SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY

HISTORY OF ART & DESIGN

SCHOOL OF CULTURAL STUDIES

BA Hons History of Art, Design and Film

Darcy White, Andy Pollard and Rose Cooper

TRANSCULTURATION (2004)

Teaching schedule p. 2

Rationale, Indicative Contents, Aims and Learning outcomes p. 3

Learning and Teaching Strategy and Methods p. 4

Assessment p. 5

General Bibliography p. 7

Inuit Visual Culture Case Study Bibliography p. 8

Web Sites p. 9

Iranian Cinema Case Study Bibliography p. 11

TEACHING SCHEDULE

2.5 hrs contact per week

Week

1. Sept 30 Introduction to teaching schedule and assessment

Terminology/ Definitions.

2. Oct. 7 L: Culture and Globalisation

S:Research programme. Discussions of set texts

3. Oct. 14 L: Hollywood and representation

S: Discussion of set texts ~ Research in progress

4. Oct. 21 L: Collections: acquisition, classificiation, representation

S: Discussion of set texts ~ Research in progress

5. Oct. 28 L: Framing culture

S: Discussion of set texts ~ research in progress

6. Nov. 4 L: Imaging the 'Other': National Geographic

S: Discussion of set texts ~ research in progress

7. Nov. 11 L: Third and Fourth Worlds: Screening

S: Discussion of set texts ~ research in progress

8. Nov. 18 L: Para Tourist culture

S: Discussion of set texts ~ research in progress

9. Nov. 25 READING WEEK

10. Dec. 2 L: Contemporary Cultural practice

S: Seminar presentations

11. Dec. 9 L: Popular culture on the periphery

S: Seminar presentations

12. Dec. 16 Presentation of research outcomes.

12. Dec. 18 Deadline for assignment submission

RATIONALE

The aims of this module are to consider the relationship of dominant visual culture to visual arts from outside the 'European' tradition. The module will address contemporary practice within the visual arts and the historic reception of 'non-Western' visual culture within the context of the politics of cultural representation and cultural resistance. Visual culture will be considered as a dynamic, fluid force involving acquisition but also loss, transculturation. The module will consider the signifying practices employed in the institutional appropriation of cultural difference as well as the concept of reciprocal cultural exchange and fusion.

INDICATIVE CONTENTS

Binary Opposites and the representation of visual culture from outside the 'European' tradition

The implications of 'binary opposition' on the acquisition, reception and representation and classification of artefacts from 'non- Western' cultures and the establishment of institutional expectations and classificatory systems.

Transculturation

Historic examples of cultural appropriation, fusion and resistance. Here a range of examples will be presented in case studies. It is anticipated local and national collections will be importance sources including: The Pitt-Rivers Museum, PRASADA centre, Leicester, the British Museum, Bradford Gallery, the Mappin and Graves Galleries.

Contemporary Practices

The practice of key cultural producers whose work engages with issues revolving around the history, experience and practice of transculturation will be studied.

SUMMARY OF AIMS

· To provide a critical introduction to the process of transculturation, the reception, appropriation and resistance to 'other' visual cultures.

· To examine through case studies examples of cultural representation, appropriation and resistance.

· To promote awareness of institutional practice in relation to 'non Western' visual cultures.

· To foster openness and the ability to identify the merits of unfamiliar cultural artefacts or arguments and the merits or shortcomings of familiar ones.

· To promote understanding and use of appropriate critical language and theory.

ANTICIPATED LEARNING OUTCOMES

The student will be:

· familiar with the process of transculturation, the reception, appropriation and resistance to 'other' visual cultures

· aware of examples of cultural representation, appropriation and resistance

· aware of institutional practice in relation to 'non Western' visual cultures

· receptive to new arguments or cultural artefacts and able to assess the merits or shortcomings of familiar ones

· competent in the use of appropriate critical language and theory.

LEARNING AND TEACHING STRATEGY AND METHODS, INCLUDING RESOURCES

Key theories, methodologies and concepts will be introduced through weekly lectures, with supporting visual material. Exhibition, site and archive study visits will play an important role in the teaching, local and national collections and displays will be drawn upon.*

Student centred seminars will provide the opportunity for discussion, clarification and debate drawing on lecture content, visual references and case studies. Seminars will be supported by guided reading and visual analysis.

