Moving Images. Past and Present

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Moving Images Past & Present is a course that aims to decipher Berlin’s cultural landscape through a diverse lens. This interdisciplinary course examines how people of color and queer communities shape Berlin’s creative fields. We will focus on artistic works that draw on sociopolitical shifts such as Die Wende, the 90s pogroms in Rostock-Lichtenhagen, the Vietnamese contract workers in the GDR, and contemporary queer Berlin. This course contemplates how can historical memory be reimagined both outside and within German Institutions? How can artists of color and queer voices transform the past and future? How has Berlin fostered a multitude of artistic voices that is unique to the city’s ever evolving social fabric? The course will observe cinematic works, visual art, and texts that address Germany’s dynamic history and develop critical thinking. Students will reflect on creative strategies that engage with postwar legacies, diasporic history, sexual freedom, and visions for social equity.

COURSE OBJECTIVES AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

This course provides students with a comprehensive overview of Berlin’s diverse cultural landscape. The objective of this course is to help students understand different artistic positions that offer new perspectives on German history and contemporary Berlin. It aims to develop critical thinking and awareness on issues that concern race, gender, queer discourse, and class. This is an interdisciplinary course that will discuss various aspects of Berlin’s culture sector while drawing on historical movements.

This is a research driven course that fosters student curiosity, collaboration, and independent thinking. At the end of the course students will have obtained vigorous research capabilities. Additionally, students will have had the chance to discover new modes of artistic thinking. This will enable students to:

ACADEMIC SKILLS

• Implement new research strategies
• Organize ideas and research that unveil new modes of interpretation
• Decipher academic texts and theory driven content
• Interpret creative works within political contexts that will be applied to the final project
• Understand diverse perspectives and experiences
• Analyze artistic works within a historical frame
• Apply independent research skills in the final project

KNOWLEDGE

• Develop a deeper understanding for cultural production and contemporary issues
• Learn about Berlin’s project spaces and cultural sites that are off the beaten path
• Contextualize theoretical texts and cinematic work
• Site relevant artists and creative works that relate to political movements in German history
• Critique creative subject matter
• Provide a critical analysis on Berlin’s artistic life
• Understand the city’s topography in relation to different communities
• Apply thoughtful and sensitive interpretation when discussing themes of diversity

TRANSFERABLE SKILLS

• Reflect analytically on German history and the role of institutions
• Examine cultural movements alongside political transitions
• Analyze works of art in acute detail
• Understand different positions through intercultural collaboration
• Communicate clearly and concisely on key concepts both orally and in writing
• Conduct independent research in an academic setting
• Learn resourceful methods in gathering information

READINGS, FILMS LIST (in class films + recommendations)

FILMS

1 - Angelika Nguyen Bruderland ist abgebrannt (1991) German/Engl.subs

2 - Hito Steyerl Die Leere Mitte (1998) German/Engl.subs

3 - Helke Sander Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit - Redupers (1977) German/Engl.subs

4 - Philipp Fuessenegger, Judy Landkammer, Teaches of Peaches (2024) English

5 - Fatih Akin, Gegen die Wand (2004) German/Engl.subs

6 - Wanjiru Kinyanjui, A Lover and & Killer of Colour (1988) English

READINGS

1 - Park, Cathy Hong.(2020) “Minor Feelings”, Public Profile Books LTD, Portrait of an Artist, pages 151-180.

2 - Lotringer, Sylvère.(1982 /2009) “The German Issue”, SEMIOTEXT(E), Co-Published with Sternberg Press, Volker Schlöndorff Burying the Past, pages ix-xx, Lesbian Brigades, pages 45-50, Little Ankara, pages 38-40

3 - Lang, Olivia.(2020) “Funny Weather”, Picador, Close to the Knives, pages 71-77.

4 - hooks, bell.(1995) “Art on My Mind: Visual Politics”, The New Press, Talking Art as The Spirit Moves Us, pages 101-107

5 - Jeppesen, Travis.(2019) “Bad Writing”, Sternberg Press, Fail Better, pages 15-28

6 - Bombelli, Ilaria.(2019) “*T”, Mousse Publishing, Letter from a Trans Man to the Old Sexual Order, Paul B. Precadio, pages 62-64, Radical, Painful, Banal. The Role of Desire in the Thing We Call Gender, pages 108-114, Salvatore Vitale, Who “We Are.” Photography as a Political Tool, pages 98-107

7 - Jeppesen, Travis.(2008) “Art on the Margins of the Contemporary”, Social Disease, Sleepwalking in Berlin, pages 136-143, Eastern Alliance at Lichtturm Oberbaum City Berlin, pages 290-295

8 - Stüttgen, Tim.(2009) “Post Porn Politics queer-feminist perspective on the politics of porn performance and sex work as culture production”, B_books, The Body Functions as a Hard Drive, Shu Lea Cheaung, pages 240-257

9 - Wagner, Frank.(2014) “Love Aids Riot Sex”, ngbk, pages 11-12, pages 19-22

10 - F, Christiane.(1978) “Zoo Station, A Memoir, The Story of Christiane F.”, Zest Books, pages 1-27.

11 - Demos, TJ.(2010) “Hito Steyerl n.b.k”, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Traveling Images, pages 31-36

ASSIGNMENT INFO

Workload and assignments

• actively attend all sessions (a minimum of 75% attendance is required for classroom and online sessions)
• prepare and revise all sessions
• hand in the following assignments
  • Various written assignments, excursions, and presentations. These are given throughout the course that will support the student's independent research skills. This will encourage students to interact with Berlin both past and present.
  • the final project

There will be on site visits to different exhibitions and spaces that are relevant to the course. Guest lecturers will provide students with inspiration and an in-depth view into their working practices. This supports the student’s decision making skills in regards to their final projects. This includes implementing ideas and developing research methods that apply to their final project.

ASSIGNMENTS

There will be mandatory readings and films that are given for homework. Students should be prepared to discuss the films and readings in class. In class presentations and independent excursions are assignments that are meant to further a student’s curiosity while strengthening their collaborative skills.

FINAL PROJECT

The final project culminates several weeks of in-depth research, analysis, and reviews of various works of art that examine Berlin’s visual culture through artists, musicians, writers, and filmmakers. The final project will take the form of a research work that discusses an independently selected project, film, performance, artwork, or exhibition that engages with German history and personal narratives. Students are expected to develop their project throughout the course. There will be in class opportunities to develop the final project and get critical feedback. The project can be 1 of the following

• OPTION 1 - a 40 minute slide presentation (or 2 smaller 20 min) of an artistic work that includes visuals, documentation, quotes, audio, and citations. This project should address questions such as what is the social relevance of this project? Why is this important? How is this work transformative? How is it placed or not placed in history and why? There will be a 10 min Q&A
• OPTION 2- A written paper (25,000 characters including spaces) to be handed in at the end of the course that discusses a selected artistic work. Must include a bibliography and citations. Must include supporting images, visuals, audio, and further documentation.
• OPTION 3 - A portfolio of several artistic works (video, images, audio, texts) that relates to a specific period in German history. How is this period of history related and exemplified in the artistic work? Citations, bibliography is mandatory.

Students are encouraged to keep a personal journal that reflects their thoughts, experiences, and ideas about the homework, texts, exhibitions, and films that will be discussed in class.

Failure to fulfill one of the mentioned components results in failure of the class.

Assessment Components

The final grade will be composed of the following

Class participation 20% Homework and Assignment Presentations 30% Final project 50% Failure to fulfill any of the stated components will not pass this class.

YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Christa Joo Hyun D’Angelo is a Berlin-based American artist who was born in Busan, South Korea. A graduate of The Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow Poland, she has exhibited at Kunstverein Braunschweig, The Palace of Culture Warsaw, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Villa Merkel, The Goethe-Institut, Swivel Gallery in NYC, and Hua International. Her first monograph, Fatal Attraction, was published by Mousse Publishing in 2023. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Art in America, Elephant, and is included in The Federal Collection of Contemporary Art Germany. D’Angelo has designed sets for Fever Ray, King Kong Magazine, and for director Wang Ping-Hsiang’s theater piece, Ghosts of the Landwehr Canal which premiered at Berliner Ringtheater in March 2023. Her visual work and research addresses themes such as HIV for women of color, domestic abuse in interracial relationships, racism in Germany, and demystifying cultural mythologies within the institution of the heteropatriarchal family. She has lectured at Muthesius University of Fine Art and Design, Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, and New Academy of Fine Arts Milan.