Course No. 4.397
Special Problems in the Visual Arts

Distributing Meaning:
The Place of the Artwork in the World of Things

Professor: Allan McCollum


SOME TEXTS & TEXT EXCERPTS
AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD
in PDF format


From: Karl Marx
Capital | Volume One
Part I: Commodities and Money
CHAPTER ONE: COMMODITIES

From: Thorstein Veblen
The Theory of the Leisure Class
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTORY

From: Thorstein Veblen
The Theory of the Leisure Class
CHAPTER III: CONSPICUOUS LEISURE

From: Thorstein Veblen
The Theory of the Leisure Class
CHAPTER IV: CONSPICUOUS CONSUMPTION

From: Marcel Mauss
The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies
INTRODUCTORY
and CHAPTER ONE: GIFTS AND THE OBLIGATION TO RETURN GIFTS

From: Marcel Mauss
The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS

From: Jacques T. Godbout
The World of the Gift
INTRODUCTION: DOES THE GIFT STILL EXIST?

From: Jacques T. Godbout
The World of the Gift
PART ONE, CHAPTER 4: THE SITES OF THE GIFT:
THE GIFT BETWEEN STRANGERS [EXCERPT]: A MODERN GIFT
and
PART ONE, CHAPTER 5: THE GIFT AND MERCHANDISE

From: Maimonides
Mishneh Tora, Laws of Charity, 10:7-14
THE EIGHT LEVELS OF CHARITY

From: Dale Carnegie
IDEAS ON HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE

From: Vladimir Propp
Morphology of the Folk Tale
CHAPTER TWO: THE METHOD AND MATERIAL
and CHAPTER THREE: THE FUNCTIONS OF DRAMATIS PERSONAE

From: Claude Lévi Strauss
The Savage Mind
CHAPTER ONE: THE SCIENCE OF THE CONCRETE

From: Benjamin Whorf
Language, Thought, and Reality
SCIENCE AND LINGUISTICS

From: Mary Douglas
Purity and Danger:
An analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo

CHAPTER SIX — POWERS AND DANGERS

From: Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann
The Social Construction of Reality:
A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

Excerpt from Part II, Chapter 1:
SOCIETY AS OBJECTIVE REALITY

From:
The Interpretation of Cultures:
Selected Essays by Clifford Geertz

CHAPTER TWO — THE IMPACT OF THE CONCEPT
OF CULTURE ON THE CONCEPT OF MAN

From: Pierre Bourdieu
The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature
PART III - THE PURE GAZE: ESSAYS ON ART, CHAPTER 8
"OUTLINE OF A SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF ART PERCEPTION"

From: Pierre Bourdieu
The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature
PART I - THE FIELD OF CULTURAL PRODUCTION
"THE MARKET OF SYMBOLIC GOODS"

From: Pierre Bourdieu
Distinction:
A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste

INTRODUCTION

From: Marshall McLuhan
Understanding Media
THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE

From: Walter Benjamin
Illuminations
THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION

From: Maurice Halbwachs
The Collective Memory
SPACE AND THE COLLECTIVE MEMORY

From: D. W. Winnicott
Playing & Reality
TRANSITIONAL OBJECTS AND TRANSITIONAL PHENOMENA

From: D. W. Winnicott
Playing & Reality
THE LOCATION OF CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

From: D. W. Winnicott
Playing & Reality
MIRROR ROLE OF MOTHER AND FAMILY IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT

From:
Los Carpinteros
Institute for Research in Art
PLACELESS PLACE
By Lilian Tone

RUBENS MANO ON LIGHT AND POWER
By Lilian Tone

AFFORDING THE ULTIMATE CREATIVE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE:
THE BOUTIQUE OF THE 1984 MISS GENERAL IDEA PAVILLION
By Lilian Tone

OF OTHER SPACES: UTOPIAS AND HETEROTOPIAS
By Michel Foucault

DEVOTIONALIA
A project by Maurício Dias and Walter Riedweg

OTHERNESS BENEATH THE OPEN SKY:
THE POLITICAL-POETIC LABORATORY OF
MAURÍCIO DIAS & WALTER RIEDWEG

By Suely Rolnik

From: Miwon Kwon
One Place After Another:
Site Specificity and Locational Identity

CHAPTER THREE: SITINGS OF PUBLIC ART:
INTEGRATION VERSUS INTERVENTION

From: Db artmag, 2004
SOCIAL STUDY: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA ZITTEL
By Cheryl Kaplan