The student will be expected to undertake directed independent learning centred upon a text and image based project portfolio which will provide an important source for the evaluation of information and examples.

Student learning will be supported by group and individual tutorials.

A variety of methods will be used to ensure the aims and outcomes are reflected

across the assessment components.

*Component*	*Content*	*Weighting*
Journal	A journal drawing on artefacts, displays and theory to encourage critical analysis and reflection	30%

Seminar	A group seminar to encourage research, analysis and evaluation	30%

1,500 word written assignment	A critical analysis of one of the issues covered in the teaching programme	40%

SPECIFIC ASSESSMENT CRITERIA

Student work will be judged on:

· the identification of the processes and strategies of transculturation; of reception, appropriation, fusion and resistance

· the quality of openness, reflection and evaluation

· the quality of application of appropriate theory in critical analysis.

· the identification of institutional forces and their impact.

· the acknowledgement of the contingency of knowledge

· the effectiveness of independent study in the extension and development of the taught curriculum

· the standard of written work, in relation to the academic convention.

There are three elements of assessment for this module:

A Journal (30%)

This should be a 'repository' for:

Key texts and reading material provided as part of the taught module. You should supplement this with texts that you have found during your research. Your comments and reflections on these texts should be recorded in your journal
lecture notes and reflections on these
Images and information that you have found that add to your understanding of the issues covered in the module.
information and ideas that you have found as part of your research for your seminar topic

We are looking for full engagement with the issues, an attempt to engage with the theory and your application of this in your own research for your seminar topic.

A Joint Seminar Presentation (30%)

The presentation should be on a topic agreed by a group of c 4 students.

The seminar should present information on your topic informed by the issues we have covered in lectures and set reading. You should attempt to present issues about transculturation using your topic as the focus.

A Written Assignment 1,500 words in length (40%)

The written assignment should be a development of the topic you presented in the group seminar.

In the essay you will be expected to:

develop a tighter focus on your topic

refine the findings that you arrived at in your group
Present a well considered argument on the process on transculturation as illustrated by your topic focus.

You should make clear reference to key texts and theory and support your argument with quotations and illustrations where appropriate.

Armes, R. Third World Film Making and the West (1987)

Allen, T.and Skelton,T. Culture and Global Change (Routledge, 1999)

Bal, M. ‘Reading Art?’ in Pollock, G. Generations and Geographies in the Visual Arts (Routledge, 1996)

Balogun, O 'Traditional Arts and Cultural Developments in Africa' in Cultures No. 2 (1975)

Butcher, M. ‘Eel-traps without Eels' in Journal of Design History Vol.10 No. 4, 1997, Design History Society

Clifford, J. Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography (University of California Press, 1986)

Clifford, J. 'On Collecting Art and Culture' in Out There: Marginalisation and Contemporary Culture (1990)

Coote, Shelton, A. Anthropology, Art and Aesthetics (Clarendon Press, 1992)

Danto, A. ‘Artefact and Art’ in ART/ARTEFACT African Art in Anthropology Collections: Exhibition Catalogue (NY: Centre for African Art, 1988)

Dorfman, A and Mattelart, A, How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology

in the Disney Comic (1975)

Fanon, F. Black Skin White Masks (Pluto Press, 1986) Trans. by C.L.Markman

Fusco, C. English is Broken Here: Notes on Cultural Fusion in the Americas (1995)

Gell, A. ‘V

Gell, A. Art and Agency; An Anthropological ogel’s Net: Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps’ in Journal of Material Culture, (1996) Theory (Clarendon Press, 1998)

Greenhalgh, M. and Megaw, J.V.S. Art in Society (London: Duckworth, 1978)

Hylton, R. ‘Yinka Shonebare: Dressing Down’ in Third Text, Spring 1999.

Jameson, F. and Miyoshi, M. The Cultures of Globalisation (1998)

Jelinek, A. ‘Working within and against Tate Modernism’ in Third Text 57, Winter 2001-2

Johnson, V. ‘Especially Good Aboriginal Art’ in Third Text 56, Autumn 2001.

