Participant Observer

This course receives credit under Topics in Photo
History.
Open to Art School BFA2 and above. This course
may be open to students at other year levels, and
in other Schools, by Permission of Instructor.
Practice Courses within the Photography and Media
program focus on making work and developing the
shape of students' practices. While each course
under this category may offer a particular theme
or subject matter, its primary organization and
outcomes will center around making. This category
will include, but not be limited to, modes of
production fundamental to photographic and
media-based practice, including film-based and
digital photography, video and moving image
production, sound production, performance and
book-making, and will sometimes include a focus
on the primary genres and categories of
production common to media and photography.

This is a survey course on photography, film and
video works that are linked to historical and
contemporary trends in art, Visual Anthropology,
Ethnography, and works of social, political and
personal description. Often aggressive in
nature, deeply personal or stridently positioned
in the social sciences, the works shown will be
used to understand the relation of social theory
as it is expressed in contemporary work. The
class will provide an introduction to shared
ideas in art, photography, film and social
science. Weekly film/video and photography
presentations will be augmented by critical
texts, writings by cultural theorists, and
artists exploring the facility of image making
and its use in describing paradox in life and
culture.