History and Historiography of Cinematic Media

CIN2100 H1 F24

Course information

Land acknowledgment

I wish to acknowledge the land on which we gather, on which the University of Toronto operates. For thousands of years it has been the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, this meeting place is still the home to many Indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work on this land.

To which Scott adds: This acknowledgment is habitual, mundane even. We settlers intone such acknowledgments while forgetting their connection to the actual, ongoing, and urgent violence of settler colonialism. We must not allow the banality of this violence to make us numb to its effects. Not here in Toronto, and especially not when it comes to acknowledging the calamitous and ongoing violence of settler colonialism globally. I also thus acknowledge the settler colonial genocide taking place in Gaza right now. Genocide takes many forms, and in the academy, we must especially bear witness to the destruction of knowledges, archives, and universities, and the murder of academics, artists, journalists, and other keepers of knowledge. There are no universities left in Gaza.

Administrative details

• Meets: Tuesdays, 5-7pm; Wednesdays, 11am-1pm
• Location: Innis 223
• Instructor: Scott Richmond
• Contact: s.richmond@utoronto.ca
• Office hours: Tuesdays, 1-3pm, and by appointment. NB: Students must sign up for office hours at https://calendly.com/s-richmond/officehours/
• Office location: Centre for Culture and Technology Coach House, 39a Queen's Park Crescent, 2nd floor (a 15-minute walk from Innis, across Queen's Park; give yourself extra time to find the building)
• Course website: https://alea.ludus.dev/scott/cin2100h1f24

Description

This doctoral seminar focuses on key practical skills, methods, and challenges of historical research and historical thinking in cinema and media studies. Its practice-based approach is paired with a conceptual engagement with pressing debates in recent historiography--the philosophy and conceptualization of history and its production--particularly as they emerge from and relate to the study of moving image media and culture. We will examine a range of hermeneutic perspectives from which cinema and media studies histories have been written; assess and conceptualize the kinds of sources and archives that cinema and media scholars draw upon; and explore cinematic media’s status as a historical object and as an instrument for historical inquiry, asking how cinematic media do history and generate a cinematic mode of historical reflection. Ultimately, the seminar pursues a set of experiments in historical perception aimed at supporting your own original research on moving image media and culture in its diverse contexts.

How this course is taught

This course is, intentionally, intense. Each week, we will read an entire monograph, and an accompanying essay (or two, in one specific case). The goal, I hasten to add, is not to slam you with reading. I am not asking you to read these monographs carefully, word-by-word, excavating the details of all the arguments. Instead, as half of you are about to start your exams and the other half are starting your doctoral careers, I want to teach you how to use books. In addition--and also intentionally--all but one of these books are first books by scholars early in their careers. These are the kinds of books that can stem from the dissertations you will eventually write.

In addition to the reading, many weeks our "screening" time will be dedicated to hands-on workshops, which will both require you to work consistently on a problem, object, film, image, or other site throughout the semester.

The goals are severalfold:

• To canvass recent film & media history and its intellectual problems. All the books are recent(ish)--not more than 10 years old.
• To connect these intellectual problems to the history of the history of film and media. Each monograph is paired with an older, "foundational" text in film and/or media history.
• To identify and develop concrete skills in historical and historiographical research. We will hold a series of workshops over the course of the term which will give you some concrete skills to go off and be a competent film & media historian.
• To develop a historiographical problem. Finally, you will be working on your own historiographical conundrum across the semester, turning it over and around to practice making historical work.

Course patterns

Each week, one class meeting will be dedicated to seminar, the other to screening or a workshop. These are changeable week-to-week, so pay attention to which session is which in a given week.

During the seminar session, we will use a fairly distinct, and rigid, pattern.

• 5 mins or so: Program Notes. Upcoming deadlines, syallbus questions, course news.
• 5 mins: Good News. Popcorn-style, people share good things in their scholarly/professional/ordinary lives.
• 5 mins: Questions. The Guides for the session present their discussion questions, typically 2 or 3. The room decides on a question to work on.
• 10 mins: Think/Pair/Share.
  • 5 mins: Think. Each person selects a passage or two that helps them wrangle with the question, and jots some notes getting started with that wrangling.
  • 5 mins: Pair. Each person pairs up with their neighbour to discuss what they thought and wrote.
  • After 10 mins: Share. Scott will say, "I wonder what you talked aobut." At which point, people should, popcorn-style, say what they discussed in the "Pair" part of the exercise. After which...
• 20 mins: Discussion (first phase). During this first phase of discussion, Scott is not allowed to speak unless asked a direct question by a student.
• 15 mins: Discussion (second phase). Scott can, and surely will, participate.

