Needless to say, NO NEW POST!

I'll see you tomorrow. We're in the home stretch, peoples!

Another Lucky Day (Happy Thanksgiving!)

Dear All,

I've decided not to make you post to the blog for this week. Instead, just do the readings and work on Project #3. Happy almost Thanksgiving, y'all!

To Animate=To Bring Something To Life

Both animators and bio-artists bring the inanimate to life, albeit in very different ways. My question here pertains to The Tissue Culture and Art Project (TCA), a high profile bio-art group based in Australia. For the 2004 piece Victimless Leather--A Prototype of Stitch-less Jacket Grown in a Technoscientific "Body," the TCA grew living cells on a foundational structure in the shape of a small coat. According to their website,

This artistic grown garment will confront people with the moral implications of wearing parts of dead animals for protective and aesthetic reasons and will further confront notions of relationships with living systems manipulated or otherwise....Our intention is not to provide yet another consumer product but rather to raise questions about our exploitation of other living beings.

Engaging with at least 1 quote from Oron Catts's "The Art of the Semi-Living," answer the following questions: What does Catts mean by "semi-living"? Do you think that the TCA's piece Victimless Leather (check out the picture above) encourages discussion regarding the "exploitation of other living beings" or is itself an example of the exploitation of a living being? If you need more information on Victimless Leather, take a look at http://www.tca.uwa.edu.au/vl/vl.html .

The Revenge of the Mummy Complex

Agrippa (A Book of the Dead) is an art project collaboratively created by the cyberpunk author William Gibson, the artist Dennis Ashbaugh, and the publisher Kevin Begos, Jr. To answer this week's question, begin by reading the following web page: http://agrippa.english.ucsb.edu
Be sure to click on "more" so you can read the whole description.

Click on the "simulation" link and play the representation of Ashbaugh's idea for fading ink (an idea that proved too difficult to implement). Then, read Gibson's poem, available here: http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/agrippa.asp

OK. This is question #1:
What meaning can you make out of Ashbaugh's original idea for disappearing images (keeping in mind Gibson's poem)? Use at least 1 quote from the poem in order to make your argument.

Here's question #2:
Read Bazin's "The Ontology of the Photographic Image" (1945), included in the course reader. What is the "mummy complex"? Although Bazin wrote this article decades before the Internet was invented, do you think he would say that the Internet satisfies the mummy complex? Why or why not?

Betty Boop and the Colonialist Spectacle

Ok. So, the copy place made a huuugggeeee mistake: only copying every OTHER page of the reading. Yeesh! Ack! This is terrible. So, obviously no reading assignment due for Tuesday.

Instead, watch the Betty Boop film I've embedded here. It's called Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle and was made by the Fleischer Brothers in 1932. Then,
1) give your thoughts on the film's presentation of race and/or gender
2) respond carefully to another student's answers to question 1). Please use your critical thinking skills to position your fellow student's argument in relation to your own. If you are the first person to post, answer question 1) and then post your answer to question 2) a little later (once others have posted).

Bear in mind a couple of things when you write your analysis. First of all, Betty Boop was a very popular cartoon character who appeared as "white" in her other films. And second, The Royal Samoans and the dancer Miri--who appear in the beginning of the film--were supposedly authentic performers from the Samoan Islands, an archipelago in the South Pacific. A much less important factoid is that my favorite Girl Scout cookie took its name from the Samoan Islands, which export coconut products.

Keep up the good work, everyone. Come to my office hours if you have any questions about the next assignment.

The Aesthetic of YouTube

Hi everyone! Here's what I'd like you do. First, read http://www.henryjenkins.org/2006/11/youtube_and_the_vaudeville_aes.html . Then, read the Tom Gunning article in the course reader ("An Aesthetic of Astonishment: Early Film and the (In)credulous Spectator"). The syllabus has the wrong title for the article, by the way.

Next, choose a YouTube video that works well with the aesthetic of vaudeville and the aesthetic of attractions. Respond to BOTH of the following:

Using 2 quotations from the Jenkins article, explain how your video expresses the aesthetic of vaudeville. Using 2 quotations from the Gunning article, explain how your video expresses the aesthetic of attractions. Use specific aspects of your video as evidence to support your argument. Please include the URL of your video, as well.

For your viewing pleasure, here's the video Jenkins talks about in his article:

Your Lucky Day

Hey, folks. This is your lucky day: there's no blog post due for this week. Please spend your time completing Project #2 and doing the reading assignment. Just to repeat: DEFINITELY DO THE READING ASSIGNMENT. Not only is it essential to Project #3, it is critical for Tuesday's class. During lecture, you will do a brief written response that will be handed in and graded by your TA.

I wish you the best of luck for Project #2. Seriously, I want everyone to ROCK IT!