Class #22 postgame

You guys were awesome today!

HOMEWORK FOR SATURDAY: Discovery task, if you didn't do it yet. Here's the info about connecting to library sources from off-campus.

HOMEWORK FOR TUESDAY: See ideas draft assignment in the previous post.

HOMEWORK FOR WEDNESDAY: Death and Life of American Cities 3-25, at minimum!... it would help if you could also read 29-34, 50-54, 58-65 and 84-88, and in a world far more perfect than this one, you would also read 89-111

Related: Nicholas' summary of the Irvine Park event (see reply to this post), and another Lupton event about Swedish design sensibility... for Bauhaus/Ikea fans

THE CONCLUSION OF THE "RENT" CONTROVERSY: Here... did I mention my wife is the one writing these stories?

RECENT CONTROVERSIES OVER RACIST IMAGERY: Obama, Obama, Obama

OBAMA/GERSHWIN/WONDER MASHUP: the question we really didn't pursue today, which you should consider your paper, is whether or not music can be "racially authentic" somehow, and if so, what music or whose music... note how Obama avoids the issue entirely, even though Stevie Wonder's best songs specifically addressed racial inequity... but then compare the criteria given in 2007 to those given in 2008

Ideas Draft #6

Tuesday (3/3) p.m. = Ideas draft
Sunday (3/8) p.m. = Working draft
Friday (3/13) p.m. = Final draft


Look at the timestamp on this post... I'm pretty likely to make some mistakes here, so please let me know when you find them.

1) Read the prompt carefully.

2) What is the "arts committee" the prompt refers to, and who's on it? How does this effect your rhetorical strategy?

3) What is the racial climate at UCI? You do not need to limit your answers to black-white relations specifically. Note: there is no such thing as a "race" from a scientific standpoint, though there are obviously small genetic differences between groups of human beings. You are more genetically similar to me - about 99.99% - than to someone from the island of Vanuatu or from deep in the Amazon jungle - about 99.9%. Geographical isolation is the key to genetic differentiation, and given that we're all here in a major international urban zone, it can be safely said that we're all from ancestors who got around quite a bit. "Race" is mainly a social construction, but in this way we might say that it does really exist. I mean, "the economy" is a social construction too, and look how that affects our lives.

4) What would be different about performing Porgy and Bess at UCI than anywhere else? I mean, what would the specific context of the performance be?

5) Find one element of racial stereotyping (of blacks) in popular culture from 1855-1955. Maybe a Google Image search would help. Explain what you found.

6) Identify one element of racial stereotyping (of anyone) in popular culture in 2009. Explain.

7) What are the three strongest arguments for staging the play that came up in class debate?

8) What are the three strongest arguments for not staging the play that came up in class debate?

9) Find one primary source related to Porgy and Bess from the 1930s (other than the play itself). Who wrote it? What is the thesis? Pull one key quotation that you might use, and paraphrase it.

10) Repeat with a second primary source.

11) Repeat with a third primary source.

12) Find one secondary source related to Porgy and Bess from the 1950s-2000s. Who wrote it? What is the thesis? Pull one key quotation that you might use, and paraphrase it.

13) Research one performance of Porgy and Bess other than the Trevor Nunn version on the DVD or the first run on Broadway. What was unique about this performance? How would its audience have thought about the musical, specifically the racial aspect?

14) Identify two scenes in the musical that could/will be evidence for your argument. Pull a key bit of dialogue from each one, and explain why it could be interpreted as evidence for either side of the issue.

15) Identify two key bits of Porgy and Bess that you can analyze on the basis of the music only, rather than the dialogue, in a way that could somehow fit into your paper. You might use the same scenes as the previous question, and you might not.

Writing Rant: The Masses

This is a phrase I saw in damn near half of your papers:

Propaganda was used to reach the masses. (or something like that)

Can someone please tell me where you are picking up this phrase and what you think it means? Who are the masses ? Germans? Are Germans in a mass? Aren’t they, rather, a number of distinct social groups with different or competing interests? Otherwise why would propaganda have to target them in different ways? So how can we then call them “the masses” as if they are undifferentiated? If you were referring, for instance, to the urban working class in particular, perhaps it would make sense to say "the masses," as this might be the majority of the population. But no, you're often using the term to refer to the middle class, or to farmers in the rural areas.

I take it that you've adopted this term because of our concept, in U.S. liberalism-capitalism, that we are all one big group of equals. "The masses" is different from some unspecified set of experts or elites. But anyone who actually depends on the American people to act in certain ways, for instance politicians or commercial advertisers, knows that regardless of their equal political status (in the strictest sense), Americans comprise many different groups, ideas, and interests. They are not one block. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE MASSES. Maybe if we are in medieval Europe and you are referring to the peasantry? This concept makes no sense to me whatsoever. Maybe someone can explain it.

As for the papers otherwise:

You did pretty well with this assignment, on the whole. I don't think it turned out to be much "easier" than the last, nor do the grades reflect that (average 2.85 vs. 2.78, a slightly higher B-)... instead, I think it had some very different challenges, in particular the need to research a lot of possibilities and choose between them, and the need for concision. The more important thing is that I think a lot of you liked doing the assignment and got a lot out of it. (I also felt kind of vindicated, because I'm starting to see that the way I approached the Shakespeare assignment has been helpful to you going forward.)

