SYLLABUS

Acts of Resistance: Activists, Interlopers and Pranksters

SPRING 2023

Wednesdays 9:55am-12:35pm

Prof. Doris Cacoilo      

*CLASS MEETINGS WILL BE HELD ON ZOOM (until further notice) AND CLASS ASSIGNMENTS WILL BE POSTED TO A CLASS BLOG.

CLASS BLOG:

https://actsofresistancesp2023.blogspot.com           

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This is a course about media subversives: people working outside of mainstream media institutions who nonetheless find creative and provocative ways to use the media for cultural, political, and/or economic critique and resistance. Over the course of the semester, we will examine a range of "alternative" media phenomena.

Activists + Interlopers + Pranksters will engage social analysis and cultural critique to examine and reflect on the media influences that effect (or distort) and inform (or misinform) our communities and culture. This course places value on being meta-aware of the relationship between culture and creative production within communities, as well as the necessity of being socially conscientious citizens.

This course uses culture studies and social analysis to investigate the myriad ways in which individuals, groups and subcultures use creative productions to perform and manifest ‘acts of resistance’ against the hegemony of western Eurocentric culture, dominant societal institutions, and class/power structures. The course will examine the American consumer culture and unpack the influence capitalism can have on communities and the production of culture and sub-culture.

The goal of this course will not be simply to romanticize "outlaws", nor will it merely condemn them as criminals or troublemakers. Instead, it will focus on how and why such figures struggle against the global "media monopoly" so that students might come to a richer understanding of the nature of the media's considerable political and cultural power, and the ways that ordinary people can engage with powerful cultural institutions as active participants, innovative creators, and powerful critics. 

This course encourages a broader consideration of citizenship by thinking critically about the relationship of images, values and ideals in a highly complex visual world. Conscientious citizenship is also honed by examining cultural forces and the effect they have on personal and social values and ideals. Students will think critically and complexly about issues of media, culture, politics, and how creative productions can influence these.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Our class time will be split between discussion, lecture, and presentations ON ZOOM.  While in discussion please be respectful of the opinions of others even if they stand diametrically opposed to your own. You must be in class ON TIME and prepared for class each week. Failure to do so will be reflected in your participation grade. Failure to do so consistently can lead to failure in the course.

REQUIRED TEXTS

The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, OR Books, New York 2021

This is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew, Penguin Workshop, New York 2020 

The Interventionists: Users’ Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Lives edited by Nato Thomson and Gregory Sholette, MIT Press, Cambridge 2004 (only used copies available. Also available online as a pdf at: http://www.gregorysholette.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Interventionists_03_14_041.pdf)

Additional readings on Blackboard http://blackboard.njcu.edu/ and linked online.

READINGS AND CLASS PARTICIPATION Various weekly reading assignments will be assigned from the required texts, on blackboard and linked on the blog. The full reading schedule will be distributed on the class blog. Readings are due each week. All readings are REQUIRED unless otherwise stated. 

ATTENDANCE Attendance is mandatory. More than one unexcused absence in the class will begin to count against your grade. Attendance and participation in the class discussions make up your attendance/participation grade. Each absence beyond one will count against this average.

FOR CLASS DISCUSSION: For each week’s readings you must select two quotes or passages from each of the readings and write a brief reaction to each quote. I will periodically collect these assignments on our class blog. Please have them typed up each week so you can access them during class. I will call on students each week during our Zoom class discussion to read and discuss these quotes in class.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS Two short essay assignments that draw on the class readings in response to our in-person visits to the art galleries at NJCU will be due during the semester. These will be explained in class and will be described in detail on the class blog. These assignments will be submitted by posting to the class blog.

ART AND ACTIVISM INTERVENTION PROJECTS

This is a three-part project that asks students to think about and research the database of current events and social issues. Look to issues, artists, movements or citizen actions that exemplify acts of resistance. We will be highlighting many during the semester. Using the readings and resources of the course as a way to make a critical argument, create a project that acts as advocacy, intervention, performance or amplifies a social issue of your choice. Look to other art projects, artists and movements to inspire, and connect to your own interventions.

