COMM 450: VISUAL CULTURE AND COMMUNICATION
Professor: Susana Smith Bautista, Ph.D.
Office hours: 10-11 Fridays and by appointment
susanesm@usc.edu
Fall 2013
F 2-4:50 pm
ASC 228
Course Description:
This course investigates the meaning of visual culture and communication from the perspective of the
“public,” starting in the eighteen-century through the present. Visual culture is most commonly
experienced in the public sphere, including both public (civic) spaces and institutions such as museums
that both require the constant negotiation between public and private interests. The course will also focus
on the visual arts as a form of communication, and how they are integrated with culture and the public.
First we will look at general ideas of culture and the public, then formulate an idea about public culture,
and then explore important notions related to public visual culture in the arts such as power relations,
social capital, universalism, participatory culture, activism, as well as ideas about mass culture and mass
communication that are still pertinent today in the digital age with the popularity of digital
communications technologies. The course will also include a visit to a local museum and a tour of public
art, directly related to student projects on public visual culture in the present day.
Course Readings:
All course readings are uploaded as PDFs on the course Blackboard site.
Course Requirements and Expectations:
The course will be taught as a seminar, dependent on active student reading and participation. You are
required to do all of the reading, attend all classes (including field trips), complete all assignments, and
participate fully in class discussions. Attendance is mandatory and will be taken at the beginning of each
class meeting. You are allowed three absences without explanation, after which there is a deduction of
half a grade off the final grade for each unexcused absence. You may bring your laptops to class for notetaking only. If you abuse this privilege, you will be marked absent for that class period and laptops may
be banned from the classroom for everyone.
Each week, one student will be responsible for preparing discussion questions and presenting the week’s
readings. You are required to come to class ready to contribute, having read the required materials and
thought about important questions to be raised in discussion. In addition to these presentations, you will
participate in the course blog. During the semester, you will be required to post at least 10 times to the
class blog. These blog posts should include a paragraph or two of commentary on the significance of the
week’s readings in relation to the themes of the course, and can incorporate outside materials or events,
pose questions for discussions, or respond thoughtfully to other postings. These comments must be
posted by 6:00 pm on the day before class in order to receive credit, to give other students time to read
them and respond. A final project will comprise a large part of the course requirements, to be decided on
by week 6 of the semester by the student. This final project will be in the form of a written paper, doublespaced, 10-15 pages, and an in-class presentation using digital means.
Grade Breakdown
In-class Participation and Attendance
In-class Reading Presentation
Contribution to the Course Blog
Final Project and Presentation
25%
15%
20%
40%
1
All of your work will be graded on the following:
 Your understanding of the theories and case studies from the class materials
 How well you articulate your ideas and structure your argument
 Your ability to creatively explore ideas from the class
Academic Integrity:
The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University's Academic
Integrity code as detailed in the Campus Guide. It is the policy of the School of Communication
to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic
Integrity Code will result in the student's expulsion from the Communication major or minor.
See section 11 of Scampus.
ADA Compliance Statement
Students requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required to register with
Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved
accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be
sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is open MondayFriday, 8:30-5:00. The office is in Student Union 301 and their phone number is
(213) 740-0776. For additional information, see the Web page of the Disabilities Services
Program in SCAMPUS.
ESL Students
Please inform me as soon as possible if you require special accommodations based on your
understanding of the English language.
Course Schedule (subject to change)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 1 (August 30): What is Culture?
This week starts the course with a general discussion about culture, one of the most difficult
notions to describe, yet used commonly across all disciplines.
In-class video: Guillermo Gomez Pena and Coco Fusco, The Couple in the Cage (1993)
Bennett, T., Grossberg, L., & Morris, M. (2005). New keywords: A revised vocabulary of culture
and society. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Read: pages 63-69
Geertz, Clifford. (1973). The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays. New York: Basic Books.
Read: pages 10-13 (section III) and pages 17-20 (section V)
Harrison, L. E., & Huntington, S. P. (Eds.). (2000). Culture matters: How values shape human
progress. New York: Basic Books.
