Response Assignment # 9

Reading/Viewing for next Monday’s class:

• Samuels, Robert. “Keeping It Real: Why We Like to Watch Reality Dating Television Shows” (193-201) Common Culture Reader (handout).
• Watch: “I Love New York – Meet the Parents” and “Biggest Loser – Highlights”

This time, in your blog response, relate your thoughts about the readings and reality television to your own experiences/thoughts. What in the article did you agree or disagree with and why? or what particular argument or idea was presented that took your attention? This is a free-writing blog response, so feel free to write in a stream-of-consciousness manner.

End of Semester Oral Presentations – I’ve posted the schedule (those who were in class before break got to pick their own dates; those not there were assigned a date). Please go to the link above to see when you’ll be presenting and the guidelines for the presentation.

 

Response Assignment # 8

Readings for Monday, March 31st:

• Kakoudaki, Despina. “Spectacles of History: Race Relations, Melodrama, and the Science Fiction/Disaster Film,” Camera Obscura, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2002.
• Doneson, Judith E. “Holocaust Revisited: A Catalyst for Memory or Trivialization?” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 548, Nov. 1996 (I will email this file to you; please email me if you haven’t received it by March 19th).
  

No blog response required; however, if you need extra credit, this is a great opportunity to earn it. You must say something substantial and thoughtful about the readings.

 

Review # 1 Due Friday, March 21st

Hey folks — I’m giving you until Friday, March 21st to email me your final review. You can find the details at the class website. Reading assignment will be posted tomorrow. Thanks!

FYI: If you brought in your two reviews for class this Monday, which counts as response assignment #7, you received an A. Those with only one review, a B; and those with no reviews, a zero.

 

Assignment for Monday, March 17th

Hi folks — I sent all of you emails, but just in case, please note that I’m not holding class on Monday, March 10th — I’ve got a bad case of the flu.

For next class, instead of the typical reading & response, I want you to do two things:

1. Continue working on your issue-oriented reviews.

2. Find two published reviews of issue-oriented art or media; read through each, making notes on what you believe works well and what doesn’t. We’ll be discussing your finds in class next week.

 

Response Assignment # 6

Meet next class at 9:30 a.m.! (and put your clocks forward one hour on Sunday!) 

Reading: 

• Ang, Ien. (2005) Multiculturalism.
• Minh-Ha Pham, “The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood (543-564) Common Culture Reader (handout). For those who weren’t in class to get the handout, I’ve placed the remaining copies in my box in the English dept. on the 3rd floor. Don’t skip this reading — please go get it.
• “Asian ‘American Idol’: Stereotype or Star?”
• Watch: William Hung’s “She Bang – on American Idol”

For this blog response, discuss your thoughts on how issues of multiculturalism (as discussed by the readings) seem to be present within the film we’ve started to watch in class (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). Do you agree or disagree with some of the arguments presented by Minh-Ha Pham’s article? Why or why not? What about Ien Ang’s article on multiculturalism? In other words, would Ang and Pham be in agreement? why or why not?

No specific questions this time — just a free-flow discussion on the issues presented and their applicability to the film we’ve started watching in class.

 

Response Assignment # 5 & Review Proposal

Hi folks, click here for guidelines about the Review and its proposal.

Proposal is due next class (you can add your proposal to your blog response); final review is due March 17th.

Reading/Viewing for next week:

• Emlinger Roberts, Rebecca. (2005) The Stripper: Victim Art and the Art of Suffering, Antioch Review, Winter, Vol. 63 Issue 1, p23-39 (sign into library with your username and password to get access).

• Minx, Trixie. (2007) Burlesque: The Art of Tease, The Perspective from a Dancer, Root Magazine.

Questions for consideration:

1. Considering some of the points that Emlinger brings up in her article, as well as those made by Minx, where is the boundary line between what can be considered art, erotic art, and/or porn?
2. At what point, if any, does a particular piece of art move into “victim art”? Is there such a thing as victim art? Under what circumstances might someone become a victim under the auspice of art? Back up your discussion with textual evidence.
3. Emerlinger suggests at one point early on that it can be near impossible separating art from morality; what does she mean by that? And how does that play out in the context of this particular performance?
4. Describe the differences in approach between Emlinger and Minx. Are each talking about the same kind of performance art? Why or why not? What is different about their discussions of this type of performance, and what kind of arguments do each make about it?
5. How does Emlinger represent the stripper in her article? As a pioneering transgressive artist? a victim? something in between?
6. The video that you watched – is it stripper art, victim art, or burlesque? Explain your reasoning, and be sure to back up your thoughts with a thoughtful discussion that includes reference to the readings.
7. Reflecting upon Emlinger’s article, how might social context change the meaning of art? And must we know or understand a performance or art piece’s background, history, and other implications in order to appreciate it as art? How might we understand the stripper performance in Emlinger’s article before versus after she speaks to the dancer and learns of her HIV status?

