Art 1A Visual Literacy Reading Schedule: Spring 2024
*Weekly writing assignments should be 2-3 pages and they are due each Thursday by 12:30PM (unless otherwise stated. Check due dates VERY carefully). All assignments must be submitted to your TA.
WEEK 1 (April 1 & 3): Course Introduction Art 1A & Representation and Intertextuality. The first lecture, on Monday, April 1 is via Zoom (no pass code, sign in as an attendee): https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/83111992304
Do the following:
1) Purchase your course reader and book. Information HERE.
2) Fill out the field trip Liability Waivers:
MANDATORY LIABILITY WAIVERS (PLEASE FILL OUT ALL OF THEM TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR ALL OF THE FIELD TRIPS):
Representation and Intertextuality Reading Assignments:
• 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: Friday, April 5 by 12:30PM): Since this is the first week, you are being given an extra day to do your assignment. This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-page summary of Kelly L. Richardson, “Simpsons Did It!”: South Park and the Intertextuality of Contemporary Animation.
2) Write a 1-page summary of Michel Foucault, This is Not a Pipe (Excerpt).
3) List a few ideas that you found interesting in Scott McCloud, The Vocabulary of Comics.
WEEK 2 (April 8 & 10): Understanding Mediation: Photography and Cinema. Ed Ruscha Artist Talk
• John Berger: Ways of Seeing
• Walter Benjamin: The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• Marshall McLuhan: The Medium is the Message
• Neil Postman: The Judgment of Thamus
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, April 11 by 12:30PM): This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-page summary of John Berger’s Ways of Seeing (Chapter 1)
2) Write a 1-page summary of Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
3) Write a 1-page response the Ed Ruscha Artist Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQSzA2FeJDE
WEEK 3 (April 15 & 17): No Lectures this week. LACMA Field Trip on Saturday, April 20. Sections scheduled.
Writing Assignment (Due: Sunday, April 21 by 11:30PM): This is a 4-part assignment.
1) Write a 1-2-page response to the LACMA Ed Ruscha / Now Then exhibition.
2) Write a 1-page response to the LACMA Dining with the Sultan: The Fine Art of Feasting exhibition.
3) Write a 1-page museum response paper discussing any of the other exhibitions at LACMA that interested you, and discuss why.
4) Read Chapter 1 (pages 3-24): "The Anatomy of the Arts" from Your Brain on Art, and write about the most significant ideas advanced in this chapter. (everyone does this including the people who do the alternative museum trips).
Alternative Assignment for the SBMA and the MCASB if you do not go to LACMA (but this means you must go to the Getty Center for the second field trip). This is a 4-part assignment:
- Write a 1-page response to the SBMA Janna Ireland exhibition.*
- Write a 1-page response to the SBMA Made by Hand exhibition.
- Write a 1-page response to the MCASB Janna Ireland: True Story Index exhibition.*
- Read Chapter 1 (pages 3-24): "The Anatomy of the Arts" from Your Brain on Art, and write about the most significant ideas advanced in this chapter. (everyone does this including the people who do the alternative museum trips).
*The Janna Ireland exhibition is a collaboration on view at the SBMA and MCASB. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) and Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (MCASB) present the solo artist exhibition Janna Ireland: True Story Index, representing a landmark two-institution collaboration, presentation, and catalog.
Nota Bene: The museum trip is all-day immersive experience, and therefore the museum field trip is in lieu of both of the Art 1A lectures that week (section attendance is as scheduled that week). If you do not go to the museum that week, or do the writing assignment, then you will receive two absences. Take a selfie at the museum, and works of art that were of interest to you, and include it in your paper as proof of attendance. Your museum response paper will due next week since you are submitting your research paper this week.
WEEK 4 (April 22 & 24): Research Paper Training Workshop on Monday and Scholarly Research Training Workshop on Wednesday (in lecture).
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, April 25 by 12:30PM): Write a 2-3-page preliminary research paper on the work of Ed Ruscha. This paper can be used in your final research paper.
WEEK 5 (April 29 & May 1): Fictional and Documentary Space: Blurring the Difference.
