CTCS 585: Seminar in Film/TV Critical Theory + Production
Activism in the Digital Age
Professor Tara McPherson
Fall 2017
SCI L114
Tuesdays 10:00 – 1:30 p.m.
(we may sometimes run to 1:50)
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 2-3 pm
+ by appointment. Just email me.
Main Office Phone: 213-740-3334
Email: tmcphers@usc.edu
TA: Charlie Furman, cfurman@usc.edu
Course website: http://ctcs585-2017.blogspot.com
DOWNLOAD SYLLABUS HERE:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KGgcZzSNcAMEpURzlaMk84RTg/view?usp=sharing
From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives
Matter to last winter’s Women’s March, the last decade has seen a variety of
competing claims about the role digital media might play in activist struggles
for social change. Through a series of case studies that will center on
issues of race, gender, sexuality, privacy, and class, the course will
explore the ways in which digital media intersect with and possibly
reconfigure activist practice in the twenty-first century. This class is
also a practicum of sorts, so students will be asked to engage with media
making tools and activities in a variety of contexts. Theory and practice
will be integrated across the semester, and each mode of expression will
be valued. Throughout the semester, the
guiding frameworks of the class will be those of cultural theory, digital media
studies, feminism, and critical race theory, and we will constantly link our
exploration of old and new technologies to investigations of social change,
aesthetics, and efficacy.
As we collectively shape the contours of the class, I hope
that we will address questions like the following: "How do technologies
shape our sense of self and other?", “How does technology impact social
organization and forms of community?”, "What continuities exist between
activism before and after the web?", "What potential do tactical
media offer activists?", "How do digital activism and other forms of
activism intersect?", and "Do digital media enable new ways of
imagining social change?".
We will also explore the impacts of digital media on strategies
for organizing through the exploration of concrete case studies. In order to
explore issues of organizational strategy, consensus building, and
deliberation, several weeks of the semester are as yet unmapped. Students in the course will collectively author
the contours of these sessions, deciding upon four case studies, assigned
readings, hands-on activities, and other materials. We’ll talk more about this
process in the next few weeks.
Finally, the course takes seriously the notion that digital
media are re-jiggering the relationship between theory and practice, illuminating
new possibilities for activism, art, and daily life. As such, a few hands-on labs and other
excursions will give students the opportunity to explore various elements of digital
activism, particularly in relation to the creative expression.
Required
Texts:
Classroom Technology Use:
Advance Homework Assignments (30%):
Participation,
Attendance, Labs + Excursions (10%):
Class Session Design (30%):
Final project (30%):
Course
Schedule:
(Note: hands-on homework assignments are due at the start
of class on the days they are listed)
8/22: Class Introductions
Ant Farm, Media Burn, 1975 edit,
8/29: Media Activism before the Web: Guerilla TV,
Video Art + Farmworker Futurism
Patricia Mellencamp, “Video Politics: "Guerrilla
TV", Ant Farm, "Eternal Frame"
Pre-class
homework: Peruse the Paper Tiger TV
video archive (https://vimeo.com/papertigertv/videos) and watch a few videos of
interest to you. Create a 2-5 minute
video of your own that addresses an issue of your choosing that in some way
reflects the aesthetics and/or tactical strategies of the various activists and
artists we’ve read about for this week. Production values are not the key issue
here (as the readings should make obvious.) A “talking head” video is certainly
an option if it suits your goals. Think
about how form suits content for your piece.
9/5: Media Activism before the Web: Considering ACT-UP
-John D’Addario,
“AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury” Available online: http://hyperallergic.com/42085/aids-art-activism-gran-fury/ (Please follow the links in the article too,
particularly the Manifesto and the Art
Forum interview.)
Optional/Reference:
-Douglas Crimp, “The Boys in my Bedroom” (1990, reprinted in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader)
-Liz Highleyman, “Radical Queers or Queer Radicals? Queer
Activism and the Global Justice Movement”
(from Benjamin Shepard and Ronald
Hayduk, From ACT-UP to the WTO)
Pre-class homework:
Look through various sites chronicling the graphic visual strategies used by
AIDS activists in the 1980s (see for
instance, http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/GranFury/GFGllry.html). Create a graphic image of some type in
relation to an issue of concern to you.
You may create a purely digital piece or work with other materials (and
document the piece photographically.)
Reflect on your design choices in 150-300 words, and post both your
image and your rationale to the blog.
9/12: Activating the Web: Tactical Media + Cyberfeminism
Pre-class homework: Review
the Gran Fury Manifesto from week 2 and the Refugia Manifesto from this
week. Create a 1-2 page manifesto for an
issue of your choosing and post it to the class blog.
