UTNS 5143 Critical Studio
Selena Kimball & Pascal Glissmann
Wednesday 9:55am – 11:45am
Academic Entrance 63 Fifth Ave
Room: 200
Finals: 7 Minutes x 7 Pages (not a grid)
7 Minutes: Presentation in Class (Dec 4):
Each student will have seven minutes to present their final recordings to the class. Feel free to choose the format that best fits your project—whether that’s a projected slideshow, printed visuals, a performance, or any other method that conveys your work effectively.
7 Pages: Contribution to the Class Publication (Due Dec 4)
Each student will contribute seven pages to the class publication. This will be a printed and bound collection that ideally exists in two forms: (1) A physical book for the New School Archive; (2) A digital format as an online publication (scanned pages). Letter size, 11 x 8.5 inches, double-sided printing. Considerations: Think about the type of paper, arrangement, and the image-to-page ratio as you create your pages.
One page of this is a written introduction to your recordings, include citations from class readings/ your research and methodologies of the class. For next week:
FInalize your instruction and bring 3 visual recordings.
Week 10
We’re shifting from the workshop model to a focus on your individual research inquiries and the “Experimental Apparatus of Recording” you’ll be developing in the coming weeks. To start this process, we’ve prepared a set of questions—find the PDF version on Canvas and in our shared Google Drive (“Recording-Questions.pdf”).
For November 6th:
- Respond to the questions in Section I—add one slide for each question to your Google Research Document.
- Brainstorm the questions in Section II—add at least three possible approaches to consider moving forward in your Google Slides.
Also, we thought it would be nice to bring some comfort food to kick off the day after the election.
Recording Instructions for week 9:
Apparatuses of sensing the Earth as an ever-changing archive of human-altered planetary dynamics
— 1 —
Read Planetary Diagrams: Towards an Autographic Theory of Climate Emergency (Photography Off the Scale) by Lukáš Likavčan and Paul Heinicker
— 2 —
In the context of your research inquiry, how is the earth’s surface recording human behavior related to your research inquiry and depicting “human-altered planetary dynamics?” For example, where is your working object produced (industries), how is it transported (infrastructures), what kind of energy is needed, or is nature/ geography impacted in general?
— 3 —
Use Google Earth (or any other satellite imagery archive) to capture 5 recordings (screenshots)
— 4 —
Print and crop five recordings (7×7 inches) and bring them to class. Or send via email before Oct 27th so we will print them for you.
Reading
Photography Off the Scale: Planetary Diagrams: Towards an Autographic Theory of Climate Emergency, Lukáš Likavčan and Paul Heinicker
References
The One Hundred Circle Farm, Emmet Gowin
PACE Gallery:
Necessary Lines, Marco Cadioli
Square with concentric circles, Marco Cadioli
A Simulacrum of our Constructed Home, Seher Anand
MIDTERMS
Thank you all for sharing your archives in their current state. This has provided valuable insights, and we are excited to see the breadth of research and creative explorations so far. Moving forward, we would like you all to push a more experimental approach to researching your object through “radical forms of recording.”
Prepare for next week/ Instruments for recording
— 1 Bring in an instrument for recording (not cell phone)
— 2 Bring in your physical object
Workshop #6: Anthotype
Making the Anthotype photogram—questions to consider during the process:
— 1 —
List four physical objects related to the substance of your emulsion, particularly those that are interesting in terms of your research. Can any of these be placed on your emulsion for the period of time it will take to make the anthotype photogram?
— 2 —
What type of arrangement/ composition might heighten or create interesting questions?
— 3 —
How does the idea of “exposure” relate to your research?
— 4 —
Siting the exposure: Given that anthotypes need sun to make an image and require from a few hours to several days to expose, is there a place you might leave your anthotype which is interesting for your research (ie taped in the window of the American Museum of Natural History, etc.)
— 5 —
How can you document the process of taking the exposure?
— 6 —
For next week, upload images of your emulsion sheet and your anthotype setup to your Google Slide Research Document.
For next week:
Midterms:
We will meet with you individually to discuss your experience looking at your “research object” and review how you’ve been recording it throughout the semester, both through in-class workshops and experiments at home.
Looking ahead, the goal is for you to develop your own methodology of recording.
- Sign up for a time slot to meet individually on Oct 14 OR Oct 16 in this spreadsheet.
- Update your Google Slides Research Document with the research you did this semester so far this semester. This includes:
-Recordings: The Clementine
–Quotes from Anna Tsing’s “The Mushroom at the End of the World”
–Recordings: History of Recording, from Smithsonian, National Archives, NYPL
–Instruction for creating the Typology
–Recordings: Typology, 24 Images & Gif
–Cognitive Map on research object
–Instruction for making recordings of your research object through the lens of time
–Quotes from any other reading you collected
Workshop #5: Time/ Frames
As a group, you used the gifs to create thematic clusters and discuss how time is used in the recordings so far: as medium and as a subject. Guiding questions: what is an appropriate time window (IE life cycle; seasons; one second; one hour; one year) to observe your working object/ investigate in your research? What are possible mediums/ methods for recording this window of time?
Prepare next week’s workshop:
Recording Nature with Nature/ Anthotypes
Create an emulsion following the steps in the instruction sheet “Preparation for Anthotype Workshop” shared in our google drive/ readings folder.
Think about the materiality of your research object to decide what your emulsion will consist of.
Readings
(1) Enfield, Jill. Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes : Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.
(2) Hennessy, Kate, and Trudi Lynn Smith. (2018). Fugitives: Anarchival Materiality in Archives.
Week 5: Typology Workshops
A typology is the study of or analysis or classification based on types or categories. This week you created several different typologies and approaches to categorizing your research records.
