Video, Art, Politics

This class teaches aspects of conceptual and activist video production within a study of historical work by artists responding to still-current political concerns such as state violence, global pandemics, electoral disenfranchisement, and mass incarceration. With attention to the complex relationships between politics, spectacle, and aesthetics, we will consider contemporary video as cinematic event, gallery exhibition, web stream, art object, broadcast television and social process, or used as act of witness, tactical media intervention, political prank and legal/physical defense strategy. Classwork includes individual and collective video production and extensive group critique. Graduate requirements will include additional weekly readings and screenings.