Intermediate Video: Genuine Fakes, or the Question of the Document

Course Description

Summary

Intermediate Video builds on the concepts and technical skills introduced in Intro to Video, and has a different theme each term. This semester of Intermediate Video will be focused on the following thematic, conceptual and formal questions. What are the truth claims made by different genres and forms of film and video? How have artists sought to produce alternative forms of knowledge through work with embodied, indigenous, oral, and fictionalized modes of transmission? How has this work been complicated by the recent politicization of terms like “alternative facts” and “fake news,” and the even more recent emergence of AI-generated videos that are genuinely difficult to distinguish from human-generated material? Can AI-generated material be used with craft and intention in creative practices? And how has the status of the document been placed into question even within the art context by debates around who has the authority to address particular issues and histories? Our readings, screenings, and discussions will turn around these questions. Students will be expected to produce two short projects within constraints assigned by the instructor, and one final project of their own design; these projects may be discrete, or form parts of a series. Students will also work in groups to complete several in-class technical exercises.