is an homage to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and adopts the name of Shana’s childhood home: a trailer park for seniors near Yosemite, California. Featuring video and music from several episodes of Whispering Pines—a mix of live action, computer animation, and original songs by Jacob Ciocci and Nick Hallett."

Writing Assignment Due (Thursday, July 30 by midnight): Watch each individual video chapter from Whispering Pines 10 (35min) HERE: whisperingpines10.com. This interactive website will force you to figure out the password to unlock the last chapter. After you have all of the chapters, you will write a 2-page response to Whispering Pines 10. If you notice any intertextual references being made, be sure to point them out.

Shana Moulton. Body ÷ by Mind + 7 = Spirit, 2009, performance, photo by Marie Lusa, courtesy of Galerie Gregor Staiger.

ART 1A WEEK 5 (JULY 20-23): ART IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET

Art in the Age if the Instagram featuring Jia Jia Fei ART IN THE AGE OF THE INTERNET
The internet and social media have changed the way that we go to, and experience, exhibitions in galleries and museums (and large monuments as well). People often visit these spaces not just to experience the works of art, but often with the express purpose of recording where they have been.
In a way, this can take something away from the intentions of the artists and curators– because one is able to curate their own “online museum” on Instagram that can be a very highly mediated experience with a particular point-of-view (that may have little to do with the original intentions).

The firsthand experience of viewing is often mediated by the digital apparatus (your phone or camera), and the intention is to post it to mark that you were there, but also for it to be seen and experienced by your followers. 

Therefore, while you are there in person experiencing the original works of art, you may be looking at them largely through the lens of your camera or the screen of your phone. Think about the ramifications of the theories posited by Walter Benjamin in "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

Please watch the video above now: Art in the Age if the Instagram featuring Jia Jia Fei

Amalia Ulman. Excellencies & Perfections #2 (2018)

Some artists create works of art that intentionally reference the internet and social media, and often the system of surveillance that they embody. These types of social critique are often intended to make us aware of our complicity in these very systems, and are often meant to leave us uncomfortable about our role in this system.

What one posts online can embody ideas about the way that we see ourselves, or the way that we want to be seen, and about the way in which we create these constructed mediations.

These idealized and mediated expressions of self are created to be consumed online, and are often fictionalized accounts of the “reality” that the spectator is meant to understand as “real”– but they are often actually more irreal than they are real. 

They also serve as raw source material for artists who use these types of mediated images to engage in a larger cultural critique.

Amalia Ulman (shown above) is an artist who created a body of work where she pretended to be an Instagram influencer, and her online performance helps underscore and contextualize the way in which the epoch of social media sharing and over-sharing has become a normalized way to consume online content. It also points out the extent to which Instagram feeds should be understood as fictionalized accounts of "reality."

See Also:

https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibitions/view/amalia-ulman-excellences-perfections

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160307-the-instagram-artist-who-fooled-thousands

The Art History of the Selfie (8m):

https://www.pbs.org/video/art-assignment-selfie/

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. Surface Tension. 1992 (Installation)

Some artists, such as Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, deal with the exploration of the systems of surveillance, and our complicity in those systems when we surf the internet.

Surface Tension "is an interactive installation where an image of a giant human eye follows the observer with Orwellian precision.This work was inspired by a reading of Georges Bataille's text The Solar Anus during the first Gulf War: first wide-spread deployment of camera-guided 'intelligent bombs'. Present-day computerised surveillance techniques employed by the Department of Homeland Security in the United States through the Patriot Act, provide a new and distressing backdrop for this piece."

See Surface Tension videos HERE.

Eva Respini: Art in the Age of the Internet Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27u6a-kKl6I
Art in the Age of the Internet Exhibition: https://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/art-age-internet-1989-today https://www.icaboston.org/video/art-age-internet-1989-today https://umma.umich.edu/exhibitions/2018/art-in-the-age-of-the-internet-1989-to-today Art in the Age of Internet (26m 46s. The first segment deals with Art in the Age of the Internet): https://www.pbs.org/video/art-in-the-age-of-the-internet-playwright-claudia-rankine-wukk6b

While Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Rooms are not a specific critique of art in the age of the internet, her immersive and experiential environments draw record crowds and flood Instagram feeds with video and stills taken by museum patrons. Therefore, her work has an important place in the conversation about art in the age of the internet– particularly since it becomes so prominent in the curated spaces created on social media platforms by the museum-goers themselves.

