ARC3701H F
Instructor: John Shnier
Meeting Section: L9101
Synchronous
Friday, 3:00PM - 6:00PM

The thoughtful, provocative and, maybe mischievous, manipulation of narrative in moving space

We Will Make Films: This elective course is offered to students with a variety of backgrounds and interests, who would like to explore, examine and represent meaning in the ideation of design concepts. In this charged and unusual moment, we are called upon to consider non-binary viewpoints towards extending and building ongoing topical dialogues. In this elective, students will make films that seek to hold a space for examination to negotiate the binary (con)text we often find ourselves living in.

“It’s always seemed to me that photography tends to deal with facts whereas film tends to deal with fiction.” – Diane Arbus

Working in groups of 2, each film will have 4 iterative screenings and one final screening for a total of 5 iterations. With a focus on process, this elective has no preconceived image in mind for the final films. Regarding the final outcome, while we may have no preconceived image in mind, we must ultimate strive to create quality and refinement in our results. Will we find out, that in the process, certain fictions can hold more possibilities than perceived truths? Let’s find out.

A Garden of Heroes: The subject of your film will be “A Garden of Heroes”; an opportunity to make a direct and critical response to President Donald J. Trump’s recent executive order to create a Garden of American Heroes. This course provides a space for dismantling the presumed intent of the POTUS’ proclamation, and reconstitute it in critical terms. Hence, you will strive to see how design fosters awareness by holding a space for competing or conflicting interests to coexists, even as one is poised to reject the status quo. In this sense, the title “Garden of Heroes” can be taken in different trajectories to create and represent the dialectical relationship(s) between space and subject; subject and object.

Seminar Style, Iterative and Critical: The main objective of the course is to draw each student into a critical, discursive exploration of ideas that form the basis of the design of the film. The seminar entails you to engage in a continuous creative process advancing the film through a series of reviewed screenings leading to the refinement of the technique and the clarity of representation. Participation in the form of initiating, responding and contributing to discussions on presented work, is a requirement.

Representation is defined as an embodied position, portrayal, expression or action on behalf of “something”. As such, representation is enlisted as a way of examining thoughts and areas of contested realities through cinematic-discourse combinations.

Self-Direction; Self-Responsible: The subject and material of the film will be each student/group’s choosing. It is your responsibility to become thoughtful advocates for your ideas and gain mastery over the judgements and techniques used and the decisions you make. Now more than ever, we are required to be responsible and accountable for our ideas and their manifestations. If necessary and with the agreement of the group, we may exercise some flexibility to accommodate screenings and/or non-synchronous meeting.

Success: The success of your projects, is directly related to the quality of participation in the discussions and constructive critique applied to and evident in the results of the film created through the iterations presented throughout the term. The criteria for evaluation will examine content and technique. We will collectively commit to creating a robust conversation of ideas, critical support and mutual respect; opening a space for a shared experience.