Taught by

Sight and sound are often thought of as registers that sustain and represent what escapes language. Language in turn is often thought of as constituted by its exclusion of embodied experience. A parallel thought is inscribed into the division between our familiar, material, analog world and the virtual realm of the digital. What we can and do share with others is shaped by our participation in figurative, sonic, and/or linguistic systems. We will take up, complicate, and challenge these claims both creatively and theoretically in this program in experimental sound and visual art, critical theory, and psychoanalytic theory.

In addition to analyzing contemporary examples of sound art and visual work, we will have a broad range of interlocutors in poetry, literary theory, psychoanalysis, philosophy, and critical theory. These will likely range from Freud to Lacan, Kristeva, and Žižek in psychoanalytic theory; and from Hegel and Marx to Adorno, Michel Chion, Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, and Sianne Ngai in critical theory and aesthetics.

We will engage these challenging interlocutors in seminars, small groups, lectures, and reading sessions; and students will produce regular academic writing. Our work will also include substantial art, writing, and studio components, with introductory technology workshops in audio and visual production. Over both quarters, students will write regular academic essays, engage in creative-writing workshops, and develop a sustained studio practice. In the fall, each student will produce a collection of experiments in audio production and a companion essay. With the help of additional visual production training, the fall experiments will serve as ground and source for the major audio-visual winter project. The program will conclude with a public screening and launch party for these projects.

Quarters

Fall Open Winter Signature

Location and Schedule

Campus Location

Olympia

Time Offered

Day