Both parts of Infinite Drone can be watched HERE.

According to the Broad,

Experience an immersive environment of light and sound in the spirit of Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away. Take an opportunity to delve into the spiritual aspects of Kusama's exploration of eternity—paired with aural selections chosen curated by The Broad, including drone, electronic, ambient, and pop music. Featuring deep cuts by celebrated musicians and sound artists from Los Angeles and beyond, the Infinite Drone series presents a new, contemplative way of experiencing The Broad’s most popular artwork.

𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗮 𝗦𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗻

Los Angeles-based artist and composer Geneva Skeen is influenced by écriture féminine, alchemical metaphors, and a range of musical traditions ranging from holy mysticism to industrial. She works with recordings, digital presets, voice, and mixed instrumentation. Her performances, publications, and installations focus on the contrast between facing the finite resources of our physical landscapes and their infinite digital representations. She is a recipient of the Touch Mentorship program and a member of VOLUME, a curatorial collective focused on sound-based practices. “The Oval Window” is a stereo drone work composed strictly using recordings of voice and piano processed through digital and analog technologies. The sloping harmonics and peripheral speech affects highlighted in the composition were scraped from the original raw recordings, then reshaped in relation to each other’s line, pitch, and duration.

WEEK 5 (July 20-23): Art in the Age of Internet

• Jeff Scheible: Longing to Connect: Cinema’s Year of OS Romance


• Katrina Sluis, Julian Stallabrass and Christiane Paul. The Canon After the Internet

• Lauren Cornell. Self-Portraiture in the First-Person Age 

• Gloria Sutton. CTRL ALT DELETE: The Problematics of Post-Internet Art 

• Jeffrey De Blois. Hybrid Bodies 

An exploration of the ways in which the advent of the internet and social media has shifted the way that we engage with art, and how it has transformed the way that artists think about, and make art. 

Writing Assignment Due (Saturday, July 25 by midnight): Write a 2-page response paper incorporating important points that were made by Jia Jia Fei in her Ted Talk about Art in the Age of Instagram (Shown at the top of this page, or watch it HERE) and the Eva Respini: Art in the Age of the Internet Talk (Shown HERE).

ART 1A WEEK 4 (JULY 13-16): FICTIONAL AND DOCUMENTARY SPACE

 Film Still from Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939)

This week we will be exploring Vivian Sobchack's discussion about the real and the irreal in her essay, "On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space: Extra-textual Knowledge and Documentary Consciousness." 

If you are interested in reading more of Sobchack's analysis about the hunting scene from Jean Renoir's film, Rules of the Game, please refer to her book Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture (UC Press, 2004) Chapter 11: "The Charge of the Real: Embodies Knowledge and Cinematic Consciousness," pp. 258-285. You may be able to find a PDF online, if you look.

  Film Still from Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939)

According to the Criterion Collection,

Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir, is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners in which a weekend at a marquis’ country château lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haut bourgeois acquaintances. The film has had a tumultuous history: it was subjected to cuts after the violent response of the premiere audience in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II; it wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here.

The son of the great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir was also a master of his medium: cinema. After making his mark in the early thirties with two very different films, the anarchic send-up of the bourgeoisie Boudu Saved from Drowning and the popular-front Gorky adaptation The Lower Depths, Renoir closed out the decade with two critical humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made: Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game (the former was celebrated in its time, but the latter was trashed by critics and audiences—until history provided vindication). After a brief, unfulfilling Hollywood stint during World War II, Renoir traveled to India to make his first Technicolor film, The River, and then returned to Europe in the early fifties to direct three visually dazzling explorations of theater, The Golden Coach, French Cancan, and Elena and Her Men. Renoir persisted in his cinematic pursuits until the late sixties, when, after the completion of The Little Theater of Jean Renoir, a collection of three short films, he decided to dedicate himself solely to writing, leaving the future of the medium to those who looked to him in reverence.

