Over and out!

Hurrah to all of you for topping off the semester with a long, substantial paper. It's truly been a pleasure learning alongside with you throughout the semester. I wish you the best in your future studies.

I do hope that the next time you stand before an Old Master painting at an art museum; notice a surveillance camera staring down at you when you thought you were "alone"; gaze at a photograph of yourself as a child; shove a videotape into the slot of a VCR; or get closer to someone through email--you think of the films and readings we covered together in class!

A few last loose threads:

Please check back on the Learning to Love You More website to see your classmates' posted assignments. Your responses to the site are fascinating--you both take up the spirit of the project and offer challenges to it. What is it like to have your self-expressivity compelled by a "double" assignment? To have it dislocated from the intimacy of your private, personal space and thrust into the public, collective space of the website?

Finally, just for kicks, take a look at the following music videos. Music videos are such a glossy, ephemeral, and concise compression of what is swirling around in the popular imagination. Like advertising, I think they provide a snapshot of the cultural tropes and representational styles of the moment. You might enjoy the ones below that resonate with some of the themes of the class:

Can technology be as organic as the human body? Is Bjork naked or nude?
http://www.bjork.com/videogallery/watch.php?video=17;size=large
http://www.bjork.com/videogallery/watch.php?video=16;size=large

Does the reproduction change the status of the original?
http://mcms-delivery.virtuebroadcasting.com/deliverMedia.asp?id=C318701C-741E-4EB9-B684-0C63B35BBBEA

What if the hallucinatory machinic visions of Busby Berkeley infiltrated everyday life?
http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com/disco/videos/forever/medium.html