Class #21 postgame

DISCOVERY TASK (FRIDAY):

My preference is that you turn this in to the EEE dropbox, but if you want to give me a paper copy, I guess that would be OK. The assignment asks you to find primary and secondary sources for analyzing Porgy and Bess.

DEBATE (FRIDAY):

Now that your last paper is over and you've had more of an opportunity to watch the musical, I want everyone involved in the discussion with minimal talking from me. As I said today, start by reading the essay #6 prompt. You will be arguing either that the play should be staged at UCI or that it should not. You can draw your arguments from personal opinion/experience, from the sources you found in the discovery task, and from the sources I'm providing below.

ADDITIONAL PORGY AND BESS SOURCES:

"It Ain't Necessarily So" - 1959 version with Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin' Life

"It Ain't Necessarily So" - weird 1973 medley version where Davis sings as both Sportin' Life and Porgy

"It Ain't Necessarily So" - recent version from Warsaw National Opera in Poland

"It Ain't Necessarily So" - recent performance by Swedish jazz band

"It Ain't Necessarily So" - unreleased Tupac song

"Dere's A Boat Dat's Leavin' Soon For New York" - weird Obama speech mashup

Kick Ass Student Paper about P & B - written for a different prompt last year

Recap of P & G's controversial nature - in London newspaper, 2007

Summary of P & G's performance history - from U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities

Interesting article in law newsletter - about copyright law as it pertains to making revisions to old plays

Another legal issue - a clause in the Gershwin brothers' will stipulates that P & G must be performed by an all-black cast

A bunch of other sources - from Moeller's webpage (login: moeller, moeller)

RESTATEMENT OF MY END OF CLASS RANT:

There is no intrinsic meaning in a work of art. There is nothing "there." The dilemma that art suggests, which surely bothered Plato, is that there is no such thing as an original, only a layered sequence of variations. Art is meaningful in a different sense; it is meaningful to particular audiences in particular ways at particular times. This is easier to see with live music and theater, which must be performed "new" each time. But it is also true of any form of art. Grosz, for instance, showed you how Botticelli's Primavera could mean something very different in 20th century Germany than it had in 15th century Italy.

So either way you frame your argument about Porgy and Bess needs to take this into account. There is no such person as Porgy, no such person as Bess, and no such "thing" as Porgy and Bess. There are, instead, a series of performances, a series of events, going back to its original performance. (And also further, if you consider that Gershwin has adapted the music from various classical, pop, and jazz influences.) So Porgy and Bess itself is a historically contingent event rather than a discrete "thing," and in restaging it you would be creating an entirely new event. Perhaps you think this new event would be valuable in some way, and perhaps you do not.

As we discussed today, racial stereotypes of the sort you see in the play are notoriously difficult to control. Even if a Robert Downey, Jr. or a Dave Chappelle (or a Gershwin) has the intention to challenge stereotypes, those stereotypes themselves must be presented/performed/recreated in order to do so. Recreating them for some audiences might be irresponsible, because the only difference between the stereotype and the anti-stereotype lies in the context of how an audience perceives it.

Class #20 postgame

FOR TUESDAY NIGHT:

Paper #5 with works cited (see Easy Writer 204-225), acknowledgments, reflections to turnitin.com

FOR WEDNESDAY:

Watch Porgy and Bess DVD with the subtitles on ("libretto").

Answer your assigned study question (3, 4, 11, 12, 14, or 15) and "question X" (what is one major issue in U.S. aesthetics?).

Extra credit for attending this event about architecture and landscape design.

FOR FRIDAY:

Discovery Task #4

NEW EXHIBIT ON NAZI PROPAGANDA:

At the U.S. Holocaust Museum. In case you're, um, in Washington D.C. this month.

Class #19 postgame

THE PURPOSE OF TODAY'S EXERCISE ON SOVIET AESTHETICS WAS:

Ankita asked me this after class, and I thought it was a fair question. The purpose was to, you know, learn about some of the specific aesthetic problems that came up during the Soviet revolution. But in a more practical sense, the purpose was to prepare you for a potential final exam question on Soviet aesthetics, and to use Soviet aesthetics as a tool of comparison/contrast to help you understand the other aesthetic systems we have studied / will study.

LECTURE HOMEWORK FOR MONDAY:

Watch the Porgy and Bess DVD!!!

WRITING HOMEWORK FOR SATURDAY:

From the sample papers I gave you, reduce the Preface from 191 words to 125 words, or reduce the Image 1 caption from 242 words to 155 words, or reduce the Image 2 caption from 220 words to 145 words, or reduce the Image 3 caption from 121 words to 80 words. Post your version to the blog below.

LEFTOVER HOMEWORK FOR SUNDAY:

Do the Oscars assignment if you missed Obama and the Grammys... what aesthetic theories were stated or implied during the Oscars ceremony? You might ponder, for instance, why the Best Picture winner was chosen instead of the other nominees. Also, in light of the Soviets, see how the Academy tries to justify itself as a special artistic/intellectual class.

AND OF COURSE:

Paper 5 final draft due to turnitin.com on Tuesday night at 8:00. You should have a works cited [see Easy Writer 204-225 for formatting guidelines], acknowledgments, and reflections.