  Film Still from Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game (1939)

Vivian Sobchack's essay isn't an in-depth analysis about the narrative cycle in Jean Renoir's Rules of the Game, but instead it explores the way in which there is a disruptive collision between the real and the irreal within the space of this fictional movie. She posits that this very disruption prevents the spectator from re-engaging in the immersive experience of the fiction once they recognize that real deaths occurred in the service of the fiction. While the real deaths are birds and rabbits– instead of people– does this shift the way that you respond to the film?

What is the irreal, about which Sobchack speaks? How would you define the irreal or irreality? How does the irreal differ from the real?

The Irreal: The best way to contextualize the irreal is that it is an illusion of reality created within a fiction, and that it takes its cues from the real world. In other words, it is a fiction that looks like reality, and such a device is a very useful tool in film because it creates a cohesive space within the fiction that allows the spectator to temporarily suspend their disbelief in order to engage in the immersive space of the narrative.

In Rules of the Game the irreal is the fictional story that is being told and the real refers to the death of the rabbits and birds that were actually killed in the hunt scene that you will watch below. 

Sobchack argues that once we understand that these real animals were actually killed in the service of this fictional story that the space of the fiction is forever ruptured and cannot be repaired. She claims that the subsequent actions in the fiction, and the eventual death of a character in the film, which is foreshadowed by the deaths of the animals, become irrelevant. Thus, the death of the irreal person (a character in the film) is displaced by the real deaths of animals. Therefore, the irreal death is overtaken in importance by the real deaths of the rabbits, and as a result the seamless space of the fiction is broken.

Questions to ask yourself while viewing the clip of the hunting scene:

1) Does the fact that these deaths occurred 81 years ago in any way desensitize your response?

2) Does knowing that these animals actually died in the service of this film shift the way that you respond to the scene?

3) While reading Sobchack's essay, one has the impression that only a single rabbit died– when in fact it is clear that many rabbits and birds died in this hunting scene. Is there a singular moment to which she appears to be referring? If so, identify it and the precise moment in the clip (cite the time- i.e.: Renoir, 01:15 - 02:00).

4) Do you agree with the premise of Sobchack's argument after watching the scene to which she refers? Why, or why not?

WEEK 4 (July 13-16) Fictional and Documentary Space: Blurring the Difference

• Edward Branigan: Fiction

• Vivian Sobchack: On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space

Writing Assignment Due (Saturday, July 18 by midnight): Write a thorough summary of Vivian Sobchack's essay "On the Death of the Rabbit in Fictional Space." Discuss the moment you believe that she is referring to in the film clip (is there a specific rabbit's death to which her argument seems to refer?). Does knowing that actual deaths took place within a fictional movie change your perceptions in any way? Think of an example of another film, with which you are familiar, that also disrupts the space of the fiction by introducing the real into the irreality of the fictive narrative?

Jean Renoir. Rules of the Game film clip.

Art 1A Questionnaire Thought Bubbles

"Favorite Artists."

Kolaya had the fun idea to create thought bubbles based upon your responses to the Art 1A Questionnaire! We thought that you might enjoy your responses!

"My major." 

 "What you hope to learn in class."

"What I want you to know about me."

ART 1A WEEK 2 (JUNE 29-JULY 2): KARA WALKER

Kara Walker. Danse de la Nubienne Nouveaux (1998). The Broad.

According to Art 21,

Kara Walker was born in Stockton, California, in 1969. She received a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art in 1991, and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994. The artist is best known for exploring the raw intersection of race, gender, and sexuality through her iconic, silhouetted figures. Walker unleashes the traditionally proper Victorian medium of the silhouette directly onto the walls of the gallery, creating a theatrical space in which her unruly cut-paper characters fornicate and inflict violence on one another.

