Admission requirements
BA-degree
Description
In this course we will discuss some seminal theoretical texts about photography, film, and video. In particular, we will focus upon essays that aim to address the medium-specific characteristics of each of them. In the case of photography, one can think of such issues as ‘that-has-been’ (Barthes), ‘memento mori/privileged moment’ (Sontag), ‘indexical icon’ (Krauss), ‘trace of perfect crime’ (Baudrillard), or ‘apparatus’ (Flusser). In the case of cinema, we can think of its initial definitions as either a ‘photoplay’ (Münsterberg) or as the seventh art (Canudo), the concept of photogénie (Epstein), the transition from a silent aesthetic to the coming of the talkie (Arnheim, Kracauer), cinema’s realist ontology according to Bazin, the introduction of widescreen processes (Barr) and the so-called apparatus theory (Baudry, Comolli). Next we will introduce video as a ‘reflexive medium’, a term used by Yvonne Spielmann to highlight that this electronic medium is often put to experimental and artistic use. In addition to the medium-specificity of photography, film, and video, this lecture series will also reflect upon the consequences of the digitization of these media. Moreover, we will shed a further light on the theories by discussing them in relation to primary material: mono-disciplinary photos, films, videos as well as mixed-media works.
Course objectives
Timetable
13 lectures (two hours) in first semester from September to December: timetable
Teaching method
- Lectures, seminar
Test method
- written exam with essay questions; three brief essays and a longer paper
Blackboard
Do you use Blackboard, and if so, in what way.
- Course information (e.g. schedule of series and objectives) and course documents (e.g. additional documents for lectures)
Reading list
Van Gelder, H., Westgeest, H., Photography Theory in Historical Perspective. Case Studies from Contemporary Art, Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2011. – Some extra short texts (to be found on Blackboard) – Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings. New York: Oxford University Press (either sixth edition, 2004, or seventh edition, 2008)
Registration
Petra Jochems, secretary of Film and Photographic Studies
Rgister for contractonderwijs
Contact
Peter Verstraten or Helen Westgeest
Remarks
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