VIS149/ICAM130 Seminar in Contemporary Computer Topics

Space, Sexuality, Subjectivity
Fall 2010 Tues 12:30 - 3:20
Professor Jordan Crandall
jcrandall@ucsd.edu
office hours: Tues 11:30-12:30 VAF #413

In our cultural landscape of blogs, webcams, profiles, live journals, and lifecasting, the intimate lives of everyday people are on parade for all to see. One could say that a new culture of erotic exposure and display is on the ascendance, fueled by the impulse to reveal the self, and enabled by user-friendly networking technology. In many ways this culture would seem to be less a representational than a presentational one, where we are compelled to solicit the attention of others, act for unseen eyes, and develop new forms of connective intensity -- as if this were somehow the very condition of our continued existence, the marker of our worth. Through readings, screenings, discussions, and media projects, we will explore the new culture of self display and the new formats of subjectivity and space that it entails.

Note: syllabus is subject to change. Check this website weekly for updates and additional readings.

SEPT 28
Introduction.
Viewing of Marc Lafia's Chatroulette project
Assignment (for Oct 5): Media Project 1: "Webcam Encounters." (Project terms are explained below.)
Readings (for Oct 5): Victor Burgin, "Jennicam: Exhibitionism and Solitude."
Jennnicam history here
See also entry on lifecasting
Marc Lafia, on Chatroulette (below)
Cheryl Sourkes on Webcams (below)

OCT 5
screenings of Media Projects and discussion of readings.
Reading (for Oct 12): Jordan Crandall, "An Actor Prepares" [first section only - up until "An Apparatus Prepares" section]
Assignment: Write a 1-page response paper on "Jennicam: Exhibitionism and Solitude" and a 1-page response paper on "An Actor Prepares" (first section). Turn in printouts at beginning of class next week.

OCT 12
Discussions of readings.
Visit to Second Life, meet on Welcome Island for discussion
Viewing (on reserve in library): David Lynch, Inland Empire
Viewing (on your own): WARHOL's CINEMA - A Mirror for the Sixties (1989)
Reading (for Oct 19): Ursula Frohne, “’Screen Tests’: Media Narcissism, Theatricality, and the Internalized Observer.” Part 1 (download Word doc); Part 2 (download Word doc)

OCT 19
Discussion of reading. Develop a blog post that consists of the following: 1) a concept from the Frohne reading that resonates for you. (Examples of concepts: media narcissism; media mise-en-scene; spectacle effect; panoptic media culture; self-staging; market of attention; logic of the pose; pre-photographic photography; politics of visibility; semiotics of suspicion.) Explain the concept in one paragraph, in your own words, and give an example as found in everyday life, drawn from your own experience or on the web. 2) Activate the concept of "self-medialization," in whatever form you like (text, image, video, etc).
Reading (for Oct 26): Mez Breeze on "Versionals"; JC on Online Profiles; "How Second Life Affects Real Life"
Screening: Micha Cardenas, Becoming Dragon
Assignment (for Oct 26): Media Project 2: "Self-Medialization in Second Life"
Some video capture tools:
http://www.nchsoftware.com/capture/index.html
http://camstudio.org/
http://www.ejoystudio.com/oripa-screen-recorder/index.htm
http://www.menasoft.com/blog/?p=30
http://www.wegame.com/

OCT 26
Screenings and discussion of Media Projects
Assignments for Nov 2:
All selections from Showing project (text and links below)
Develop one example for each of the 4 areas (fantascenes, intensities, impersonations, and attractions) that serves to activate the readings. Post these 4 examples on your blog, with a paragraph summary of each example, that shows how each example relates to the readings.
Screening on reserve in library: Claire Denis, Beau Travail (1999).
Readings: Elena Del Rio, "Performing the Narrative of Seduction."

NOV 2
Discussion of readings.
Screening: Jordan Crandall, Hotel (2009).
Reading (for Nov 9): Jordan Crandall, "Something is Happening"
Assignment (for Nov 9): using the above reading as a "tool kit," create a sense that "something is happening" in an environment of your choice, using any medium (text, image, video, animation, etc.), in a maximum of 3 minutes. As in the reading, this "something happening" should not be resolved -- we should not know what it is, exactly. Rather, it should be a means of inciting our curiosity, attention, arousal, and intensity.

NOV 9
Screenings and discussion of reading
Reading: Kathleen Stewart, Cultural Poesis
Selections from Version
Assignment (for FINAL, Nov 30): Media Project 3: "THE REAL YOU". The project should be about who you "really are" in the space of your ordinary life. Please take the challenge to probe into the realm of the ordinary: the timespaces of your everyday life that are often overlooked. The project can take any form, in any medium (for example, interactive work, web project, video, animation) -- however, if it is a time-based video or animation, the maximum length is 5 mins. A 1-page proposal is due by Nov 16 (by email to JC). Include a full description of the theme, situating it within the overall concerns of the course, along with a detailed description of the form that the project will take and the media that it will employ. Supplemental sketches may be included.

NOV 16
workshop; feedback on proposals by email

NOV 23
Feedback on proposals in class presentation and discussion.

NOV 30
Screenings of Final Media Projects. A 1-page summary must be turned in (via printout) which situates the project within the themes of the course readings and discussions.