New notes

Andy's New MTD Notes

1. old MTD notes are here: Andy's MTD Notes

Week 1 Resources

1. Introduction
2. Go Over syllabus
3. show Sister Wendy's story of painting
4. Oleksiuk New Work ppt
5. Assign proto-assignment 1
   1. send me a representational photo via email

Week 2 resources

1. Review: modernism
   1. Cezanne, Picasso, cubism, dada, surrealism, Bauhaus, social realism, minimalism, abstract expressionism, pop art, Andy Warhol.
2. Sister Wendy's story of Painting
   1. Sister Wendy’s story of painting [videorecording] / written & presented by Sister Wendy Beckett ; series producer, David Willcock ; a BBC production in association with WGBH/Boston.

Published: Beverly Hills, Calif. : CBS Fox Video ; [England] : BBC Video ; Beverly HIlls, Calif. : Distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, [1997]

1. 1. Picasso, cubism
   2. matisse
   3. surrealism
   4. kandinsky
   5. klee
   6. New York
   7. Abstract Expressionism, etc
   8. Pollack
   9. DeKooning
   10. Mark Rothko
   11. Warhol
   12. Jasper John
   13. Frank Stella
   14. Agnes Martin
   15. Lucien Freud

1. Edison's Miracle of Light
2. Discuss Edison's miracle of light
   1. What is a killer app
   2. electricity: which came first, electricity or the telegraph?
   3. basic Edison biography, human face on history, Menlo Park
   4. 1% inspiration, 99% persperation
   5. phonograph
   6. ELECTRICITY VS. GAS LIGHTING
   7. incandescent filament lamp
   8. all experiemnts were massive failures
   9. carbonized thread
   10. "lightning" conception of electricity
   11. immediate industrial application
   12. did edison invent electricity???
   13. DC electrical novelties
   14. central station, Manhattan NYC
   15. not widely popular
   16. lightbulb hats as PR
   17. finally idea catches on, financial security
   18. AC vs DC
   19. Westinghouse, Tesla
   20. electric chair

1. Discuss Berger Chaps 1-3 (30 min)
   1. Saussure: Semiology or Semiotics
      1. Write on screen "I went to a book sale and all I bought was a semicolon." Discuss what makes this funny? Illustrates: Saussure's assertion that language is a system of signs in which the meaning of a term is based on its relations to othr terms in the system. i.e. we would have expected to have purchased a book, not a small piece of punctuation (hey comedy is hard)
      2. signifier: sound object image
      3. signified: concept generated
      4. signs are identified in terms of oppositions, uniqueness
      5. The notion the linguistics might be useful in studying other cultural phenomena is based on two fundamental insights:
         1. first that social and cultural phenomena are mot simply material objects or events but objects and events with meaning, and hence signs;
         2. second that they do not have essences but are defined by a network of relations
   2. Barthes (Myth)
      1. semiology can be applied to history, culture;
      2. sees problems with normativity (mythmaking)
      3. cultural feedback loop: this is the way mass media works: if a "meme" gets picked up and widely distributed, it becomes the norm (Lots of parallels with Cool Hunting)
   3. James W. Carey
      1. Two Models of Communication
      2. See also James W Carey
2. Watch Edison's Miracle of Light. Videorecording (VHS). Elevator Pictures, Inc. for the American Experience. WGBH Boston. Matthew Collins, producer/writer. John Walter, director/writer. 1995. (1 hour)
3. Assign Project 2, Signifier / signified

Week 3 Notes

1. Go over Project 2 signifier / signified
   1. all students must present their work

Week 4 Notes

1. Daguerre and the photo camera [videorecording] / written by Susanne Pach, Herbert W. Franke ; director, Louis Saul ; a production of Target Films, Munich, in association with Bavarian Television ... [et al.]. c1994. (15min)
   1. The fact that this film is dated serves as a jumping off point for discussion about ... criticism . . .... (and technology of today)
   2. Dating photography to 1850's 1860s
   3. Contrast with painting and drawing as imagemaking tools
   4. Update: the ubiquity of the CCD in camera cel phones; previously photography was not a mass medium
2. The Cinematograph Videorecording (VHS). A Louis Saul Film production in association with Bavarian Television ... et al. Written by Susanne Pach, Herbert W. Franke. Tools of the AV trade. Milestones in science and engineering. Princeton, N.J. Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 1994. (15 min)
   1. The fact that this film is dated serves as a jumping off point for discussion about ... criticism ... (and technology of today), special effects, genre (science fiction) etc. Milies was instumental in creating a new genre, using spectacular equipment.
3. Berger Chaps 3 - 4
   1. Lakoff and Johnson (Metaphor and Metanymy)
      1. Semiology (semiotics) can have layers of meaning, impacting logic
      2. Love is war (metaphor works by similarity); Rolls Royce = wealth (metonymy works by association)
      3. Synechdoche, part of the whole
   2. Aristotle
      1. Narrative, defined
      2. narrative or memetic theory of art: narrative is an analog or metaphor for life
      3. media critic
      4. mimesis - imitation
      5. plays, poetry are imitations of life
      6. comedy tragedy, low/hi art
      7. spectacular equipment for drama - special effects
      8. those who criticize violence in videogames talk about mimesis (still debating)