• Edward Branigan: Fiction
• Vivian Sobchack: On the Death of a Rabbit in Fictional Space
• Chapter 5 (pages 135-164): "Amplifying Learning" from Your Brain on Art.
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, May 2 by 12:30PM): This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-2 page summary of the important ideas addressed in Chapter 5 (pages 135-164): "Amplifying Learning" from Your Brain on Art.
2) Write a 2-page summary that reveals the important ideas advanced in the Vivian Sobchack essay, On the Death of the Rabbit in Fictional Space.
3) Discuss the famous hunting scene to which Sobchack refers in her essay. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
a) Does the fact that these deaths occurred 85 years ago in any way desensitize your response?
b) Does knowing that these animals actually died in the service of this film shift the way that you respond to the scene?
c) 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 (Example: Renoir, 01:15 - 02:00). Watch HERE.
d) Do you agree with the premise of Sobchack's argument after watching the scene to which she refers? Why, or why not?
WEEK 6 (May 6 & 8): A Brief Introduction to Semiotics. Research Paper Due on Thursday, May 9 by 11:30PM.
• Daniel Chandler: Semiotics for Beginners: Codes
• Roland Barthes: The World of Wrestling
• Roland Barthes: The Romans in Films
• Roland Barthes: The Brain of Einstein
• Roland Barthes: Plastic
• Joseph Kosuth: Context/Text
Writing Assignment (No weekly assignments due): Research paper due on Thursday, May 9 by 11:30PM.
WEEK 7 (May 13 & 15): No Lectures this week. Getty Center Field Trip on Saturday, May 18. Sections scheduled.
Writing Assignment (Due: Sunday, May 19 by 11:30PM): This is a 3-part assignment.
1) Write a 1-2-page response to the Getty Center Camille Claudel exhibition.
2) Write a 1-page response to the Getty Center Nineteenth-Century Photography Now exhibition.
3) Write a 1-page museum response paper discussing any of the other exhibitions at the Getty Center that interested you, and discuss why.
Alternative Assignment for the SBMA and the MCASB if you do not go to the Getty Center (but that means that you must have gone on the LACMA field trip). This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-page response to the SBMA Serenity & Revolution exhibition.
2) Write a 1-page response to the SBMA Portrait of Mexico Today exhibition.
3) Write a 1-page response paper to the MCASB Janna Ireland exhibition.
Nota Bene: The museum trip is all-day immersive experience, and therefore the museum field trip is in lieu of both of the Art 1A lectures that week (section attendance is as scheduled that week). If you do not go to the museum that week, or do the writing assignment, then you will receive two absences. Take a selfie at the museum, and works of art that were of interest to you, and include it in your paper as proof of attendance. Your museum response paper will due next week since you are submitting your research paper this week.
WEEK 8 (May 20 & 22): Art in the Age of the Internet & Artist Talk Featuring Megan Koth
• 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
• Chapter 6 (pages 201-227): "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art.
Monday, May 20: Art in the Age of the Internet
Wednesday, May 22: Artist Talk featuring Megan Koth
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, May 23 by 12:30PM): This is a 3-part assignment:
1) Write a 1-page response paper discussing the important points that were made by Jia Jia Fei in her Ted Talk about Art in the Age of Instagram (Shown HERE) and the Eva Respini interview about Art in the Age of the Internet (Shown HERE).
2) Write a 1-2-page response to the Artist Talk featuring Megan Koth.
3) Write a 1-2 page paper discussing the important points raised in the Conclusion: "The Art of the Future" (pages 229-246): "Creating Community" from Your Brain on Art.
WEEK 9 (May 29): Memorial Day Holiday on Monday, May 27. Artist Talk featuring Lyra.
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, May 30 by 12:30PM): Write a 2-page response for Lyra’s Artists Talk.
WEEK 10 (June 3 & 5): Artist Talks.
Monday, June 3: Artist Talk featuring Yumiko Glover
Wednesday, June 5: Artist Talk featuring Autumn
Writing Assignment (Due: Thursday, June 8 by 12:30PM): Write a 1½-2 page response paper for each Artist Talk.
