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Video Activism: History, Theory, Politics and
Practice
Instructor: River
Branch
University of Iowa; Fall 2004
Course Description:
“A video camera has become one of those
objects you pack for a protest.”
~Tish Stringer, Video Activist
This course examines the history of video activism
beginning with the introduction of the porta pak in the late 1960’s,
the development of video collectives, activist and public access
television and culminating in video’s role in the WTO and
the events preceding and following September 11th. Through readings,
screenings and discussions, you will examine the blurring lines
between art, documentary, journalism and activism. Topics include
but are not limited to the infusion of identity politics (shifts
created through feminist, queer and race theory), youth action in
the 1990’s, the act of recording as defense, movement from
vérité to personal documentary, and issues of distribution.
Assignments:
You will write two five-page papers and one fifteen page paper,
and you are responsible for regularly presenting on course readings,
screenings and research. Active class participation and a demonstration
of a working knowledge of course material are primary factors in
the evaluation of your work.
As this course addresses the role of video in our communities, you
may propose a final project of a video rather than a paper. If this
is of interest to you, please talk to me by September 18th.
Course Materials:
The first four books can be purchased at Iowa Book and Supply on
Clinton Street.
Boyle, Deidre, Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television
Revisited, Oxford University Press, 1997.
Márquez, Gabriel García, Clandestine
in Chile: The Adventures of Miguel Littín, Henry Holt
& Co, New York, NY, 1986.
Nichols, Bill, Blurred Boundaries: Questions of
Meaning in Contemporary Culture, Indiana University Press,
Bloomington, Ind., 1994.
Zimmermann, Patricia R., States of Emergency :
Documentaries, Wars, Democracies, Minneapolis, University of
Minnesota Press, 2000.
I am listing these additional texts, as I drew several
articles for the course from each.
Hall, Doug and Fifer, Sally Jo ; editors. lluminating
video : an essential guide to video art. New York, N.Y. : Aperture
in association with the Bay Area Video Coalition, 1990.
Hanley, JoAnn. The first generation : women and
video, 1970-75. New York : Independent Curators Inc., c1993.
Straayer, Chirs. Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
Schedule:
8/28 The History of Video Activism
9/4 Video Art:
-The rise of collectives(Ant Farm, Paper Tiger, Deep Dish TV)
-Feminist, Race and Queer Theorists 1) ‘Video: Shedding the
Utopian Moment,’ by Martha Rosler(p. 31-50)
2) ‘A Brief History of American Documentary Video,’
by Deidre Boyle (p.51-69)
3) ‘Dé-collage/Collage: Notes Toward a Reexamination
of the Origins of Video Art,’ by John G. Hanhardt (p.71-79)
4) ‘Video Art: What’s TV Got to Do With It?,”
by Kathy Rae Huffman (p.81-90)
5) ‘Paradox in the Evolution of an Art Form: Great Expectations
and the Making of History,’ by Marita Sturken (p.101-121)
*Readings taken from Illuminating Video, ed. by Doug Hall &
Sally Jo Fifer
9/11 Video's role on the day of
September 11, 2001 and in the days, weeks and months following.
TBA
9/18 Activist Television &
The 1970’s: implic. of public access Readings from: Subject
to Change by Deidre Boyle
9/25 1970’s: articulation
of identity politics Paper #1 due
Readings from Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies by Chris Straayer and
from
Resolutions, ed. By Michael Renov & Erika Suderburg
10/2 Youth Action in the 1990’s
Final Project Proposal due
Readings: TBA
10/9 The Act of Recording as Defense:
The World Trade Organization
Rodney King Readings from Blurred Boundaries by Bill Nichols
10/16 Who is your audience? TBA
10/23 1990’s: Race, Sexuality
Gender and Disability Readings from Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies
by Chris Straayer and from
Resolutions, ed. By Michael Renov & Erika Suderburg
10/30 1990’s: The Gulf War
Paper #2 due
Readings from Blurred Boundaries by Nichols and
States of Emergency by Zimmerman
11/6 Video Documentary &
The line bt/ activism and documentary. TBA
11/13 Issues of Distribution:
The world wide web, festivals, public access television &
Strategies: experimental, documentary, and video art. Readings from
States of Emergency by Zimmerman & TBA
11/20 The move from Vérité
to Personal Documentary Final Paper/Project-
Rough draft/rough cut due
Readings TBA
11/27 Thanksgiving Break
12/4 The local & the global.
Diaspora. Independent Media Centers. Clandestine in Chile by Gabriel
García Márquez
12/11 Presentations of final papers
& videos Final Papers/projects due
12/18 Presentations of final papers
& videos
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