Read: Introduction by Lawrence E. Harrison (Why Culture Matters), pages xxiv - xxxii
2
Related Readings:
Benhabib, Seyla. (2002). The claims of culture: Equality and diversity in the global era. New
Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Bennett, T. (1999). Useful culture. In D. Boswell & J. Evans (Eds.), Representing the nation: A
reader. Histories, heritage and museums (pp. 380–393). New York: Routledge.
Clifford, James. (1988). The predicament of culture: Twentieth-century ethnography, literature,
and art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.
Grossberg, Lawrence, Nelson, Cary, & Treichler, Paula, Eds. (1992). Cultural Studies.
Psychology Press.
Williams, Raymond. (1983). Culture and society: 1780 – 1950. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1983.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 2 (September 6): What (Who) is the Public?
This week looks at traditional notions of the public sphere and the public in the context of 19th
century Europe. We will also explore the ideas of social capital and community and discuss if
there is any validity in distinguishing between publics and communities.
Marx, Karl & Engels, Frederick. (1845-1846). The German ideology. In R. T. Craig & H. L.
Muller. (Eds.). (2007). Theorizing communication: Readings across traditions. Thousand Oaks,
California: Sage Publications.
Read: pages 433-436
Habermas, Jürgen. (1989). Structural transformation of the public sphere: An inquiry into a
category of bourgeois society. (T. Burger, Trans. with the assistance of F. Lawrence).
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (first published in German in 1962)
Read: Chapter II (Social Structures of the Public Sphere), pages 27-56
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New
York: Simon & Schuster.
Read: Chapter 1 (Thinking about Social Change in America), pp. 15-30
Related Readings:
Warner, Michael. (2005). Publics and counterpublics. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books.
Asen, Robert, & Brouwer, D. C. (Eds.). (2001). Counterpublics and the state. Albany: State
University of New York Press.
Robbins, Bruce. (Ed.). (1993). The phantom public sphere. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
3
Fraser, N. (1990). Rethinking the public sphere: A contribution to the critique of actually
existing democracy. Social Text, 25/26, 56–80.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 3 (September 13): Mass Culture
The concept of public culture will be explored this week, starting with traditional Marxist views
of “mass” culture from the Industrial Age to the age of mass communication in the early 20th
century. We will examine the early distinction that was made between high and low (popular,
mass) culture, and the concerns that theorists had with the culture industry and the
commodification of culture for the masses in modern capitalist society.
MacDonald, Dwight. (1953). A theory of mass culture. In John Durham Peters & Peter
Simonson (Eds.). (2004). Mass communication and American social thought. Key texts, 1919 –
1968. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Read: pages 343-353
DiMaggio, Paul. (1982). Cultural entrepreneurship in nineteenth-century Boston: the creation of
an organizational base for high culture in America. Media, Culture and Society, 4, 33-50.
Read: pages 33-50
Bennett, Tony. (1995). The birth of the museum: History, theory, politics. New York: Routledge.
Read: Chapter 2 (The Exhibitionary Complex), pages 59-88
Related Readings:
Horkheimer, Max. (1941). Art and mass culture, Studies in Philosophy and Social Science 9, no.
2 (1941) in Durham Peters, John & Simonson, Peter. (Eds.), Mass communication and American
social thought. Key texts, 1919 – 1968. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004.
Lazarsfeld, Paul F., & Merton, Robert K. (1948). Mass communication, popular taste, and
organized social action in Durham Peters, John & Simonson, Peter. (Eds.), Mass communication
and American social thought. Key texts, 1919 – 1968. New York: Rowman & Littlefield
Publishers, Inc., 2004.
Mills, C. Wright. (1956). The Mass Society from The Power Elite (pp. 387-400). In J. Durham
Peters & P. Simonson (Eds.), Mass communication and American social thought. Key texts, 1919
– 1968. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 4 (September 20): The Role of the Museum
This week will look at the role of socio-cultural institutions to preserve and promote public
culture, and specifically at the museum. We will look into the institutionalization of public
culture in Europe and the United States, with the notions of spectacle and public exhibitions, and
examine how the modern museum balances the interests of the public with that of the
government.
4
Bennett, Tony. (1995). The formation of the museum. In The birth of the museum: History,
theory, politics. New York: Routledge.
