121 - 130 of 133 results for: FILMSTUD

In this seminar, we will consider the body on screen as well as the body before the screen i.e. the spectator but also the profilmic body of the actor to examine corporeal performance and reception. The dancing body, the comic body, dead and live bodies, the monstrous body, the body in pain, the virtual body all raise questions about embodiment, liveness, and performance. We will read the body in audiovisual culture through an engagement with affect theory, focusing on the labor of performance, the construction of stardom, spatial and temporal configurations of the performing body, and the production of affect and sensation in the spectating body. Through a discussion of make-up, fashion, the labor of producing the idealized star body from the meat-and-bones body of the actor, or body genres where the spectator's body is beside itself with sexual pleasure, fear and terror, or overpowering sadness, we will inquire into ideologies of discipline and desire that undergird mediatized bodies. nnNo prior engagement with film studies is required. Students are encouraged to write seminar papers that build on current research interests.nnNOTE: Instructor consent required for undergraduate students (only seniors may enroll). Please contact the instructor for permission to enroll if you're an undergraduate senior.

This course proposes to look at how even the most seemingly objective films are shaped by a subjective eye. An eye which is molded by gender, race, culture and class - all of which influence the entire film-making process and experience from how something is framed to how it is cut and and how it is perceived it. How we look at something, for how long we look at it and in what context we are shown something is as important as what we are looking at. Similarly the subjective eye of the viewer shapes how he or she understands and interprets the film. Whether the viewer is an insider or outsider to the subject completely changes expectations and reactions to the film. So then what are we really talking about when we talk about documentary films? What makes a documentary a documentary? Why is such a categorization valuable? necessary? useful? nThe course will combine analysis of films, theoretical texts, and some practical ¿production" exercises.

This seminar explores a set of currents in media theory (and related fields), which we will seek to navigate together as a group. We will focus on approaches, discourses, conversations, and paradigms that seek to explain the mediations, modulations, and triangulations of our experience within a changing landscape of technological, social, political, and other forces. Special attention will be given to contemporary works of theory and/or works that are enjoying a renewed contemporary reception.

This course explores central topics in aesthetics where aesthetics is understood both in the narrow sense of the philosophy of art and aesthetic judgment, and in a broader sense as it relates to questions of perception, sensation, and various modes of embodied experience. We will engage with both classical and contemporary works in aesthetic theory, while special emphasis will be placed on phenomenological approaches to art and aesthetic experience across a range of media and/or mediums (including painting, sculpture, film, and digital media). nnnPhD students in the Art History program may take the class to fulfill degree requirements in Modern/Contemporary Art or Film & Media Studies, depending on the topic of their seminar paper.

This course aims to introduce students to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of game studies. We will investigate what games (including but not limited to digital games) are, why we play them, and what the functions of this activity might be. The bulk of the course will be devoted specifically to digital games, which we will approach from a variety of perspectives: from historical, cultural, industrial/commercial, media-theoretical, and formal (narratological/ludological) perspectives, among others. Thus, we will seek to understand the contexts in which video games emerged and evolved, the settings in which they have been played, and the discourses and practices that have determined their place in social and cultural life. In addition, we will ask difficult questions about the mediality of digital games: What is the relation of digital to non-digital games? Are they both games in the same sense, or do digital media redefine what games are or can be? How do digital games relate to other (digital as well as non-digital) non-game media, such as film, television, print fiction, or non-game computer applications? Of course, to engage meaningfully with these questions at all will require us to investigate theories of mediality (including inter- and transmediality) more generally. Finally, though, we will be interested in the formal and experiential parameters that define (different types of) digital games in particular. What does it feel like to play (various) digital games? What are the relations between storytelling and the activity of gameplaying in them? What is the relation between these aspects and the underlying mechanics of digital games, as embodied in hardware and software? What is the role of the human body? Because these questions can only be approached on the basis of personal experience, students will be expected to spend some time playing digital games and reflecting critically on their gameplay.

Permission of instructor required for enrollment.

This course surveys major theoretical approaches to the study of media technologies, including Frankfurt School critical theory, media archaeology, actor network theory, science and technology studies, platform studies and theories of critical making. By the end of the course, students should have a rich familiarity with the literature in this area, as well as with exemplary empirical studies conducted within each tradition. Preference to Ph.D. students in Communication and Art and Art History. Consent of instructor required for non-PhD students.

Films and moving image works by contemporary filmmakers from Asia, including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Topics include explorations of national and local histories, aesthetics of slowness and duration, and crossings between the movie theater and the gallery.

The Hollywood director Howard Hawks was taken up by European film critics in the 1950s as an early case study for auteurism, in which Hollywood directors were regarded as a film's primary author. While Hawks' work ranges across decades (1920s-70s), studios, and genres (comedy, western, war, musical, epic, adventure), his work is recognizable both stylistically and narratively. His collaborations with writers and performers, the impact of his minimalist style, and issues of heterosexual romance and homosocial groups will be emphasized.