Art & the History of Art 462 - Film and Video Curation

(Offered as ENGL 462, FAMS 462, and ARHA 462)  In recent years, curating has taken on an increasingly central role in the production of contemporary media cultures.  As the practice of selecting, organizing, and presenting cultural artifacts for public exhibition, curating often determines the sorts of media forms audiences have access to and the frameworks through which those media forms are interpreted.  Curating requires a facility with a wide variety of skills, from historical research to critical analysis, communication, administration, and creative thinking.  Yet it also entails an attentiveness to the complex socio-political issues that subtend all approaches to cultural representation.

This course introduces students to the history, theory, and practice of film and video curation, paying special attention to the curation of experimental media.  Students will learn about curating in both theoretical and practical ways, analyzing a variety of conceptual issues and debates that have emerged from historical and contemporary approaches to experimental film and video exhibition, while also embarking on creative assignments designed to allow them to begin developing their own curatorial perspectives.  Through weekly screenings, readings, and discussion seminars, as well as visits to off-campus arts venues and cultural institutions, we will examine the different registers of film and video exhibitions that are regularly shaped by curators (program, sequence, exhibition space, text, and formats, etc.), as well as the broader social and political stakes of media curation.  Two class meetings and one screening per week.

Requisite:  At least one foundational course in FAMS or ARHA.  Open to juniors and seniors.  Limited to 12 students.  Fall semester.  Professor Guilford.