4. Explore and engage in interdisciplinary forms of art making (understanding the relationship of visual art to video).

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1 Art 309- Video Visual Art Mon/Wed 11-1:45pm Art and Design Center 401 Instructor: Jessica S. Azizi Spring Semester 2015 Office Hours: Monday and Tuesday, SG jessica.azizi@csun.edu Course Description Upper Division Standing. Explores the relationship between visual art and video/moving images. Students create short video explorations to study the camera, movement, composition, color, and editing. 6 hours lab. Art program goals addressed in this course The art department program goals are described below. The portions applicable to this course are underlined. 1. Acquire a basic knowledge, theories, and concepts about art; develop a foundation of art skills and a high level of craft (video); communicate ideas and concepts through writing, speaking and art making; acquire a competency with the tools and technologies associated with the visual arts (camera and editing software). 2. Broaden knowledge of ancient through contemporary art; develop an understanding of the theoretical, cultural, and historical contexts of art (specifically, modern representing). 3. Apply processes of generating and solving problems in art; analyze, interpret and question traditional methodologies and preconceived notions of art and art making. 4. Explore and engage in interdisciplinary forms of art making (understanding the relationship of visual art to video). 5. Develop an appreciation and tolerance of diverse perspectives dealing with art, culture, teaching and learning. 6. Become involved in both individual (projects) and collaborative (critiques) art experiences with other students, faculty, and community. Course Student Learning Outcomes 1. Demonstrate basic principles of videography including contrast, lenses, lighting, camera angles, editing. 2. Demonstrate proficiency in use of the camera and editing software. 3. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of simple, non sync-sound production pipelines for use in art projects 4. Describe the relationship of video to fundamental concepts in art including objectivity, interpretation, abstraction and gesture. 5. Exhibit an understanding of the way their own interests and abilities in visual art are expressed within time-based media. 1

2 Professional Attitude and Practice Student Code of Conduct: Avoiding Plagiarism: Support Services for Students I urge you to notify me beforehand or at the start of the semester if you believe you have a disability that may warrant accommodations in this class. The following are Csun links that provide information on extra help that is available to you. Center on Disabilities: Library: Counseling: Career Center: Grading Projects 75% Participation/citizenship/exercises 25% Late work and Make-up work will be accepted for partial credit. Attendance If a student is absent on the first two class meetings, they will lose the right to remain enrolled and must withdraw or be given a WU (Unauthorized Withdraw), which is equivalent to a failing grade. Attendance policy: In this class, a total of 3 absences will result in a failing grade. Three tardy arrivals are equivalent to one absence. If you must miss class please me with an appropriate excuse. Refer to the above link on missed classes policy. Required text/supplies Purchasing a text is not necessary for this course. The texts and exercise files for this class will be available on moodle.csun.edu. Flash Drive or external drive, the bigger the better. A 32GB flash drive should be OK. However, note that a portable USB GB+ drive is a good investment since you can get one for about $50 and you ll be able to store a lot more on it. Topics & Activities BASIC VIDEOGRAPHY Pre-production, production, and post-production techniques will be explored through in-class group exercises and individual assignments. 1. Storyboarding, scouting locations, casting 2. Understanding exposure: contrast, histograms, noise 3. Lenses: short and long and their effects 4. Lighting Hard vs. soft Defining volume Finding, augmenting, creating 2

