Note:  you may notice temporary due-date inconsistencies in the Canvas site in the  next few days as the site is updated.  Follow the dates given in this syllabus.   (Not the "Course Summary" automatically generated by Canvas )

HAA 173 / AFVS 103 STRANGER THAN FICTION

Tues. 12-12:45 via Zoom (here’s the  link)

Prof. Carrie Lambert-Beatty (“Professor Lambert” is fine)

lambert2@fas.harvard.edu

Office hours: Wednesdays 10am-1pm in Zoom. Make an appointment here

Teaching Fellow: Sophie Gilmore (AFVS)

svgilmore@g.harvard.edu

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Pre-class preparation: Before each Tuesday seminar, you are expected 

1) to have read the assigned text(s), available that week’s module in Canvas*

2) to have completed a quick, related reading exercise. Always read the instructions for these exercises first, before you embark on the week’s reading. You'll find a different prompt each week designed to make your reading process more active and/or to help orient you as you work though challenging texts (practices I hope you’ll find useful in other classes as well). You’ll find the link to the reading instructions in each week’s module, or you can see them all together in the Discussions section of Canvas. You are welcome—in fact, encouraged--to work on these reading exercises together.

instructions for collaborative work: Two or more people who worked together should indicate who the partner(s) were within the responses submitted. You can either work together and then write up your own responses, or you can turn in identical responses, but in either case be sure all responses posted include everyone’s names. For example, Joe and Stacey’s responses should each say at the bottom, “Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams worked on this exercise together.”)

Reading exercises won’t count if they are posted after class begins on Tuesday unless we have discussed the reason for the late submission. (Normally, they wouldn’t be accepted at all, but this isn’t a normal semester, so just let me know as soon as you can if you run into obstacles and we’ll agree on a reasonable deadline for late submission.)

Short writing assignments: By Friday most weeks, you’ll turn in a writing assignment, no more than 750 words, or 3 double-spaced pages, responding to a specific prompt. These assignments are about practicing the skills of art-historical thinking and writing you’ll need for the capstone project. They will graded; however, your lowest score will be dropped when your final grade is calculated. Moreover, since the point is to learn by doing, if you miss the mark on one of these assignments the first time around, you have the option to rewrite and submit it for re-grading, within two weeks of receiving initial grade and feedback. Covid-era rule: if there are special circumstances I’ll grant extensions on these assignments, but you need to reach out and let me know so that we can set a reasonable new deadline. My goal with this is to be sure no one gets into a pile-up situation where late assignments wind up interfering with your work on the capstone project, or your other courses.

Post-class follow-up and/or feedback: There is a discussion forum in Canvas for sharing thoughts and responses after class. Please use it for examples you wanted to mention but couldn’t fit in, questions you’re thinking about for next time, or to give the class a link or name related to what we discussed, etc. Additionally, at times throughout the semester I will open another discussion topic and ask everyone to leave a particular kind of post-class comment, to help me gauge how things are going from your perspectives (for example, whether we need to spend more time on a particular concept, or what questions you were left with after our discussion). No grading for these, but your willingness to participate in this way and your thoughtfulness in your comments will be considered in the “Contribution” part of the final course grade (see below).

Capstone assignment: The culminating assignment for the class asks you to apply a classic art history research question--Why this, then?—to art’s recent engagement with tactics of fact and fiction. To do this, you will produce an original interpretation of one work of contemporary art in terms of its epistemic activity and historical meaning. The assignment has two parts: a 15-minute in-class presentation (on Nov 17 or Nov 24), and an essay, due Dec. 11. More details here.

Required office hours appointments: (twice during the semester; see explanation below). Schedule a meeting here.

Contribution: A course is ultimately a collective project: it’s what happens between and among us over the next three months when art, ideas, and minds come together through this particular structure. Rather than just “participation,” I ask you to think about what you are contributing to the success of the class overall. This is important enough to me to make it part of the grade you receive for the course, but students can contribute in multiple ways. 

