VISA 2056 3.0
Term: FALL 2021
Course Director
Marc Couroux
couroux [at] yorku [dot] ca
Time and Location
Tuesday 2:30 PM – 6:30 PM, CFA 330
Introduction to Video Art is a studio course dedicated to exploring a broad variety of approaches to video art within an experimental framework. The student will produce video projects that through both form and content draw attention to the material and technical nature of the camera (phone), and its pivotal role in framing reality. The political functions of the (phone) camera will be especially central, given the multiple roles it continues to play in organizing perception, cognition and action in a time of crisis. The (phone) camera’s contemporary use will be paralleled with the rise of video art as a new form in the 1960s and 70s, whose explorations of embodiment and liveness and the possibilities of intimacy amidst mass communication, made it into a revolutionary medium that took hold among marginalized communities and became central to feminist, queer and Black struggles in its early years.
The course will consist in weekly viewings and exercises focused on ideas germane to the course with conversation and critique being integral to its success.
In addition, each student will meet individually online with the course director for a short one-on-one conversation to discuss concerns and brainstorm work-in-progress, towards the 2/3 mark of the term.