Course Syllabus
FACS 1900B (6.0): ARTS AND IDEAS
2006-2007
Course Director: Dr. Leslie Korrick
For Your Information
Course Description & Objectives
Summary of Objectives
Required Reading
Tutorials
Study Site
Student Evaluation
Academic Honesty
Course Fees
Course Etiquette
Syllabus
How to Prepare a Reading
| Course Director | Dr. Leslie Korrick |
| Office | Winters College, Room 207 |
| Telephone | 416.736.2100 x70107 |
| Office Hours | Tuesday, 3:30-4:30, or by appointment |
| Lectures | Thursday 2:30-4:30/5:30
The length of the lecture may be two or three hours depending on whether tutorials have been scheduled for a given week. Lectures accompanied by tutorials are two hours long; those without tutorials are three hours long. Please consult the syllabus for details. |
| Location | ACW 109 |
| Tutorial Leaders | Leah Burns Liz Forsberg Charmaine Headley Andrea Roberts Lisa Schincariol Bojana Videkovic |
| Offices | Winters College, Rooms 204 and 205 |
| Telephones | 416.736-2100 x70402 (Room 204) and 416.736-2100 x70106 (Room 205) |
| Office Hours | Each tutorial leader will hold a weekly office hour which she will announce during the first tutorial along with her office location. A schedule of office hours will also be posted on the door of the tutorial leaders’ offices. |
| Course Websites | Homepage for all sections of FACS 1900 For students enrolled in FACS 1900 B |
| E-mail Access | The tutorial leaders and I encourage you to contact us via email to ask short-answer questions or to schedule an appointment at which you may discuss course-related issues in more depth. Email queries seeking information which is available on the syllabus or on the FACS 1900 web site will not be answered. |
Course Description & Objectives
This introductory course is designed to acquaint you with aspects of the fine, performing, and new media arts from an interdisciplinary perspective. Organized thematically, the course will offer you an opportunity to explore various relationships between these arts as well as their relationships to disciplines which have traditionally been situated beyond their borders. It will also consider the circumstances which have shaped these relationships and reflect on how contemporary culture and its theoretical positions condition the ways in which we respond to and interpret these relationships today. Finally, it will evaluate the extent to which an interdisciplinary perspective can enrich our study of the arts. Over the course of the year, we will work together to develop a language to articulate the practice and experience of the arts, as well as an ability to formulate probing questions, to think critically about those questions, and to express your views in your own voice.
The course is not designed as a contest between the disciplines nor does it attempt to survey the history of each discipline represented in the Faculty of Fine Arts on an individual basis. Instead, its primary aim is to investigate some of the ways in which the fine, performing, and new media arts might be linked, both in terms of form and content. Among other topics, we will examine the extent to which the arts share common languages, the ways in which artists with expertise in a single discipline create both multi- and interdisciplinary work through the process of collaboration, and the emergence of artistic forms associated with contemporary practice built on the concept of interdisciplinarity.
- To think beyond the traditional disciplinary boundaries between the fine and performing arts.
- To consider the various ways in which interdisciplinary practice in the fine and performing arts might be defined.
- To contextualize the disciplines which you are most familiar with or interested in within a wider cultural frame of reference.
- To begin developing a language to articulate the practice and experience of the arts.
- To think critically and creatively about material with an open mind and to acknowledge that not all questions can be answered definitively.
- To exercise your own voice.
We will achieve these objectives through a range of activity in the lecture hall, in tutorial, and on field trips as well as through weekly reading, discussion, and assignments requiring research, writing, and studio work.
Rather than rely on a single textbook, I ask that you purchase the package of readings compiled especially for this course. This package, known as the course kit, is comprised of primary source documents, contextual texts, and critical commentary — both historical and contemporary. Readings have been assigned on a weekly basis and should be prepared beforehand as they will be referred to in the lecture and frequently discussed more thoroughly during tutorial. (They are listed on the syllabus.) In all cases, it is your responsibility to be familiar with the reading before the class to which it is attached so that you may participate fully in the course.
The tutorials will be used as a forum for the discussion of readings and other material, workshops, and presentations as well as to provide assignment and exam preparation assistance. In general, their purpose is to reinforce or elaborate on issues and ideas discussed in class through related or tangential material rather than to provide a place for a simple reiteration of the lecture. As with the lectures, the tutorials are mandatory and you are expected to attend unless you have notified your tutorial leader in advance that you will be absent with legitimate reason. Attendance will be taken.
