Office:              Honors Program (137 E 25^th Street, Suite 306)

Email:              elizabeth.bergman@baruch.cuny.edu

Office hours:     Wednesdays 2:30–3:30 pm, by appointment only

 

Irene Meisel (Technology Fellow)

Email:              imeisel@gc.cuny.edu

 

Class blog http://macaulay.cuny.edu/seminars/bergman09/

 

Seminar 1 introduces Macaulay Scholars to the arts in New York City and the Cultural Passport. During the semester, students attend theatrical, operatic, and musical performances, exhibitions of visual art, and other highlights of the current cultural season, and help to create the annual Snapshot of New York City. To enhance their appreciation of these experiences, students will investigate the social, historical, and aesthetic contexts of the cultural work being performed or exhibited. By writing about these and other examples of the visual, performing, and literary arts, students develop their analytic and communication skills.

 

The following are required and may be purchased at the Baruch bookstore.

Barthes, Camera lucida

Dostoevsky, Memoirs from the House of the Dead

Taylor, Learning to Look

 

Additional readings will be distributed in class or online. You are also required to read the Arts Section of the New York Times: skim selected stories during the week, and read the full coverage on the weekends.

 

Participation & Presentations     30%

Students are expected to attend all class meetings, on and off campus, as well as the cultural events listed on the syllabus. Only two unexcused absences will be allowed. In addition, students must use their Cultural Passports to attend at least three additional events (plays, galleries, museums, concerts, readings, etc.) during the semester.

 

Posting & commenting              30%

Students are required to post to their blogs at least twice per week and to participate in all discussions online as in class. In addition, students must write a blog post of approximately 300 words about each event they attend (required class events and individual visits).

Papers                                      40%

In addition to their less formal writing on blogs, students will author two longer papers of 5 to 7 pages each. One of these is to be revised and resubmitted as a final paper on the last day of class. Each paper will be worth 15%, the rewrite an additional 10%.

 

 

On October 11, each student in Seminar 1: The Arts in New York City is required to take a picture that speaks to the theme “My Neighborhood.” I interpret this theme quite specifically: do not take a picture of your own neighborhood—not where you grew up, not where you have lived for a considerable time, not somewhere already completely familiar. Instead, take a picture of “your” neighborhood as you would  construct or choose it, a place you imagine yourself feeling at home, where would wish to be, a place that speaks not to your past but your present and future. Your neighborhood should show the person you hope to become.

 

Every student must attend one of the following “Tech Day” sessions, held at Macaulay.

 

 

Laptops may not be used in seminar, except in support of class presentations.

 

 

 

 

 

31         West Side Story

reading: Negrón-Muntaner

 

 2         exhibit: “Napoleon III and Paris”

1:15 - Metropolitan Museum of Art (5th Avenue @ 82^nd Street)

 

 9         What is art?

tech topics 1 - blogging

 

 14        Art in New York City

tech topics 1, continued - blogging

 

 16        exhibit: John Wood, “Quiet Protest”

 

 21        photography 1

reading: Barthes, Camera lucida (Part I)

 

 23        photography 2

reading: Barthes, Camera lucida (Part II)

 

      24   6 pm - Common Event: Meet the Artist #3 @ MHC

 

 

 29        tech topic 2 - life online, netiquette, more on blogging

 

 30        visit: Mishkin Gallery

            8 pm - Fall for Dance @ City Center (130 W. 56th Street)

 

 5         presentations: group 1 - Les Biches / group 2 - Mark Morris

 

 7         dance

reading: Acocella, “Romeo, Romeo; Onward and Upward with the Arts,” The New Yorker (online) - HINT: try the Proquest Platinum Search or Academic Search Premiere

Paper 1 Due: photography

 

 12        no class

 

 14        introduction to music: Taruskin, “The Poietic Fallacy”

presentations & critiques: snapshots

 

1:10      Jerrica

1:20      Fred

1:30      Whitney

1:40      Patrycja

1:50      Maxilia

 

 19        presentations & critiques: snapshots

 

12:50    Alex

1:00      Jolene

1:10      Stephanie

1:20      Matthew

1:30      Hannah

1:40      Kevin

1:50      Natasha

 

 

 21        presentations & critiques: snapshots

 

12:50    Aimee

1:00      Ross

1:10      Bobby

1:20      Laura

1:30      Michelle

1:40      Sara

1:50      Deborah

 

 26        speaker: Jeremy Geffen, Artistic Director at Carnegie Hall

 

28               music

reading: selections from Taruskin, Danger of Music

 

 2         theater

 

4                   theater

reading: http://www.castillo.org/pdf/press/presspage1.pdf

 

      5    6 pm - Common Event: Writers Reading @ MHC

 

 9         theaterreviews in the NY Times

tech topic 3 - multimedia

 

 10 8 pm - Quartett @ BAM

 

 11        reviews of Quartett

Paper 2: due

 

 

 16        modern art

reading: Steinberg, “The Philosophical Brothel”

reading: Learning to Look, pp. 77–81

 

 18        MOMA tour

 

 

23               presentations: group 1 - Francis Cape, “On Main Street” and “Blue Piece”

Whitney, Michelle, Alex, Sara, Stephanie

 

 

24               presentations: group 3 - James Angus, “Basketball Dropped…”

Kevin, Aimee, Maxi, Fred, Natasha

 

 30        reading: House of the Dead

 

meet in the lobby of the Met (B’way between 62^nd and 65^th in Lincoln Center) and gather near the box office. Please bring as little as possible (e.g. no laptops, few bags, etc.)

 

 

 

 7         House of the Dead

 

 9         revision due