If all goes according to plan, that will leave us with approximately 50 minutes to have another Think/Pair/Share + Discussion (to address another of the Guide's questions, or in response to a new question that arises from the foregoing discussion), or a mini-lecture from Scott plus Q&A, or a structured activity, or anything else we might want to do.

Guides and Scribes

There are two specific roles each seminar session: two people will be Guides, and two others, the Scribes.

The Guides will be responsible for formulating and presenting the discussion questions at the beginning of the seminar. Note that these people are not presenting the material we're reading; they are presenting the questions that will drive the discussion. They have no special role during any other part of the seminar. The Guides are emphatically not giving a presentation.

The Scribes will be responsible for taking minutes of the class session. Each person is epxected to do this twice over the course of the semester. These are not a transcript, but rather a record of the important conceptual, historical, and historiographical movements in seminar discussion. The Scribes will meet after class to work their different records into a single document, which will then be shared on the course website.

Coursework

Your work in this course will be assessed as follows:

• 40% Final project: A final essay of approximately 6,000 words (+/- 15%). Due December 19; no late work accepted (there is no padding here). In addition to the work itself you will also submit: a cover letter and a rubric according to which you wish to be marked.
• 4 x 10% Workshop homework: We will have four workshops over the course of the semester. You will complete small, skills-based homework assignments for each of these workshosps. Each homework is due two or three weeks after the workshop (usually by the following workshop; see the schedule for details).
• 20% Good citizenship:
  • 5% Guiding. Twice per term. No evaluation; full marks for doing it.
  • 5% Scribing. Twice per term. No evaluation; full marks for doing it.
  • 10% General seminar participation: quantity and quality.

In addition to the marked work above, each student is also expected to participate, in weeks 9 and 11, in "Work-in-Progress Standups," in which students will have 15 minutes to discuss their work in progress and get feedback from colleagues.

Late work

No late final projects will be accepted. Scott is on research and study leave (sabbatical) as of 5pm on December 23; he will emphatically not be marking work on leave.

Homeworks are due on the day that they are due. They must all be submitted by December 19, with your final paper, to ensure a passing mark for the course. If you submit a homework more than 7 days late, you must meet with Scott in office hours before he will accept that homework. Thre are no marking penalties for late work.

Course software

We will not be using Quercus/Canvas this semester. We will instead be using Gitea, which is an open-source software collaboration platform (think Github, but without giving Microsoft all your data). The course website is live at https://alea.ludus.dev/scott/cin2100h1f24.

Signing up for an account

Students must sign up for an account on alea.ludus.dev; a link will be circualted through Quercus. Note that this site is hosted by Scott himself, and none of your information or work will be available to any corporation (including Canvas!) for ingestion into an LLM.

A sign-up link will be circulated before the semester starts, and any students without accounts or with any technical difficulties will have their hands gently held through the process on the first day of class.

Submitting work

Students should submit work to the relevant issue in the issue tracker. This includes all work for the course: minutes, homeworks, and final projects. Do note that this means all work is turned into the group; we are an intellectual community.

Accessing readings & course documents

All the books that are assigned this semester are available digitally through the University of Toronto Libraries.

Assigned essays, homework instructions, and other relevant course documents will be made available, by link or hosted, on the course website.

Course Schedule

Unit 1: Cinematic

Week 1: Sept 3 & 4: Welcome

Tuesday

• Introductions

Wednesday

• Wednesday Workshop 0: Building our own archives

Week 2: Sept 10 & 11: Our epoch

Tuesday

• Screening: Crossroads (dir. Bruce Conner, USA, 1976, 36 min) and Harun Farocki, Pictures of the World and the Inscription of War (Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges, dir. Harun Farocki, Germany, 1989, 75 min)

Wednesday

• Jennifer Fay, Inhospitable World
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, "The Scope and Function of Hermeneutical Reflection"

Week 3: Sept 17 & 18: On space

Tuesday

• Brian Jacobson, Studios before the System
• Tom Gunning, "The Cinema of Attractions" and "An Aesthetic of Astonishment"

Wednesday

• Workshop 1: Historicize what?

