Paper Assignment

Paper Assignment

2000-2500 words, due June 28th.

You have TWO possibilities:

ONE:

The difficulty of a class about the history of "new media" is that for each new media there is a new story to tell that exists within the larger story we call "History."  Since this is an art history course, and since art, for the most part, is a social phenomenon, the History we have touched upon has mostly been that of living and working conditions, and not the history of wars, or political regimes, or law, or science.  It is important to keep this in mind, since all of these latter histories also part of the story of art, even if they can't be a part of this class.

Having said that, your assignment will be to trace the representation (1) aspect of modernity through (3) works from different media from the mid-19th century to the present.  Of these 3 media, at least (2) must be "new"--new, that is, to the time period of this class.  That means (1) may be a traditional medium--painting, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, etc.  Moreover at least (1) of your media must be "physically" available--a print of a photograph, a painting, a video on the monitor--not a republication. 

For instance, we've "traced" the representation of the train--absolutely an aspect of modernity--through painting, photography, and film.  We could have chosen radio, television, and digital (computer-based) media to do the same, though perhaps it was best to deal with the train in a mix of 19th and 20th century technologies.  We also did so in a much more cursory way than I expect you to do in your papers.  That said, the benefit of this tracing was that it allowed for a constant among the different media, which in turn allowed the representational differences among these various media, in different times, to show themselves most clearly.  Indeed, each medium also revealed different attitudes towards the train.  To what extent this is a function of the time, the artist, the medium, is part of your investigation--whose ultimate purpose is to account for what difference the medium brings to a message. 

Your tracing will involve a bit of research, and must take in to consideration the historical circumstances surrounding each work's production and time period--you will be footnoting your references and producing a works cited page.  It will also involve close and deep analysis of the work's aesthetic properties of communication.  How does the work work?  Your paper must have an overall argument and thesis statement.  I do not want a book report--I want a statement of the problem, historical and interpretive analysis, and a well-supported argument.

I also do not want you to regurgitate things I've said in class.  You may come to similar conclusions than I have, or the readings have, or you may use things you've heard or read in class in your analysis for sure, but I want YOUR thoughts and analysis and research.  This is what you will be graded on.

Possible topics include but are hardly limited to:

Electricity
Steel and its use in architecture
Masses/Crowds
The Streetcar
The Motorcar
The Airplane
The Train
A particular medium like television itself
Industrial commodity production
The theory of evolution
The theory of relativity
Nuclear technology
The threat and extinction of the Indian
The threat and extinction of the grizzly bear
Mechanized warfare
Advertising
National socialism
Etc.

TWO:

Come see me in office hours if you have a super great topic for approval.