EXAMPLE SYLLABI

Jean Marie Casbarian: Naming the Invisible

Workshop, Summer 2010

Description: Is invisibility only contingent on its visibility? Do we assume that 'things not seen' lack a palpable response to what we otherwise know and understand as existing in time and space? This workshop will not only investigate the concept of invisibility as a tangible presence, but will explore the power behind (non)presence in what it reveals, be it through the (non)matter, (silent)voice, and (dis) engaged presence of what does not come into view or vanishes before our eyes. Notions of invisibility throughout political/social/spiritual/scientific landscapes will be explored. Tarkovsky's 'Stalker', Tacita Dean's 'Banewl,' Calvino's 'Invisible Cities', and the consequences of HG Wells, 'The Invisible Man' and/or Saramago's 'Blindness' are potential trajectories into discussion/assignments surrounding invisibility.

Goals: This process-based workshop will support projects in all disciplines, though emphasis will be placed on the development of aesthetic skills critical to the creation of time-based works involving image, sound, and performance. Slide/Film lectures and readings will provide a deeper context for daily, hands- on studio work as we consider theoretical and practical problems inherent to interdisciplinary forms.

DAY 1

invisible: adjective: unable to be seen; not visible to the eye : this invisible gas is present to some extent in every home. – concealed from sight; hidden : he lounged in a doorway, invisible in the dark. – figurative (of a person) treated as if unable to be seen; ignored or not taken into consideration : before 1971, women artists were pretty well invisible. – Economics relating to or denoting earnings that a country makes from the sale of services or other items not constituting tangible commodities : tourism is the most important of our invisible exports. noun: an invisible thing, person, or being : religion is the attempt to eternalize the invisible. – ( invisibles) invisible exports and imports.

Morning Lecture: On Blindness (What exists but what we don’t see/can’t see/cease to see) Discuss the definition of invisibility. Discuss the idea of blindness as it relates to various concepts: disease (physical/psychological ie, phantom limb, etc), social attitudes (body ie, aging, skin, gender, etc etc), global attitudes/technology (the forest for the trees, etc etc) and the mundane. Look at examples of works from Dean, Wells, Barth, Decarava, Anderson, Graham, Davey, etc etc

Afternoon

Lab--Studio Challenge: Work with the notion of blindness. Examine ways in which to approach that which is visible but goes unnoticed either because of social/political norms, over- indulgence, ignorance, or denial. All mediums/disciplines are fair game (visual/audio/ peformance). If you perform it, find an appropriate way to present this to us in the afternoon ̃a way in which results can create further context for your audience.

Last hour: Show us your results

DAY 2

Morning Lecture: On Erasing (What exists and what we erase/is being erased) Talk about various ways in which something might be erased, physically, culturally, personally, psychologically (ie, memory, language, geography, etc etc) Look at examples of works from Pfieffer, Kentridge, Herzog, Santino, NASA, etc etc

Afternoon Lab--Studio Challenge: Work with the notion of erasure as it pertains to what already or is becoming invisible. All mediums/disciplines are fair game (visual/audio/performance). If you perform it, find an appropriate way to present this to us in the afternoon ̃a way in which results can create further context for your audience.

Last Hour (Time TBA) ˆ Show us your results

DAY 3

Morning Lecture: On the Power of Invisibility ˆ The Omnipotent Discuss the all-pervasive power of the invisible. Metaphysical presence, psychic power, fear and love. Look at the works of Friedman, Barry, Oldenburg, Nordman, fluxus, Tarkovsky, the Wizard of Oz, etc etc

Lab-Studio Challenge: Work with the idea of the omnipotent as it relates to the ethereal/ ephemeral nature of invisibility. Will you use or abuse this power? All media/disciplines are fair game. If you perform it etc etc.