Week 4: Sept 24 & 25: History, handmade

Tuesday

• Gregory Zinman, Making Images Move
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty, "Eye and Mind"

Wednesday

• Screening: Experimental shorts by Brakhage, Bute, Lye, and Sharits (et al)

Week 5: Oct 1 & 2: Against the grain

Tuesday

• Katherine Groo, Bad Film Histories
• Walter Benjamin, "On the Concept of History"

Wednesday

• Workshop 2: Against the grain, or Histories of the present

Week 6: Oct 8 & 9: Spectrality

Tuesday

• Screening: Bollywood horror TBD (pending availability)

Wednesday

• Kartik Nair, Seeing Things
• Lea Jacobs, "The Censorship of Blonde Venus"

Interlude: Theory

Week 7: Oct 15 & 16: Historicizing theory

Tuesday

• Bernard Geoghegan, Code

Wednesday

• Workshop 3: Identifying archives

Unit 2: Media

Week 8: Oct 22 & 23: Television

Tuesday

• Doron Galili, Seeing by Electricity
• Friedrich Kittler, from Gramophone, Film, Typewriter

Wednesday

• Workhsop 4: The primary document

Reading week: Oct 29 & 30: No class

Week 9: Nov 5 & 6: Computers

Tuesday

• Jacob Gaboury, Image Objects
• Michel Foucault, "Nietzsche, Genealogy, History"

Wednesday

• WIP Stand-ups 1

Week 10: Nov 12 & 13: Photography

Monday (optional but highly encouraged)

• Brooke Belisle gives a Monday Night Seminar at 6pm at the Centre for Culture and Technology; attend if you can.

Tuesday

• Brooke Belisle visit
  • For this session, please read Brooke Belisle, Depth Effects

Wendesday

• Brooke Belisle, Depth Effects
• Jonathan Crary, "Techniques of the Observer"

Week 11: Nov 19 & 20: The Internet

Tuesday

• Cait McKinney, Information Activism
• José Estéban Muñoz, "Ephemera as Evidence"

Wednesday

• WIP Stand-ups 2

Week 12: Nov 26 & 27: Animation

Tuesday

• James J. Hodge, Sensations of History
• David Wellbery, "The Exteriority of Writing"

Wednesday

• Screening: Contemporary abstract animation art & shorts: Simon, Lattanzi, et al.

Final projects due Thursday, Dec 19

Please note that, as Scott is going on leave in Winter term, this is an actual, hard, real deadline. There is no padding here. I will not accept work after 11:59pm on December 19.

Course policies

Attendance

Students are expected to be punctual and attentive for all in-person and online class meetings, and to stay current with all course materials, including screenings. Failure to do so will affect your final grade. All lectures, screenings, and tutorials are mandatory; students may not enrol in courses with conflicting or overlapping meeting times. Missing more than 50% of class meetings is grounds for failure. Please note that as of Fall 2023, the University has updated its procedures around absences. Students may self-declare one weeklong absence per term (7 calendar days) using the ACORN self-declaration form. Additional absences require a Verification of Illness form, a Registrar’s Letter, or communication from Accessibility Services. More information is available at www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/academics/student-absences. You are responsible for contacting me, your instructor, or your teaching assistant to request special academic considerations related to course absences.

To which Scott adds: This is one of your core PhD classes; you should be at every class session you can possibly be at. However, we are still in a pandemic, and my husband is immune-suppressed. If you are feeling at all unwell, please do not attend class. If you have a known exposure to Covid-19, please do not attend class.

Email

I will try to answer emails in a timely fashion, generally within two business days of their receipt. However, I cannot guarantee any response within a set time frame. If you have an in-depth matter to discuss, please visit me during office hours or make an appointment to meet me at a time convenient for both of us.

To which Scott adds: I am more or less drowning in email. Please be patient. If I haven't responded to an email you send within a week, please nudge me; I will thank you for it, not be annoyed. If you need a response faster than a week due to external constraints, nudge me before you hit the deadline.

