Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2020 - CA 186 E100

Art and the Moving Image (3)

Class Number: 7635

Delivery Method: Remote

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Sep 9 – Dec 8, 2020: Mon, 6:30–8:20 p.m.
    Burnaby

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Introduces innovations in the fine and performing arts to show the range of possibilities open to those who wish to employ or understand the use of moving images in their disciplinary and multidisciplinary art practices. By the completion of the course students should have a good sense not only of previous innovations and traditions, but of the contemporary scene as well. Students with credit for FPA 186 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

This course introduces artists and scholars in the fine and performing arts to some of the wonderful ways you can think with and through recorded, time-based, audiovisual media. In lecture, students will encounter great works from around the world and learn concepts and methods that will help you get the most out of moving-image media. In tutorials, students will practices these approaches in intensive engagement with the works. This fall we will orient our investigation around perception, the body, and movement. Key terms include embodiment, empathy, seeing and hearing, components of the audiovisual moving image, pleasure, rhythm, performance, materiality, indexicality, information, remix, and imagination.

Grading

  • Art event report 15%
  • Test 1 10%
  • Single-shot video 15%
  • Test 2 10%
  • Brief essay 15%
  • Final Exam 25%
  • Attendance and Participation 10%

NOTES:

About our distributed learning:

As you know, we will not be meeting in classrooms this semester. I will give an asynchronous (you can listen to it when you want) one-hour recorded lecture, divided into small chunks, including audio-only chunks so you don’t have to be sitting down for them. We’ll have a live synchronous class with all 120 or so students, with lots of opportunities for questions, small-group discussion, guests, and fun analysis exercises. Tutorials will be synchronous and small, about 10 students. Your teaching assistants will guide you in practicing the week’s moving-image works and concepts. I encourage these small groups to divide into two 5-student “pods” who can support each other throughout the semester.

For students in different time zones, the Monday evening lecture might be a stretch, but we will accommodate tutorial times to you as much as possible.

Given that much of the class will happen on streaming video, we will spend some time talking about the environmental, social, and aesthetic effects of streaming video. I will invite you to make a low-impact, small-file video (under 5 megabytes!) for one of your assignments.

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

http://www.sfu.ca/sca/events---news/news/computer-help--sca-online-.html

REQUIRED READING:

Nathaniel Dorsky, Devotional Cinema, revised third edition (Tuumba Press, 2005). In SFU bookstore

Articles available on course Canvas site or through SFU Library site

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity web site http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating.  Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the University community.  Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the University. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the University. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

TEACHING AT SFU IN FALL 2020

Teaching at SFU in fall 2020 will be conducted primarily through remote methods. There will be in-person course components in a few exceptional cases where this is fundamental to the educational goals of the course. Such course components will be clearly identified at registration, as will course components that will be “live” (synchronous) vs. at your own pace (asynchronous). Enrollment acknowledges that remote study may entail different modes of learning, interaction with your instructor, and ways of getting feedback on your work than may be the case for in-person classes. To ensure you can access all course materials, we recommend you have access to a computer with a microphone and camera, and the internet. In some cases your instructor may use Zoom or other means requiring a camera and microphone to invigilate exams. If proctoring software will be used, this will be confirmed in the first week of class.

Students with hidden or visible disabilities who believe they may need class or exam accommodations, including in the current context of remote learning, are encouraged to register with the SFU Centre for Accessible Learning (caladmin@sfu.ca or 778-782-3112).