From: Hans Toch and Clay Smith, eds.
by Marshall H. Segall, Donald T. Campbell
and Melville J. Herskovits
Social Perception
CHAPTER 14: THE INFLUENCE OF CULTURE
ON VISUAL PERCEPTION

From: Hans Toch and Clay Smith, eds.
by Warren J. Wittreich And Keith B. Radcliffe
Social Perception
CHAPTER 17: DIFFERENCES IN THE PERCEPTION
OF AN AUTHORITY FIGURE AND A NONAUTHORITY
FIGURE BY NAVY RECRUITS

Northwestern University article:
"SCALE ERRORS"

From: Child Development,
March/April 2000, Volume 71, Number 2
by Judy S. DeLoache
DUAL REPRESENTATION AND
YOUNG CHILDREN'S USE OF SCALE MODELS

Quotation:
Jorge Luis Borges

From: Science News
December 27, 2003
BOOKISH MATH:
STATISTICAL TESTS ARE UNRAVELING
KNOTTY LITERARY MYSTERIES

From: Popular Science
April, 2003
THE HOUND OF THE DATA POINTS

Emily Dickenson
ONE NEED NOT BE A CHAMBER TO BE HAUNTED

Sigmund Freud
THE UNCANNY

Rachel Leah Thompson
THE AUTOMATIC HAND:
SPIRITUALISM, PSYCHOANALYSIS, SURREALISM

Joe Kissell
THE WINCHESTER HOUSE

From: Mysteries of the Unexplained
LIVING ANIMALS, LOCKED IN STONE

THE WITNESS
By Jorge Luis Borges

THE ALEPH
By Jorge Luis Borges

THE ZAHIR
By Jorge Luis Borges

From: miscellaneous World Wide Web sources:
SOME INFORMATION ON BERTOLT BRECHT

From: Mikhail Epstein
After the Future:
The Paradoxes of Postmodernism
and Contemporary Russian Culture

THING AND WORD: ON THE LYRICAL MUSEUM

From: Jean Baudrillard
The System of Objects
B. THE NON-FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM,
OR SUBJECTIVE DISCOURSE:
I. MARGINAL OBJECTS: ANTIQUES

From: Jean Baudrillard
The System of Objects
B. THE NON-FUNCTIONAL SYSTEM,
OR SUBJECTIVE DISCOURSE:
II. A MARGINAL SYSTEM: COLLECTING

From: Jean Baudrillard
For a Critique of the Political Economy of the Sign
CHAPTER FIVE — THE ART AUCTION:
SIGN EXCHANGE AND SUMPTUARY VALUE

From: The New York Times
FROM 9/11 RUBBLE, UNCLAIMED MEMENTOS

From: The New York City Police Department
WORLD TRADE CENTER JEWELRY QUESTIONNAIRE

From: The Associated Press
MARINE SACRIFICES FINGER

From: The Associated Press
WOMAN AUCTIONS FATHERS GHOST ON EBAY

From: Jonathan Culler
Framing the Sign: Criticism and its Institutions
THE SEMIOTICS OF TOURISM

From: Marjorie Garber
Symptoms of Culture
PART ONE, CHAPTER ONE: GREATNESS

From: Business and Economic History
FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH AND THE MANUFACTURE
AND MARKETING OF MOTION STUDY, 1908-1924
By Brian Price

From: The Gilbreth Network
THERBLIGS: THE KEYS TO SIMPLIFYING WORK
By David Ferguson

From: The Gilbreth Network
THAT MOST FAMOUS DOZEN
By David Ferguson

From: IW/SI News:
(newsletter of the International Work Simplification Institute)
Pioneers in Improvement and our Modern Standard of Living:
FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH: BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

From: Stuart Ewen
Captains of Consciousness:
Advertising and the Social Roots of Culture

Part One
CHAPTERS ONE AND TWO:
"SHORTER HOURS, HIGHER WAGES . . ."
and MOBILIZING THE INSTINCTS

From: W. J. T. Mitchell
The Last Dinosaur Book
CHAPTERS TWENTY-FOUR and TWENTY-FIVE:
POTLATCH AND PURITY
and DIPLODOCUS CARNEGII

From: John McPhee
Basin and Range
EXCERPT ON AN "ANGULAR UNCONFORMITY"
AND SOME HISTORY OF THE FOUNDING
OF THE SCIENCE OF GEOLOGY

