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School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design, York University
Department of Visual Arts and Art History
Art History and Visual Culture Summer Institute
GS/ARTH/VISA 6020; GS/VISA 6030
Summer 2016
“Slowness, Not Sedation”
Course dates: May 2 to 20, 2016
Classroom: GCFA 130
Instructors: Dan Adler, Nell Tenhaaf
Office: Dan Adler: GCFA 254, Nell Tenhaaf: GCFA 259
Office hours: by appointment.
Email:,
The 2016 Visual Arts Summer Institute will explore the critical importance of slowness in modern and contemporary visual culture. Art history and criticism has a long and well-considered commitment to theorizing how art relates to slower forms of perceptual experience, including those that are semi-conscious or associated with altered states. Speed is an obvious facet of contemporary society, whereas slowness has often been dismissed as conservative and antimodern. We will explore slowness as a critical medium and a means to intensify our temporal and spatial experiences, in relation to today’s “spectator on the move.” Slowness helps us to register the multiple layers of time, history, and motion that constitute our present.
We will investigate alternative ways of dealing with art interpretation around the material conditions of art’s production and reception. Some examples include the diverse roles of decelerated and altered states of consciousness in abstract works by Anne Truitt and Roni Horn, or in photographic, film, and video works by Moyra Davey, Jin-Me Yoon, Adrian Piper, Lee Lozano, Michael Snow, and Rodney Graham; the distinctive temporalities expressed in the multimedia installations of David Rokeby and Janet Cardiff/George Bures Miller; the meditative slowness required for appreciating the video or film installations of Chantal Ackerman, Tacita Dean, Douglas Gordon, Renée Green, Willie Doherty, Brian Jungen, and Duane Linklater; digital media strategies by Cory Arcangel or MorehshinAllahyari that propose glitch and failure as antidotes to the hyper-acceleration and information overload of the internet; diverse approaches to durational performance of Tehching Hsieh, Kelly Mark, and Marina Abramović; or institutional strategies of slowness expressed in repeated viewing of long-term exhibitions, as in the case of the Dia Art Foundation. And we will consider specific compositional strategies, such as assemblage, collage, and montage works that incorporate tainted materials—often things literally left on the side of the road according to the logic of the capitalist machine—combining them in ways that allow each element to retain a degree of empirical specificity.
The Institute will develop aesthetic models through which slowness, sleep and even boredom may be interpreted in modern and contemporary art. We will theorize based on case studies of artistic projects that manage to critically carve out spaces—or strive to stake a claim—within hegemonic environments of acceleration. Focusing on specific works will allow us to reflect on how artists create singular or alternate temporalities and durations which—partly due to their slowness—are resistant to the systems and economies of control that depend on accelerated speeds of processing.
EVALUATION:
Presentation of Research Project to the Class: 25%
Presentation of Critique of Reading to the Class: 10%
Participation: 25%
Research Paper: 10 to 12 pages, due June 6.No late papers will be accepted: 40%
The last date to add the course with permission of the instructors is May 12. The last date to drop this course without receiving a grade is May 26.
REQUIRED READINGS: Available on the Moodle site.
PARTICIPATION:
In order to receive a good participation grade, one must regularly and actively contribute to classroom discussion and demonstrate knowledge of assigned readings. Of course, in order to participate effectively and well, one needs to attend class and avoid distracting fellow students (e.g., texting, arriving late, leaving the classroom during lectures, etc.).
