CBS Home Page
BASQUE STUDIES
Tutorial Ph D
Minor
Online courses
Course Syllabi
Language
|
|
Syllabus for BASQ 466, 666:
Museums, Architecture, City Renewal: The Bilbao Guggenheim — Part 2
Course Syllabus continued...
Week Eight
Gehry’s Apotheosis
READINGS:
Rafael Moneo, “Reflecting on Two Concert Halls” (Walter Gropius
Lecture, April 25, 1990. Harvard University, Graduate School of Design).
Barry Came, “Spain’s New Wonder of the World,” McLean’s,
Nov. 1997.
Cathleen McGuigan, “Basque-ing in Glory,” Newsweek, January 13,
1997.
Calvin Tomkins, “The Maverick,” The New Yorker, July 7,
1997.
Allan Schwartzman, “Art vs. Architecture,” Architecture, Dec. 1997, pp. 56-59.
VIDEO
Interviews with Gehry
The discussion will be geared to placing Gehry’s architecture within and
beyond the modernist/postmodernist paradigms, and to assessing the
significance of Gehry’s architecture and the uniqueness of the Bilbao
Guggenheim building. We will examine Gehry’s
creative process in designing his buildings, and how the building has
affected Bilbao’s city environment.
Week Nine
“Seduction, that’s my business.”
READINGS:
Suzanne Andrews, “Self-Confidence Man,” New York, May 9, 1994.
Thomas Krens, “Museums and History: The Dynamics of Culture in a
Postmodern Era.” In The Guggenheim Museum Salzburg. A Project by Hans Hollein.
The Salomon Guggenheim Foundation, Salzburg, 1990, pp.53-61.
Shoshana Felman, “The Perversion of Promising: Don Juan and
Literary Performance.” In S. Felman, The Literary Speech Act
Cornell
University Press, 1983:25-58.
Report
Jean Braudillard, Seduction. St. Martin’s Press, 1990.
Week Ten
What is a Museum?
READINGS:
Duncan Cameron, “The Museum: A Temple or the Forum,” Journal of World History,
14(1):191-202.
Ivan Karp “Culture and Representation.” In I. Karp and S.
Lavine, Exhibiting Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display,
Smithsonian Institution, 1991, pp.11-24.
Daniel Sherman, “Quatremère/Benjamin/Marx: Art Museums, Aura,
and Commodity Fetishism.” In D. Sherman and I. Rogoff, Museum Culture: Histories,
Discourses, Spectacles, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994.
VIDEO
“The Getty Center and the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum”
Report:
Victoria Newhouse, Towards a New Museum (Monacelli Press, 1998).
How do we define a museum and what are its roles; its various historical
analogies; its relationship with the rest of the culture as
representation; the significance of museums in postmodern thinking; the
historical novelty of the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum.
Week Eleven
McGuggenheimization, Las Vegasing and the Benetton Effect
READINGS:
George Ritzer, “The McDonaldization of Society” (Chapter 1 of his The McDonaldization
of Society, Pine Forge Press, Thousand Oaks, 1993).
Donald McNeill, “McGuggenisation? National Identity and Globalization in the Basque
Country,” Political Geography 19:473-494.
Henry A. Giroux, “Consuming Social Change: The United Colors of
Benetton.” In H. Giroux, Disturbing Pleasures: Learning Popular Culture,
Routledge, New York, 1994.
Hilton Kramer, “Dispersing a Museum Collection,” The New Criterion,
September 1992.
Report:
Las Vegas
A crucial lesson taught by the Bilbao Guggenheim is the impact of
the historical globalizing forces on the institution of the
museum. Relevant to this is the franchise aspect of the Bilbao
Guggenheim. This will lead us to examining the McDonalds institutional model as
applied to the museum, to a critical understanding of such historical transformations and
to the relationship between contemporary museums and promotional culture.
Week Twelve
The Culture of Tourism
READINGS:
Jennifer Craik, “The Culture of Tourism.” In C. Rojek and J. Urry, Touring
Cultures: Transformations of Travel and Theory, Routledge, New York, 1997.
Nelson Graburn, “Tourism, Modernity and Nostalgia.” In A. Ahmed and C. Shore, The Future
of Anthropology, Athlone, London, 1995.
Carol Becker, “The Romance of Nomadism: A Series of reflections,” Art Journal,
Summer 1999.
Report:
Chris Rojek and John Ury, Touring Cultures, “Introduction,” and G. Ritzer and A.
Liska, “‘McDisneization’ and ‘Post-Tourism’.”
Bilbao officials view their museum largely as a bait for touristic
attraction. Economic considerations are paramount in tourism but there
are significant cultural implications as well. Issues of authenticity,
nostalgia, and postmodernism can be raised around the culture of
tourism. The romance of nomadism is not free from cultural and
political contradictions.
Week Thirteen
From Informational to Imaginary Cities: The Global Postmodern Space
READINGS:
David Lyon, “From Postindustrialism to Postmodernity.” In D.
Lyon, Postmodernity, Univ. of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1994, pp. 37-53.
Brian Willis, “Selling Nations: International Exhibitions and Cultural
Diplomacy”. In D. Sherman and I. Rogoff, Museum Culture, Minnesota Press,
Minneappolis, 1994, pp.265-281.
Stuart Hall, “The Local and the Global: Globalization and Ethnicity.” In A. McClintock,
A. Mufti and E. Shoat, Dangerous Liaisons, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
1997, pp.173-187.
FILM
“The World Is Not Enough”
Report:
Manuel Castells and Peter Hall, “Chapter 1. Technopoles: Mines and Foundries
of the Informational Economy”; and “Chapter 9. Distilling the
Lessons.” In M. Castells
and P. Hall, Technopoles of the World. Routledge, New York, 1994.
We will look at the the relationship of postmodernism to postindustrialism, informational economies and
consumerism, as well as to the effects of the postmodern condition on
issues of identity and politics. Some of the issues will be: the
application of the political economy of local place/global space to
Bilbao, the strategies of place-making and how they affect our view of culture, the
construction of places through spatial practices, the politics of place
and identity for the global selling of a city and Bilbao’s success in
this regard.
|