Read: Chapter 1 (The Formation of the Museum), pages 17-58
Weil, Stephen E. (2002). The museum and the public. In Making museums matter. Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Read Chapter 19 (The Museum and the Public), pages 195-213
Alpers, Svetlana. (1991). The museum as a way of seeing. In I. Karp, & S. D. Lavine (Eds.),
Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
institution Press.
Read: Chapter 1 (The Museum as a Way of Seeing), pages 25-32
Related Readings:
Putnam, James. (2001). Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium. New York: Thames and
Hudson.
Janes, Robert R. & Conaty, Gerald T. (Eds.). (2005). Looking reality in the eye: Museums and
social responsibility. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press.
Appleton, Josie. (2007). Museums for ‘the people’ (pp. 114-132)? In S. Watson. (Ed.). Museums
and their communities. New York: Routledge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 5 (September 27): Exhibition Rhetorics
Written Proposal for Final Projects due by the beginning of class
This week examines the politics of display and the power of objects to further the agenda of
various individuals and groups. The notion of exhibition rhetorics is based on that of visual
rhetorics that has commonly been associated with modern and even postmodern society that is
visually predominant. The power of visual images and objects acquire an even greater power
when placed within the institutional framework of museums, but this effect often has mixed
results depending on particular goals and receptions of the exhibitions.
In-class visit to USC Fisher Museum, talk with Fisher Curator Ariadni Liokatis.
Ferguson, Bruce W. (1996). Exhibition rhetorics: material speech and utter sense. In R.
Greenberg, B. W. Ferguson, & S. Nairne (Eds.). Thinking about exhibitions. New York:
Routledge.
Read: Chapter 9 (Exhibition Rhetorics), pages 175 - 190
Buckley, Bernadette. (2008). China Design Now. Theory, Culture & Society, 25, 341-352.
Read: pages 341-352
Karp, Ivan & Wilson, Fred. Constructing the spectacle of culture in museums. In R. Greenberg,
B. W. Ferguson, & S. Nairne. (Eds.). Thinking about exhibitions. New York: Routledge.
5
Read: Chapter 14 (Constructing the spectacle of culture in museums), pages 251 - 267
Related Readings:
Macdonald, Sharon & Basu, Paul. (Eds.). (2007). Exhibition experiments. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.
Baudrillard, Jean. (1993). The order of simulacra (pp. 50-86). In Symbolic exchange and death.
(I. H. Grant, Trans.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. (Original work published 1976)
Barthes, Roland. (1977). Rhetoric of the image (pp. 32-51). In Image music text. London:
Fontana Press.
Hall, Stuart. (1982). The rediscovery of ‘Ideology:’ Return on the repressed in media studies (pp.
56-90). In M. Gurevitch, T. Bunnett, J. Curran, & S. Wollacott (Eds.), Culture, Society and the
Media. London: Methuen.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 6 (October 4): Field Trip
Required: Meet with me to decide final project
Review exhibition website before class
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 7 (October 11): Politics and Public Culture
This week explores how elements of public culture have long been utilized by the state to further
its interests at the time. The first public museums of 19th century Europe were used to achieve
national goals and to glorify the nation. Cultural diplomacy and “soft power” have been a stable
factor of modern governments to create a positive global image through the use of a nation’s art
and artists, often in partnership with museums and other cultural institutions.
In-class video: Family of Man, Museum of Modern Art
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. (1992). Museums and the shaping of knowledge. New York:
Routledge.
Read: Chapter 7 (The Disciplinary Museum), pages 167-190
Arndt, Richard. (2005). The first resort of kings: American cultural diplomacy in the twentieth
century. Potomac Books.
Read: Chapter 16 (The Arts of Vision), pages 360-379
Related Readings:
Kammen, Michael. (2007). Culture and the state in America (pp. 69-96). In C. N. Blake (Ed.),
The arts of democracy: Art, public culture, and the state. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson
Center Press.
6
Duncan, Carol. (1991). Art museums and the ritual of citizenship (pp. 88-103). In Karp, Ivan &
Lavine, Steven D. (Eds.). Exhibiting cultures: The poetics and politics of museum display.
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian institution Press.