Workshop #3: Differences within Similarity
Beginning with a 5 x 5 grid of similar images (derived from students’ typology instruction), identify differences between these images (you will have lists of differences generated by the group). Choose one of these differences as a sequencing logic to make a physical stack out of your postcard-sized images.
Workshop #4: Collective Cognitive Map
A peer will select an image out of your stack that best represents nature (from their perspective)—this image will become the center of a cognitive map. To expand the reading of this image, your peers will respond to a series of prompts to add thoughts & connections to your map.
Please document the in-class workshops by uploading images to your google slide research document.
Recording Instructions for week 6: Time/ Frames
(1) 25 Frames
Use your 25 typology images to create a digital loop (we will use animated gifs for this). Think about the characteristics of your research object/ research inquiry to identify an appropriate timing for the frames. For example, you can create a “flashy animation” showing all frames with “no delay.” You can also display frames using different durations to focus on specific content. Don’t hesitate to experiment.
Please bring your laptop to class and upload your animated gif to your research document.
References
(1) How to make an animated GIF in Photoshop (Tutorial)
Readings
(1) Demos, T. J. (2017). Against the anthropocene: Visual culture and environment Today. Sternberg Press. Introduction.
This week, we clarified your working object(s) by recategorizing its historical records:
Workshop #1: How Mediated is the Historical Record?
Printed records of your research object are arranged in a sequence from least mediated to most mediated. Image caption indicate how you decided degree of mediation.
Workshop #2: What is a Radical?
Two peers sequence the images of your working object from traditional to radical. Note their reasonings and why certain historical records are deemed more “radical” than others.
Please document the in-class workshop by uploading the images you took of the sequences in class to your research document
Recording Instructions for week 3: Typologies as Form-finding
1 — Write an instruction to create a typology (or system of classification) for your research object.
2 — Enact the instruction, creating a grouping of records with shared attributes.
3 — Print & crop 24 records in postcard-size (4*6 inch)
Readings & References
(2) Bernd & Hilla Becher
Tate Modern: Who are Bernd and Hilla Becher?
SF MOMA: Interview with Hilla Becher
MET: Virtual Opening
(3) Penelope Umbrico
Solar Eclipses
(4) herman de vries
from earth: everywhere
Reading the Archive Through “Nature.”
Links for the in-class workshop:
1. Smithsonian Institution Archives
2. New York Public Library Digital Collection keyword search
3. US National Archives and Records
Recording Instructions Week 2
Identify an initial research inquiry into a specific aspect of nature–a feature, process or product of the earth itself. We will call this your “research object” even though it might not be a literal object. Use this working object to:
Find 12 previous recordings of your research object using institutional archives. Go back in time as far as possible and think about different geographies and cultures.
Print these 12 recordings of your research object. In color, size 8.5″ x 5.5″ (that is a half-letter size which means you can fit two recordings on one page).
Readings:
(1) Daston, Lorraine (2017) Third Nature from Science in the Archives.University of Chicago Press.
(2) Batia Suter: Reading the Archive Through a Glass of Water http://observationalpractices.org/atlasoflooking/?p=278
Recording Instructions Week 1
Visual Research
Use the instructions developed in class to make three recordings of a natural object of your choice. Document your recordings for class.
Writing
Write a response to the mandatory reading: 1. Identify author (disciplinary background, contribution to field) 2. Pull out three quotes you find most interesting 3. In a short paragraph, describe how this article relates to your research inquiry. Use the first slides’s speaker notes of your Google Slides Research Document to save these.
Mandatory Reading:
Tsing, A. L. (2021). The mushroom at the end of the world: On the possibility of life in capitalist ruins. Princeton University Press. (Prologue & Arts of Noticing)
Optional Resources:
1. Demos, T. J. (2017). Against the Anthropocene: Visual culture and environment Today. Sternberg Press. (Chapter 1)
2. Tsing, Anna L., Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou. Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene, Redwood City: Stanford University Press 2021, http://doi.org/10.21627/2020fa
3. Vis, Dirk, (2022). Research for People Who Think They Would Rather Create. Onomatopee.
Recording Instructions, Session 1
Course Description
Field notes, cyanotypes, sound recording, frottage, virtual simulations—the history of observing and documenting nature through creative practice involves manifold methodologies using the senses, specialized instruments, and speculation. Most recently, human behavior–individually and as a global species–is causing radical change to natural systems. This demands an equally radical shift in the way we observe and document nature, and a rethinking of how we might circulate newfound knowledge to inform the conversation and instigate change.
This studio class is structured around a range of form-finding and form-making workshops to record the natural world (from historical analog processes such as anthotypes to evolving uses of digital algorithms). In addition, students will develop their own unique methodologies for observing and generating radical records. Applying transdisciplinary practices of observation to instigate new ways of seeing and documenting nature, we will build an archive of unconventional records.
These growing collections of individual observations will become resources for collaborative critical inquiry to respond to current socio-political issues and remake the ecological imaginary. Is a record radical when it is visually disruptive, or when it manifests an aspect of nature previously unseen or ignored? Is it radical when it introduces a new method of seeing into our visual vocabulary, or contradicts an existing idea of the natural world? Or is a record radical when it refuses existing modes of publishing and circulation? Students will use their recordings to further their individual research questions and circulate their resulting archives in a format of their choice ranging from publications on screen or paper to performances and installations.
UTNS 5143 Critical Studio
Selena Kimball & Pascal Glissmann
Wednesday 12:10-2:10pm
More information:
The New School Course Catalog
Photo by Galen Crout on Unsplash
Comments by Pascal