All tutorials will be held in Accolade West Building (ACW). Tutorial numbers (in bold), time slots, room numbers, and the initials of the corresponding tutor are listed below:
| 01 4:30-5:30 ACW 305 (LF) |
05 4:30-5:30 ACW 008 (LS) | 09 4:30-5:30 ACW 209 (BV) |
| 02 5:30-6:30 ACW 305 (LF) | 06 5:30-6:30 ACW 008 (LS) | 10 5:30-6:30 ACW 209 (BV) |
| 03 4:30-5:30 ACW 003 (CH) | 07 4:30-5:30 ACW 104 (AR) | 11 4:30-5:30 ACW 304 (LB) |
| 04 5:30-6:30 ACW 003 (CH) | 08 5:30-6:30 ACW 104 (AR) | 12 5:30-6:30 ACW 304 (LB) |
As we complete each unit of the course, I will post a range of materials on the online study site (located at http://www.yorku.ca/korrick/facs1900b) which will help you to review and reconsider lecture and tutorial content. Primarily an image and sound bank, the study site will also include a list of key terms and bibliography as well as an current events calendar.
| Field Work | 10% |
| Research Project (including Critical Essay and Annotated Bibliography) | 20% |
| Collaborative Studio Project (including Proposal + Documentary Text + Presentation) | 20% |
| Mid-Term Exam (to be scheduled during the December exam period) | 20% |
| Final Exam (to be scheduled during the April exam period) | 20% |
| Participation (in lecture and tutorial) | 10% |
The rationale, requirements, and grading criteria for each assignment and exam are described in detail on the guide sheets which will be circulated at various times throughout year as indicated on the syllabus.
Assignment Due Dates
Due dates appear on the assignment guide sheets and on the syllabus. In principle, there will be no extensions. Extenuating circumstances (medical or family emergency) which prevent you from handing in your submission on time will be considered providing you contact me before the due date where possible and provide written documentation to support your request.
All assignments are to be submitted to your tutorial leader in tutorial. If you are unable to attend tutorial/lecture on the due date, you must make arrangements with your tutorial leader to submit your work to her before the due date.
As a first-year student, it is important that you become aware of the York University’s regulations regarding academic honesty. To access information written for students on academic honesty, visit York’s Academic Integrity Tutorial at www.yorku.ca/tutorial/academic_integrity. It is your responsibility to be aware of these regulations. However, I highlight here the following statement on plagiarism from the Senate Policy on Academic Honesty; it will be especially relevant for the Research Project (Assignment 2).
“2.1.3. Plagiarism is the misappropriation of the work of another by representing another person’s ideas, writing or other intellectual property as one’s own. This includes the presentation of all or part of another person’s work as something one has written, paraphrasing another’s writing without proper acknowledgement, or representing another’s artistic or technical work or creation as one’s own. Any use of the work of others, whether published, unpublished or posted electronically, attributed or anonymous, must include proper acknowledgement.”(http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/policies/document.php?document=69#_Toc89156089)
Be aware that plagiarism is subject to severe academic penalty. If you are unclear about plagiarism and how to avoid it after taking the Academic Integrity Tutorial, please visit the Centre for Academic Writing (S329 Ross Building South, 416.736.5134), your tutorial leader, or me. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, on reserve for this course on the main floor of Scott Library and available in the reference section of the library, also contains a section on plagiarism.
- The cost of a ticket and/or supplies which may be required to undertake your Field Work(Assignment 1). The amount you spend, if anything, depends on the event you choose to attend. Add travel costs to and from the event you choose.
- Travel costs for the field trip to the Toronto Music Garden on October 5, 2006: either two TTC tickets or gas and parking.
- The Collaborative Studio Project (Assignment 3) may require a materials fee. If so, the amount is entirely at your discretion.
- Because there are 300 students enrolled in FACS 1900B, it is important that you are already settled in your seat and focussed when the lecture begins. Arriving late, leaving early, or making trips in and out of the lecture hall during class is both disrespectful and disruptive. If you have special needs or a timetabling conflict which necessitates arriving and/or leaving during lecture, please speak to me and your tutorial leader as soon as possible so that we are aware of your situation.
- Taking notes during lecture is part of the university experience; therefore, audio or video taping the lecture is not permitted unless you have documented special needs which you’ve discussed with me.