3 Lighting color Lighting for motion vs. stills; justifying light, zones 5. Camera angles Wide, full, med, CU, XCU High, eye-level, low 6. Capturing and editing events What is an event? Continuous events Static/tight/loose edits Dynamic/smooth edits Splitting events Creating events Transitions VIDEO & VISUAL ARTS REPRESENTATION Understanding the lens-based medium in the context of contemporary art history and practice, through discussion and exercise. Objectivity In early experiments in motion photography by Edison and others, the camera was placed unmoving at a distance from the subject. Today, this kind of camerawork is still seen in surveillance camera footage and satellite photography and conveys to us a sense of objectivity and detachment. Consider: video that conveys distance and objectivity. The elements The elements and atmospheric effects have fascinated artists because of their complex, ephemeral nature. In video, these effects can take three forms: they can constitute the subject of a shot, they can provide background for a shot implying space and transforming meaning, and they can imitate the sheen and atmosphere of patina effects. Consider: video of the elements following one of the three definitions of an elemental effect. Interpretation Cubism was a kind of proto-cinema in which reality was fragmented around the subjective eye of the artist. In video, this fragmentation is found in shots in which emotional and thematic continuity is more important than consistent world depiction. The camera is used to show us what is important and to convey relationship and emotion. Consider: following a list of shots, document a subject moving in place Altered realities As early as 1929 (Un Chien Andalou), the camera was used to explore the altered realities of surrealism. Dutch angles, slow motion, and the manipulation of time and gravity became part of a visual iconography depicting a move away from the world of physics and toward the subconscious mind. Consider: create and document a tableau that depicts an altered reality. The machine aesthetic In the early twentieth century, the machine played a central role in the work of artists like Moholy-Nagy and Oskar Schlemmer. This sensibility is still an important part of our contemporary visual vocabulary. The machine enables precise, repeated control of an event even as the idea of mechanism withdraws from our consciousness. 3

4 Consider: find and develop approaches to create a video mediated by machine technology. Gestural approaches In Jackson Pollock's large-scale canvases, painting was transformed into the documentation of dance-like gesture. In this section we explore approaches to video in which the performance of the camera operator becomes foregrounded. Here, the camera is not choreographed, but aims to capture the sensation of lifecoming-into-being. Consider: experiment with ways in which the improvisational presence of the artist affects the placement and movement of the camera Suggested texts Block, Bruce. The Visual Story. Focal Press, Spiegel, Ed. Innocence of the Eye. Silman-James Press, Selected bibliography Block, Bruce. The Visual Story. Focal Press, Brougher, Kelly. Visual Music, Thames and Hudson, Fabe, Marilyn. Closely Watched Narratives, University of California Press, Geuens, Jean-Pierre. Film Production Theory, SUNY Press, Goldberg, RoseLee. Performance: Live Art 1909 to Present, Harry Abrams, Hall and Fifer. Illuminating Video: Essential Guide to Video Art Hamlyn, Nicky. Film Art Phenomena, British Film Institute, Moholy-Nagy, Lazlo. Vision in Motion. Paul Theobald and Company, Manovich, Lev. Language of New Media. The MIT Press, Rees, A.L. A History of Experimental Film and Video. British Film Institute, Rush, Michael. Video Art Russett, Robert. Experimental Animation, De Capo Press, Schlemmer, Oskar. Theater of the Bauhaus, Wesleyan University Press, Spiegel, Ed. Innocence of the Eye. Silman-James Press, Weintraub, Linda. In The Making: Creative Options for Contemporary Art Wells, Paul. Understanding Animation, Routledge, Whitney, John. Digital Harmony. McGraw-Hill, Young, Paul. Art Cinema, Taschen,

5 Mon 1/19 MLK Day Wed 1/21 Introductions Mon 1/26 Wed 1/28 Mon 2/2 Audio: 30 seconds due Wed 2/4 Mon 2/9 Wed 2/11 Color due Mon 2/16 Wed 2/18 Mon 2/23 Archival due Wed 2/25 Mon 3/2 Storyboards for Narrative due Wed 3/4 Mon 3/9 Wed 3/11 Mon 3/16 Narrative due Wed 3/18 Mon 3/23 Wed 3/25 Influences for Final due Mon 3/30 Wed 4/1 Mon 4/6 Spring Break Wed 4/8 Spring Break Mon 4/13 5

6 Wed 4/15 Mon 4/20 Wed 4/22 Mon 4/27 Rough cuts for Final due Wed 4/29 Mon 5/4 Final presentations Wed 5/6 Final presentations Mon 5/11 no class Wed 5/13 Final Exam 10:15am-12:15pm Final presentations *This syllabus is subject to change. 6