Kamrava, M. Cultural Politics in the Third World (UCL Press. 1999)

Karp and Lavine, S.D. Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Smithsonian Institute, 1999)

Lippard, L Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural Age (1990)

Lok, S. P.S. ‘Pidgin: Interupted Transmission’ in Third Text, Volume 16, no.2, June 2002

Lutz, C.A. and Collins, J.L. Reading National Geographic (University of Chicago Press, 1993)

Mauss, M. ‘Essai sur le don’ in Sociologie et Anthropolgie (Presses Universitaires de France, 1950)

Mirzoeff, N ' Transculture: from Kongo to Congo' in An Introduction to Visual Culture ( 1999)

Mirzoeff, N. Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing Africans and Jews (London, Routledge, 2000)

Ratnam, N. “‘I am that Other that you want me to be’: the Work of Anish Kapoor in 1980s

Said, E. Orientalism (Penguin, 1995)

Said, E. Culture and Imperialism (Chatto & Windus, 1993)

Smith, C. and Ward, G.K. Indigenous Cultures in an Interconnected World (Allen and Unwin, 2000)

Steiner, C.B. African Art in Transit (1994)

Simpson, M.G. Making Representations: Museums in the Post-Colonial Age (2001)

Sulter M. Zabat (1989, Hebden Bridge, Urban Fox Press, limited edition)

Unesco World Culture Report ; Cultural diversity, conflict and pluralism. (Unesco publishing, 2000)

Journals

The Journal of Material Culture

Third Text

INUIT VISUAL CULTURE CASE STUDY BIBLIOGRAPHY

Collins, HB et al. The Far North: 2000 years of American Eskimo and Indian Art (Indiana University Press, 1977)

Damas, D. Handbook of North American Indians: Vol. 5 Arctic (Smithsonian Institute Press, 1984)

Fitzhugh, W.W. and Kaplan, S.A. Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982)

Graburn, N.H.H. ‘The Eskimos and Airport Art’ in Transaction 4 (1967) pp. 28-33

Graburn, N.H.H. ‘A Preliminary Analysis of Eskimo Art and Symbolism’ in Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists (Rome 1974) pp 165-70

Graburn, N.H.H. Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World (University of California Press, 1976)

Graburn, N.H.H. ‘Inuit Art and the Expression of Eskimo Identity’ in American review of Canadian Studies Vol. 17 no. 1 (1987) pp 47 – 66

Hall, M.C. and Johnson, M.E. Polar Tourism: tourism in the arctic and Antarctic regions (Wiley, 1995)

Innuit Gallery Early Art and Artefacts of the Eskimo (Innuit Gallery, 1975)

King, J.C.H. Portrait Masks from the North West Coast of America (Thames and Hudson (1979)

King, J.C.H. and Lidchi, H. Imaging the Arctic (British Museum, 1998)

Kleivan, H. The Eskimos of Northeast Labrador: A History of Eskimo-White Relations, 1771 to 1955 (Oslo: Norsk Polarinstitutt, 1966)

Leroux, O. et al Inuit Women Artists: Voices from Cape Dorset (G&B Arts International, 1994)

Muller-Wille, L. et al Consequences of Economic Change in Circumpolar Regions (Boreal Institute, 1978)

Pearce, S.M. Eskimo Carving (Shire Publications, 1985)

Ray, D.J. Eskimo Masks: Art and Ceremony (University of Washington Press, 1975)

Ray, D.J. Eskimo Art: Tradition and Innovation in North Alaska (University of Washington Press, 1977)

Richie, C.I.A. The Eskimo and His Art (Academy Editions, 1975)

Svensson, T.G. ‘Ethnic Art in the Northern Fourth World’ in Etudes / Inuit / Studies (Quebec, 1995)

Film

Flaherty, R, Nanook of the North (1922)

Webpages

There are many internet sites on the Inuit. Many are run by commercial galleries selling Inuit art and artefacts on-line. Some contain background information on the Inuit and their culture, for example http://inuitgallery.com/home.html the site of the commercial Bayat Gallery which sells Inuit art as well as African Masks and Chineses scuptures on-line. The site provides a useful history of Inuit culture as well as links to other sites. Other sites are run by official organisations, academic institutions and by Inuit or aboriginal groups.

