Course Schedule

Full list of: Course Readings

8/29 WEEK 1: Course Introduction

TOPICS: Review course policies, syllabus, and OpenLab. What is the difference between the concepts theatre and performance? What are the essentials of each? How is performance social? Does “liveness” matter, and if so, why? How do designed spaces confer meaning and shape behaviors? How can users reify designed spaces through performance? Discuss Key Terms for the Course (see slide presentation).

9/5  NO CLASSES SCHEDULED

9/12 WEEK 2: Performance, Performativity, and Urban Space

TOPICS: Review Site Report Template. Observation and research. Social Space

SITE VISIT: Zuccotti Park / The Subway (The Oculus)

Week 2 Homework (due today):

  • Read: van Heeswijk, Franck and Huang (pp. 12-18); Golan.
  • Blog Response 1 (150-200 words)

9/19 NO CLASSES SCHEDULED

9/26 WEEK 3: Performance, Performativity, and Urban Space

TOPICS: Documenting performance and performance as documentation. Access and audience and acculturation. Archives.

SITE VISIT:  Washington Square Park & NYU Fales Downtown Collection

Week 3 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Cook; Emergency Index (intro & excerpts)
  • Watch: Reverend Billy 2 short videos
  • Site report 1A: Zuccotti / Urban Public Space

10/3 WEEK 4: Performance, Performativity, and Urban Space

TOPICS: Creating meaning in urban environments. Community and place. Identity and Performance: race, gender, class. How are social norms and identities constructed, and how can they be subverted? How do these processes play out in different social spaces?

Week 4 Homework (due today):

10/10 WEEK 5: Rules of the Public Sphere

TOPICS: Hard rules for public behavior. Enforcement and Surveillance. Zoning and use.

GUEST: Ben Shepard

Week 5 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Cahill; Fallen Fruit; Eisenberg
  • Blog Response 2 (150-200 words)

10/17 WEEK 6: Contested Spaces: Occupation, Resistance, and the Living Archive

TOPICS: Soft rules for public behavior. Architectural semiotics.

SITE VISIT:  Brooklyn Museum & Environmental Performance Agency (1067 Pacific Street) Urban Weeds Community Garden 

Week 6 Homework (due today):

10/24 WEEK 7: Contested Spaces: Occupation, Resistance, and the Living Archive

TOPICS: Occupation as performance. Performance as resistance.

SITE VISIT:  St. Ann’s Tour

Week 7 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Waller; Greenwald and MacPhee (excerpts); Lane (highlighted text only).
  • Listen: Audio Interference Bread and Puppet Theatre Podcast
  • Site Report 2A: BK Museum / Contested Space

10/31 WEEK 8: Rules of the Public Sphere

TOPICS: Subversion. Risk. Rehearsing new rules theatrically. Commons: informational and spatial.

Week 8 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Solnit; Caffentzis; Brash.
  • Site Report 2B Contested Space 

11/7 WEEK 9: Contested Spaces: Occupation, Resistance, and the Living Archive

TOPICS: Documenting Cultural production; Annotated Bibliography.

Guests: Mike Clemow on Pirate Radio & Documenting Protest; Ryan McGrady Documenting Protest on Wikimedia Commons

Week 9 Homework (due today):

11/14 WEEK 10: Project Development and Review   

TOPICS: How to stage an intervention.

ACTIVITIES: Podcasting Tools, Theatrical tools, Research tools.

Week 10 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Atlas
  • Record: Sounds or video footage related to issue to explore

11/21 WEEK 11: Contested Spaces: Occupation, Resistance, and the Living Archive

TOPICS: Cultural production as Documentation; Archiving as Performance. Printmaking and symbols of resistance.

Guests: Hugh Sillitoe.

SITE VISIT: Interference Archive

Week 11 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Barrios; About the Alternative Press Center
  • Last week to see a performance for Site Report 3

11/28 WEEK 12: Project Development       

Week 12 Homework (due today):

  • Read: Resistance Revival Toolkit
  • Project Outline due
  • Site Report 3A & B must be completed by this date!

12/5 WEEK 13: Project Development

Week 13 Homework (due today):

  • Continue working on Final Report and Presentation
  • Annotated Bibliography due

12/12 WEEK 14: Project Development

Week 14 Homework (due today):

  • Continue working on Final Report and Presentation

12/19 WEEK 15: Final Project

ACTIVITIES: Presentations or performance. Reflection free write.   

Week 15 Homework (due today):

  • Final Report and Presentation Due on OpenLab