Feel free to write about any other issue, concern, or interesting point that you noticed; just be sure to connect it to the readings.

 

Response Assignment #4

Blog Response DUE by Monday, Feb. 25th:

Reading Due:

• Croce, Arlene. “Introduction” and “Discussing the Undiscussable,” Crisis of Criticism.
• “Confronting Head on the Face of the Afflicted,” Crisis of Criticism.

You must address BOTH readings in your blog response. Your response must also be thoughtful and critical, not merely a restatement of what you read. Also, when you provide textual evidence (quotes or summarizations), be sure to explain HOW that quote or reference further illuminates the point you are trying to make. DO NOT let the quote speak for you!

• In Croce’s essay, she says that she has not seen Bill T. Jones’s “Still/Here” and doesn’t plan to review it. According to Croce, why will she not review the dance performance? What is your response?
• Croce brings up the term “victim art” within her (non)review of Jones’s dance performance. What exactly do you think Croce means by the term “victim art”? Do you agree or disagree with Croce’s term “victim art” and why?
• Croce’s essay brought on a slew of critical responses, some suggested that while Croce’s essay was understandably controversial, Croce also had some good arguments. What might those be? What did Croce argue about art and/or our ways of perceiving it that actually have logical merit?
• Discuss Oates response to Croce with a focus on the term “victim art.” Does Oates take primary offense at the use of the term “victim art” or Croce’s claim that such art is “beyond criticism”? Why? Explain your response and provide textual evidence (quotes, paraphrases and/or examples from the text) to back up your conclusion.
• In what ways are Oates’ arguments both convincing AND unconvincing? Where are the strengths in her arguments? Where are the flaws? Again, explain your response and provide textual evidence (quotes, paraphrases and/or examples from the text) to back up your conclusion.
• Oates utilizes multiple examples in an attempt to argue that history is full of art that points to painful and authentic experience, but we do not render it “beyond criticism” as did Croce with the Bill T. Jones’ dance. However, what is the primary (and perhaps the most significant) difference between Oates’ examples and the Bill T. Jones’ dance (not)reviewed by Croce?

EXTRA CREDIT question (you must answer this along with one above to receive extra credit): In Croce’s essay, she argues a certain point of view in regards to what she believes constitutes art or makes it valuable as art. In what ways does each author reflect (however explicit or subtle) one of the main arguments of either Bell, Tolstoy, Sontag or Winterson?

** Always, always back up your thoughts with some example, quote, or explanation.

 

Response Assignment #3

FOR NEXT CLASS!

I’ll give you a little extra time on the one page reviews of the C-Spaces gallery exhibit (please email your review to me by this coming Friday – Feb. 22), but your blog response to the readings must still be posted by Monday (I’ll give you till noon on Monday to complete).

Below is the response assignment for this week, and I will be posting the next readings/response assignment by Monday evening, so please be sure to check back to see what’s due for the next time we meet (Feb. 25th). If you have any questions, please email me.

Please read/view the following:

• Art Objects | extract by Jeanette Winterson
• The Guardian | 2002 | What is art for? by Jeanette Winterson
• View: Jeanette on a thing called art.

Then, answer any one set of questions below, incorporating your understanding of at least two of the four readings/viewings into your response:

• According to Winterson, what makes art valuable? Must art carry a message? Must it demonstrate technical expertise? Or must it simply be aesthetically pleasing? How do we, as a society, typically place value on certain art items?
• According to Winterson, must art do something to be worthy of being called art? And if so, what must it do? Elaborate and explain your response.
• If Winterson had a conversation with Susan Sontag on art and interpretation, on what might they agree and/or disagree? Be sure to explain why.
• How does Winterson seem to view the relationship between art and its audience? Does art have a greater responsibility to its audience than the audience to art? And in what ways does this either directly contradict or support some of the authors we’ve read up to this point?
• When considering the value and/or significance of art, do you think a piece of art stands alone (or should stand alone)? Or do you think knowing something about the artist is important and/or necessary? What do our readings thus far suggest?
• Winterson suggests that art is not a luxury, but rather a need. How does she support this idea? Why, according to Winterson, do we need art?
• Discuss Winterson’s view of art as a commodity. Be sure to reference at least two of the readings/viewings.

 

Response Assignment #1

Blog Response DUE ONLINE by 8:30 a.m. on Monday, February 4th

Read each of the following and then respond to ONE of the questions within EACH reading (at bottom). You can either post two separate blogs or one.

• Excerpts from What Is Art? by Leo Tolstoy
• Excerpts from “The Aesthetic Hypothesis,” in Art, by Clive Bell