Instructor information:

Tiffany Funk
Email: tiffany.a.funk@gmail.com
Office hours: by appointment only

Fall Semester, 2011

66-6701-02
Art as Discourse
Graduate Studies: Seminar I
History, Theory & Aesthetics
Columbia College Chicago // Interdisciplinary Arts Department
Wednesdays, 12:30pm-3:20pm
Location: 916 S Wabash Building 147 - Lecture/Discussion
class website: http://tiffanyannfunk.com/F11_artasdiscourse/

Artists Talk About Their Work, David Shrigley, 2005

Official course description: This course will explore the relationship between modernism, post-
modernism and current theory using art, literature, performance, film/video, and audio, providing
students with a historical and theoretical context for their work.

Course Introduction: How could we see art as discourse? And what discourse is art enacting?
Could/should art perform political, social, historical, philosophical discourse or must art remain
just an aesthetic discourse? This seminar will investigate and, underline points of dialogue or
rupture between Art Practice and the conceptual framework in which contemporary art was
produced and received. In this graduate Seminar students will read closely a variety of major
writings from philosophy, critical theory, phenomenology, feminism, postcolonialism,
structuralism, and poststructuralism and their contribution to the making of contemporary art.
Out of all of these methods, art as discourse will remain our central trope. Besides these
theoretical frames, students will learn about a diverse set of art practices: installation,
performance art, video, painting, film, and site specific art. This seminar will help students
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develop their critical thinking and writing skills which are necessary to understanding their own
discourse as art makers.

Class goal: This course focuses on the idea that art is a discourse. To this end, we will
investigate philosophy and critical theory from a variety of disciplines that inform Art Practice.
The aim is to examine many of the conceptual frameworks for making and viewing art works
and to provide a context for art making at the graduate level that is to say, a self-directed
investigation, cognizant of the history of critical thinking related to art practice. Additionally, the
course provides the opportunity for developing critical thinking and writing skills necessary for
the written thesis required of graduating students in their final year of study.

Learning outcomes:
Through the successful completion of this course, students have the opportunity to develop and
demonstrate knowledge, skills and competencies in the following areas:
(1) Relationship between discourse and interdisciplinary art practice.
(2) Critical thinking through reading, analyzing and discussing texts.
(3) Critical research and writing.

Course format:
Theory-based seminar
Discussion of assigned readings/screenings
Individual and group research and discussion
Screenings of pertinent material offered by the instructor or assigned by the
instructor

Course requirements:

1. Read the assignments carefully and critically. I expect active participation during class
discussion and individual presentations. Please make every effort to meet deadlines. You must
notify me well in advance if you will not be able to meet a deadline. Late work will be accepted,
but will be penalized by one letter grade for every day late.

2. For each class, you will write an blog entry of 250-350 words (approximately one page,
double-spaced) on the class website (http://tiffanyannfunk.com/F11_artasdiscourse/). The
assignment consists of one question appropriate to the days topic for the class, and your own
response to the question. At the bottom of this blog entry you will add a few key terms you
encountered during their reading that you consider important or troubling and should be
addressed during class. You will post this assignment each week to the blog by 5:00pm
Tuesday, the day before seminar is held. In class, students will explain why they think their
question is significant, what issues the question raises, and how the question relates to specific
examples. Be creative! The purpose of this assignment is not to penalize you for failing to
divine the right answer to the overtly difficult readings, but to vocalize the sticky bits in theory
and challenge the methodologies constructed by the authors. I will collect and create a list with
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all your questions presented over the weeks. This list will constitute the basis for your Midterm
paper assignment.

3. Midterm Paper: From the list of questions provided you will choose one question (it can be
yours or someone elses) and develop it into a 4-page written assignment. The paper should
include a bibliography and citations (footnotes or endnotes) and should use the MLA or Chicago
Style format. (MLA format: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/577/06/; Chicago Style:
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.)

4. In-class presentation of readings. Once during the semester, students will be expected to
lead the discussion group for a particular set of readings. Discussion leaders will be expected to
briefly present the central arguments and conclusions of each assigned text, develop leading
questions that facilitate class dialogue and critique. I encourage you to present visual material
along with your presentation of the readings. (Power-point images, video clips, audio recordings,
performances, etc.)

5. Final Paper. Each student will write an approximately 8-page research paper. The paper
should include a bibliography and citations (footnotes or endnotes) and should use the MLA or
Chicago Manual Style format. This assignment is meant to be a critical and analytical exercise,
requiring creativity, research, and interpretation. You are free to choose any topic you want for
your final paper. If you wish, you may further research and develop your Midterm Paper.

Grading policy and evaluation procedures:

You will be graded on how well you meet the above requirements.

Class blog assignment 100 points

In-class presentation of readings 100 points
Midterm Paper 100 points
Final Paper 200 points
_______________________________________________________________
Total: 500 points

Plagiarism:
The Columbia College Faculty Handbook defines it as the appropriation or imitation of the
language, ideas and thoughts of another person, and the representation of them as ones original
work. The work you do for this course must be your own. If you have any question on how to
use someone elses ideas properly please do not hesitate to discuss it with me!

Attendance policy:
Attendance is required. The class meets once a week, and requires intensive intellectual
participation which can only be realize through regular attendance. Missing classes will make it
difficult for you to have success in this class because our discourse builds from class to class. If
you are absent you will be responsible for any missed work or lectures. Check for
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announcements, assignments and handouts posted on OASIS. Please make every effort to be on
time for class. More than one absence will result in the reduction of your grade. Lateness will be
accumulated, and when it totals three hours will count as an absence.

