This course explores the ways in which objects and material culture embody personal narrative. Moving back and forth from ephemeral traces of events and experiences to the culturally invested luxury goods that create legacy to the objects that facilitate daily life, this class will use, as its primary references, examples that draw from queer and African American cultures to underscore the potential of objects to tell the stories that not only reflect majority traditions and experiences but those of the disenfranchised, the details of whose lives are often obscured. In addition to readings that will provide background for class discussion, student will be asked to play the roles of detectives, archeologists, and curators at various sites around New York City. Each student will also be asked to create an annotated material record that reveals the public and private lives of one individual. That record may consist of texts, objects or any variety of media chosen or designed by the student. This blogs serves as an archive for the work done in the context of this course and related materials that become relevant to this exploration.

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

David Bowie is still an oddity among pop icons

That sense of mystery led the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to the title of its landmark exhibition exploring Bowie's collaborations with artists and designers in fashion, sound, graphics, theater, art and film: "David Bowie Is." In the documentary of the same name, screening this weekend in Phoenix, Victoria Broackes, a curator, explains, "The title, 'David Bowie Is,' poses the question, 'What is David Bowie?' And our approach in the exhibition has been to leave that question open, to highlight (that) there is no single answer."
The film provides a fascinating glimpse into Bowie's mind, revealing much more than one might imagine for a documentary on an exhibition of an artist's artifacts.


'David Bowie Is'
When: Tuesday, Sept. 23, through Thursday, Oct. 2. Contact Film Bar for times.
Where: FilmBar, 815 N. Second St., Phoenix.
Admission: $12.
Details: 602-595-9187, thefilmbarphx.com.


- Kevin Houlahan
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