The goal of this multi-part assignment is to get you to take a stand on a significant issue(s) related to the course material and then to highlight and support past or current acts of resistance. In order to be a conscientious participant in community and society, one must attend the current events and important social/political struggles of current times. Race relations, gender equality, social justice, health care, reproductive rights, privacy, corporate regulation, marriage equality, religious tolerance, LGBT rights, etc. are all examples of issues citizens have engaged in acts of opposition and resistance, using any number of creative strategies.

INTERVENTION 1+2: In response to the artists, issues and projects we discuss and learn in class, students must design and create art activism projects that are directly inspired by projects that they learn in class. Each project will be in response to a particular artist's work or several artists works. These short projects will explore art advocacy and intervention. The projects will allude to physical and public interventions but can be created for the purposes of this semester to be interventions during isolation and social distancing. The projects will involve the creation of a meme/performance and a poster/print project. These will be assigned and specified in class and on blog.

INTERVENTION 3 FINAL: Choosing any one or combination of processes that you have explored during the semester design and create an extensive art intervention. This can involve any combination of approaches and media. The project should connect to your own ideas of advocacy, social justice and resistance. Through an oral, written and visual presentation of your artwork you will make a case for why this act of resistance is important, timely and worth engaging in and promoting.

Consider and research extensively and thoughtfully the history and development of the issue you have chosen. The themes and topics of the course have had a recurring history of friction within America’s culture and institutions.You will need to describe and explain the strategies that have been used and are now being used to engage this issue and explain how the example you have chosen to highlight fits into the larger issue. Be sure to research extensively and thoughtfully in choosing your project. You must connect to the work of other artists and activists in your presentation. You will present the research and historical background, supporting your artist(s) or movement(s) along with the project. Your project should coincide with your own professional ambitions. Projects can be performance, social-engagement interactions, community interventions, video/photography, print/poster, painting, sculpture, audio and sound projects, and other forms.

Final projects will include a writing portion that explains the project and presents the research. The writing project can take the form of an online article, an essay, a blog, a website, tumblr, or even a podcast. Students can present ideas outside of this list if they would like to propose other ways of presenting their writing for this assignment.

GRADING

Attendance is mandatory and all assignments must be finished and handed in on time to receive a passing grade for this course.

60% semester projects 

20% 2 blog posts 

20% attendance/participation (Contributions to class discussion + attendance)

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Students will:

1. Develop an objective understanding of visual communication practices.

2. Value judging, appropriation, and cooperation as strategies for creative problem solving.

3. Correlate the role of information and visual design to cultural production as a means of mass influence.

4. Interpret the difference between cliché and archetype, cultural construct and stereotype, representation and signification.

5. Create alternative strategies for cultural interactions as a means to disrupt common interpretations.

6. Integrate social and empirical research into projects.

7. Consider creative problem solving as a way to invent solutions to real world problems.

8. Engage substantially with a significant social, cultural, and/or political issue.

 

HEALTH AND SAFETY

You are not to risk the health or safety of yourself or any of the other people in the Art department. To ensure safety strictly follow all safety procedures explained to you as well as the New Jersey City University regulations. If you have any concerns or questions or are ever unclear about proper safety and health procedures, then ask the instructor or appropriate authority.  

If you feel you have any special concerns or problems that you would like to address please feel free to bring them to my attention. If there are any health concerns, either physical or psychological, that may affect your ability to fully participate in the class or complete assignments I am available to discuss possible solutions or address any of your concerns. If you have health or disability concerns that you would like to address but do not feel it is appropriate to discuss them with me there are services on campus available to address your concerns; contact Student/Health Services (Vodra Hall, Suite 107, 201-200-3456), the Art Department Office, or feel free to see me for contact info.