- If you own a cell phone, please turn it off before you enter the lecture hall and resist the temptation to check it during the lecture.
- Wearing headphones during the lecture is unacceptable.
- Keep in mind that sound is magnified in a large lecture hall. Rather than talking among yourselves during lecture, please share your comments with the entire class or keep them for tutorial discussion
- Please do not make travel arrangements for the December and April exam periods until after the university announces the date of the mid-term and final exam for the course. These are typically announced later in each term.
I will make every effort to follow the syllabus outlined below. But I reserve the right to make scheduling changes when further discussion of a topic is required or to take advantage of unforseen events and opportunities.
Fall Term 2006
| 07/09/06 | THE ARTS AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY: AN INTRODUCTION
Note: Your Field Work (Assignment 1) will be introduced in class today. Post-Class Tasks: Please complete the following tasks between this class and next:
|
CORRESPONDENCES: SHARED CHARACTERISTICS ACROSS THE ARTS
| 14/09/06 | FORM AND CONTENT: READING REPRESENTATION
Reading: Levinson, Jerrold. “Hybrid Art Forms.” In Music, Art, and Metaphysics: Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1990, pp. 26-36. (Previously published under the same title in the Journal of Aesthetic Education, 18 (1984), pp. 5-13.) Tip: Before you begin to read, please review my guide sheet, How to Prepare a Reading, attached to the syllabus distributed in class 07/09/06. Your tutorial leader will also work with you to unpack this first reading with the guide sheet in mind. Note: Tutorials begin this week. Student “reading reporters” for each tutorial throughout the year will be assigned today. |
| 21/09/06 | ACTS AND PROCESSES: IMPROVISATION
Reading: Smith, Hazel and Roger Dean. Improvisation, Hypermedia and the Arts since 1945. Amsterdam: Harwood, 1997, pp. 25-44. (Chapter 2: “Improv(is)ing the Definitions.”) |
| 28/09/06 | ACTS AND PROCESSES (continued)
Reading: Steinberger, Peter J. “Culture and Freedom in the Fifties: The Case of Jazz.” The Virginia Quarterly Review, 74, 1 (1998), pp. 118-133. Note: Please pick up the Field Trip Instruction Sheet in tutorial. |
| 05/10/06 | MUSIC-DANCE-LANDSCAPE DESIGN: THE TORONTO MUSIC GARDEN AND ITS INSPIRATIONS Reading: In lieu of a reading this week, please prepare for this class by reviewing: The Music Garden. Dir. Kevin McMahon. Prod. Niv Fichman. Original creative concept Yo-Yo Ma. With Yo-Yo Ma and Julie Moir Messervy. Rhombus Media, 1997. 60 min. Note: This class will take place at the Toronto Music Garden located at 475 Queen’s Quay West, just west of Spadina Avenue. Please ensure that you have a copy of the Field Trip Instruction Sheet, distributed in tutorial 28/09/06, detailing how to reach the garden from the York University campus and when your tutorial group should arrive on site. No tutorial. |
| 12/10/06 | THE SENSES AND THE ARTS: SYNAESTHESIA
Reading: Ackerman, Diane. A Natural History of the Senses. New York: Vintage, 1990, pp. 289-299. (Section titled “Synaesthesia.”) |
| 19/10/06 | A JAM SESSION OF THE ARTS: INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN A CULTURAL CONTEXT Reading: Please select one or more of the following manifestos according to your interests or desire to explore unknown territory:
Manifesto Sources:
|
| 26/10/06 | A JAM SESSION OF THE ARTS (continued)
Reading: Kingwell, Mark (interviewed by Joe Gelonesi). “Speeding to a Standstill.” Arts and Opinion, 2, 2 (2003). www.artsandopinion.com/2003_v2_n2/kingwell.htm Note: Your Field Work (Assignment 1) is due in tutorial today. |
| 02/11/06 | DIFFERENCE AND THE LIMITS OF CULTURAL CONTEXT
Reading: Schwenger, Peter and John Whittier Treat. “America’s Hiroshima, Hiroshima’s America.” Boundary 2: An International Journal of Literature and Culture, 21, 1 (1994), pp. 233-253. Note: The Research Project (Assignment 2) will be introduced today. |
COLLABORATION: FROM MULTI- TO INTERDISCIPLINARY PRODUCTION
| 09/11/06 | TOWARD INTERDISCIPLINARITY THROUGH COLLABORATION
Reading: Stillinger, Jack. Multiple Authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991, pp. 163-181. (Chapter 8: “Plays and Films: Authors, Auteurs, Autres.”) Note: No tutorial. |
| 16/11/06 | A CASE STUDY IN COLLABORATION: HIERARCHICAL OR DEMOCRATIC?