9/19: Theorizing
Activist Strategies in 2017
Michael Hardt + Antonio Negri, Assembly
(selections TBA)
Pre-class homework:
TBA
9/26: Reviewing
Tactics in 2017
For class this week, you will work in small groups to present the core
ideas from a small resource list.
The remainder of the syllabus will be a
work-in-progress, to be shaped by our collective deliberations, planning, and
actions.
NOTE:
There will be no class the week of November 23rd
(Thanksgiving)
Required University Caveats + Info:
Academic Conduct
Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards https://scampus.usc.edu/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriate-sanctions. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct.
Discrimination, sexual assault, and harassment are not tolerated by the university. You are encouraged to report any incidents to the Office of Equity and Diversity http://equity.usc.edu or to the Department of Public Safety https://dps.usc.edu/contact/. This is important for the safety of the whole USC community. Another member of the university community – such as a friend, classmate, advisor, or faculty member – can help initiate the report, or can initiate the report on behalf of another person. Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services (RSVP) http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/cwm/ provides 24/7 confidential support, and the Title IX webpage http://titleix.usc.edu/ describes reporting options and other resources.
Support Systems
A number of USC’s schools provide support for students who need help with scholarly writing. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute http://ali.usc.edu/, which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students.
The Office of Disability Services and Programs provides certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange the relevant accommodations. http://dsp.usc.edu/
If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, USC Emergency Information will provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology. http://emergency.usc.edu
Course Exam, Project and Paper Retention Policy
It is the responsibility of all students in Cinema and Media Studies Studies courses to retrieve all papers, projects, assignments and/or exams within one academic year of completion of a course. These records may be essential in resolving grade disputes and incompletes as well as assist in verifying that course requirements have been met. The Cinema and Media Studies Division will dispose of all records from the previous academic year in May of the current academic year. No exceptions. Please be in contact with your TA or Professor about collecting these documents while you are taking the course.
DOWNLOAD SYLLABUS HERE:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7KGgcZzSNcAMEpURzlaMk84RTg/view?usp=sharing
From the Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives
Matter to last winter’s Women’s March, the last decade has seen a variety of
competing claims about the role digital media might play in activist struggles
for social change. Through a series of case studies that will center on
issues of race, gender, sexuality, privacy, and class, the course will
explore the ways in which digital media intersect with and possibly
reconfigure activist practice in the twenty-first century. This class is
also a practicum of sorts, so students will be asked to engage with media
making tools and activities in a variety of contexts. Theory and practice
will be integrated across the semester, and each mode of expression will
be valued. Throughout the semester, the
guiding frameworks of the class will be those of cultural theory, digital media
studies, feminism, and critical race theory, and we will constantly link our
exploration of old and new technologies to investigations of social change,
aesthetics, and efficacy.
As we collectively shape the contours of the class, I hope
that we will address questions like the following: "How do technologies
shape our sense of self and other?", “How does technology impact social
organization and forms of community?”, "What continuities exist between
activism before and after the web?", "What potential do tactical
media offer activists?", "How do digital activism and other forms of
activism intersect?", and "Do digital media enable new ways of
imagining social change?".
We will also explore the impacts of digital media on strategies
for organizing through the exploration of concrete case studies. In order to
explore issues of organizational strategy, consensus building, and
deliberation, several weeks of the semester are as yet unmapped. Students in the course will collectively author
the contours of these sessions, deciding upon four case studies, assigned
readings, hands-on activities, and other materials. We’ll talk more about this
process in the next few weeks.
Finally, the course takes seriously the notion that digital
media are re-jiggering the relationship between theory and practice, illuminating
new possibilities for activism, art, and daily life. As such, a few hands-on labs and other
excursions will give students the opportunity to explore various elements of digital
activism, particularly in relation to the creative expression.
Required
Texts:
Most of the course
texts will be freely available online via Blackboard or other resources. You
will present on a book in week six and will need to acquire that book. There
may also be some costs for possible field trips during the course.
Classroom Technology Use:
PLEASE BRING A LAPTOP OR TABLET TO ALL
CLASSES!!! That said, please also be aware that I may,
at times, ask you to disengage from your devices for focused attention in
class. Thus, it’s also a good idea to
have old-fashioned writing supplies on hand.
Class
Requirements:
Advance Homework Assignments (30%):
During the semester, you will be required to post a variety
of homework assignments to the class website.
The assignments for the first few weeks are noted below. Additional assignments will be created as we
together map out the remainder of the term. You should also feel free post to
the website whenever you are moved to do so.
