Paige Taul

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art.

Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects.

Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

This course is designed to introduce students to the language and histories of the moving image arts and the diverse ways in which artists have contributed to them. Throughout the semester we will examine a range of approaches to creating moving image work. We will compare and contrast established ?norms? with radical and experimental approaches to these various media, leading to an understanding of the rich, complex, and evolving landscape upon which individuals have been making, and continue to make, moving image art.

Students will engage with this expanded field through lectures, readings, screenings, meetings with visiting artists as well as becoming active in discussions and practitioners in the field via group projects.

Working in small groups, students will complete a series of short projects to introduce them to the various pathways of the department. By the end of the semester, students should have gain basic production and postproduction skills as well a good understanding of the key concepts relevant to contemporary film, video, new media, installation and animation.

Form and Meaning is a rigorous investigation of the art of moving image editing and provides a historical and theoretical understanding of both classical film editing and newer modes and models of editing and perception. The course provides a working foundation and framework.

A close reading of films will train the student in the core aesthetic decisions, structures, strategies and demands of editing cinematic works. In addition, we will look at examples and discuss how editing functions for the installation artist, and further, how the Internet, New Media, television and video art have made an impact on concepts surrounding editing. Weekly readings will expand on the work presented in class.

Students should expect to research and write both a midterm and final papers as well as a few short responses to works presented in class. Form and Meaning is a theory-based seminar and is not designed to offer critique for works in progress.

Form and Meaning is a rigorous investigation of the art of moving image editing and provides a historical and theoretical understanding of both classical film editing and newer modes and models of editing and perception. The course provides a working foundation and framework.

A close reading of films will train the student in the core aesthetic decisions, structures, strategies and demands of editing cinematic works. In addition, we will look at examples and discuss how editing functions for the installation artist, and further, how the Internet, New Media, television and video art have made an impact on concepts surrounding editing. Weekly readings will expand on the work presented in class.

Students should expect to research and write both a midterm and final papers as well as a few short responses to works presented in class. Form and Meaning is a theory-based seminar and is not designed to offer critique for works in progress.

In documentary media, there is a tension between the real (the world and people to which the filmmaker directs their gaze and records) and the creative or expressive treatment of the real (the argument and rhetorical devices by which the filmmaker presents the recordings). This tension raises questions about the truth and value of the documented world, about the rights one has to the representations of others, and about the coherence of one¿s own self. The course will examine a number of documentaries, both historic and contemporary, as case studies whose production, formal choices, exhibition and reception bring particular ethical concerns to light.
Case studies will broach issues such as consent in films including Obedience (1965), Grey Gardens (1975), and The Thin Blue Line (1988); the power dynamic of the camera through Cameraperson (2016) and Sans Soleil (1983); ethnographic representation of one¿s self/others in works such as Malni (2020), Tongues Untied (1989) and Nanook of the North (1922); the agency of social actors as in Harvest of Shame (1960), Foragers (2022) and the Act of Killing (2012) and much more.
Every week, participants will lead class discussion which will require contextual research, individual presentations and in depth reading.

This senior Capstone course is designed for students who made a serious commitment to film and video as a major part of their art practice and who wish to focus on the completion of a moving image project for public presentation. Students will be asked to document their practice and develop a realistic plan for the exhibition of their work. The structure of the class consists of periodic workshops, regular critiques of student works as well as individual meetings. Additionally, students will be exposed to diverse examples of contemporary moving image works and will participate in discussions of relevant critical topics. Students should be both self-directed and interested in developing a support system for producing each other's work.