RESEARCH PAPER:
Late papers will not be accepted. Length: 10-12 pages (excluding bibliography and images), typewritten and double-spaced in 12 point font. We will not accept papers via email. Please keep a copy of your paper and hand in the original on or before June 6. A note on internet sources: Only legitimate academic internet journals are allowed as possible sources. Wikipedia, to name but one example, is not a legitimate research tool or academic source and should not form part of your research or bibliographical material. In addition to JStor, we strongly suggest that you use art-related research databases: these include the Art Index, International Bibliography of Art (IBA), and the Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA), all accessible at the York Library, to locate scholarly articles relevant to your topic (Note: “Jstor” is NOT the name of a journal). Secondary source material must be properly cited with quotation marks and footnotes (please follow either MLA or Chicago Manual of Style). Failure to credit any source in your paper is plagiarism, which is a serious offence. Please remember to proofread your paper, checking grammar, syntax, spelling, and punctuation. NOTE:In your research paper, you are expected to make explicit reference to the concepts, artworks, and issues discussed in class.
SPECIAL NEEDS
Students with disabilities, particular religious beliefs, or others who might need some modifications to be made to the course schedule or requirements should see us during office hours, as soon as possible, to make arrangements.
COURSE SCHEDULE (subject to change):
WEEK ONE:
Monday May 2:
10 am to 1 pm – Introductory Lecture: Dan and Nell
6 to 7:30 pm - Lynne Cooke public talk at AGO
Tuesday May 3:
10 am to 12 pm – Lynne Cooke seminar followed by lunch on site
Readings:
Selection from Lynne Cooke, Rosemarie Trockel: A Cosmos (New York and Madrid: New Museum and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, 2012).
Lynne Cooke, “Reworked: On Rosemarie Trockel’sUntitled,”Artforum (September 2012).
Wednesday May 4:
10am to 1pm –Dan Adler lecture and discussion of assigned readings:
Anne Fuchs, “Defending Lateness: Deliberations on Acceleration, Attention, and Lateness 1900 – 2000,” Special Issue: Lateness, ed. Karen Leeder,New German Critique 42, no. 2 (August 2015).
Sven Lütticken, “Liberation through Laziness. Some Chronopolitical Remarks,” Mousse 42 (February 2014).
Moyra Davey public talk at AGO, 6 to 7:30 pm
Thursday May 5:
10am to 12 pm –MoyraDavey seminar followed by lunch on site
Readings:
Moyra Davey, The Problem of Reading, ed. Miwon Kwon(New York: Documents Books, 2003) and two videos, Notes On Blue, 2015, 28 min. and Fifty Minutes, 2006, 50 min.
1:30 to 3:30 pm –Discussion of assigned readings:
Selection from Wendy Chun, Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (forthcoming, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2016), 1-65.
Jennifer Higgie, “A Theory of Relativity,” Frieze 92 (June-August 2005).
WEEK TWO:
Monday May 9:
10 to 11:30 am – NellTenhaaf’s lecture
1:30 to 3:30 pm – Discussion of Assigned Readings:
Jonathan Crary, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep (London: Verso, 2013), Chapter 2.
Selection from Catherine Elwes, Installation and the Moving Image (London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2015), Introduction and Chapter 12.
Tuesday May 10:
10 am to 12 pm – Lecture by artist David Rokeby
Assignment: View videos at
1:30 to 3:30 pm:
Discussion of Patrick Bernatchez’s work Lost in Time (2014), on view at the Power Plant:
Reading:
Lutz Koepnick, On Slowness: Toward an Aesthetic of the Contemporary (New York: Columbia University Press, 2014), Introduction and Chapter 7.
Wednesday May 11:
Wendy Chun’s public lecture at TIFF: 1 to 2:30 pm, followed by lunch
NOTE: students should not reserve their own tickets for this event.
Thursday May 12:
10 am to 12 pm - Chun seminar followed by lunch on site
Reading:
Selection from Wendy Chun, Updating to Remain the Same: Habitual New Media (forthcoming, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2016), 125-95.
1:30 to 3:30 pm – Lecture and discussion of assigned reading:
Boris Groys, “Comrades of Time,” e-flux journal #11 (December 2009):
Anthony Huberman, “Pay Attention,” Frieze (6 June, 2015).
