Spring 2010: To Be Real! -- Reality and its Representations

Cheryl Lynn's 1978 disco hit "Got To Be Real" taps into one of the great anxieties of western modernity: in an era of industrialized media, how do we identify authenticity and originality? This course will consider the problem of "the real" in relation to critical theories and artistic efforts. From the emotional intensity of realist acting to the mechanical repetitions of pop art; from the immediacy of documentary photography to the theatricality of drag performance; cultural workers have brought a variety of approaches and technologies to this problem for more than a century. Instructive texts from Du Bois, Stanislavski, Brecht, Debord, Sontag, Baudrillard, and Butler will help inform a discussion of contemporary cultural and artistic practices. Art works including Dada performances, the works of Warhol and other appropriators, and conceptual engagements by Adrian Piper, Mary Kelly, and others will provide practical examples. Popular examples, including the staging of the 2008 presidential campaign, will be discussed. In our age of reality television, news as entertainment, and ubiquitous video documentation, the problem of "the real" is an increasingly textured one. This course will be taught by writer and artist Malik Gaines.

This lecture/discussion/writing course WILL count towards upper division studio requirements for FA majors.