CORONA DEL MAR "RENT" CENSORSHIP RUCKUS:

Continues in this New York Times story, which links it to related aesthetic debates in other U.S. high schools.

Class #18 postgame

HOMEWORK FOR FRIDAY:

None... am I forgetting something?

HOMEWORK FOR SUNDAY:

The Academy Awards (Oscars) are on, so for those who missed the inauguration and the Grammys, you need to write a short post discussing how aesthetics came into play.

HOMEWORK FOR MONDAY:

Watch the Porgy and Bess DVD with the subtitles on (it's hard to understand what people are saying in operas even if it's in English... thus I've actually seen this before, but have no idea whatsoever what it's about). Pay special attention to Act II, Scene IV (chapter 24 of the DVD). Supposedly most of you bought this at the bookstore, but per the email you got last night, there will also be a screening on Thursday night from 6:30-9:50, in PCB 1100. Here are some good materials that Moeller gave to us at the last staff meeting, including primary sources like original newspaper reviews of the play. You might start looking at that stuff in anticipation of paper #6.

HOMEWORK FOR TUESDAY:

Final draft #3 to turnitin.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON SOVIETS:

On Moeller's website.... Including "Seventeen Moments in Soviet History," and more Brittanica. And a lot of other stuff as well.

More Shostakovich here, here, here, and here.

You're not a high school student... if you need/want to learn more, you have to take some initiative for yourself.

MORE SHEPHERD FAIRY:

Debate about his copyright dispute with the Associated Press, on the Colbert Report.

IS THIS ART?:

Corona Del Mar high school cancels performance of "Rent" over some objection to the content, replacing it with "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."

Class #17 postgame

THE REVOLUTION WILL CONTINUE ON WEDNESDAY:

We didn't talk about the Soviets today because we focused on the paper. I ranted something or other at the start of class... Sarah promised she would post it to the reply here. But Moeller will do another lecture on Soviet aesthetics on Wednesday, focusing on Shostakovich's opera and why Stalin didn't like it. So you should (re)read 92-101, and you should read chapter 18 of the Guide, which is about "Analyzing Music."

THE OTHER THING THAT IS HAPPENING ON WEDNESDAY:

You will have a conference with me and two other students about your working draft. Sign up here. That means you need to upload the documents to the "shared student" section of the Dropbox as well as to the "assignment submission" section. If you're not using embedded images: please give the links, and you need to print copies of the images for the four of us to look at in the conference. The absolute latest deadline for uploading your working draft is, let's say, Tuesday night at 7:00. But I would be eternally grateful if some of you uploaded it in the morning, because then I can look at some of them on my flight back from Pittsburgh.

Yes, class will meet as usual on Wednesday in addition to the conferences.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND:

And happy Valentine's Day. (Adding to our ongoing discussion of holidays & festivals, Valentine's day is a minor Catholic holiday honoring a saint, which was appropriated by the flower, chocolate & greeting card companies in the post WW2 era in the U.S. to become the romantic/buying stuff bourgeois holiday that it is today.)

IS THIS ART?

Obama action figure... scroll to the bottom for him with an uzi and a samurai sword (?!?!)

Class #16 postgame

EXCELLENT CONTRIBUTION TO THE HARVEST, COMRADES:

The level of participation in class today was great!

IDEAS DRAFT:

Thursday night, comrades! Friday morning at the latest. We must meet our quota for the next harvest!

HERE'S WHERE ALL THE NAZI-APPROVED ART LIVES ON THE INTERNET:

1055 images here (painting, sculpture, photography). Sadly I fear many of us are too racially degenerate to be able to appreciate it. Oh, and here's a Hitler original.

And here's an interesting/frightening radio story about the evolution of Neo-Nazism in today's Germany from a radical fringe movement to an increasingly mainstream political movement.

SOVIETS VS. NAZIS:

Can someone who took good notes remind me what we wrote on the board about the aesthetic/political similarities & differences? Here's what I remember:

-Soviet feminism vs. Nazi gender traditionalism
-Nazis using race to create a classless society vs. Soviets using "dictatorship of the proletariat" to create a classless society
-appeal to the collective will... it should be noted however that Soviets think everyone should be an artist whereas Nazis are more interested in regulating the production of a specific class of artists
-Soviet internationalism vs. Nazi nationalism (Soviet Union as "united states," Soviets consider nationalism & racism a bourgeois illusion)
-both use anti-capitalist rhetoric, but in different ways... in Germany it is often paired with anti-semitism, and it's not like the Nazis got rid of businesses altogether... I mean, think of Volkswagen for instance or the collaboration of the Nazis with Coca-Cola (no seriously)... vs. the entire basis of the Soviet Union is anti-capitalism... all the business are nationalized & state run
-Nazi's ambivalent attitude toward "modernity" in general and modern art in particular... the idea of a future return to a glorious past, nostalgia, with Weimar as a terrible wrong turn... vs. Soviets' total embrace of modernity (but Soviets didn't like some abstract styles of art because they found them confusing or symptomatic of bourgeois individualism... and remember, Soviets went right from being peasants under a monarchy to being communist revolutionaries... they didn't have that in between democratic / moderate phase, and they didn't want to continue any elements of the past)
-related... Soviet use of technological and urban imagery in their "realism" vs. Nazi's use of nostalgic and agrarian imagery in their "realism"
-use of propaganda... Soviets essentially believed that all art was political propaganda, while Nazis acted like only degenerate art was political (despite using art as political rhetoric themselves)

SENSUALITY VS. BEAUTY IN LONG BEACH:

This is the article Moeller was referring to about a dispute over a nude painting in Long Beach. I think my weirdo artist neighbor who lives next door actually knows this woman. (He's an interesting case in himself... he works as a painter on construction sites by day and paints art like this by night. Very Bauhaus I guess.)

