Department of English

This course will be devoted to an international group of
 contemporary artists who make visual works that are time-based, like cinema,
 but that are exhibited in museums and galleries, instead of movie theaters:
 Chantal Akerman, Tacita Dean, Rineke Dijkstra, Jeremy Blake, Isaac Julien,
 Anri Sala, Pierre Huyghe, William Kentridge and Paul Chan.  Some of these
 artists rely on digital cameras and computers, and others prefer 16mm film,
 but regardless which medium they use, they are having a transformative effect
 on the museum.  They make work that cannot be hung on a wall or placed on a
 pedestal, that takes up space, as well as time, that has an auditory
 dimension, and that often mobilizes more than one medium.  Most of the
 assigned works will be available to us only in a digital form, but I will be
 on the lookout for installations that we can visit.  However, since few museum
 goers watch more that a few minutes of an installed work, which may be one or
 two hours long, it could be argued that the classroom is also a necessary and
 important exhibition site.  We will think hard about the differences between
 these two ways of looking at time-based work, and what they mean for the work
 itself.  (Limited to 16 students, by permission of the instructor.)