Accessibility

The University of Toronto is committed to accessibility. Students with diverse learning styles and needs are welcome in this course. In particular, if you have a disability or health consideration that may require accommodations, if you are not yet registered with Accessibility Services, contact their office as soon as possible to register (416-978-8060; www.accessibility.utoronto.ca). The Accessibility Services staff is available by appointment to assess specific needs, provide referrals, and arrange appropriate accommodations. The sooner you let them and me know your needs, the more quickly we can assist you in achieving your learning goals in this course. Once you are registered with Accessibility Services, please ensure that I receive a letter of accommodation. Feel encouraged to approach me with any concerns or questions about accessibility accommodations at any point in time during the term; the sooner, the better.

To which Scott adds: I am for universal accessibility in my course design; this is a regulative ideal and not realizable in practice. That said, if you require anything to make the course more accessible, with or without a formal letter of accommodation, please discuss this with Scott early and often.

Respect for personal identity

The University of Toronto understands the concerns some students may have regarding implementation of personal data in Quercus, including discrepancies between the identifiers in one's University of Toronto account and those implemented by the students in Quercus and in everyday life. Students can change the first name displayed in various online U of T services including Quercus and integrated tools via the following link: my.auth.utoronto.ca.

Academic integrity

The University of Toronto considers academic honesty and integrity to be important to your education. Any conduct that violates the University's academic integrity standards—such as plagiarism or cheating—will result in serious disciplinary action. For further details, please read the University’s policy, plus FAQs (advice.writing.utoronto.ca/using-sources/how-not-to-plagiarize/).

Artificial "intelligence"

The work you submit in this course is expected to reflect your own original thought and intellectual effort. To promote your learning and intellectual development in this course, and to help you reach course learning outcomes, the use of artificial intelligence tools and apps is strictly prohibited in all course assignments unless explicitly stated otherwise by the instructor in this course. This includes, but is not limited to, generative AI large language models, such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing, Google Bard, as well as auto-summarizing software such as Resoomer, QuillBot, or TLDRThis. Use of artificial intelligence tools in course written assignments may be considered use of an unauthorized aid, which is a form of cheating. For more information on academic integrity and AI, see www.academicintegrity.utoronto.ca/perils-and-pitfalls/using-chatgpt-or-other-ai-tool-on-a-marked-assessment/.

To which Scott adds: If you're comfortable with submitting work made by fancy autocrrect instead of your own work and thought in a PhD program, you are, frankly, beyond any help I could ever offer.

Research support

University of Toronto Libraries provides access to a vast collection of online and print resources (onesearch.library.utoronto.ca). Get help navigating UTL and web resources and developing research skills for your course work by: Contacting the Cinema Studies Librarian Kate Johnson with questions or to set-up an online meeting or call (katej.johnson@utoronto.ca); or Using ASK: Chat with a Librarian online service (onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/ask-librarian). Stream films and media through UTL: (onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/streaming-video). See the Cinema Studies Research Guide including eBooks, articles, and streaming film collections (guides.library.utoronto.ca/cinema).

Writing support

The University of Toronto expects its students to write well, and it provides a number of resources to help you. The Graduate Centre for Academic Communication is the place to go to get help with your writing. Visit early, visit often: https://www.sgs.utoronto.ca/resources-supports/gcac/.

Vital support and safety

In order to engage in rigorous and adventurous thought, one should be nourished and feel safe. The University of Toronto’s Emergency Food Bank (www.utsu.ca/food-bank/) provides students with food essentials free of charge. TravelSafer (www.campussafety.utoronto.ca/travel-safer) on the St. George campus is a reliable and safe alternative to walking alone at night. Student staff working in mixed gender pairs will escort you anywhere on campus or to a subway station. Staff carry photo badges and wear distinctive jackets while on duty. TravelSafer staff are available 24/7 and 365 days a year. Call 416-978-SAFE (7233) to arrange a walk. For further student health and wellbeing resources and support, please see studentlife.utoronto.ca and safety.utoronto.ca.

Copyright considerations

Students may not record any portion of a course session without the prior and explicit written permission of the course instructor. Provostial guidelines on the Appropriate Use of Information and Communication Technology, available at www.provost.utoronto.ca/planning-policy/information-communication-technology-appropriate-use/, state that:

The unauthorised use of any form of device to audiotape, photograph, video-record or otherwise reproduce lectures, course notes or teaching materials provided by instructors is covered by the Canadian Copyright Act and is prohibited. Students must obtain prior written consent to such recording. In the case of private use by students with disabilities, the instructor’s consent must not be unreasonably withheld.

Once permission to record is given, it may nonetheless be rescinded at any time or for particular lectures or class sessions.