Last Hour: Show us your results

DAY 4

Morning Lecture: On the Power of Invisibility ˆ The act of silence/being silenced Discuss the position of silence in terms of becoming invisible and the impact on the receiver. Discuss the dichotomy between choosing silence (freedom) and being silenced (victim). Look at the works of Raad, Wodiczko, Moffat, Adbusters, Schaefer, etc etc

Lab-Studio Challenge: Approach the idea of invisibility and silence(ing). How will you use this power? All media/disciplines are fair game. If you perform it..etc etc etc. Open Lab time for Social Intervention as a collective. Prepare our results.

Post-presentations: Recap and regroup.

Essays, articles, and excerpts from (pdf's provided): The Invisible Man, H.G. Wells Blindness, Jose Saramago The Tao Te Ching, Lao Tzu Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino Remnants of Auschwitz: The Winess and the Archive, Giorgio Agamben Touched by your Presence, Frieze Magazine, additional readings TBA.

Geoff Cox: Social Media & Art 2.0

Seminar, Summer 2010

- Description

The seminar explores some of the paradoxes of social media and its relevance to the field of art where there has been a turn towards social engagement and participatory practices in recent years. Although it cannot be denied that popular platforms facilitate unprecedented levels of sharing, it is argued that participation and the social relation is produced in restrictive form. One challenge is to imagine ways that server-client relations can be transformed into peer-to-peer relations, and how private ownership can be returned to the public realm. Topics to be discussed will cover ideas around open systems and self-organization, the critical use of social media for artistic and curatorial practices, and the radical practices of coding cultures in as much as they might invigorate the concept of the public sphere (or commons). Examples go beyond the common strategies of detournement and irony to offer real-existing alternatives.

- Course goals:

To introduce concepts and examples that relate to an understanding of contemporary interdisciplinary arts practice and its social turn, using 'social media' as case study. To develop strategies to support a critical framework for research and future development of creative production that takes into account recent developments in coding cultures and collaborative practices.

- Detailed day by day contents:

1. SOFTWARE (ART) STUDIES

The cultural aspects of software demonstrate the ways in which social processes increasingly utilise software but also can be seen to 'act' like software. Both an operational understanding and more speculative inquiry are required to open up the possibilities for a critical practice that 'uses' software to reveal some of the relatively hidden material concerns of code. What is the stuff of social software? And why does it matter?

* required reading: Matthew Fuller (2008) 'Introduction, the Stuff of Software', in _Software Studies: A Lexicon_, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 1-13. http://www.mitpress.mit.edu/books/chapters/0262062747intro1.pdf http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/fuller-software_studies_intro.pdf Trebor Scholz (2006) 'The Participatory Challenge', in Joasia Krysa, ed. _Curating Immateriality_, New York: Autonomedia, http://www.data-browser.net/03/DB03/Scholz.pdf

* further reading: Simon Yuill (2008) 'All Problems of Notation Will be Solved by the Masses', _MUTE_.

http://www.metamute.org/en/All-Problems-of-Notation-Will-be-Solved-by-the-Masses

http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/yuill- all_problems_of_notation_will_be_solved_by_the_masses.pdf Matteo Pasquinelli (2004) 'Radical Machines Against the Techno-Empire: From Utopia to Network', trans. Arianna Bove. http://www.rekombinant.org/downloads/radical_machines.pdf http://www.eurozine.com/partner/multitudes/current-issue.html

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2. SOCIAL MEDIA (ART)

The Internet is increasingly charactised as a 'platform' for social uses, but what is meant by the terms 'social' and 'participatory' in the usual descriptions. Emergent forms are undoubtedly dissimilar to the ways in which social relations have been traditionally organised, but, in general, they appear to reinforce existing power structures. How are artists (and others) working with, and against, these new forms?