IS THIS ART?:

Japanese water fountain.

SOMETHING ELSE TO PONDER:

I may use this for class discussion next week. Besides the M.I.A. + Jay-Z + Kanye + Lil' Wayne + T.I. and Radiohead + U.C.L.A. marching band mashups, the other interesting moment at the Grammys, to me, was the dull speech that the director of the organization gives every year. Except this time it wasn't dull because he called for the Obama Administration to create a cabinet level position for Secretary of the Arts (like Secretary of State, Treasury, Defense, Energy, etc.). Is this a good idea, because it would encourage greater funding for arts education? Or is it a bad idea for the political state to have regulatory power over the arts... isn't that what Hitler & Stalin are doing?

Class #15 postgame

APOLOGY:

I'm sorry if anyone came to see me in my office from 12:00-1:15... I forgot about my weekly HumCore staff meeting... hopefully you saw the note on the door

SURVEY:

Most of you didn't take it yet... here's the link. Please try to come up with suggestions for my/our improvement. One person took the survey and basically chose "suck" for everything in the numerical part, which is totally fine, but then wrote something to the effect of "everything seems OK, no suggestions" in the written comment part. I found that rather confusing. If you have a grievance, elaborate. If you like something, tell me how to do more of it. Etc.

HOMEWORK:

-ask Goebbels a question about Nazi aesthetics in reply to this post... no more communist nonsense, today the teacher/fuhrer answers all the questions... you are free to choose from Moeller's own study questions if this is really what you want to know
-Reader 92-101 (Soviet Aesthetics)
-read Moeller's handout on primary vs. secondary sources (a simple demonstration is pg. 97 vs. pg. 100-01)
-read Guide ch. 15 & 16 if you haven't already

TIMETABLE FOR PAPER #5:

Thursday 2/12 @ 9pm = ideas draft (to submission dropbox... see below)
Tuesday 2/17 @ 5pm = working draft (to shared dropbox)
Wednesday 2/18 @ various = group conferences
Sunday 2/22 @ 9pm = final draft (to turnitin.com)

THIS MIGHT BE MORE HELPFUL THAN THE ACTUAL PROMPT:

Grading rubric the instructors were given (or in .pdf format if you prefer)

ACCEPTABLE ALTERNATIVES TO ARTSTOR, CALVIN, AND U.S.H.M.M. :

-Rifkind German Expressionist collection... some of this is online, but you could go to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, like I did this past weekend, and see all this stuff and more... sometimes it's easier to analyze a painting/poster/photograph if you're actually looking at it than a web image
-University of Minnesota World War poster collection (careful with dates)
-German Federal Archives

IDEAS DRAFT #5 (NOT AS LONG AS THE LAST ONE, BUT LONG):

You need to find six images. Five should come from approved databases [Artstor, Calvin, U.S.H.M.M., Rifkind, U. Minnesota]. Use at least two of the databases... you can repeat images from your Discovery Task, but be sure that they fit the theme you choose, and be sure that you have something interesting to say about them. The sixth image should be a contemporary one (from any source) that somehow fits your theme, even though it's not directly about Weimar.

Winter's 2 S's

Source: who publishes/curates the database this image came from? what is its focus? what are its motives? [do this once for each database you use]
Selection: what category or theme have you chosen to organize your exhibition/article [do this once]... note: one potential category we didn't discuss in class today was the work of a single artist... though it would be better if there was some variety therein

Moeller's 6 C's [repeat six times, one for each image]

Content: what do you see? (in detail... more work now is less work later)
Citation: who made it? how did s(he) display or publish it?
Context: what was going on at this particular place and time? (be specific... not every year in the Weimar period is quite the same, and not every city in Germany is quite the same)
Connections: does this remind you of anything else you've studied in Core this year? (hint: yes)? does it remind you of any other images/ideas (hint: yes)? copy out at least one short quotation from a pertinent primary or secondary source (like from the Reader)
Communication: what's the message, or rhetorical appeal, or propaganda angle? if there's none on the part of the artist/photographer, how might someone else interpret it as such? (example: Grosz calling Primavera bourgeois propaganda)
Conclusions: why is this image historically interesting/valuable? how does it relate to your theme? use it or lose it? (since you will be cutting down from six to three)

Midterm Grades

As I am sometimes a tad harsher than I should be in grading exams, I factored in a bonus by making the different sections of the test add up to 102 total points instead of 100. (20 x 3, plus 14 x 3).

Everyone passed. The average grade was just below a B (2.92 on a scale of 4.00).