WEEK THREE:
Tuesday May 17 to Friday May 20:
10 am to 12 pm and 1 to 3 pm: student presentations of paper topics
A Selection of Relevant Artists and Sources:
Moyra Davey, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, AlighieroBoetti, Ann Hamilton, Zoe Leonard, Agnes Martin, Blinky Palermo, David Rokeby.
Josiah McElheny’s glass works. See essays by Dave Hickey and Helen Molesworth in Josiah McElheny: A Prism (New York: Skira Rizzoli, 2010).
Lee Lozano’s abstract paintings and her “grass” and “drop out” pieces. See Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer, Lee Lozano:Dropout Piece (London: Afterall Books, 2014).
Tacita Dean’s filmic works. See the catalogue for Tacita Dean: Film (London: Tate Publishing) and James Hellings, “Anti-Conclusion: The Russian Ending,” in Hellings, Adorno and Art: Aesthetic Theory Contra Critical Theory (Pallgrave Macmillan, 2014), 144-52.
Tchching Hsieh’s performance works. See texts by Adrian Heathfield and others inOut of Now: The Lifeworks of Tehching Hsieh (Cambridge, Mass. and London: MIT Press and Live Art Development Agency, 2015).
Rosemarie Trockel’s works in multiple mediums. See Christine Ross, "Vision and Insufficiency at the Turn of the Millennium: Rosemarie Trockel’s Distracted Eye," October 96 (Spring 2002): 87-110.
Roni Horn’s abstract sculptures and photographs of water. See Julia Ault’s essay in Roni Horn : everything was sleeping as if the universe were a mistake (Barcelona and Madrid: Fundació Joan Miró and "La Caixa" Foundation, in collaboration with Turner Libros, 2014), and BrionyFer, “Complete with Missing Parts,” in Roni Horn aka Roni Horn (New York and Göttingen: Whitney Museum and Steidl, 2009).
Francis Alÿs’s filmic works and paintings, but see especially the catalogue for Fabiola: An Investigation (New York: Dia Foundation, 2008), with contributions by Lynne Cooke and others.
Kelly Mark’s works in multiple mediums. SeeDan Adler, “Kelly Mark Marks Time,” in Kelly Mark: Everything is Interesting (Toronto: Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, 2015).
SOMESUPPLEMENTAL READINGS:
Jonathan Beller, The Cinematic Mode of Production: Attention Economy and the Society of the Spectacle (Hanover, New Hampshire: Dartmouth College Press, 2006)
Franco Berardi (Bifo), “Time, Acceleration and Violence,” e-flux journal #27 (September 2011):
Wendy Chun, “The Enduring Ephemeral, or the Future Is a Memory,” Critical Inquiry 35 (Autumn 2008).
Moyra Davey, Fifty Minutes (2006), published as a personal essay in the artist’s book Long Life Cool White: Photographs and Essays by Moyra Davey (2008); “The Wet and the Dry” formed the basis of the narration of Les Goddesses (2011) (available online).
Videos: My Saints (2014) 31:00 Les Goddesses (2011) 61:00
Jonathan Crary, Suspensions of Perception: Attention Spectacle, and Modern Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1999).
Michael Fried, Why Photography Matters as Art as Never Before (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).
HervéGuibert, Ghost Image, trans. Robert Bononno (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
Julian Jason Haladyn, Boredom and Art: Passions of the Will to Boredom (New York and London: Zero Books, 2015).
N. Katherine Hayles, “Hyper and Deep Attention: The Generational Divide in Cognitive Modes,” Profession(2007): 187-199.
Josiah McElheny, et al, The Light Club: OnPaul Scheerbart's "The Light Club of Batavia" (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010).
Christine Ross, The Aesthetics of Disengagement: Contemporary Art and Depression(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2005).
Paul Virilio, “The Visual Crash,” inCTRL [SPACE] TheRhetorics of Power in the Age of Surveillance (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002).
John Welchman and Margaret Iversen’s essays in Anna Dezeuze and Julia Kelly, eds., Found Sculpture and Photography from Surrealism to Contemporary Art (London: Ashgate, 2013).