Prof. Francesco SpagnoloJEWISH 121 - GLOBAL 140 spagnoloacht@berkeley.edu UC Berkeley, Spring 2019 Office: 2121 Allston WayThe Magnes, 2121 Allston Way Hours: WED 5-6 pm & by appt.WED 2-5 pm
Culture & Performance
Mapping Diasporas
Jewish Culture, Museums, & Digital Humanities
How do we “map” cultures in motion? Describingtheinteractionofplaces,times,languages,identities,culturalformats,dominant andmarginalnarrativesthatcharacterize
culturesindiaspora
requiresa multidimensionality that
traditional maps
no longer meet. Intoday’sworld,we“map”diasporasthrough
digitalnarratives
,andoften
perform
culture
as
archivists
and
curators
. Inthiscourse,studentswillworkwiththe
culturalobjects
heldin
TheMagnes
CollectionofJewishArtandLife
,includingart,materialculture,books,manuscripts,
digitalassetsanddata,learningtoconductcollaborativeresearchanddocumentation,to createmapsandnarratives,andhowtocurate,performandpublishtheirfindingsin
museum galleries
and
online
. Eachweekinthesemestercombinescriticalapproachesandorientingtextswiththe exploration of a variety of tools and cultural practices.
Spagnolo | Mapping Diasporas1UCB Spring 2019
WEEK 1 – INTRODUCTION: Performing the Museum, Displacing Culture
Date: 1.23.2019 Resources (explored and discussed in class):
❏
Jake Silverstein, “The Displaced,”
The New York Times
, 11.15.2015 (Photographic and Virtual Reality Coverage of Syrian Refugee Crisis)
❏
Aaron Glanz-Leyeles (1889-1966),
Der got fun yisroel
(“The God of Israel,” 1947)
❏
Francesco Spagnolo,
mima’amaqim
(exhibition notes): 12-14, and exhibition website
(Contemporary Jewish Museum, 2015) In-Class Activities:
❏
Review the Syllabus and ask Questions!
❏
Exhibition-in-progress:
Memory Objects
❏
Virtual Reality Archeology (with Google Cardboard - Google VR)
SECTION I: CURATING (IN) DIASPORA(S) WEEK 2 - Handling the Museum
Date: 1.30.2019
In-Class Activities:
❏
Object Handling Workshop
, with Julie Franklin, Registrar, The Magnes
❏
Visit The Magnes: guided and self-guided tours of galleries, storage, and processing areas, with Dr. Shir Kochavi, Assistant Curator, The Magnes Resources:
❏
Charles R. Garoian, “Performing the Museum,” in
Studies in Art Education
42/3 (Spring 2001): 234-248
❏
Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
The Museum: a Refuge for Utopian Thought
(2004)
Submit a 1-page (max 300 words) review of one of the resources listed above via bCourses AND in class (on paper) WEEK 3 – Mapping the Unknown: The Library of Babel
Date: 2.6.2019 Resources:
❏
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel” (1941), in
Ficciones/Fictions
(1944)
❏
Umberto Eco,
The Name of the Rose
(1980) [distant reading: search PDF on bCourses for the words: “library” and “labyrinth”]
❏
The Name of the Rose
(dir. Jean-Jacques Annaud, Italy-West Germany-France, 1986, 130’) imdb link (check bCourses on how to watch this movie AHEAD OF CLASS)
❏
Walter Benjamin, “On the Mimetic Faculty,” in
Reflections
(1933) [focus on p. 335] In-Class Activities (8.30.2018):
❏
Organize a bookshelf (of likely unreadable books)
❏
Field trip planning
Spagnolo | Mapping Diasporas2UCB Spring 2019
WEEK 4 – Finding Diasporas (by BART)
Date: 2.13.2019
⇒
Meet
with Deputy Director,
James Leventhal
, at MOAD-Museum of the African Diaspora moadsf.org
by 2:50 PM
(31 minutes from Berkeley Downtown
BART
) Additional field trips recommendations for the “museum addicted”:
❏
Student recommendations (posted on bCourses’ discussion page)
❏
Asian Art Museum: asianart.org
❏
Oakland Museum of California: museumca.org
❏
de Young Museum: deyoung.famsf.org
❏
GLBT Historical Society: glbthistory.org
❏
Contemporary Jewish Museum: thecjm.org
WEEK 5 - Mapping the Similar: Theme and Variations
Date: 2.20.2019 Resources:
❏
Raymond Queneau,
Exercises in Style
(1947): 19-26
❏
J.S. Bach,
Goldberg Variations
, BWV 988 (1741): score and performance on YouTube
❏
Peter Williams,
Bach: The Goldberg Variations
, Cambridge UP 2001: “Introduction” (pp. 1-13) and “Overall shape” (p. 35-39, and 45-50)
❏
Uri Caine,
The Goldberg Variations
(2000): performance on YouTube and CD notes
❏
Josh Kun,
Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America
, UC Press 2005: “Introduction” (pp. 1–28) Electronic Resource link (UCB access only) In-Class Activity:
❏
“Mind mapping” software and platforms: research, evaluate, test
WEEK 6 – Mapping (the Objects of) Memory
Date: 2.27.2019 Resources:
❏
Jonathan Safran Foer,
Everything is Illuminated
(2002): read pp. 1-7; 59-62; 146-160; and also take a look at the “list” on pp. 197-213
❏
Everything is Illuminated
(dir. Liev Schreiber, USA 2005) imdb link (check bCourses on how to watch this movie AHEAD OF CLASS)
❏
Joshua Foer,
Moonwalking with Einstein
, 2011: Ch. 1, “The Smartest Man is Hard to Find”; Ch. 2, “The Man Who Remembered Too Much”; Ch. 5, “The Memory Palace”
❏
Ziv Schneider and Laura Chen, RecoVR Mosul (2015) In-Class Activities:
❏
Memory, Objects, and Places: UC Berkeley History and discoveries and Campus map
❏
Plan Project Abstracts
(due in class on 3.13.2019)
a.Topic/Thesis b.Sources c.Tools d.Title e.Subtitle f.Delivery/Presentation/Publication methods
Spagnolo | Mapping Diasporas3UCB Spring 2019