Students who have participated more actively in the class discussion, office hours, and the blog homework tended to score higher. This didn't surprise me, and it shouldn't surprise you. It's not a question of me favoring them... I grade the test more or less anonymously because I compare all the answers to each question and I don't look to see whose I'm grading. These are just the students who are getting more out of the class, basically.

Midterm Guide (Art Analysis)

Alberti:

It wasn't necessary to write in the first person as your character, though some did. Most of you did quite well with Alberti, identifying certain elements of Botticelli's Primavera that he would like and arguing that Grosz's X would somehow degrade them. (Giving the title/artist of the original helped!) Some argued that Alberti would find some fault in the original painting, which I hadn't considered.

15 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 12.5 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 13 out of 14.

Alberti would not like this "revised" work of art. The painting itself was good as it follows every criteria that Alberti believes good paintings have; there is a clear istoria, the figures are depicted as nature gives, and the colors have been properly used. The black tape that has crossed over Botticelli's Primavera would be, to Alberti, classified as rape. There certainly is a message - one that indicates the artist's wish to tear down traditional aesthetic values - but this message completely goes against Alberti's own aesthetic values. He would spit on Grosz's attack on his philosophy of art.

Kokoschka:

This one was difficult for many of you. K clearly appreciates variations on traditional art, but to call Grosz's "X" an example of "expressionism" is using that term much too loosely. This is dada, a conceptual experiment. Had Grosz wanted to make an expressionist painting, he would have used his own earlier style and repainted the scene with contorted poses, darker colors, or what have you. On the other hand, some made Kokoschka out to be a strict traditionalist, which he was not... his main objection was to the politicization of art.

6 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 11.5 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 12 out of 14.

Oskar Kokoschka would agree with Alberti that the painting by Grosz would not be aesthetically pleasing. Kokoschka had voiced that paintings should be "untouched" and untainted by things like "bullet-holes." As an artist, he believes in expressionist [but still upholds the museum/gallery ideal of art]. He would not appreciate the tape which has "ruined" the artistic value of what is under it.

Gropius:

Those who bothered to read Gropius and study Moeller's lecture carefully referred to concepts of "building," geometric lines, functionality, the unification of the arts, etc. Though G isn't quite an expressionist or a communist, as some made him out to be.

9 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 10.1 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 14 out of 14.

Walter Gropius would not even care about the painting or the original idea behind it. He is an architect. As far as he is concerned, the painting is just eye-candy. What really matters to him is the frame and how effective the placement of the black tape is. Is the tape perfectly covering the center? If not, where is the focal point and why? Is it structurally stable? The only thing he might approve of in the painting is the legs of the fairies and the forest behind them. The legs are not completely realistic because of the use of many straight lines to represent a woman's usually curvy figure, and the forest also incorporates sharp and fine lines. Other than that, he would not care about the meaning of the painting.

Plato:

Most understood Plato's aesthetics, but some gave it generically rather than referring to the Grosz painting in particular. Some saw it as a kind of Platonic concept. Perhaps, though it is probably a sub-philosophical one. I'm not quite sure how Plato turned out to be a Marxist revolutionary in some of your answers.

7 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 11.6 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 12 out of 14.

Both of you are idiots. Who cares about "art"? It does nothing but fool the masses and give them something pretty to look at. If it's truth you're seeking then listen to your philosophers. How can you look for truth by presenting a distortion of reality? In my opinion Grosz did the world a favor in destroying the painting.

Hoch:

Successful answers found ways to connect her feminism, her dadaism, and/or her communism.

8 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 12.0 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 14 out of 14.

As a feminist-dadaist, Hannah Hoch would like this revised version of a Renaissance masterpiece. Although the message is quite clear in this image, an aspect of art that is vastly different from dada, she would appreciate the black "x" over the images of women that are drawn with feminine garments and long hair, an image of women she would despise. The painting is very busy, and the black "x" could be considered a form of collage - aspects of art that Hoch would value. Furthermore, Hoch would particularly dislike the first scene as it implies that the girl became a woman because of a man's grasp. She would argue that womanhood comes from a sense of self, not from a man's interest in her.

Heartfield:

This was one of the easier options on the test, as it related directly to one of Moeller's lectures. Heartfield is an anti-traditionalist, but might consider Grosz's version of dada unsuitable for communist propaganda.

6 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 11.4 out of 14. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 12 out of 14.

This is definitely a piece of art because of its obvious political message - the rejection of the traditional views of art that were invented by the bourgeoisie. This painting by itself - without the electrical tape - does not represent the current world we live in and therefore Grosz was clever to reject it.

Midterm Guide (Medium Answers)

Question A:

You guys came up with a number of good ways of relating the subplots, including aesthetics, the fickleness of love, and the idea of making or fashioning people/things... the weaker answers ignored my plea to analyze "thematically or conceptually" rather than focusing on plot.

8 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 16.3 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 20 out of 20.

A Midsummer Night's Dream has three overlapping subplots to make the story more confusing so the reader can take part in the ever changing love triangles. Shakespeare included many different forms of love as the play was originally intended to be performed at a wedding. Theseus & Hippolyta symbolize a forced love, Oberon & Titania a jealous love, and Hermia and Lysander represent true love. Although the mechanicals do not have an apparent love interest, their group presents the audience with brotherly love which can be [intuited] when the craftsmen are depressed when Bottom disappeared. These groups are important to express different formations of love, which could have been included to make a point about how love should be reformed in Shakespeare's time period, when arranged marriages were more common. The three subplots relate together by their incorporation of love, which makes the plot all the more confusing for the reader to follow, just as the characters are endlessly confused throughout the play with the help of fairy interference and love potions.

