3/10 "The Vestige of Art II:" Interior and Exterior

Consider the images by Francesca Woodman on this week's image presentation in relation to Margaret Sundell's brilliant essay "Vanishing Points:The Photography of Francesca Woodman."

Why does Sundell refer to Woodman's quest for self-knowledge via the genre of self-portraiture as self-mutilation. Please attempt to paraphrase the following statement by curator Matthew Teitelbaum which Sundell cites, and explain what it means in relation to the images:

"It is as if, by making herself a subject to be looked at, she makes herself dissapear."

Please rehearse the cornerstone of Sundell's argument; what is Lacan's "mirror stage" and what has it to do with the photographic self-portraiture?

2/24 "The Vestige of Art" I

Compare Richard Avedon's "Marian Anderson" (1955) on the left to Ana Mendieta "Silueta" (1970s, above right) and Ed Ruscha's "Royal Road Test" (1967, above left). ENGAGE Mansoor's essay on Ruscha and Kwon's text on Mendieta. Define and discuss the importance of the concepts of "horizontality" and "contingency." Consider the relationship between these concepts and the index.

2/10: The Singular Punture, the Wound (The Punctum) and Barthes "Camera Lucida"

Define the "Studium" in your own language. Describe (it defies definition) the "Punctum."

2/3 "Mensuration en abyme"

The images posted here register Marcel Duchamp's movement from figuration, via abstraction, to indexical strategies. While Surrealism managed to find new tactics through which to present the body, corporeality, and "the real," Duchamp, according to David Joselit, struggled and agonized over the loss of the body to vision in representation. Joselit argues that, like Picasso (recall our discussion of "Girl with a Mandolin") Duchamp was preoccupied with the loss of the body to vision. (p.21). How does "3 Standard Stoppages" speak to this problem set. Consider--paraphrase and discuss the importance of-- Joselit's claim on page 29 that

"For if the meter, as a conventional standard of measurement, is the negation of carnality, the 3 Standard Stoppages endow it precisely with the qualities of a body and even a will. By allowing gravity to pull the length of string that represents a meter into a gentle curve, Duchamp invested it with weight and mass--he embodied it. Moreover, Duchamp anthropomorphozised the string, furnishing it with a kind of volition by stipulating that it will 'distort itself as it pleases.' "

Beyond paraphrasing and explicating this passage, if you can, discuss how it relates to Surrealism and "nature convulsing as writing."