CP 201a: Making Culture: Theory and Practice
What is "culture" and how is it produced, transmitted, reproduced, disseminated, preserved and contested? Examines theories of mass, public, popular and elite culture, with particular attention to relations of power and knowledge. Considers the social dynamics of remembrance, visual experience and performance. Through detailed case studies, we investigate how cultural forms emerge in diverse "high" and "low" contexts, from media conglomerates and major museums to "outsider" artists and street performers. Students undertake original research in documenting and interpreting cultural form or practice. Usually offered every year. (Instructor: Auslander)