* required reading: Juan Martin Prada, 'Web 2.0 as a New Context for Artistic Practices', iDC (27 December 2007), first presented at New Art Dynamics in Web 2 mode conference. http://medialab-prado.es/inclusiva-net/ http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/latour-reassembling_the_social.pdf Dmytri Kleiner and Brian Wyrick (2007) 'Info-Enclosure 2.0', in Web 2.0: Man's Best Friendster?, _MUTE_. http://www.metamute.org/Web-2.0-Mans-best-friendster/

* further reading: Michel Bauwens (2008) 'The Social Web and its Social Contracts: Some Notes on Social Antagonism in Netarchical Capitalism' (draft). http://www.re-public.gr/en/?p=3D261 http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/bauwens_social_antagonism.pdf Pil and Galia Kollectiv (2007) 'Irony 2.0', in Web 2.0: Man's Best Friendster?, _MUTE_. http://www.metamute.org/en/Irony-Two-Point-Zero _antisocial notworking_ online repository (ongoing) http://project.arnolfini.org.uk/antisocial/

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. ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORKS

Opportunities arise to rethink politics within network cultures - to develop strategies and techniques of better organization. Underpinning this at a more fundamental level is the sharing of source code, itself rooted in the contradictions between its use (and reuse) as part of the public domain or commercial enterprise. What is required is a fuller understanding of different modes of organization and sociality (commons-based peer production as one example). How are meanings produced and under what conditions? How would a better organization of art be imagined?

* required reading:

Ned Rossiter (2006) 'Introduction', in _Organized Networks: Media Theory, Creative Labour, New Institutions_, Rotterdam: NAi/Institute of Network Cultures, pp.13-44 http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/rossiter-organized_networks.pdf Bruno Latour (2005) 'Introduction', to _Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory_, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.11-17.

* further reading: Matteo Pasquinelli (2008) 'The Ideology of Free Culture and the Grammar of Sabotage' http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0801/msg00032.html http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/pasquinelli-Ideology-of-Free-Culture.pdf Christopher M. Kelty (2008) 'Conceiving Open Systems', in _Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software_, Duke University Press, pp.143-209. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/kelty-TwoBits.pdf

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4. RECURSIVE PUBLICS

Related to the concept of the 'public sphere', a 'recursive public' is capable of modifying itself through participation. The collective technical experiment of the Free Software movement is an example of a recursive pubic that draws attention to its democratic and political significance and the limitations of our understanding of the 'public' in the light of the restructuring of power over networks. In a sense, the concept of the public sphere is taken as open to modification and reuse - is made recursive. Is the claim too hopeful? What role might art play in a reconceptualising of the public?

* required reading: Christopher M. Kelty (2008) 'Introduction', in _Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software_, Duke University Press, pp. 1-26. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/kelty-TwoBits.pdf Christopher M. Kelty (2008) 'Geeks and Recursive Publics', in _Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software_, Duke University Press, pp.27-64. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/kelty-TwoBits.pdf Christopher M. Kelty (2008) 'Conclusion: The Cultural Consequences of Free Software', in _Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software_, Duke University Press, pp.301-310. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/kelty-TwoBits.pdf

* further reading: Hannah Arendt (1998 [1958]) 'The Public and the Private Realm', in _The Human Condition_, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp.22-78. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/arendt-the_human_condition.pdf Geert Lovink (2008) 'On the Culture of Free Software: Interview with Christopher Kelty'. http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/geert/interview-with-christopher-kelty-on-the-culture-of-free-culture/

Paolo Virno (2004) 'Ten Theses on the Multitude and Post-Fordist Capitalism', in _A Grammar of the Multitude: For an Analysis of Contemporary Forms of Life_, Los Angeles: Semiotext(e), pp.95-111. http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/references/virno-a_grammar_of_the_multitude.pdf

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- Assignments in studio hours between classes (optional but must be included here)

Studio hours should be used to supplement the reading for the seminar and to begin to apply this to the student's practice and proposals for research projects. A number of small tasks related to the use of social media will be introduced in the seminars and students will be asked to present texts in the spirit of peer learning.

- Suggested and required reading prior to seminar: bibliography including pdfs or weblinks. Note any required reading must be discussed in class.

Please see the seminar breakdown for required reading and suggested further resources. .