Although some knowledge of a foreign language is necessary, this is not a language course, and no particular proficiency is required. An interest in language, especially English, is the most important thing. Students will be expected to work on some translation project (preferably prose); but their work will serve chiefly as a basis for the discussion of general problems of translation, its cultural significance, and the relationship between translation and creative writing. Class limited to 12 students.

Please note that the Tuesday session of SST 245 / MES - Sexual Ecologies of Race is a screening session.

The following three course offerings at the Center for Curatorial Studies are open for limited enrollment to undergraduates. Prerequisites: junior or senior status, permission of the instructor, and approval of advisor. Interested undergraduates should call Letitia Smith at CCS (ext. 7598).

The eighties were a polarizing period in postwar art and criticism, the epithet "pluralism" notwithstanding. Our course materials will comprise artists' practices and a chronology of key exhibitions in equal shares with critical responses in art writing from diverse sources - academic journals, anthologies, small-circulation periodicals, and the art press. Of special interest will be the part played by the dealer-critic system in New York as we trace art world speculation across borders, from emerging centers to alternative spaces to the expanding field of the museum. Among the critics we read are Benjamin Buchloh on appropriation and Europe in the seventies; Howard Singerman on Sherrie Levine; Craig Owens on Robert Smithson; Rosalind Krauss, Douglas Crimp, and Owens on postmodernism; Abigail Solomon-Godeau on photography as art; Rosalind Deutsche on Battery Park City. In addition, we will read artists' writing and look at anthologies such as Art after Modernism: Rethinking Representation (1984, ed. Brian Wallis, photo ed. Louise Lawler) and at periodicals including October (1976- ), Heresies (1977-c.1993), Real Life Magazine (1979-1995), Zone (1986-1992), and select issues of Artforum (1962- ). Course assignments are designed to foster collaborative work on primary research materials. Student projects will facilitate a discussion on the formation of historical and theoretical problems in the cultural field. Requirements include weekly readings, presentations of research projects, and frequent short writing assignments.

This course investigates significant, increasingly diverse contemporary aesthetic practices. With a particular focus on activist, interventionist, and ephemeral forms and performances, the seminar explores recent developments, processes, materials and media, tactics and strategies, and issues of public art. Public art raises intriguing, often problematic questions regarding site, context, content, audience, and access. It is a challenging critical topic with implications for other artistic productions and curatorial practices. The seminar focuses on public art as a dynamic subject and not simply as a set of circumstances and conditions. What does "public" mean and how has its meaning shifted? What is its relationship to the private realm? What are the shifting geographies of private and public and how will these change? How have technology, race, class, gender, and other issues influenced ideas of public, art, and space? How does time influence our understanding of public art? Through readings, case studies, independent research and presentations, visits to sites, as well as meetings with visiting artists and curators, the seminar will examine both the theoretical dimensions and practical applications of a tactical, often temporary public art. Course requirements include six 2-page responses to selected pairs of readings or chapters, a class presentation on the work of an artist or case study on a public art project, and a final paper.

In this seminar, we'll delve into four areas of immediate concern in contemporary art and criticism. We'll read and look at mostly recent incursions: texts, tapes, and exhibitions. Four constellations; four sessions each. These constellations or clusters will act as lenses through which to view contemporary issues and organize responses. Art & Its Public: Questions of Audience will focus on the visual works and writings of artists who have explored questions of audience in depth, including Martha Rosler, Jimmie Durham, David Hammons, and Daniel Martinez, and we'll read discussions and analyses of the issues involved by Homi K. Bhabha, Pierre Bourdieu, Michael Brenson, and Carol Becker, among others. What responsibility does art have to its public? How has this relation changed in the last twenty years? This section will be designed to complement Patricia Phillips's course in public art. Documentary/Aesthetic will examine the history of this constitutive split and concentrate on recent approaches, especially those highlighted in Documenta 11. What is the relation between documentary approaches and aesthetics? Is "social documentary" work still possible? Readings will include works by Allan Sekula, Rosalind Krauss, Trinh T. Minh-ha, John Berger, Dagmar Barnouw, and Hakim Bey. Distraction Culture will attempt to describe and analyze our present condition and consider tactics. What are the constituents of distraction culture? Is there a poetics of distraction? Who gains what from distraction? We'll read essays by Avital Ronell, Allucquère Rosanne Stone, Alison Gingeras, Raymond Williams, Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Leon Golub, and Vilém Flusser. The End (and After) will rehearse mostly recent eschatological theories and practices as they relate to art, including those offered by Arthur Danto, Hans Belting, T.J. Clark, Victor Burgin, Critical Art Ensemble, Thyrza Goodeve and Donna Haraway, and Paul Virilio. We'll spend four class sessions on each section. Readings will be assigned for each class. We'll also look at relevant tapes and exhibitions and may have occasional visitors. Students will be expected to read and take notes on all assignments, contribute substantively to discussions, and write one short paper (three to five pages) for each section.