Intensive courses - Autumn 2022

1 Jul 2022

AJL17088, AJL27095
Murals of North America: A Century of Social and Political Commentary
Paul Von Blum
September 19 - 23, 10.00 - 11.40 and 14.00 - 15.40, G316

Course description:

For the past century, visual artists have turned to public outdoor and indoor murals to provide social and political commentary. This mini-course will survey some of the major highlights of this vibrant tradition in North America. It will look at three major developments that have made durable contributions to 20th and 21st century art history generally and to socially conscious art specifically. The three areas are Mexican muralism of the early to mid-20th century, U.S. social and political murals from the Works Progress Administration during the New Deal in the 1930s and beyond, and the American Mural renaissance from the late 1960s to the present.

AJL17089, AJL27096
American Memory
Ben Alexander
November 21 – 25, 10.00 - 11.40 and 14.00 - 15.40, G316

Course description:

Historiographically speaking this course is a study of the complex processes that evolve social memory and shape various (often deeply contested) historical narratives. Practically speaking, this course is a study of objects (“scraps” and “fragments”) that “fix” history within the matrices of particular technologies (manuscripts, books, photographs, recorded sound and moving image) at a particular moment in time and amid a variety of historical contexts (most of which quickly become invisible to posterity). Our challenge, really the challenge for all researchers, is to reconcile the process by which fixed history is evolved into both memory and narrative.

AJL17090, AJL27097
When American TV became American Literature
Ben Alexander
November 21 – 25, 12.00 - 13.40 and 16.00 - 17.40, G316

Course description:

In a 2015 interview with David Simon (creator of The Wire) President Barak Obama offered that The Wire is, "one of the greatest -- not just television shows, but pieces of [American] art in the last couple of decades." Our course advances beyond Obama’s (prescient) observation. Indeed, we begin with the working hypothesis that between the years ca. 1999 (premier of the Soprano’s) and 2015 (conclusion of Mad Men) that American television (and serial dramas specifically) produced the most insightful art in the United States... (read more).