In works like Darkytown Rebellion (2000), the artist uses overhead projectors to throw colored light onto the ceiling, walls, and floor of the exhibition space; the lights cast a shadow of the viewer’s body onto the walls, where it mingles with Walker’s black-paper figures and landscapes. With one foot in the historical realism of slavery and the other in the fantastical space of the romance novel, Walker’s nightmarish fictions simultaneously seduce and implicate the audience.

Walker’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. A 1997 recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Walker was the United States representative to the 2002 Bienal de São Paulo. Walker currently lives in New York, where she is on the faculty of the MFA program at Columbia University. (https://art21.org/artist/kara-walker/)

Writing Assignment Due (Saturday, July 4 by midnight): Write a 2-3 page response to the videos posted below for this week. Take good notes– Kara Walker's art is the subject of your research paper. See paper prompt HERE.

Videos to Watch:
1) Art 21: Art in the 21st Century (Season 2. The first segment on Kara Walker): https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/stories/
2) Art 21: "A Subtlety, or the Marvelous Sugar Baby" Kara Walker (9:37): https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/kara-walker-a-subtlety-or-the-marvelous-sugar-baby-short/
3) Art 21: Sending Out A Signal Kara Walker & Jason Moran (9:23): https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/kara-walker-jason-moran-sending-out-a-signal-short/
4) Art 21: Starting Out Kara Walker (4:31):
https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/kara-walker-starting-out-short/
5) Art 21: Kara Walker in "Stories" (12:14):
https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/kara-walker-in-stories-segment/
6) Artist Kara Walker – 'I'm an Unreliable Narrator' | Fons Americanus | Tate (5:59):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV_L3fceGNA
7) Kara Walker | Sweet Talk || Radcliffe Institute (1:29:16):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiDUo24R7lI
8) The Artist's Voice: Kara Walker (1:28:38):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYqzdCNLzm0
9) Kara Walker: Rise Up Ye Mighty Race! (1:00:56):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meSWqY_vMo0

Kara Walker's website: http://www.karawalkerstudio.com

LIBRARY RESOURCES FOR YOUR RESEARCH PAPER

Writing a formal research paper requires finding appropriate scholarly articles, peer-reviewed journal articles and books. Sources such as blogs, newspaper articles, unauthorized websites, random papers uploaded to the internet, random YouTube videos, Wikipedia and encyclopedias (including Grove Art Online) are not appropriate resources to cite in formal research papers. However, since you are unable to go to the library in person because of COVID-19, you will be limited to online resources such as journal articles and digitized books. Fortunately, there are many journal articles about Marina Abramović.

Your research materials should largely be procured from Davidson Library, and you will note that Chizu Morihara, our Art & Architecture Librarian, has created a special page for Art 1A Visual Literacy.

Art 1A Visual Literacy Library Homepage:

https://guides.library.ucsb.edu/art1a 

Other Helpful Library Resources:

https://guides.library.ucsb.edu/COVID-19/UCSB

http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/ucsb-library-search

Chizu Morihara is available to help you find your research materials for your Kara Walker paper. Chizu can help you via email or Zoom. Email her for help, she is waiting to hear from you.

Chizu Morihara

UCSB Art & Architecture Library

Univ. of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010

cmorihara@ucsb.edu

(805) 893-2766

WELCOME TO ART 1A SUMMER SESSION A

Hello everyone,

I hope that you are all doing well in the face of this health crisis. I wanted to reach out to let you know that everything that you need to know about Art 1A will be posted here on the Art 1A website, not on GauchoSpace. I am in the midst of adapting my course syllabus to this online teaching environment, and I am updating the website accordingly.

I will not be teaching the class synchronous lectures during the T/R 1:00-2:55 lecture times because I know that my students are currently all over the world, and therefore time zone differences could cause far too many of you added stress. However, your discussion section will be synchronous, and your TA will reach out with the weekly section Zoom links.

Magritte. The Treachery of Images (1928-29). LACMA

Today I want to give you an overview of this course, and direct your attention to the syllabus and weekly reading and writing assignments. 