Ideally, the site will become a communal space for the class, one used
to address and ponder course themes and to point your peers to interesting and
relevant materials. You are, of course, expected
to read the site regularly and to comment on your peers’ posts and assignments.
Participation,
Attendance, Labs + Excursions (10%):
Attendance:
It should go without
saying that students are expected to attend all classes and to arrive at class
prepared and ready to participate (i.e. having finished and thought about the
day’s materials.) Absences will affect
your grade. Additionally, all
assignments are due on time; late assignments will rarely be accepted.
Labs/Excursions:
Additionally, there will likely be a few hands-on labs
and/or excursions associated with the course. Details on these will be posted
on the blog ‘on the fly’ as part of our experiments in flexible course design
for the info age.
Class Session Design (30%):
A significant concern of this class is the exploration of participatory
activism in the digital age. Such activism involves complex dynamics of
cooperation, consensus building, organization, and struggle. In such processes,
the virtual and physical intersect and shape one another. How might such
endeavors shape the very design of graduate education, particularly in relation
to media studies? Might we think of course design differently, as more
collaborative and bottom-up? Presumably,
you’re each in this course because you have some interest in activism of some
type. I could shape the course via my
own predilections and interests but that strikes me as the wrong approach to
take given our course themes. Working as a team, we will collaboratively take
charge of designing case studies and actions for the course schedule. For these weeks, a small group of planners
will be responsible (with ongoing input from me and from classmates) for selecting
readings, screenings, links, field trips, class visitors, or other illustrative
materials pertinent for the topic on hand. You are encouraged to be creative in
tackling this portion of the semester.
Some potential topics to get you started might include Black Lives
Matter, climate change, electoral politics, indigenous land rights, mass incarceration,
sexual violence, trans politics, or Palestinian liberation. Or we might choose something quite different,
busting out of the confines of the seminar space altogether. For instance, we might choose one case study
and pursue it in and beyond the classroom for several weeks, planning one or
two actions in relation to it. We might
decide to focus on two topics with an action apiece. How would you remake the
graduate seminar in the digital age? What
really interests you about activism today?
This is an opportunity to try out your ideas.
Final project (30%):
Students will be required to produce a final project for the
class, but the form of this project will be open. You might produce a conventional seminar
paper addressing course themes, but I strongly encourage you to consider other
formats that your project might take including the creation of web resources
around key issues, a performance, a video, or some type of coordinated action.
You should schedule a meeting with me to talk about your ideas for the project
at some point during the semester. We
will also discuss this further as the class begins to take a more defined shape.
Course
Schedule:
(Note: hands-on homework assignments are due at the start
of class on the days they are listed)
8/22: Class Introductions
Plus speed dating and potential case study discussion
Screenings:
Paper Tiger TV, “Oldies and Goodies: A Paper Tiger Sampler”
https://vimeo.com/145211312
Ant Farm, Media Burn, 1975 edit,
Ant Farm, Media Burn, 1975 edit,
Community Video Center/Dispatch New Service “Harrisburg 8”
8/29: Media Activism before the Web: Guerilla TV,
Video Art + Farmworker Futurism
Readings:
Patricia Mellencamp, “Video Politics: "Guerrilla TV", Ant Farm, "Eternal Frame"
Patricia Mellencamp, “Video Politics: "Guerrilla TV", Ant Farm, "Eternal Frame"
Christine Tamblyn, “Qualifying the Quotidian: Artists Video
and the Production of Social Space”
Martha Rosler,
“Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment”
Curtis Marez, “Cesar Chavez’s Video Collection” Available
online: https://scalar.usc.edu/nehvectors/curtis-marez/index
Pre-class
homework: Peruse the Paper Tiger TV
video archive (https://vimeo.com/papertigertv/videos) and watch a few videos of
interest to you. Create a 2-5 minute
video of your own that addresses an issue of your choosing that in some way
reflects the aesthetics and/or tactical strategies of the various activists and
artists we’ve read about for this week. Production values are not the key issue
here (as the readings should make obvious.) A “talking head” video is certainly
an option if it suits your goals. Think
about how form suits content for your piece.
9/5: Media Activism before the Web: Considering ACT-UP
Readings:
-Esther Kaplan, "This City is Ours." (from Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk, From ACT-UP to the WTO, 2002)
-Alex Juhasz, AIDS TV: Identity, Community, and Alternative Media (Chapter One, 1995)
-T.V. Reed, "ACTing Up against AIDS” from The Art of Protest: Culture and Activism from the Civil Rights Movement to the Streets of Seattle (2005)
-John D’Addario,
“AIDS, Art and Activism: Remembering Gran Fury” Available online: http://hyperallergic.com/42085/aids-art-activism-gran-fury/ (Please follow the links in the article too,
particularly the Manifesto and the Art
Forum interview.)
