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01   |   01.20 Introduction, Logistics, Overview . Click on Image at Left to Return to MDST 322 Homepage Maintained By: Jim Cocola Co-Authored By: Jim Cocola, Carrie Dann, Benjamin F. Walter Last Modified by Jim 04.02.03 13.15 Checked Out By: .

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

Though formal antecedents exist, the collage aesthetic came into its own in the first decades of the twentieth-century. Indeed, one could claim collage in its many guises as the paradigmatic aesthetic mode of the modern and the contemporary. This course will make that case, by tracing the collage aesthetic within the emerging realm of new media applications (digital, electronic, hypertext, video &c).

In the process of this inquiry, a number of questions about collage will be raised. Among them...

 • Could one trace a geneaology of collage from its modernist origins up through its various new media manifestations, or is the contemporary collage aesthetic itself a fragmented inheritance?

 • How do the genres of avant-garde poetry, experimental music and interactive writing relate to the collage aesthetic within the visual arts?

 • Can flash animation, digital art and other forms of emitted light qualify under the traditional rubric of collage, or are they more properly considered in a separate aesthetic category?

 • What is the significance of the mass media's use of the collage aesthetic via new media applications in its presentation of advertising, entertainment and news content?

 • Does the collage aesthetic betray a particular political ideology? How does the use of new media applications inform this dynamic?

 • Will improved access to cultural and material resources dilute or enhance the aesthetic and political impact of collage as an art form?

 • What might recent intersections between the collage aesthetic and new media applications suggest about broader questions of technology, urbanization and globalization?

 • What does the collage aesthetic (esp. in the age of new media applications) have to say about authenticity, influence, and originality?

From phat beats to tiny pixels, our scrutiny will not be content to stop at cutting and pasting, but will extend to crop, dither, sample and zoom in on the collage aesthetic as it continues to re-invent itself in the age of new media.

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WEEK-BY-WEEK

01   |   01.20   |   Introduction, Logistics, Overview 02   |   01.27   |   Paper Collage v. Digital Collage 03   |   02.03   |   New Media Applications 04   |   02.10   |   Internet as Collage 05   |   02.17   |   Hypertext Literature 06   |   02.24   |   Ephemera 07   |   03.02   |   Mass Media and New Media

08   |   03.16   |   New Media Festivals 09   |   03.23   |   Animation 10   |   03.30   |   Plunderphonics 11   |   04.06   |   Music 12   |   04.13   |   Film, Television, Video 13   |   04.20   |   Conceptual Art and Installation Art 14   |   04.27   |   Reflection, Synthesis, Evaluation

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ENROLLMENT UPDATES

As of February 3:

Enrollment is closed. This seminar has 24 members.

—Jim

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PEDAGOGICAL MANIFESTO This course will approximate the spirit of the wiki, and its pedagogy will be open source.

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ASSIGNMENTS AND REQUIREMENTS...

...will be determined by the group, as per above. Active class participation will be vital, as will a mixture of shorter and longer formal responses, written and otherwise (which will come to constitute the heart of this homepage). Final projects may come in the form of any genre/genres under discussion (together with an artist's statement), or in the form of a longer hypertext essay addressing any issue/issues raised in the course.

No prior knowledge of web design (HTML, XML, et al.) is expected, but you will be encouraged to improve your abilities in this regard over the course of the semester. Those beginners looking to improve their handle on basic web design may benefit from consulting Elizabeth Castro's HTML for the World Wide Web, Fifth Edition with XHTML and CSS: Visual Quickstart Guide (Berkeley: Peachpit Press, 2002).

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GRADING POLICIES...

...are open to discussion in the opening stage of the semester, as per above. Here is a possible model:

10%: In-Class Participation

30%: Web Presence
Class E-Mails, Site Maintenance, Weblog. Feel free to emphasize these three elements according to your abilities and interests. Be sure to maintain a record of your web presence and your reflections on each week's activities in your weblog. This work will be ongoing, and feedback will occur regularly. A final record of your web presence will be due at semester's end.

30%: Hypertext Responses
Create at least one and as many as five hypertext responses. For the semester, plan to create a minimum of 1500 words, 15 links and 3 images. Prepare your webpage in draft form on discussion days for feedback from the entire class (regarding coding, content, design, etc.). Continue to update them as you see fit throughout the semester, seeking out additional feedback as needed. Final versions of all hypertext responses will be due at semester's end.

30%: Final Portfolio   /   Final Project
Of your own devising, so long as it functions as an application and/or inquiry of the themes covered in the course. Final projects will be due at semester's end.
An alternative to a final project could be a portfolio of smaller projects from throughout the semester. This would enable you to pursue any project, without worrying that it cannot count towards your grade. This is meant to alleviate the pressure of a final project, while enabling you to explore multiple areas of interest. (Suggestion from Benjamin Walter)

Because of the open nature of these policies, students are encouraged to schedule a mid-term review at mid-semester.

There will be no quizzes and no final examination in this course.

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ATTENDANCE POLICY

Should you miss four or more class meetings, your final grade may be calculated entirely according to the percentage of classes attended.

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HONOR POLICY

"Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition, that a person is to extricate himself from a difficulty, by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimulation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an injustice. This increases the difficulties ten fold; and those who pursue these methods, get themselves so involved at length, that they can turn no way but their infamy becomes more exposed. It is of great importance to set a resolution, not to be shaken, never to tell an untruth. There is no vice so mean, so pitiful, so contemptible; and he who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions."

— Thomas Jefferson to Peter Carr, Letter of August 19, 1785

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WEB POLICY

Because we will be using a CTI account with a shared password to maintain a collective web presence, the appearance of these pages will change vastly between now and May. Updates will happen regularly, and all interested parties (i.e. everyone) should participate in this process.

The policies on this logistics page, however, will not change beyond our second class meeting, on 01.27 (in advance of the drop deadline, on 01.28). Therefore, it's crucial for everyone to evaluate the policies on this page and to perform any necessary edits before 01.27. We will then review these policies together in class on 01.27 to make sure that we're all, so to speak, on the same page.

Staying on the same page will remain crucial from week to week, as any weekly page (with the exception of this one) might be altered at any point between any class meeting. Therefore, once the grading policy is set, assignments under those rubrics will be suggested, rather than required. As with all aspects of our collective web presence, the establishment of suggested assignments should be a group effort.

If, for reasons of university policy, a specific detail should prove non-negotiable at any point, such an impasse will be discussed during a class meeting. To reduce confusion, it may be worthwhile to establish an agreement whereby all updates are indicated by date, time, and the initials of the author. Or, we might prefer to include only the date and the initials of the author, or only the date and time of the update. A caveat: refresh and update regularly when working on the CTI account, as multiple people might be at work at any given time!

In addition to the CTI account, which establishes our collective web presence, use your home directory or another server of your preference to establish an individual web presence for this course (to include your weblog, your hypertext responses, and so on). Be sure to create a space on the course homepage that states your name and links to your individual web presence.

Finally, for archival purposes, a copy of each course page in the CTI account will be saved as of the first course meeting, and copies of any given weekly page will be saved on a periodic basis.

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LAB HOURS AND OFFICE HOURS

By Appointment.
E-mail jmc3qm@virginia.edu to set up a meeting.

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REFERENCES

1. Rita Felski. Professor of English, University of Virginia. ENCR 869, Aesthetics and Politics, UVA, Fall 2002.
2. Eric Lott. Professor of English, University of Virginia ENAM 982, The 1970s, UVA, Spring 2003.
3. Peter Schjeldahl. Art Critic, The New Yorker. VES 99, Contemporary Art Criticism, Harvard College, 1997-8.

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