You will note in the questionnaire below, that I have asked you numerous questions about your access to technology, and I realize that many of you may have overburdened internet signals– which may make it difficult to get online when you want. I, myself, live in a very densely-populated neighborhood, and since the stay-at-home order our internet signal has become incredibly slow, inefficient and unpredictable. I realize that this may be the same for you, and therefore you will have some flexibility about the time that you choose to be online for this class.

ABOUT ART 1A: VISUAL LITERACY

Art 1A is an introductory survey of visual culture, encompassing art and film theory and practice, digital technologies, television, advertising and print media, with a special focus on current interdisciplinary methodologies. It is neither a traditional art history class, nor is it an art appreciation class. Instead, we will be reading many theoretical and philosophical texts as well as more easily consumed ideas from more approachable thinkers and writers.

This is a 5 unit writing class that satisfies a GE writing requirement, and therefore there are weekly writing assignments as well as formal research papers.

HERE IS WHAT WE WILL BE COVERING TODAY:

1) First, please take time to answer this very important questionnaire for Art 1A. It will help us determine how to best help you navigate this class in its online form Summer Session A 2020.

The questionnaire can be found HERE. It should be emailed to your TA and professor by Thursday, June 25 by midnight.

Questionnaire:
https://art1avisualliteracy.blogspot.com/p/art-1a-questionnaire.html

Emails:
Professor: taschian@arts.ucsb.edu
TA: kolayawilson@umail.ucsb.edu

Synchronous Section Time:
Monday 1:00-2:55
Wednesday 1:00-2:55

2) Please carefully review the Art 1A Syllabus HERE. Read the section on Academic Integrity (plagiarism and academic misconduct). Cheating in this class will result in failing the course and being reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs for formal disciplinary action.

3) Please carefully review the Art 1A Calendar HERE (where you will find your weekly reading and writing assignments).

4) Reading Assignments this week: *Weekly writing assignments should be 2 pages (unless otherwise stated)

WEEK 1 (June 23 - 25): Representation and Intertextuality (Reading assignments in course reader)

• Carl Matheson: The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony and the Meaning of Life

• Kelly L. Richardson. “Simpsons Did It!”: South Park and the Intertextuality of Contemporary Animation

• Joanna Woods-Marsden. Cindy Sherman’s Reworking of Raphael’s ‘Fornarina’ and Caravaggio’s ‘Bacchus’

• Michel Foucault. This is Not a Pipe (Excerpt)

• Scott McCloud: The Vocabulary of Comics (Excerpt)

Writing Assignment Due (Saturday, June 27 by midnight. Email it to your TA): Write a summary of Carl Matheson's essay, The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony and the Meaning of Life
. and Scott McCloud's essay, The Vocabulary of Comics. Your summaries should be written in full sentences, rather than a list of bullet points, and should summarize the most important points made by the authors.

5) Each week the lecture and reading materials are thematic, and therefore supportive materials from art, film, advertising are selected in the service of exploring each theme. For instance, if the topic of the week is Fictional and Documentary Space in Photography & Film, then examples will be selected to illustrate the points that the professor, authors and teaching assistants are making. Therefore, examples selected will be chosen for their ability to explain certain ideas– rather than adhering to a chronological or art historical timeline.

6) Lectures each week will break down into a few different categories:

a) There will be lecture materials that will explore the themes presented through art, film or advertising. I will include images or film clips, etc. that will be posted on the course website These materials will supplement your reading materials, and will prepare you for your synchronous discussion sections each week.

b) There will be lectures that involve watching a film related to the subject being explored that week. Some of the films may be streamed through GauchoSpace, others will be embedded on this website, and in some cases I will simply provide you with a link to the film.

c) There will be some lectures where you will be presented with some questions respond to that are derived from your reading assignments that week.

d) One of the most important components of this class has always been taking you to museums and galleries in order for you to interact with actual works of art, rather than simply looking at digital copies in the classroom setting. Given that this quarter in being conducted online, rather than in-person, I will be selecting several online exhibitions or artists presentations and talks for you to explore and write about. While there is no substitute for seeing actual works of art in-person, many museums have created online exhibitions for us to explore while we are engaged in social-distancing, and for those among us who are under stay-at-home mandates.