Optional/Reference:
-Douglas Crimp, “The Boys in my Bedroom” (1990, reprinted in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader)
-Liz Highleyman, “Radical Queers or Queer Radicals? Queer Activism and the Global Justice Movement” (from Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk, From ACT-UP to the WTO)
-Douglas Crimp, “The Boys in my Bedroom” (1990, reprinted in The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader)
-Liz Highleyman, “Radical Queers or Queer Radicals? Queer Activism and the Global Justice Movement” (from Benjamin Shepard and Ronald Hayduk, From ACT-UP to the WTO)
Pre-class homework:
Look through various sites chronicling the graphic visual strategies used by
AIDS activists in the 1980s (see for
instance, http://www.queerculturalcenter.org/Pages/GranFury/GFGllry.html). Create a graphic image of some type in
relation to an issue of concern to you.
You may create a purely digital piece or work with other materials (and
document the piece photographically.)
Reflect on your design choices in 150-300 words, and post both your
image and your rationale to the blog.
9/12: Activating the Web: Tactical Media + Cyberfeminism
Readings:
Critical Art Ensemble, Digital
Resistance: Explorations in Tactical Media (esp. Intro and Chapters 1-4);
online at http://www.critical-art.net/books/digital/
Maria Fernandez, Faith Wilding,
Michelle M. Wright, eds., a subRosa project,
Domain Errors: Cyberfeminist
Practices! [selections: Introduction;
Situating Cyberfeminisms; Cyberfeminism, Racism, Embodiment; subRosa
Manifestations; Refugia! Manifesto for Becoming Autonomous Zones (BAZ)] Online
at http://www.refugia.net/domainerrors/
Pre-class homework: Review
the Gran Fury Manifesto from week 2 and the Refugia Manifesto from this
week. Create a 1-2 page manifesto for an
issue of your choosing and post it to the class blog.
9/19: Theorizing
Activist Strategies in 2017
Readings:
Michael Hardt + Antonio Negri, Assembly (selections TBA)
Michael Hardt + Antonio Negri, Assembly (selections TBA)
Adrienne Maree Brown, Emergent
Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (selections TBA)
Pre-class homework:
TBA
9/26: Reviewing
Tactics in 2017
Readings:
For class this week, you will work in small groups to present the core ideas from a small resource list.
For class this week, you will work in small groups to present the core ideas from a small resource list.
The remainder of the syllabus will be a
work-in-progress, to be shaped by our collective deliberations, planning, and
actions.
NOTE:
There will be no class the week of November 23rd
(Thanksgiving)
Required University Caveats + Info:
Academic Conduct
Plagiarism – presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, either verbatim or recast in your own words – is a serious academic offense with serious consequences. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion of plagiarism in SCampus in Section 11, Behavior Violating University Standards https://scampus.usc.edu/1100-behavior-violating-university-standards-and-appropriate-sanctions. Other forms of academic dishonesty are equally unacceptable. See additional information in SCampus and university policies on scientific misconduct, http://policy.usc.edu/scientific-misconduct.
Discrimination, sexual assault, and harassment are not tolerated by the university. You are encouraged to report any incidents to the Office of Equity and Diversity http://equity.usc.edu or to the Department of Public Safety https://dps.usc.edu/contact/. This is important for the safety of the whole USC community. Another member of the university community – such as a friend, classmate, advisor, or faculty member – can help initiate the report, or can initiate the report on behalf of another person. Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention and Services (RSVP) http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/cwm/ provides 24/7 confidential support, and the Title IX webpage http://titleix.usc.edu/ describes reporting options and other resources.
Support Systems
A number of USC’s schools provide support for students who need help with scholarly writing. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute http://ali.usc.edu/, which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students.
The Office of Disability Services and Programs provides certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange the relevant accommodations. http://dsp.usc.edu/
If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, USC Emergency Information will provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology. http://emergency.usc.edu
Course Exam, Project and Paper Retention Policy
It is the responsibility of all students in Cinema and Media Studies Studies courses to retrieve all papers, projects, assignments and/or exams within one academic year of completion of a course. These records may be essential in resolving grade disputes and incompletes as well as assist in verifying that course requirements have been met. The Cinema and Media Studies Division will dispose of all records from the previous academic year in May of the current academic year. No exceptions. Please be in contact with your TA or Professor about collecting these documents while you are taking the course.
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