Binkiewicz, Donna M. (2007). A modernist vision: The origins and early years of the National
Endowment for the Arts’ Visual Arts Program (pp. 171-196). In C. N. Blake (Ed.), The arts of
democracy: Art, public culture, and the state. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 8 (October 18): Memory and Public Culture
This week will explore memory as a social construction and how it is preserved and reevaluated
in the public through cultural institutions and communal experiences. Memory is an important
element to thinking about public culture and the role of institutions. We will look at examples of
how museums, collections, and exhibitions have been used in the service of memory, questioning
whose memory is being addressed, often with conflicting and overlapping interests.
In-class visit by Ioana Literat, USC Annenberg Ph.D. Candidate, talking about The Names
Project (Aids Memorial Quilt). Review website before class http://www.aidsquilt.org/
Gallagher, Victoria J. (1995). Remembering together: Rhetorical integration and the case of the
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The Southern Communication Journal, 60.2, 109-119.
Read: pages 109-119
Huyssen, Andreas. (2000). Present pasts: Media, politics, amnesia. Public Culture, 12, 21-38.
Read: pages 21-38
Duffy, Terence. (2007). The Holocaust museum concept. In S. Watson. (Ed.). Museums and
their communities. New York: Routledge.
Read: pages 452-456
Related Readings:
Anderson, Benedict. (1983). Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of
nationalism. New York: Verso.
Habermas, Jürgen. (1989). Political functions of the public sphere. In Structural transformation
of the public sphere: An inquiry into a category of bourgeois society (pp. 57-88). (T. Burger,
Trans. with the assistance of F. Lawrence). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (first published in
German in 1962)
Merriman, Nick. (2007). The peopling of London project (pp. 335-357). In S. Watson. (Ed.).
Museums and their communities. New York: Routledge.
Muzaini, Hamzah & Yeoh, Brenda S.A. (2007). Contesting ‘local’ commemoration of the
Second World War: The case of the Changi Chapel and Museum in Singapore (pp. 418-434). In
S. Watson. (Ed.). Museums and their communities. New York: Routledge.
7
Jenkins, Tiffany. (2007). Victims remembered (pp. 448-451). In S. Watson. (Ed.). Museums and
their communities. New York: Routledge.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 9 (October 25): Identity and Individualism
This week focuses on how different identities are important to consider when discussing public
culture: personal identities, communal, ethnic, geographic, national, and global, and also
institutions that possess an identity related to their particular goals and positions within society.
The digital age has been described as having a culture of “networked individualism” that
explains how new media support an era of individualism connected to a larger sphere of likeminded individuals and groups, resulting in online social networks, chat forums, and online
communities of interest. When public culture is contested, struggles often arise to control its
possession, interpretation, and display, such as with the global repatriation of artworks.
Goffman, Erving. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday &
Company, Inc., 1959.
Read: Introduction, pages 1-16
Karp, Ivan. (1992). On civil society and social identity. In Karp, I., Kreamer, C. M., & Lavine, S.
D. (Eds.). Museums and communities: The politics of public culture. Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Institution Press.
Read: Chapter 1 (On Civil Society and Social Identity), pages 19-33
García Canclini, Néstor. (2001). Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural
Conflicts. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Read: Chapter 5 (Identities as a multimedia spectacle), pages 89-96
Related Readings:
Warner, Michael. (2005). Publics and counterpublics. Brooklyn, NY: Zone Books.
Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean. (1992). What is a museum? In Museums and the shaping of knowledge
(pp. 1-22). New York: Routledge.
Giddens, Anthony. Modernity and self-identity. Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 1991.
Holo, Selma. (2002). Conducting civic dialogue: A Challenging role for museums. Animating
Democracy: Museums and Civic Dialogue Series. Washington, D.C.: Americans for the Arts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 10 (November 1): Public Art
This week focuses on the subject of public art, a familiar subject that sits at the intersection of
public culture, art, and communication. Readings will explore critical issues surrounding public
art, such as political interests, mass culture, and participatory culture, and the very definition of
8
art. In class we will explore unusual examples of public art in order to discuss how they serve the
respond to the needs and tastes of their particular public.
In-class visit by artist Chaz Bojórquez. Review website before class
http://www.chazbojorquez.com/
Hein, Hilde. (2006). Public art: Thinking museums differently. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press.