7) Office hours: In additions to the weekly lectures and sections, the Teaching Assistants and I will be holding office hours. We will start by doing them via email, but there are also other avenues that we can explore as well.

8) Reading Materials:

Course Reader is only available from Associated Students (Click HERE). I already sent you the email about the way in which to purchase the digital version from Associated Students. Their office is closed, and therefore they are neither printing, nor offering physical course readers.

John Berger's Ways of Seeing available from the Campus Bookstore and Amazon (Click HERE and HERE). This is such a popular book that you may be able to find copies online at your local bookstores. This is based upon a BBC Series that we will be watching in week 2 of the quarter, but the book should be read as well.

9) Writing Papers for Art 1A: There is a dedicated Art 1A Research Page on the Davidson Library website that is an incredibly valuable resource for you.

UCSB Library Art 1A Research Page:
http://guides.library.ucsb.edu/art1a

Chizu Morihara (Art & Architecture Librarian):
cmorihara@ucsb.edu

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF WHEN WRITING & EDITING YOUR WEEKLY WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

1) Did I run spell check (repeatedly)?

2) Did I carefully edit to make sure that I used proper grammar, and were my tenses consistent?

3) Did I formulate clear arguments and substantiate all of my claims with clear and concrete examples?

4) Did I avoid sweeping generalizations and vague assertions?

5) Did I use casual colloquial language in my paper? If so, find more precise ways to describe the point being made.

6) Would anyone reading my paper understand what I am trying to convey, or do I need to be more clear?

7) Did I remember to put my name, perm number and section time on my paper?

8) Did I remember to frequently save, backup and email drafts of my paper to myself (just in case my computer crashes)?

9) When I had questions, or needed help, did I reach out to my TA, professor or CLAS?

GENERAL TIPS ON WRITING YOUR RESEARCH PAPERS FOR THIS CLASS:

1) The selection of a good thesis and supporting examples is an important part of producing a good paper. Be selective. The paper is about how to look closely at works of art and how your evaluation of objects and images is expanded by the specific context in which they are presented.

2) Write primarily with nouns and verbs. Avoid unnecessary (especially vague and imprecise) adjectives and adverbs.

3) Revise and rewrite. Proofread your work. Do not rely solely on "spell check."



4) Use the dictionary to refer to words you do not fully understand.

5) Do not overstate, or excessively use qualifiers (such as very, rather, little, etc.). 



6) Use orthodox diction and accurate spelling. ("Its" is possessive; "It's" is a contraction for "it is," "Its' " doesn't exist. "Their" is possessive, "They're" is a contraction of "they are," There is declarative).

7) Be clear. Make references clearly. (Do not use the word "this" as the subject of a sentence).

8) Do not let your opinions get in the way of your writing.

9) Avoid using Wikipedia, blogs, newspaper articles and other materials that are not scholarly. These ARE NOT research materials for a formal research paper.

10) Get to the point quickly. Concentrate on quality of writing not quantity of words.

11) For help with formatting MLA and Chicago citations, visit Purdue Owl: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html

12) Your formal research papers, NOT your weekly writing assignments, must be uploaded to the plagiarism scan HERE. You will also need to email a copy to your TA.

For help writing the paper contact CLAS at 893-3269. They have a writing lab that will help you with papers, and will even proofread your papers. They also offer help specifically to students for whom English is a second language. CLAS site: http://www.clas.sa.ucsb.edu/ 

Here is the book and course reader that we will be using:

1) Course Reader is only available from Associated Students (Click HERE). I am waiting to hear back from them about online access for you. Below is the cover of the M20 reader.

2) John Berger's Ways of Seeing available from the Campus Bookstore and Amazon (Click HERE and HERE).

I realize that many of you will be accessing the course website from your phones instead of from your laptops and tablets. Therefore, here is what you need to do to maximize the website functionality:

This is what the 1A website will look like on your phone, but it is not optimized in this mode.

Therefore, simply scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the hyperlinked text, "View web version."

Then you will see the full website.

Wishing you health and safety,
Helen Taschian