Students with Disabilities:

Students with disabilities are requested to present the Columbia Accommodation letters to their
instructor at the beginning of the semester so that accommodations can be arranged in a timely
manner by the College, the department or the faculty member, as appropriate. Students with
disabilities who do not have accommodation letters should visit the office of Services for
Students with Disabilities in room 520 of the Congress building (312-344-8134/V or
312-360-0767/TTY). It is incumbent upon the students to know their responsibilities in this
regard.

Incomplete Grading Policy Statement:

An "Incomplete" grade will be granted rarely, and only in conformance with collegewide policy.
For the full policy statement and a copy of the Student-Faculty Agreement for Incomplete Grade
Form, go to http://work.colum.edu/~amiller/incomplete.htm.

Disclaimer Statement: This syllabus may change as the course proceeds. You will be notified of
all changes.

Course Outline:

Week 1: Whats in a Name? Text and Image.

9/7/11
Case Studies:
John Baldassari, Mel Bochner, Jenny Holzer, David Shrigley

Week 2: The Death of the Author, or What Do We Do With the Body (of Work)?
9/14/11
Readings:
Roland Barthes. Excerpt from Camera Lucida. Reflections on Photography. Trans.
Richard Howard. New York: Hill and Wang, 1982.
Roland Barthes. The Death of the Author, Image Music Text trans. Stephan Heath.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1977

Beginning of class presentations:

Week 3: History is a Magical Mirror: How is History Constructed?
9/21/11
Readings:
Siegfried Giedion. Anonymous History, from Mechanization Takes Command, 1948.
George Kubler. The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things, 1962.
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Week 4: NO CLASS - CRITIQUE WEEK

Week 5: Greenberg as Unreliable Narrator, or Getting the Post-Modernism You Deserve

10/5/11
Readings:
Clement Greenberg, Modernist Painting (1960), from The New Art: A Critical
Anthology, ed. By Gregory Battock, 1966.
Clement Greenberg. Modernism and Postmodernism, in Clement Greenberg: Late
Writings. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

Week 6: Critical Theory: Art and Ideology.

10/12/11
Readings:
Walter Benjamin. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,
Illuminations ed. Hannah Arendt, trans. H. Zohn. New York: Schocken Book, 1968.
Screening:
The Architecture of Doom, director Peter Cohen

Week 7: Spectacle & Simulacra.

10/19/11
Readings:
Jean Baudrillard. Simulacra and Simulations, Selected Writings, Ed. Mark Poster,
Stanford University Press, 1998.
Guy Debord. Society of the Spectacle (excerpts) New York: Zone Books, 1994.
Screening:
Guy Debord, Society Of The Spectacle

Week 8: MIDTERM PAPERS AND (brief) PRESENTATIONS

10/26/11

Week 9: Psychoanalysis and Art: Discourse of Desire.

11/2/11
Readings:
Jacques Lacan. The Mirror Stage Critical Theory Since 1965 Eds. Hazard Adams and
Leroy Searle. Florida State University Press.
Sigmund Freud, Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of His Childhood, in The Freud
Reader, ed. Peter Gay, New York: Norton and Company, 1989.
Screening:
The Perverts Guide to Cinema with Slavoj Zizek, directed by Sophie Fiennes.

Week 10: Indeterminacy vs. Interactivity

11/9/11
Readings:
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George Maciunas. Fluxus Manifesto, 1963.

John Cage. Indeterminacy, from Ninety Stories by John Cage and Silence (excerpts)
Andreas Broeckmann, Image, Process, Performance, Machine: Aspects of the
Machinic, from MediaArtHistories, 2007.

Week 11: Post-Identity, Postcolonialism, Postgender, Posthuman

11/16/11
Readings:
Guillermo Gomez-Pea. Temple of Confessions (excerpt), 1995.
Franz Fanon. Wretched of the Earth (excerpt), 1953.
Donna Haraway. "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in
the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature
(New York; Routledge, 1991), pp.149-181.

Week 12: Its all Relative: Relational Aesthetics & Beyond

11/23/11
Readings:
Nicolas Bourriaud. Relational Aesthetics, Les presses du reel, 2002.
Claire Bishop. Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics, in October, 2004.
Screening:
We Live in Public, 2009, dir. Ondi Timoner

Week 13: Forging a Method/Firing a Canon: Visionary Methodology, Art & Technology
11/30/11
Readings:
Roy Ascott. Behaviorables and Futurables (1967), The Telematic Embrace: Visionary
Theories of Art, Technology, and Consciousness.
Edward A. Shanken, Historicizing Art and Technology: Forging a Method and Firing a
Canon, MediaArtHistories.
Fieldtrip: Museum of Surgical Science

Week 14: Final Papers Due!

The Poetics of the Familiar. Living in the Everyday: Place.
12/7/11
Readings:
Yi-Fu Tuan. Intimate Experiences of Place and Time and Place Space and Place (The
Perspective of Experience). Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press,
2005.
Gaston Bachelard. Corners and Drawers, Chests and Wardrobes The Poetics of
Space. Boston: Bacon Press, 1969.

Week 15: Oral Presentation of Final Papers/Class Celebration!

12/14/11