As registration for Summer 2015 academic courses is now underway, I wanted to provide more information about courses I will begin teaching starting May and also as condensed courses in the second semester of summer (July-August). Please see detailed descriptions below. Please note that the Canadian Art History course has recently had its prerequisite changed to allow students with any 6 credits of 1100 or higher courses to register. Please contact me directly if you are having problems registering.
ARTH 2126: Canadian Modern and Contemporary Art
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, July 6-August 17 (Second Summer Semester)
(Tuesdays & Thursdays 12:00-2:50pm, Surrey Campus FIR 128)
**note that the prerequisites for this course have changed: any 6 credits of 1100 or higher courses. Contact me directly if you need help registering for the course**
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, The Impending Nisga'a Deal Last Stand, Chump Change (1996)
Students will investigate the development of Canadian art beginning in the modern period of the late nineteenth through mid-twentieth century through to the postmodern and contemporary periods of recent decades, across Canada, coast to coast. The Canadian social, political, and multicultural influences on visual art and culture and visual language will also be explored from one stylistic period to the next, one region to another. Students will study the present Canadian art scene and its institutions within the context of the broader arts community. Some of the topics explored in this course include examining the tensions and challenges of how art is "Canadian," probing the legacy of Canadian modern art through the work of Emily Carr and the Group of Seven, the Quebec Automatistes, and the Painters Eleven. The course will also examine indigenous First Nations visual art practices of the last century from across Canada, and focus more specifically on the art of the Northwest Coast as one case study in the shifting conversation around First Nations art. The course will also consider more recent directions in photography, video, performance, and conceptually based art practices, along with probing issues of regionalism, globalization, identity and gender as it is approached from a Canadian perspective.
As a summer course, this class will take advantage of several local art gallery exhibitions highlighting Canadian art and include field trips to the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Anthropology, and a number of other art institutions.
ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, July 6-August 17 (Second Summer Semester)
(Mondays & Wednesdays 4:00-7:50pm, Surrey Campus FIR 128)
**note that each class will feature a full length film screening and discussion period**
Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman (2014), winner of numerous awards including the Best Picture at the 2015 Academy Awards
Students will study the history and development of world cinema, and the comprehension and theory of film as a visual language and art-making practice from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the present. The goal of the course is to introduce students to the critical interpretation of the cinema and the various vocabularies and methods with which one can explore the aesthetic function, together with the social, political, and technological contexts and developments, of moving pictures. The weekly format of this course in the condensed summer session (as two 4 hour blocks) will normally entail a 1 hour lecture and the screening of a full-length film followed by a group discussion period. Each film will thus serve as a starting point and gateway for discussion about the course’s weekly theme. Some of the topics covered in this course include the study of principles of film form, elements of narrative, mis-en-scene, cinematography, acting, editing, sound, and filmmaking technology. Other historical moments under examination include: early twentieth century film history in Europe and rise of Hollywood in the 1920-40's; the avant-garde cinema of the 1930-60's; the rise of the auteur and global cinema, New Wave cinema in Italy, France, Britain, Japan, and the United States; the era of action movies, the reboot, the franchise, and the rise of independent filmmaking; and recent challenges to the film industry from new media platforms and social media.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University, May 4-June 15 (Summer Semester)
(Mondays & Wednesdays 10:00-1:50pm, Surrey Campus FIR 128)
**note that registration for this course is restricted to students admitted to the NYC/Venice Biennale Field School**
Looking out over the NYC skyline from Rockefeller Centre towards the Empire State Building and downtown-- this year's field school will be traveling to NYC from May 25-June 7, and then jet off to the Venice Biennale from June 8-14
Experience travel in the vibrant cities of New York and Venice while studying their historic past, contemporary culture, and visual arts. This course will begin with a close examination of how and why New York City rose to prominence as the world's leading art centre in the mid-twentieth century, exploring the key figures and institutions that have shaped the city's art and visual culture, and the role of modernism in the history of art. At the same time, the course will probe tensions, through past and present case studies, between the established New York art world and the alternative spaces and artist groups that have challenged and reshaped the art landscape of the city and beyond. Moving to Venice, Italy, students will continue examining how contemporary art and artists today are given legitimacy and power through one of the most important art exhibitions in the world-- the Venice Biennale. Students will be assigned particular artists for both the NYC and Venice leg of the trip to study ahead of travel, and then have an opportunity to engage with the assigned artist's work on location. A full itinerary of visits to New York and Venice museums, galleries, and key sites of interest related to modern and contemporary art, photography, architecture, and film history are part of the field school, including a comprehensive tour of the 2015 Venice Biennale.