080058 VO Contemporary Arts and Cultures of Globalization (2016W)

This course examines the histories, theories, and discourses of globalization in relation to artistic practices and cultural production from the 1980s to the present.

The historical and theoretical scope of this course focuses on a few central questions: First, given the changed historical conditions that are signaled by the diversity of the term 'globalization,' can we still use the same criteria to assess contemporary production or do we need to develop new measures and write different narratives? Second, what models of identity and subjectivity does contemporary artistic production offer and how do these relate to the increasingly powerful structures of globalization and the forces of neoliberal global capitalism? Third, how does artistic production of the last thirty-five years engage with the intensification of media culture, channels of marketing, advertising and publicity, and pervasiveness of social media that have transformed the world into a global village?

The approach is genealogical. As such, we will not seek some true, unchanging meaning of globalization but, rather, examine diverse, even opposing, ideological uses of the concept and ongoing contests over its meanings. This course does not claim to provide an exhaustive catalogue of every important artistic activity under this rubric, but will examine specific artists, collectives, and exhibitions as case studies.