Question B:

It was difficult to answer this question in a satisfactory way without making some reference to Aristotlean style cultivation of virtue, or to humanism, though some of you managed to approach this in a more general way by talking about life experience. The better answers were grounded in actual statements by Alberti, though some (weaker) answers discussed istoria, composition etc. while avoiding answering the question about humanity and affability. There's no excuse for dodging the question if I give it to you ahead of time.

10 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 16.8 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 20 out of 20.

Alberti advised the painters to "take from nature that which [they] wish to paint." He meant to include painting in humanistic studies becausd he believed that music, mathematics, etc. improved the soul, and that painting did too. His technique in painting was to use geometry to make the painting look as realistic as possible. Using geometry would improve perspective and an improved perspective would result in a realistic painting. If the painting was realistic enough, it would "hold the eyes and the soul" of the audience. Just the technique would benefit the painter. But the "benevolence of the citizens" would do more good to the painter than his skill alone because then he would have a firm guard against povertly. This benevolence could only be achieved if the painter had an approachable personality. Alberti wanted the painter to develop good habits like humanity and affability by associating with poets and rhetoricians who had a broad knowledge about everything. They would give his painting the... istoria which could help him relate his work to the audience and engage their souls as well as their eyes.

Question C:

The better answers were able to link the historical moment to multiple artistic developments (such as expressionism, dada, bauhaus, etc.) For those who are still confusing the working class with the middle class, or the upper class with the "bourgeoisie" (middle class), you really need to see me in office hours... you've really missed the boat.

9 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 16.4 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless (there is a mistake in assuming these new styles of art met with instant popular approval, as Moeller's articles about the Nazis show), but it received 20 out of 20.

Art, like politics, can be shifted dramatically according to the will of the people. If people are unhappy with their government, they will revolt to change it; likewise their forms of expression, or art, will follow suit. After World War I, the concept of communism began to flood into the minds of the German working class; a classless society of equal distribution appealed to them ideologically. Rejecting the notion of the upper classes, they began to express their discontent publically. This discontent was brought about by a disillusionment with the nation, with its ailing economy... and its loss in the war. As such, new forms of expression, along with the rejection of old forms, started to formulate. Art was meant to be enjoyed by the bourgeoisie, a depiction of an idyllic life as seen in impressionist paintings, with relaxing backgrounds and such and such. However, the working class decided that art should be brought into their hands, and many new art forms emerged to express this mentality. The Dadaists believed that art was a weapon, utilizing photomontage to gather support for their cause. Meanwhile, the Bauhaus movement declared that art should be reintegrated with crafstmanship, producing cheap, easily reproducible art for the working classes. The Weimar Renaissance, brought on by the new Weimar Republic in 1918, shows that the affiars of the nation are related to art, as modes of expression change with the state of the nation.

Question D:

It seemed as if some of you understood the propaganda function of photomontage better, and some understood the purely dadaist function better (nonsense, undermining traditional ideas, etc.) But some did pretty well with both. Examples were helpful too. I was a bit disappointed to see that very few mentioned the dadaists as being humorous or satirical.

9 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 16.3 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 16.2 out of 20.

Some photomontage is good dadaism because it effectively depicts the chaos and disorder that is plaguing the Weimar Republic. For example, John Heartfield's early photomontages and Hannah Hoch's "Cut with Kitchen Knife" demonstrate through the use of abstraction the state of Germany following the war and economic struggles. Both artists are able to use dadaist photomontage to present the dadaist point of view and be critical of the Weimar Republic and the war. Some photomontage is good communist propaganda because it criticizes the enemies of the communists. For instance, Heartfield's photomontages about the "Heil Hitler" support the communist cause in mocking Hitler and attacking the Nazis. The difference between the photomontages, then, is the relative ease and clarity with which the works present their arguments. The communist propaganda were generally more blatant in their messages, whereas the dadaist photomontages looked like chaos before looking like a messsage.

Question E:

Weaker answers said that something wasn't art but didn't really explain why;
this question was really a definition in reverse. Thus several theories of art emerged in your answers: expressive, representational, technical, and purposive/rhetorical, to name a few.

4 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 16.5 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 18 out of 20.

Racecar driving is not an art because it does not require any expression. Although there are techniques required to drive keenly and safely, it does not serve a purpose other than the race itself. To me, art is something that can be defined in different ways depending on who is producing it. Like Alberti, I believe that art is something that demonstrates an end; and that end must be related to what that artist believes in. In a way, art is political. Whether it is done intentionally or unintentionally, the art is very much influenced by the experiences and ideas of the artists. A racecar cannot demonstrate a driver's experiences or ideas. He cannot drive slow, even if he is innately a calm, mellow driver. He will lose if he decides to go with his instincts. In racecar driving, a driver may go against what he believes in (it might be safety, not crashing into other cars) to win the race. Other types of sports such as basketball or gold are more artistic than racecar driving because a player can express his style more distinctly.

