ACTION! On the Real City: Drawing With Light - Daylight and the Moving Image

Abstract

The word photography combines Greek roots phōtos, "light," and graphé, "represent by drawing lines". Photography is essentially "drawing with light."We will encourage reflections on this topic by developing new forms of urban literacy integrating ethnographic research methods, filmmaking and other forms of digital media.

Objective

Through a combination of practical exercises in video and audio techniques in parallel with the study of seminal observation-driven texts, this course aims to equip students with the basic tools and core principles to create short but complex portraits of urban space. This semester, the focus falls the the topic of daylight, in all of the ways in which it affects everday life - both indoors, outdoors, and everything in between. This approach will be applied to experiments in filmmaking and photography. Through various audiovisual experiments, students will collectively speculate on ways to marry the various forms of research methods that traditionally do not intersect, creating mosaics of experimental research forms. Using widely available recording tools and editing software, students will turn their fieldwork into short video or audio works of about 3-5 minutes.

Content

The course will compose of lectures, practical crash courses in media use and storytelling, and fieldwork sessions. The course will be a laboratory in the creation of short media works that aim to inform the architectural design process, working between the city and the studio in ONA. Students will be expected to complete all required work within the hours that the elective meets, with few requirements outside of the class hours.

Resources