Reading: Shattuck, Roger. The Banquet Years: The Arts in France 1885-1918. London: Faber and Faber, 1959, pp. 3-23. (Chapter 1: “The Good Old Days.”) Note: Please pick up a copy of the Mid-Term Exam Guide Sheet in tutorial and review it before next week’s lecture. |
| 23/11/06 | THE GESAMTKUNSTWERK (TOTAL WORK OF ART): ORIGINS
Reading: Buller, Jeffrey. “Spectacle in the Ring.” The Opera Quarterly, 14, 4 (1998), pp. 41-57. Note: This class will include a review of the form and content of the mid-term exam to be scheduled during the exam period. Please bring your Mid-Term Exam Guide Sheet (distributed in tutorial 23/11/06). No tutorial. |
Winter Term 2007
| 04/01/07 | THE GESAMTKUNSTWERK (TOTAL WORK OF ART): CONTEMPORARY MANIFESTATIONS AND CHALLENGES Reading: Schafer, R. Murray. “The Theatre of Confluence I.” Descant 73 (Patria and the Theatre of Confluence), 22, 2 (1991), pp. 27-45. |
| 11/01/07 | THE NATYASASTRA AND RASA (TASTE/FLAVOUR)
Reading: Schechner, Richard. “Rasaesthetics.” TDR/The Drama Review, 45, 3 (2001), pp. 27-50. |
| 18/01/07 | INSTITUTIONALIZING INTERDISCIPLINARITY AMONG THE ARTS
Reading: Koss, Juliet. “Bauhaus Theatre of Human Dolls.” Art Bulletin, 85, 4 (2003), pp. 724-745. Note: The Research Project (Assignment 2) is due today. |
| 25/01/07 | INSTITUTIONALIZING INTERDISCIPLINARITY (continued)
Reading: Winkler, Dietmar R. “Morality and Myth: The Bauhaus Reassessed.” 1990. In Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design. Ed. Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, Steven Heller and D.K. Holland. New York: Allworth, 1994, pp. 38-42. |
BETWEEN AND BEYOND BOUNDARIES
| 01/02/07 | “HYBRID” ART FORMS I: INTERMEDIA
Reading: Higgins, Dick. “Intermedia.” 1965 and 1981. In Higgins, Dick. Horizons: The Poetics and Theory of the Intermedia. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984, pp. 18-28. (Also includes “Glossary,” pp. 137-139.) Note: The Collaborative Studio Project (Assignment 3), will be introduced this week; project teams will be established in tutorial today. Note: The last day to drop this course without academic penalty is tomorrow, 02/02/07. |
| 08/02/07 | “HYBRID” ART FORMS II: PERFORMANCE
Reading: Goldberg, Roselee. “Performance: The Golden Years.” 1983. In The Art of Performance: A Critical Anthology. Ed. Gregory Battcock and Robert Nickas. New York: Dutton, 1984, pp. 71-94. Note: The Preliminary Proposal for the Collaborative Studio Project (Assignment 3) is due in tutorial this week. |
| 15/02/07 | READING WEEK |
| 22/02/07 | “HYBRID” ART FORMS III: NEW MEDIA
Reading: Tofts, Darren. “Your Place or Mine? Locating Digital Art.” In Parallax: Essays on Art, Culture and Technology. Sydney: Interface, 1999, p. 29-35. |
| 01/03/07 | INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE: SPECTACLE
Reading: Edgerton, Samuel Y. “Maniera and Mannaia: Decorum and Decapitation in the Sixteenth Century.” In The Meaning of Mannerism. Ed. Franklin W. Robinson and Stephen G. Nichols Jr. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1972, pp. 67-99, 101-103. |
| 08/03/07 | INTERDISCIPLINARITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE (continued)
Reading: Liverpool, Hollis Urban. “Origins of Ritual and Customs in the Trinidad Carnival: African or European?” TDR/The Drama Review (Special Expanded Issue, Trinidad and Tobago Carnival), 42, 3 (1998), pp. 24-37. Note: The Documentary Text for the Collaborative Studio Project (Assignment 3) is due in tutorial today. |
| 15/03/07 | COLLABORATIVE GROUP PROJECT: PRESENTATIONS AND CRITIQUE
Note: This class will give you an opportunity to present to your classmates, tutorial leaders, anyone you care to invite, and me your response to the Collaborative Studio Project (Assignment 3). Location: TBA. This will be a three-hour class. No tutorial. |
| 22/03/07 | THE ARTS AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Note: The content of this class TBA. Note: The Final Exam Guide Sheet will be distributed in tutorial. |
| 29/03/07 | THE ARTS AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY: A CONCLUSION
Reading: Amis, Martin. “The Coincidence of the Arts.” Granta (Thematic Issue, Beasts), 63 (1998), pp. 208-242. Note: This class will function as a review session in preparation for the final exam. Please be sure that you have reviewed the Final Exam Guide Sheet (distributed in tutorial 22/03/07) as well as your lecture and tutorial notes so that you are able to make good use of this session. This will be a three-hour class. No tutorial. |
Getting Started