Read: Chapter 2 (The Private, the Nonprivate, and the Public), pages 23-47
Bogart, Michele H. (2007). Norman Rockwell, public artist. In C. N. Blake (Ed.), The arts of
democracy: Art, public culture, and the state. Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
Read: Chapter 2 (Norman Rockwell, Public Artist), pages 31-66
Related Readings:
Levine, Caroline. (2007). Provoking democracy: Why we need the arts. Malden, MA: Blackwell
Publishing.
Krause Knight, Cher. (2008). Public Art: Theory, Practice and Populism. Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing.
Karp, Ivan, Kreamer, C. M., & Lavine, S. D. (Eds.). (1992). Museums and communities: The
politics of public culture. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Read: Introduction, pages 1-17
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 11 (November8): Field Trip
Required: Self-guided Public Art tour at USC
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 12 (November 15): The Digital Public Sphere
This week asks how the issues surrounding public culture and the arts are different in the digital
age. What do the meanings of community, public, and participation mean when they are shifted
onto the Internet? We will examine the notion of a participatory culture as pertains to the digital
age and youth, issues of access, and online communities. What are the digital tools that museums
have available today to reach out to their visitors, and how are they using them? Is participation
today a factor of education, ability or social class, and is the digital divide still a concern? Is
creativity being stifled by copyright laws?
Ito, Mizuko, Heather A. Horst, Matteo Bittanti, danah boyd, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Patricia G.
Lange, C.J. Pascoe, and Laura Robinson (with Sonja Baumer, Rachel Cody, Dilan Mahendran,
Katynka Martínez, Dan Perkel, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp.) (2008, November). Living and
Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project. The John D.
and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Reports on Digital Media and Learning
Read: pages 13-39
9
Castells, Manuel. (2001). The Internet galaxy: Reflections on the Internet, business, and society.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Read: Chapter 2 (The Culture of the Internet), pages 36-63
Related Readings:
Din, Herminia & Hecht, Phyllis. (Eds.). (2007). The digital museum: A think guide. Washington,
D.C.: American Association of Museums.
Mitchell, William J., Inouye, Alan S., & Blumenthal, Marjory S. (Eds.). (2003). Beyond
productivity: Information technology, innovation, and creativity. Washington, D.C.: The
National Academies Press.
Jenkins, H., Puroshotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M., & Robison, A. J. (2007). Confronting the
challenges of participatory culture: Media education for the 21st century. Chicago, IL: The
MacArthur Foundation.
Rifkin, Jeremy. (2000). The age of access. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.
Bennett, W. Lance. (2008). Civic life online: Learning how digital media can engage youth. The
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 13 (November 22): Cultural Rights and Activism
This week focuses on participation in the cultural public sphere, which often turns into activism
and litigation, as related to participation as a factor of the digital age. Many of the recent and
current issues surrounding arts activism are affected by technological phenomena such as remix,
mash-ups and Photoshop, but efforts to participate in the cultural public sphere long preceded the
digital age with graffiti, murals, and posters. Many of these efforts are more economical in
nature, reflecting political policies and commercial interests such as the Occupy Movement.
Visit América Tropical Interpretive Center, El Pueblo de Los Ángeles (Olvera Street)
Ivey, Bill. Arts, Inc.: How greed and neglect have destroyed our cultural rights. Los Angeles:
University of California Press, 2008.
Read: Conclusion: Bridging the Cultural Divide, pages 261-296
Levine, Caroline. (2007). The people v. the arts. In Provoking democracy: Why we need the arts.
Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Read: pages 36-72
Related readings:
Asen, R. (2004). A discourse theory of citizenship. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 90, 189- 211.
10
Prosterman, Leslie. (2007). Subtle, intangible, and non-quantifiable: Aesthetics, law, and speech
in public space. In C. Nelson Blake (Ed.), The arts of democracy: Art, public culture, and the
state (pp. 275-304). Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson Center Press.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 14 (November 29): NO CLASS, THANKSGIVING BREAK
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Week 15 (December 6): Last Day of Class
In-class student presentations of final projects
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, December 13: Final papers due in hard copy by 5:00pm
11