MA Film Curating
A. Studies in the Culture and Exhibition of the Moving Image
the multidisciplinary study of the moving image, with particular emphasis on mediation and curation in both cinema and gallery contexts. Courses for the 2012 -2013 session are:
Psycho: A Case Study
Course convened by Professor Laura Mulvey
This first section of the course is designed to acquaint all students equally with some basic critical concepts and research skills. The six sessions are divided into three of two, all using Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho as a case study.
- 1. Research exercises. Students will be expected to use the British Film Institute library to access relevant materials, both original sources and later commentaries, on the unusual aspects of Psycho’s production, distribution and exhibition and ways in which the film pioneered new trends in the industry.
- 2. Textual analysis. Psycho will be used to revise and extend students’ awareness of the aesthetics of image and sound, as well as narrative structure, the codes of action and investigation. Students will be expected to analyse short sequences of the film in class.
- 3. Psycho in the gallery. Students will research the film’s legacy culminating with the significance of Douglas Gordon’s 24 Hour Psycho as an early example of, gallery located, installation art, using interviews, reviews and other documentation.
Artists’ Film Practice
(Convener tbc)
Moving images have been central to the development of the visual arts since the very beginnings of cinema. This module introduces issues in the history and theory of artists’ film practice, and focusses in detail on key works, artists and themes. Course content will include a broad chronological introduction to 20th century artists’ moving image practice coupled with a more concentrated focus on post-war and contemporary work, and with specific attention being paid to issues of curation and installation. Artists’ moving image work will be approached from a wide perspective that seeks to marry social and political readings with the close formal analysis of specific film texts, and the course will move across categories and boundaries to connect the gallery and installation space with the cinema.
Curating Theory and Practice
Convened by Andrew Brighton and Teresa Gleadowe (tbc)
Curating is a term that has emerged out of the art world into wider usage. With particular attention to the increasing presence of the moving image in art galleries and museums, this seminar course considers curatorial theory and practice in the contemporary art world. The course will feature seminars with practitioners, including artists and critics, but in particular curators. Through discussion with curators working in museums of modern art, in publicly funded temporary exhibition venues and in commercial galleries, the differing contexts of art world curatorship will be explored.
The course displays and questions the ideas, assumptions and political economy of art world curatorship. Amongst the questions raised by the course are: How does the economy of art work? What are the values that underpin public sector support for art? Who are the audiences for art? What are the considerations that come into play in selecting work for exhibition or purchase? What factors are in play in the differing ways art is displayed?
Production, Distribution and Exhibition
Course convened by Nick Roddick
The course introduces students to the history of the film industry and its contemporary structure, particularly the changes it is currently undergoing, as seen from the point of view of film as product.? Topics covered include: the development of ‘Hollywood’ as a distribution mechanism over the past century; the ways in which outside factors – technological, economic, social – have changed Hollywood’s distribution strategies; the subsequent emergence of a less obviously commercial sector, often referred to as ‘arthouse’; the history and practice of distribution outside what Hollywood calls the ‘domestic’ market (ie. North America); the role of film festivals as cultural events, commercial shopwindows, tourist magnets and networking opportunities; and, finally, the effect of the internet on the whole process of film distribution.
Working Titles: Non-theatrical film and the use value of cinema
Course convened by Dr. Lee Grieveson and Dr. Francis Gooding
This module seeks to explore non-theatrical modes of film production and distribution, and to critically examine how such film should be mediated to new audiences. Ever since cinema began, there have been varied uses made of film material: its very invention was connected to new logics of capital picturing ever more precisely the movements of the laboring body to better extract surplus value. Colonial states made use of film as a crucial component of imperial governance; the use of film in wartime produced what Friedrich Kittler has described as a “historically perfect collusion of world wars, reconnaissance squadrons, and cinematography”; and corporations made use of film to better establish new forms of corporate and monopoly capital. Vast amounts of these films were produced, and widely circulated in non-theatrical venues like factories, schools, chambers of commerce, prisons, and so on. Much of this material continues to exist in state and corporate archives but is rarely seen and rarely discussed. The course seeks to examine key developments in this other history of cinema, and to begin to develop methods that will enable students to innovate the new practices that are clearly needed to show and mediate such material, and to better facilitate the account of how film has been put to work in order to instruct people, sell products, and make or remake citizens.
B. Research Methods
At the beginning of the programme students are introduced to methods of pursuing and presenting research across the humanities and social sciences, using practical exercises to build confidence and expertise. Film presents the researcher with a unique set of critical and applied challenges, and MA Film Curating students are provided with focused sessions on film research, which will familiarize them with the wide set of possible routes into researching both film history and individual films. In the Spring Term students prepare, present and debate their individual research topics at weekly workshops. These workshops are a key element, serving to instruct and help students define their final projects or dissertation topics.
C. Final Curated Project or Dissertation.
MA students have a choice to either curate and present a film programme or event, or to write a dissertation of 12,000 words. The chosen option must be completed by 30 September in the academic year of their degree programme.
Additional course elements
In addition to the coursework strands, students attend two other additional elements. Attendance is compulsory, but these elements are not assessed directly.
Screenings
Students attend a weekly screening of up to 3 hours which takes place before the course seminar. Screenings will be programmed with relation to the content of the compulsory course, and where possible with reference to guests and short courses.
Side Programme
The side programme will welcome guest lecturers and industry professionals, and provides short, non-assessed courses on a wide diversity of subjects. These courses, guests and class visits deepen and compliment the studies undertaken in the courses, provide students with a wide variety of research areas, and introduce them to new fields. The festival visit will be preceded by a side programme course on the history and structure of film festivals. Confirmed lecturers on this part of the programme include Professor Colin MacCabe.
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