As is indicated on the syllabus, the requirements for FACS 1900B include tackling a reading from the course kit on a weekly basis. Preparing a course kit reading differs from reading purely for pleasure and requires both serious effort and a (relatively) quiet environment. You might consider committing a specific day and time during your week to undertake the reading and the related tasks outlined below. Consider whether you want to work alone, with the other members of your tutorial reading group, or with other classmates. The choice is yours but do avoid skimming through the reading at the last minute!
Preparing the Reading
To get the most out of each reading, and to be ready to discuss it in lecture and/or tutorial, begin by asking yourself the following questions which will help you to contextualize the attitudes it reflects:
- Who wrote the text?
- Where does the text come from (book, essay collection, exhibition catalogue, periodical or journal, popular magazine or newspaper, the internet)?
- When was it written?
As you are reading, keep in mind that most authors have a point of view or position which they are attempting to present. Sometimes the author does this in a very obvious way at the outset, for example: “In this article I want to demonstrate that, contrary to majority opinion, the world is flat....” Other times, the author expresses his/her point of view or position with more subtlety and you must read through the entire text and/or between the lines to find it. But no matter how it is expressed, you want very consciously to be looking for the author’s point of view or position as you read. By the time you finish the text, you should be able to write this down in a few sentences. Please do so. The process will also help you to clarify the way(s) in which the reading is connected to course content.
As the author builds his/her argument, he/she will usually provide a variety of details to support it. While you need not be able to recall every one of them, you should be able to articulate the major points associated with the argument. One of the ways you can draw these points out of the text is to highlight the passages which strike you as significant or which summarize the contents of a particular section. (Many students use a fluorescent marker for this purpose; others simply underline the relevant passages in pen or pencil.) However, avoid falling into the trap of highlighting extensively as it defeats the purpose of this task. Once you have finished reading the entire text, go back and review the passages you have singled out; if you have highlighted judiciously, these passages should provide you with a summary of the reading. Using this material, make a few more notes.
After you have completed the reading and made your notes, write down questions which come to mind, ideas and issues requiring clarification, and/or your own thoughts in response to the reading--especially when your own point of view differs from that of the author. These can all serve as useful contributions to in-class and tutorial discussion,
Some Additional Tips
- The texts in the course kit have been selected with first-year students in mind. Nonetheless, some are more difficult than others. If you find a given text challenging, read as much as you can using the method described above and then make note of the stumbling block(s). Your tutorial leader will usually be able to help you over them, either in tutorial or during her office hours.
- If you come across words which are unfamiliar to you, make the effort to look them up in a dictionary. Not only will your understanding of the text be enriched, you will expand your vocabulary. You may even want to keep a list of these words and their meanings in the back of your course notebook or binder for reference.
- Most of the texts in the course kit include footnotes or endnotes. In some cases, they will contain references to other texts from which ideas, issues, and/or quotations have been taken by the author. In other cases, the author will use the notes to expand on an idea or issue which grows out of his/her discussion but is not necessarily directly related to it. Such notes are frequently worth spending time on as they can expand your horizon on a given topic or suggest ideas for future research.
- Review the notes you made on the reading shortly before you attend lecture or tutorial. This practice will refresh your memory and allow you to participate more fully in the course.
A Final Note
The skills and critical perspectives you develop in preparing each reading in the course kit will be equally useful when you undertake the Research Project (Assignment 2).