From: infoplease.com
SPELLING LOVE WITH CANDY HEARTS
TEN NEW WAYS TO CONVEY THOSE IMMORTAL WORDS

by Holly Hartman & David Johnson

From: New England Confectionery Company (NECCO)
THE CONTINUING SWEET SUCCESS
OF AMERICA'S FAVORITE NOSTALGIC VALENTINE'S CANDY

From: Kraft Foods, Inc:
THE HISTORY OF KRAFT FOODS

From: Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology
QUESTIONS TO STELLA AND JUDD
Interview by Bruce Glaser
Edited by Lucy R. Lippard

From: Other Criteria: Confrontations with Twentieth Century Art
Excerpt: THE FLATBED PICTURE PLANE
(from the essay "Other Criteria")
by Leo Steinberg

From: The Originality of the Avant-Garde and Other Modernist Myths
THE ORIGINALITY OF THE AVANT-GARDE
and SINCERELY YOURS
by Rosalind Krauss

From: Cabinet Magazine
THE COPY AND ITS EVIL TWIN:
THIRTEEN NOTES ON FORGERY
by Alexander Nagel

From: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art:
A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings

BEWARE!
By Daniel Buren

Andrea Fraser
HOW TO PROVIDE AN ARTISTIC SERVICE: AN INTRODUCTION

From: Lucitania, 1991
Andrea Fraser
NOTES ON THE MUSEUM'S PUBLICITY

From: Parkett 66 - 2003
DANIEL BUREN: FROM PAINTING TO ARCHITECTURE
By Anne Rorimer

From: InterReview, 2004
MICHAEL ASHER: CONTEXT AS CONTENT
By Anne Rorimer

From: Los Angeles Times , 2002
BRIEF ARTICLE ON MICHAEL ASHER'S PROJECT
WITH FAIRFAX HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AND
THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART

From: InterReview, 2004
AN INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL ASHER
By Ginger Wolfe

From: ArtPress, 1995
FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES
ETRE UN ESPION
Interview by Robert Storr

From: Museum-L, 2005
ARTIFACTS VERSUS PROPS
(a discussion thread, Jan 12 - Jan 20, 2005)

From: Dia Art Foundation
JOSEPH BEUYS: 7000 OAKS
By Lynne Cooke

From: Dia Art Foundation
LAWRENCE WEINER
By Lynne Cooke

From: Beyond Recognition: Representation, Power, and Culture
WILLIAM WEGMAN'S PSYCHIC VAUDEVILLE
By Craig Owens

From: Part Object Part Sculpture
LAUGHTER
[on Marcel Broodthaers and Piero Manzoni]
By Rachel Haidu

KARIN SANDER, some works;
and
AN INTERVIEW
By Harald Welzer

TOWARDS A TENDER SOCIETY OF
THOUGHTFUL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
By Harrell Fletcher

An interview with Harrell Fletcher:
MERGING ART, FUNCTIONALITY, AND EDUCATION
Interview by Nic Paget-Clarke

I BEEN WANTING TO GO HOME
By Harrell Fletcher

From: Dia Art Foundation
ALIGHIERO BOETTIi & FRÉDÉRIC BRULY BOUABRBÉ:
WORLDS ENVISIONED
By Lynne Cooke
  ( For more complete information on this Dia exhibition click HERE )

An interview with Nicolas Bourriaud:
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Interview by Bennett Simpson

From: BOMB Magazine, August 2003
MARINA ABRAMOVIC BY LAURIE ANDERSON
An interview

WHO'S IN CONTROL? ISSUES IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA ART
By Sarah Drury

From: The Society of Control:
The Academy and the Corporate Public

SYMBOLIC CAPITAL MANAGEMENT
OR WHAT TO DO WITH THE GOOD, THE TRUE, AND THE BEAUTIFUL
By Hans Haacke

From: Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri
Empire
Part Three — Passages of Production
CHAPTER 3.5: MIXED CONSTITUTION


SOME ARTISTS

Some information on
KARIN SANDER
Some information on
ANDREA ZITTEL
Some information on
RIRKRIT TIRAVANIJA
Some information on
HARRELL FLETCHER
Some information on
LEE MINGWEI


SOME TEXTS
AVAILABLE ONLINE


From: Andrea Fraser
FOUR TEXTS
From: Lilian Tone
TEXTS ON ARTISTS
From: Lynne Cooke
TEXTS ON ARTISTS



Note: all texts are copyrighted — posted here for class use only