Question E:

This question was rather broad, so examples were useful. Some of you gave examples that didn't fit very well with the point you were making, though.

14 of 18 answered this question for an average score of 14.4 out of 20. The following answer is by no means flawless, but it received 20 out of 20.

Makers are not always doers. Even though Professor Moeller seems to believe that makers are always doing something. Ever heard of "art for art's sake"? Well that is definitely not "doing" something. I think of doing as helpful toward others, philanthropic, or like an action. A good example of an artist who is not doing that is Monet. Yeah, he painted some great landscapes. Yeah, he used this crazy new technique that is really pretty. OK, his art is still sold around the world. What does the art do? What did Monet do with his art? He didn't do anything. He made paintings for the sake of putting a brush to canvas. I use painting as an example because most other forms of art are making and doing. A culinary artist makes food that's purpose is to feed people. (I guess nobody really eats those fancy watermelon swans.) A building "maker" is doing something for the people that will need the building. Makers can be doers, but they are not ALWAYS the same.

Midterm postgame

HOMEWORK: Reader 43-91... full-on Nazi blitzkrieg attack... and don't forget the Grammys on Sunday night (see next post below for explanation)

PAPER #5: I will discuss the timetable for the Image Analysis paper on Monday. Your ideas draft will probably be due on Thursday (Feb. 12), and your working draft the following Tuesday (Feb. 17).

SURVEY: Perhaps you recall my amusement at Aidin's comment on the first day of class about the UCI parking director being his [employee]. I'm not your employee... I work for the state of California if you look at my paychecks, and I work for, uh, humanity if you look at the subject I'm teaching. That said, I am very interested in collaborating with you to make this a good class. Your input will be helpful to me during the rest of the quarter, for my section next quarter, and for my future teaching. So please take this anonymous survey by Monday at midnight... this gives you the opportunity to wait for your midterm grade if you prefer. Please be honest and give it some thought. I have been teaching for six years and won awards, etc. You are not going to make me feel bad. (Likewise I critique your essays and exams as honestly and thoughtfully as I can with the aim of helping you improve, rather than making you feel bad.)

CHRISTIAN BALE UPDATE:

Bale to LA Times, "I acted like a punk... I mixed up fact and fiction."

"Christian Bale and I Are Done Professionally" t-shirt... I think Bottom should get one that says "Philostrate and I Are Done Professionally"

Stephen Colbert and Steve Martin re-enact the Bale rant:

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Stephen Verbally Thrashes Steve Martin

Colbert Report Full Episodes
Paul McCartney Appearance

Funny Political Videos
More Funny Videos

Class #13 postgame

REMINDER: post one "character's" reaction to the Grosz painting here.

REMINDER: Midterm exam Friday, regular class time & place.

Please email me any questions/concerns about the midterm, and use the blog & listserv to get some discussions going (see midterm tip #3).

Like I said, I would prefer if you brought a bluebook. I like the small ones for some reason.

ANNOUNCEMENT: If you recall, I mentioned the Inauguration (Jan. 20), the Grammys (Feb. 8), and the Oscars (Feb. 22) as opportunities for extra credit. I am going back on this promise... these are now regular homework. You have to do one of the three of them, so if you already did the Inauguration rhetorical analysis, you're in the clear. You can get extra credit for doing a second one. You can do the third one, but it would be just for fun. (Yes, fun!) The Grammy & Oscar assignment is to identify and analyze at least one stated or implied theory of aesthetics presented during the show.

MORE ON THE BALE CONTROVERSY: Requiem for a Dream / The Wrestler director Darren Aronovsky weighs in

On False Universals

I promised I would write a blog entry to give some additional insight about what the communists thought about "bourgeois art." Be sure to re-read "En Avant Dada" and "The Art Scab" too.

The first point we can make is pretty literal. A bourgeois (i.e. middle class) economy is based on a fluid exchange of commodities, and the person who controls the most commodities has the most social power. Art has thus been reduced to a commodity, like coal or shoes. Albeit a "fine" or "valuable" commodity that gives great social distinction to those individuals who possess it (it's worth a lot of shoes!). This makes the bourgeois usage of art different from the medieval/feudal usage, where works of art were created by and for the entire community. (The Renaissance began this process, but I'm sure Alberti, Shakespeare, Descartes et. al would be horrified by how it turned out.) Obviously the medieval economy isn't egalitarian... I mean they have kings and popes for crying out loud. But that community is nonetheless a whole rather than an aggregation of individuals, and the art is meaningful for the whole community, and they can access it. In the bourgeois world of the late 19th century & early 20th century, art (specifically paintings) is largely owned by wealthy individuals and displayed privately. And you have to have a special education to appreciate it, because it's either historically alien (e.g. 15th century Italian painting), referent to things historically alien (e.g. classical mythology, or imitations/modifications of 15th century Italian painting), or weird and avant garde (e.g. like impressionism and then expressionism when they first came out.) This makes art a private world, a world that is only accessible to the eyes and the minds of a certain set of people. And if these people gain power as a result of this access, then art is a tool of exclusion REGARDLESS OF ITS CONTENT. It creates a system where the new urban working class is stupid for not appreciating it, and inferior because they spend their time shoveling coal and making shoes instead of making and appreciating "art."

The second point is a bit more difficult, because it has to do with content of the art in question. The communists believe that the bourgeois class is essentially parasitic, since they do none of the work but take most of the profits. They live in a kind of dreamworld. So it figures that the content of their paintings very often relates to fantasies, particularly highly individualized ones (e.g. impressionism), ones that pine nostalgically for the past (e.g. agricultural scenes, or a love of classical and renaissance art and themes). Anything but what is actually happening, because what is actually happening is the exploitation of the working class, mainly in the cities, where the factories are. Indeed, it could be said that late bourgeois paintings really have no substantive content, in the way that medieval paintings and renaissance paintings did. How could parasites have anything substantive to say? Look at what the parasites think about real art from those earlier periods... they don't get it. They either think it's a bunch of technical rules, or something witty to reference at their cocktail parties. They've lost the reality of it.

On the other hand, and this is the really tricky part, communists do believe that bourgeois art has real content. Its content is the exploitation of the working class. Because that's the real shit that's really going on. This is never its stated content, because its stated content doesn't show this at all; it shows classical mythology, or curvy sunflowers, or whatever. So its content is hidden or beneath the surface. The trouble with the bourgeoisie, like any dominant ruling class in any political/economic situation, is that it won't admit that its dominance is a big deal. It pretends that its dominance is normal, the way things should be, always have been, and always will be. This is what I mean by a false universal. Any ideology has a false universal. This is why when you ever hear someone use the word "ideology" or the word "rhetoric," they are always talking about someone else's ideas. Someone else's ideas are lies. My ideas are the truth, so they're not really my ideas, they're just the way things are. They're real, they're normal. Recall the way that the ideology of racism functions through movies and advertising images in The Bluest Eye. Remember the Dick and Jane passage? (which is very dada, incidentally) The book doesn't say people with blonde hair and blue eyes are racially superior (as the Nazis would say... hey didn't we just fight a war with the Nazis?). It doesn't say anything about that at all. It just shows us that these people, this life, is normal. It's universal. This is just the way things are. Why, for instance, do we hear models described as "ethnic"? Is white not an ethnicity? No, because it's just normal. Suppose I say, I'm making a movie about a person who goes on an adventure in outer space, close your eyes and tell me what that person looks like. In all likelihood, based on all of the other movies you've seen, you're imagining that the protagonist is a white male. Because that's "normal"... that's the false universal in this case.

So to the communists, bourgeois art, which includes all of the styles and periods of art that win approval from the bourgeois (who are actually rather stupid and, for all of their rules and labels, can't really understand what they're about), is a false universal. It pretends that it's the only sort of art there is, can be, should be, and will be... that's what the term "human culture" means in the Kokoschka quote, say Grosz and Heartfield. It doesn't mean human culture in the universal sense... it means middle class culture. And that's a very dangerous lie when you take into account this art's aforementioned tendency to be private or exclusive. So that's what the dadaists mean when they say they reject aesthetics. They reject this false universal. Our job is to figure out what they're trying to do about it... for the sake of comparison, you might try reading this article about a recent New York subway vandal/artist.

Christian Bale on Aesthetics

He proposes a Bottom-like analogy between stage construction and acting... note his continued emphasis on "professionalism." But his tone and his language suggest that he believes himself superior to this "hard-handed m[a]n... which never labored in [his]mind"(MSND 5.1.72-73).



Bonus: dada-esque techno remix of Bale's profanity-laced tirade

Class #12 postgame

REMINDER: Reader 43-51 will help you make sense of Moeller's lecture tomorrow, but there will be no Nazis on the midterm. Moeller also sent this timeline to the instructor listserv. And this one.

REMINDER: Discovery Task #3 due to the Dropbox tonight. I recommend choosing images that are interesting/challenging so you can get a head start on your next essay (image analysis). In other words, don't just choose the first thing you find... peck around a little bit. But anything from Germany 1918-1933 will work for the discovery task. Example: we had this whole discussion in our instructor staff meeting today about a student who got a D on the essay last year. He chose the theme of hyperinflation and the image he selected was a 100,000 deutschmark bill from the Wikipedia article on "Weimar Republic." His analysis was like, "there was inflation, so the number on the bill is high." You might find something a bit meatier than that for your paper, and like I said, you might as well get started looking for it.

REMINDER: Watch this space for a rant on why communists reject the notion of a separate realm of aesthetic value. (As seen in "The Art Scab.")

REMINDER: Midterm Friday. (I will provide some kind of study aid on Wednesday, but you can start by going back through your lecture notes, class notes, and all the blog posts.)

STRAY THOUGHT: Today is Groundhog Day, which is a great movie if you've never seen it. But it's also another of those really old European folk holidays, as it so happens... it's halfway between the winter solstice (Dec. 22ish) and the spring equinox (March 22ish), so it means spring is coming soon. Mayday, if you recall, is the halfway point (May 1) of the spring equinox (March 22ish) and the summer solstice (June 22ish)... that's the moment of transition you see in Botticelli's painting, between the early spring and the late spring (cf. to the modern "spring break" bacchanalia). So apparently the festival calendar is divided into eighths as well as fourths... I wonder if the capitalist/corporate holidays of Super Bowl and Valentine's Day could be considered mid-winter holidays?