080032 PS Case Study II/III: Joan Jonas and the Beginnings of Video Art (2024S)

Joan Jonas (*1936, NYC) is one of the pioneers of video art and is still considered its most important representative today. This course focuses on Jonas' early, largely little-researched video works, which were characterized by film and often created as so-called video performances in the private spaces of her loft or the studios of artist friends, among other places. Jonas' approach to the new medium enables an experimental and at the same time revealing investigation of the nexus between video camera, video screen, signal, image, and body. Based on Jonas' works, we will examine other video works from the vibrant environment of (especially) the New York art scene of the 1960s and 1970s (including Kubota, Nauman, Serra, etc.), in which experimentation with the new technology enters into a decided relationship with the body and explores the boundaries to other art forms. We will discuss how video art has (historically) established itself on the margins of dance, performance or happenings, for example, and to what extent it has been able to position itself critically in relation to film, but also in relation to TV. We thus examine the medium of video both in terms of its "narcissistic" impetus and question both its utopian and reflexive potential.

The course focuses on the joint viewing of video works and their precise description and analysis. Methodologically, the description of moving images and the actions that take place may pose some challenges. In plenary sessions and through selected compulsory readings, we will jointly develop a vocabulary for describing (film and) video works and test ways of dealing with them. Close reading of art historical texts will convey basic concepts and arguments that can also support us in this process. Through short presentations and in the written seminar paper, we will further deepen and refine the skills acquired during the semester. In addition, basic working techniques in the research process are consolidated (literature research, citation rules, etc.). It will be a lecture-intensive course. As the majority of the texts are only available in English, a very good (passive) knowledge of English is essential for successful participation, or the motivation to acquire this with additional effort.