One thing you learn from seminar classes is how to generate and share ideas in a group conversation. But because of experience or temperament some of you are likely to be much more comfortable with this from the outset (if that’s you, remember that your contribution can also include helping others to participate, whether by asking for their opinions in your small group conversations, following up on the points they make, or being gracious about it when you don’t get called on in order to make space for someone else.)  Others may need some time before you feel ready to speak up; or talking to a group may just be tough for you. To help get everyone participating, I will "cold-call" from time to time, but typically on questions you'll have had a chance to think about first. The class is an opportunity to learn and practice in this area, so reach out to me so we can strategize about it if talking in the group is a concern.

You can also contribute by sharing your thoughts and questions with me one-on-one (in office hours, after class, or by email); by offering post-class thoughts in the forum for this on Canvas; with your thoughtfulness in responding to requests for student feedback when they arise; and with the feedback you give your classmates on presentations, which you’ll be able to do in Canvas as well as in person.

OFFICE HOURS (Sign up here)

My office hours will be in Zoom this semester, on Wednesdays 10am-1pm EST. Alternate meeting times can be arranged by email or after class.

You are always welcome to sign up for office hours. This is time set aside for you, and you don’t need a special reason: come just to say hi, to share something interesting you came across related to our class, or for a real-time view of my very cute dog. (Seriously, he's adorable.) Or, of course, come to discuss course material or assignments. For example, I can help you with any of the weekly short assignments in office hours the Wednesday before it is due. 

There are two times during the semester when you’re required to have an office hours appointment: at the beginning of the semester, as we’re getting to know one another, and later to plan your capstone project. The dates by which you must have had these meetings are listed in the schedule. Because Zoom is kind of intense, and to help you get to know your classmates as well as professor, the initial meetings will be scheduled with two students at a time. If for any reason you prefer to meet solo, however, just let me know by email. Starting in October the meeting slots you sign up for will be set up for individuals, but I’d still be happy to meet with you in pairs or small groups

GRADING

See the assignment prompts for the rubrics I’ll be using to evaluate the short writing assignments and the capstone project. The final grade for the course will be calculated as follows:

40% Short writing assignments: the average of your grades on the individual writing assignments, after dropping the lowest.

40% Capstone project: You won’t receive a grade on the presentation itself, but it will be taken into account in the final project grade: a particularly great presentation can boost the final project grade (i.e. you could be graded B+ on the paper alone, but see an A- as the final project grade). Conversely, a presentation that shows a real lack of effort and commitment can negatively impact the project grade, to the same degree.

20% Contribution: Includes completion of reading exercises, participation in seminar discussions, and other ways of contributing to the success of the class, as described above.

COURSE SCHEDULE

The overall arc of this class is chronological, as we move from the early 1960s to the present. Though it's not a survey, the story of fact and fiction in art since the 1960s is also the story of broad tendencies in the visual arts, and tracing it should build a working understanding of the big picture within which these works played out their different attitudes about knowledge, information, imagination, and art.

This schedule is an overview of all aspects of the class in one list. When you're looking for the weekly materials you need, it will be easier to  go to the Modules page each week to access the  texts and exercise together.  You'll find instructions for each writing assignment  in the  Assignments page of Canvas.

Next to each week's topic you'll see a list of  artists we're likely to discuss in that class (I can't promise we'll have time to discuss all of them, but these are artists to consider for your capstone case study if you're interested in that week's topic). Typically, the case study I'll present in class each week will be one of the artists listed.

The texts indicated under each week's topic are what we'll discuss that day in class, so read them in advance of seminar. Remember that there is also a weekly reading exercise due before each class session (see above for explanation of why we do these). Go to Modules to find the texts and exercise for each week. (You can also see a list of all the reading exercises in Discussions).

Sept. 8  Introduction: How to Trick, Report, Fabulate, or Transcend.

