POPULAR CULTURE STUDIES*

国際教養学部

AART3040

コース情報

担当教員: FEENEY William

単位数: 4

年度: 2024

学期: 春学期

曜限: 水1, 水2

形式: 対面授業

レベル: 300

アクティブラーニング: あり

他学部履修: 可

評価方法

出席状況

授業参加

10%

その他

Image Exploration (5%): Take a picture of some piece of popular culture that attracts your attention. Write one-page (double spaced) about the specific elements or qualities that draw your interest. Please focus on what is visible in the picture itself when writing your response. Image Description (5%): Image/Video Description - Drawing on the technical vocabulary discussed in class, write a two-page (doubled spaced) description of an image or video clip of your choosing. Avoid analysis as much as possible and focus your efforts on describing your chosen image or clip in a way that you think will be useful. Add a paragraph at the end reflecting on the description you have created. Weekly Discussion Posts (30%): Contribute a short response to the weekly readings on the class discussion board. Over the term you will be asked to both start new discussion threads as well as respond to the posts of others. Weekly prompts will suggest ways to think about readings, but keep in mind that these posts are intended to help the class explore and work through the ideas presented in the class readings. These posts will not be graded based on their content, but responses should demonstrate a familiarity and engagement with the readings and materials covered in class. Midterm Exam Report: Visual Analysis (15%): Draw on a selection of methodologies to analyze an image or short video clip provided by the instructor. You must draw on at least two methods presented in the course. Final Project Proposal (5%): Write and workshop up your preliminary plans for your final project. At minimum proposals should identify the object or practice you have chosen and layout out some tentative plans for analyzing it—though these plans may change as you carry out your project. The form of the proposal will be covered in detail within class and we will hold a workshop session where you will be expected to share and provide feedback on proposals in small groups. Final Project (25%): Select a pop-cultural phenomenon and develop an analysis that applies at least THREE of the methodologies covered in class. We will review the specifics in class.

85%

詳細情報

概要

This course introduces students to analytic perspectives and visual methods within popular culture studies. Students will learn to consider pop-cultural forms along three primary lines of approach. The first considers the material features and formal visual qualities of pop-cultural forms as discrete objects and/or performances. This first perspective focuses on the material affordances and constraints that shape the physically constitution of the texts, performances and objects that circulate as popular culture. The second approaches popular culture as a it is experienced by the senses. This approach focuses on the ways that we ‘learn’ to see, recognize and understand objects as expressive forms, appreciating the social patterning of our interpretive faculties as constituting distinct ‘genres’ or ‘styles’ of visual expression. Finally, students will be tasked with appreciating pop-cultural forms as they participate in broader socio-cultural process. This will mean learning to approach objects in functional terms--in ways that speak to their practical social utility--as well as learning to trace the expressive or iconographic meanings that condense around pop-cultural forms once they become focal points for collective attention. The course will take place online and combine lecture, online discussion, small group work and individual analytical tasks. Assignments will task students with learning to use the analytic tools covered in class, applying them directly to concrete pop-cultural artifacts. Final projects will task students with selecting a pop-cultural form and presenting a longer form analysis that draws upon multiple visual methodologies.

目標

Students will gain a basic understanding of the theories, models, and methods of popular culture studies with an emphasis on visual culture. Additionally, students will learn how to select, adapt, and apply the analytic frameworks covered in the course to develop and pursue their own research on popular culture phenomena.

授業外の学習

Record notes to summarize and consolidate knowledge after class (30 min) Read required preparatory materials for class. (120 min) Post on the class discussion board and read entries (30 min) Locate and prepare materials for in-class group work and/or student final projects (30 min)

所要時間: 210 min

スケジュール

Course Introduction Syllabus review. Introduction to the arc of the course, analytic expectations, and key frameworks
Defining Terms: Vision and Culture How does vision work? What do we mean by culture? How does the visual factor into culture?
The Sites of Analysis How can we do research with visual culture? What are the sites and modalities that can be examined?
Defining Popular Culture What does 'popular culture' mean? What kinds of images, objects and performances constitute popular culture?
Ill (Media) Effects What are the effects of potentially disturbing or offensive modes of visual imagery on the human animal? How should they be regulated?
Mass Production and Critiques of 'Modern' Mass Culture What changes for visual culture were ushered in by revolutions in production? What are the differences between high, mass and/or popular culture?
Content Analysis What is 'content analysis'? What is it good for and how can we use it?
The Business of Popular Culture How does the profit motive participate in popular culture? Political economy and popular culture.
The Semiological Method (pt 1) What do we mean by sign, structure and code? How have people described the relationship between visual signs and the systems that structure them?
Viewers Make Meaning How is meaning made with popular culture? How do audiences participate in making meaning?
The Semiological Method (pt 2) How does semiology relate to ideology? What is myth? How have semiological concepts been used to decode ideology?
'Postmodern' Reflexivity What is 'postmodernism'? How is it different from 'modernist' approaches? How, why and when can these approaches be put to work?
As above.
Celebrity Culture What is celebrity? What is the role of the visual in celebrity culture? How has this changed over time?
Discourse Analysis I What do we mean by 'discourse'? What are the connections between power and 'discourse'? How can we analyze 'discourse'?
Platforms and Algorithms What is a platform? How about an algorithm? How do they participate in social life?
Discourse Analysis II How are institutions related to 'discourse' and power? What insights can be gained by the connections between institutions and discourse?
Project Proposal Workshop Workshop your proposal for your final project in small groups.
Audiencing How have audiences been studied? How can we usefully do research with audiences?
Media Mix and Media Convergence What is 'media mix'? What is media convergence? How do these concepts differ?
Digital Research Methods How can we do research with digital materials?
Projecting Publics How do visual media performances project social imaginaries and create social spaces for people to inhabit?
'Performance,' 'Animation' and Agency What are these tropes? How have they been used to understand the connections between visual media and society? How does each assign agency?
As above.
'Publics': Media Circulation and the Social Imaginary How does media circulation participate in creating the social world?
As above.
Final Project Workshop Bring polished drafts to workshop and get feedback from your peers.
Final Project Workshop Bring polished drafts to workshop and get feedback from your peers.

教科書

All required class readings and materials will be provided in class via Moodle or email.

参考書

書籍情報はありません。