Courses for Spring 2014: Topics in Film and the City, Contemporary Art, Film Studies, and Ancient to Pre-Renaissance Art

As registration for Spring 2014 academic courses begins soon, I wanted to provide more information about courses I will begin teaching in January, 2014. Please see detailed descriptions below. If you have any specific questions that are not answered here or in the links I provide you to the registration for the courses, you can contact me directly. I look forward to another rich and engaging semester with both new and familiar faces.


ARTH 3130: Film and the City
Kwantlen Polytechnic University 
(Mondays 7:00-9:50pm, Room Fir 3414)

Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire (1987) representing Berlin
This course takes as its focus the dynamic intersections of the filmic medium and the emergence of the “city” as both a conceptual and material idea, examining how filmmakers and the techniques of filmmaking from the early 20th C. forward have been closely bound up in representing the visual, spatial, and mental contours of the metropolis. Beginning with an examination of film’s critical role in the development of modern art and the history of the avant-garde, this course will also draw from existing issues and debates concerning the expanding field of visual culture, exploring how the evolving city (as place and idea) and its various filmic representations have played a reflexive role in the development and understanding of important themes emerging in the modern and contemporary art of the past century. In this way, the course will roughly follow the history and theory of visual arts as it moves from the emergence of the modern period in Europe through the demise of modernism following WWII and into the areas of post-modernism, post-colonialism, and identity politics informing current debates about globalization/migration.

The course is organized using case studies beginning with European cities and representative films that engage with questions of modernism and modernity, then working outwards to non-Western and North American cities, allowing for both a chronological and thematic approach to exploring the intersections of film and the city. Cities under investigation will include Rome, Tokyo, Paris, London, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Berlin, Lahore, Los Angeles, Beijing, and Vancouver.

Kwantlen Polytechnic University
(Wednesdays 7:00-9:50pm, Room Fir 128)

Geoffrey Farmer, Leaves of Grass (2012) exhibited at Documenta 13
ARTH 2222 offers a critical examination of international visual art and culture focusing on the role of art in consumerist society and the emergence of postmodernism. The course concentrates on visual art from the mid-1940s to the present day, with particular regard for historical events, factors of patronage and institutions—as well as changing attitudes to making and approaching art—in modern and postmodern art. We will consider the traditional media of painting and sculpture but must also take into account the addition of innovative media to art practice in recent years. From photography to video, collage to assemblage, installation to performance, such media have extended notions of what art could materially consist of, but have also affected the anticipation of audiences for that work, having social as well as aesthetic implications. Ultimately, our attention will be on the network where art is made, presented to and reacted to by different parties, and to the ways that portions of the art system―such as art history and cultural criticism―have conceived of and explained the workings of such a system and the society it exists within.


ARTH 1130: Introduction to Film Studies
Kwantlen Polytechnic University 
(Fridays 1:00-4:50pm, Room Fir 128)

Billy Wilder, Sunset Boulevard (1950)

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 (as a 4 hour block) will normally entail a 1.5-2 hour lecture and the screening of a full-length film. Each film will thus serve as a starting point and gateway for discussion about the course’s weekly theme.
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
(Mondays/Wednesdays 4:00pm-5:20pm, Room Fir 128)
Thomas Struth, Pantheon (1992)

This course provides students with the ability to critically evaluate and recognize how the art, architecture, and modes of representation of the early eras of Western culture continue to impact our collective visual, intellectual and cultural environment today. All of the works under examination in this course (which will introduce and cover aspects of visual culture from Prehistoric Europe, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, Ancient Greece, the Roman Republic, Early Christian and Byzantine cultures, and the period of the Medieval, Gothic and early Renaissance in Europe) will be related to their original contexts and functions, but also ask questions about the range of functions that art might fulfill within different societies. The course will therefore not just be about following a chronological and progressive trajectory of “great monuments” and “great artists”, but will instead address broad issues related to political power, gender, sexuality, race, and the formation of individual and group identities. In this way, the ideas raised in this course will also draw student’s attention to the constructed nature of more traditional art history while exploring the paradigms and models of knowledge production that art historians and other commentators use to explain art, architecture, and visual culture.

New Semester Advice: Take Care of Your Future Self

Umberto Boccioni, States of Mind ("Those Who Go") 1911.
The Futurists understood both the transformative and occasionally cruel aspects of time. 
Another fall, another semester, another chance for a fresh start. One week into the new academic term and this is the time of year I honestly love best, and mostly it has to do with the opportunity, that I share with students, to challenge myself to establish a brand new routine for work, study, and play for the 12-14 weeks ahead. It also means wiping the slate clean of what was left unaccomplished over the summer and learning from what did and did not work the same time last year. 

In the last two years around this time, I have mostly blogged about the kinds of tasks that students should make sure they have scheduled—the New Semester Checklist post is still worth checking out, especially if this is your first year at university. But as I’ve started the process of introducing new syllabi to incoming classes, I have found myself repeating an idea that I have grown to embrace and expand into different areas of my life: do something today that your future self will thank you for.

It all started with my writing. I had discussed some time back the notion of parking ideas on a downhill slope to maintain momentum for when you return to an incomplete project. Over time, I realized that there were many other areas of my day-to-day life that could benefit from the idea of helping out the future me. Simple things like how I sort email, plan meals, and arrange my workouts or downtime have all benefited from this approach.

So in the spirit of renewal, here are some random things you could begin to do over this semester to take care of your future (academic) self. I hope they help inspire you to think of some of your own self-care tactics. You'll thank me later as well.

  • Get a big calendar (analog or digital) and write all of your assignment deadlines and exam dates in it. You will immediately get a visual understanding of how best to manage your time and energy for the semester ahead.
  • At the end of each class or at the end of each week, take 5-10 minutes for each set of notes you have taken to generate a quick list of bullet points that summarize the main ideas you remember from class. When it comes time to study for midterm or final exams, you will be grateful to have a ready-made overview of the main ideas covered for each of your courses.
  • Check that your pens have ink and that your pencils have lead each week. Alternatively, charge any device you want to use for taking notes in class. Power outlets are a rare commodity in most classrooms.
  • Every time you find a great book or article for a paper you are working on, type up a bibliographic citation and save it in a file for future retrieval (even if you are not sure if you will use it). Think of how much time you will save not typing up those citations in proper MLA or Chicago style or fussing with bibliographic software the night before a deadline. 
  • One of my favourite bits of advice is to break up your writing/outlining/reading over several days for no more than 1-1.5 hours at a time, i.e. plan ahead with a calendar like this one. Give yourself the luxury of time to marinate and develop ideas. Your future self will be cursing you out if you try to accomplish all of your projects in 8-12 hour marathons in the final week of a deadline.
  • If you are given a choice when to present a paper or group project, pick early in the semester and avoid signing up for dates within a week of a midterm, final, or research paper deadline.
  • If you use an email account other than your university email more regularly, take a few minutes to set up and forward all of your email to one place. I cannot tell you how many student awards and/or important information was missed because students forgot to keep tabs of all of their email accounts.
  • When your car’s gas gauge is down to a quarter tank, get some gas. If you take transit, make sure you have your pass somewhere handy to find each day. Being late and stressed out for class is detrimental to your mental health and your grades-- trust me.
  • Stock your backpack with little bags of nuts or other protein rich snacks and a bottle of water—they will sustain you in those moments when you can’t get to the cafeteria or the vending machine is out of order. 
  • Bring one of those mini staplers to each class… seriously. You will make a lot of friends on days when written assignments are due. 

Weekly Round Up

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