• Kathryn Schulz, “The Optimistic Meta-Induction from the History of Everything,” from Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
• Mark Swartz, “Snookered by the Thin White Duke,” New Art Examiner, Fall 1999

Due Friday Sept 11: Ungraded warm-up writing assignment

Sept 15. Literalism & Modernism. Lygia Clark, Robert Morris, Yvonne Rainer, Helio Oiticica

• Michael Fried, “Art and Objecthood,” 1967

Due Friday Sept 18: Crafting description

Sept. 22 Tricksterism and Undecidability. Andy Warhol, Yves Klein, Sturtevant

• Jacob Brackman, “The Put-On,” The New Yorker, 1967
• Benjamin H. D. Buchloh,  “An Interview with Andy Warhol

Sept 29. Factography & Information. Hans Haacke, Hilla and Bernd Becher, David Lamelas, The Rosario Group

• Benjamin Buchloh, “From Faktura to Factography”
• Eduardo Costa, Raúl Escari, Roberto Jacoby, “An Art of Communications Media (manifesto),” 1966

Due Friday Oct 2: Art-historical compare/contrast

Oct 6. Simulacra and Performativity. Cindy Sherman, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Sherrie Levine,

• Hal Foster, “The Expressive Fallacy,” Art in America, 1983
• Tom Crow on Frank Herron and Cheryl Bernstein

Due Friday Oct 9: Counterfactual imagination

Oct 13. Parafiction & Invisible Theater. Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Adrian Piper, Fred Wilson, Sasha Baron Cohen

• Augusto Boal, “Invisible Theatre,”
• Bôas, R. V. (2019).” Invisible Theatre.” In Routledge Companion to Theater of the Oppressed (1st ed., Vol. 1, pp. 162-167). Routledge.
• Adrian Piper, “The Mythic Being: Getting Back,” (1980)

Due Friday Oct 16 Compare/contrast 2

Oct 20. Subversive Affirmation & Identity Correction (with guest lecturer Nace Zavri)  IRWIN, Laibach, The Yes Men

• Žižek "A Letter From Afar" 1987
• Inke Arns and Sylvia Sasse “Subversive Affirmation. On Mimesis as Strategy of Resistance" 2005.
• Film-- Laibach: A Film From Slovenia, Daniel Landin, Peter Vezjak, 2004 (1hr 58 min)

Due Friday Oct 23: Historical Support

Oct 27. Archival Impulses & Critical Fabulation. Cheryl Dunye, Zoe Leonard, Walid Raad

• Saidiya Hartman, “Venus in Two Acts,” 2008
• Jalal Toufic, “Lebanese Photography Between Radical Closure and Surpassing Disaster”

Due Friday Oct 30: Theoretical Support.

Remember to schedule an office hours appointment to discuss the capstone project if you haven’t already. If not able to sign up for scheduled office hours, contact me ASAP to find a different appointment time.

Nov. 3 Material Stories and Substantive Secrets. Cameron Rowland, Jill Magid, Dario Robleto, Tavares Strachan, Matthieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, The Museum of Jurassic Technology

• Carlos Garrido Castellano, “Conceptual materialism: Installation Art and the Dismantling of Caribbean Historicism”
• Watch: Jill Magid, The Proposal

Due Friday Nov. 6: Capstone proposal form

Nov. 10. Futurism & Speculation. Wu Tsang, Simone Leigh, Kiluanji Kia Henda

• Kiluanji Kia Henda and Nadine Siegert, “Intervening into the Future Script: A Conversation about Fiction, Magic, and the Speculative Power of Images”
• Rasheedah Phillips, “Organize Your Own Temporality: Notes on Self-Determined Temporalities and Radical Futurities”

Deadline Friday Nov. 13: must have met with CLB and/or TF to discuss your capstone project. 

Nov. 17. Capstone project presentations and discussion

Nov. 24 Capstone project presentations and discussion

Dec. 1 Wrap up session 

Due Dec. 11 Capstone project essay

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* NOTE ABOUT FINDING THE READINGS. Assigned texts will be provided in Canvas as downloadable PDF files whenever possible (in Modules). Sometimes, however, you'll get a link to a scanned book in HathiTrust, and you'll have to find the right chapter. Instructions and more info here.