For our research we found the following sites useful:

http://www.oneworldmagazine.org/seek/nanook/nanostry.htm

A site on Robert Flaherty’s “Nanook of the North”’ by motion picture historian and producer Alain Silver. The site includes a bibliography on Flaherty, a brief description of the film and of Flaherty's work, the availability of the 1972 film reconstruction of 'Nanook', critical revisions of the film and details of the 1994 French dramatisation of the making of 'Nanook'.

The site is linked to One World Magazine.

http://www.british-museum.ac.uk/world/americas/americas.html

The official site of the British Museum details collections of historic and contemporary artefacts from North, Central and South America. The North America section covers the museum's collections of Native artefacts, colonial and post Independence objects influenced by Europe (including graphics and money), as well as modern applied arts. The Latin America section details Pre Hispanic cultures, money, science and conservation. Both North and Latin America pages link to the British Museum's children's web site 'Compass'

http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/art/index_e.html

The official Indian and Northern Affairs, Canada site presents information on Indian and Inuit art. It is also a source of information for Indian and Inuit peoples and details the Northern Affairs Programme, Employment, Education, Other Programmes and Services, Sustainable Development and The Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Businesses. The site also contains information about First Nation treaties signed with British and later Canadian governments before and after 1867 which provided for certain rights and payments, a very useful source of information.

http://www.conexus.si.edu/yupik

This excellent site of the National Museum of the American Indian is part of the Smithsonian Institute web site. Named Conexus it presents the work, practice and beliefs of Native American peoples on several well illustrated pages. Links are provided to other pages that present the work of practitioners featured in contemporary exhibitions, the work of visiting scholars and illustrated histories and legends of the American people.

http://www.mcmichael.com/inuit.htm

This is the site of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection which consists of a permanent collection dating from 1945 supplemented by a long term loan collection of some 100,000 drawings, prints and sculpture from the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd. in Cape Dorset. The site contains information on Canadian art, current exhibitions, public programmes, visits and tours, shopping etc. at the McMichael, and a bibliography of further readings on Inuit art.

http://inuitart.org/

The site of the Inuit Art Foundation, a non profit organisation, the site is owned and operated by Inuit artists. The site provides information on the artists; interviews, profiles, news and reviews and runs an on-line shop the proceeds of which support Inuit artists. It also provides details of publications including IAQ, Inuit Art Quarterly.

http://www.delweb.com/nfmuseum/notes

This is the web site of the Newfoundland Museum. The site contains notes on the museum's collections including Inuit artefacts. A short, illustrated article by Brenda Clarke on the Inuit in Labrador is accompanied by suggestions for further reading.

IRANIAN CINEMA CASE STUDY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Allan, E. A Guide to World Cinema (Whittet Books/ BFI, 1985)

Chapman, J. Cinemas of the World: Film and society from 1895 Books to the Present (Reaktion, 2003)

Dadashi, H. Close Up Iranian Cinema: past, present and future (Verso, 2001)

Hill, J and Gibson, P.C. World Cinema: Critical Approaches (Oxford U.P., 2002)

Jameson, F. The Geopolitical aesthetic: cinema and space in the World system (BFI, 1992)

Mankekar, P. Screening Culture Viewing Politics: Television, Womanhood and Nation in modern India (Oxford U.P., 2000)

McAlister, M. Epic Encounter: culture, media and U.S. interests in the Middle East (California U.P. 2001)

Mirsepassi, A. Intellectual Discourse and Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran (Cambridge U.P. 2000)

Naficy, H. An Accented Cinema: Exilic and Diasporic Filmmaking (Princeton U.P. 2003)

Nowell-Smith, G. (ed) The Oxford history of world cinema (Oxford U.P. 1996)

Pines, J and Willeman, P. Questions of Third Cinema (BFI 1994)

Rotha, P. The Film till now: a survey of world cinema (Spring Books, 1967)

Said, E.W. Covering Islam: How the media and experts determine how we see the rest of the world (Vintage, 1997)

Said, E.W. Culture and Imperialism (Vintage, 1994)

Sklar, R. A World History of Film (Harry N. Abrams 2002)

Virdi, J. The cinematic imagination: Indian popular film as social history (Rutgers 2003)

Walia, S. Postmodern Encounter: Edward Said and the writing of history (Icon Books, 2001)

VIDEOS

South Bank Show, Cinema of Fire, ITV

Said, E. Arena: Culture and Imperialism, BBC2

WEBPAGES: