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Each term, Bennington Visual Arts offers a program of 4-5 lectures by visiting arts professionals: artists, curators, historians and critics, selected to showcase the diversity of contemporary art practices. Designed to enhance a broader and deeper knowledge of various disciplines and issues in the Visual Arts and to stimulate campus dialogue around topical issues in contemporary art and culture, these thematically curated presentations offer students the opportunity to engage with art by emerging and internationally-known artists from underrepresented backgrounds.

This discussion-animated, readings-based seminar provides art historical, cultural, and critical contexts for the Visual Arts Lecture Series (VALS). In addition to our ongoing interrogation of the public lecture as such, students present their own work (in any field) and analyze the technical and stylistic aspects of structuring an effective and engaging ‘talk.’ The course provides unique opportunities for interaction with visiting artists, curators, critics, and historians.

In this course, students will examine the building blocks which make up the interlocking systems of language and observe how those systems are enacted and granted layers of meaning through social practice.

Chromophilia, refers to intense passion and love for color. What is it about color that has the power to induce reverie, and conversely to manipulate, or disgust? How does color work? What is the role of color in visual art? In language? How do we understand and respond to color from phenomenological, poetic, philosophical, and societal vantage points? How as artists can we become effective stewards of our passionately-loved and yet ever-shifting chroma?

Intermediate Video builds on the concepts and technical skills introduced in Intro to Video, and has a different theme each term. This semester of Intermediate Video will be focused on the following thematic, conceptual and formal questions.

Since its inception, film has been used for propaganda - disseminating information with a particular slant, whether subtle or obvious - by regimes and independent players across the political spectrum. As the means of production and circuits of distribution become ever more accessible to individuals, we have moved from an era of focused agitprop into a new era of diffused disinformation.

This course addresses the theories, methods, ethics, and actual outcomes of language documentation, revitalization, and reclamation work. Students will examine the causes and consequences of language endangerment, strategies for revitalization, and community-led initiatives in reclaiming linguistic and cultural heritage. Case studies from around the world will provide insight into real-world applications of language work and the diversity in form that this work takes depending on context.

An introduction to 16mm film techniques, students will shoot and edit analog 16mm film, develop by hand and finally will transfer film to video. Through screenings, experiments and hands-on workshops students will learn about cinematography and the photochemical process. Taking advantage of the special tactile, tangible nature of analog film, material properties will also be explored- direct tactile methods such as loops, paint/scratch on film and laser etching.

This semester-length, 2-credit course, intended for students who will continue to the Advanced Projects in Film/Video II course in spring 2023, supports advanced students in planning, pre-production, and early production (or for 8th term students, post-production and finishing) for more complex, larger-scale, longer-duration, self-directed film/video projects. It also includes a screening series where we watch and analyze feature and mid-length films.

This production course is designed to get students producing video immediately: we will look at basic techniques with an emphasis on simple and self-devised methods of media production, efficient approaches to lighting and sound, and emphasize quick turnover time to create a great amount of work in a relatively short period of time.

This production course introduces students to the fundamentals of working in video and the language of film form. Drawing on the energy, intensity and criticality of avant-garde film and contemporary video art practices, students will complete a series of projects exploring all basic aspects of film/video production (centered on DSLR cameras), such as cinematography, mise-en-scène, editing and sound design.