Hello everyone,
I hope by now you've gone to visit a work of art somewhere in the Los Angeles area and that you've been working on your papers.
These past weeks have been fun for me since you know I am passionate about John Berger and Walter Benjamin. Eventhough you are on spring break, I hope that you're finding it at least a little bit fun!
I hope by now you've gone to visit a work of art somewhere in the Los Angeles area and that you've been working on your papers.
These past weeks have been fun for me since you know I am passionate about John Berger and Walter Benjamin. Eventhough you are on spring break, I hope that you're finding it at least a little bit fun!
Here is a breakdown of what's coming up.
Art Assignment Due Sunday, April 15
Please visit a work of art (sculpture, painting, museum, mural, etc.). It's important that you see it in person. Using John Berger's Ways of Seeing, write about your experience in the presence of that work of art. Think about the following questions to help you write your response:
Project Text Essay Due Thursday, April 17
Prompt: For this project, you are going to examine how one text changes the way we understand the other. You will study two texts and create a theory about how those texts worked, or use the theoretical moves of one text to investigate another. And by "text," I also mean visual texts (works of art).
With that said, we've already discussed Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” and John Berger's Ways of Seeing. What I would like you to do, is study any piece of art, such as a film, a painting, a story or poem, etc., and write a 1500-2000 word essay.
Rather than assessing the validity of Benjamin’s argument on the relationship between reproduction and the impact of a work of art, what I would like you to do is develop a theory of art and production in light of the ways (post-Benjaminian) digital “technologies of reproduction” change the game.
So for example, you can talk about how the piece of art you've chosen changes in significance based on the situation. So your experience of a painting will be different depending on your environment, as stated by John Berger.
Art Assignment Due Sunday, April 15
Please visit a work of art (sculpture, painting, museum, mural, etc.). It's important that you see it in person. Using John Berger's Ways of Seeing, write about your experience in the presence of that work of art. Think about the following questions to help you write your response:
- What is the work of art and why did you want to see it?
- Who is the artist and how was the work of art significant during its time?
- Where are you?
- Who are the people around you?
- What are your surroundings? (Use your senses.)
- How would you describe the art's aura?
- Overall, what do you want readers to conclude about the piece of art?
Project Text Essay Due Thursday, April 17
Prompt: For this project, you are going to examine how one text changes the way we understand the other. You will study two texts and create a theory about how those texts worked, or use the theoretical moves of one text to investigate another. And by "text," I also mean visual texts (works of art).
With that said, we've already discussed Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” and John Berger's Ways of Seeing. What I would like you to do, is study any piece of art, such as a film, a painting, a story or poem, etc., and write a 1500-2000 word essay.
Rather than assessing the validity of Benjamin’s argument on the relationship between reproduction and the impact of a work of art, what I would like you to do is develop a theory of art and production in light of the ways (post-Benjaminian) digital “technologies of reproduction” change the game.
So for example, you can talk about how the piece of art you've chosen changes in significance based on the situation. So your experience of a painting will be different depending on your environment, as stated by John Berger.