VISCR600 GE: Interviews

The interview is central to the practice, criticism, and history of contemporary visual culture. A mainstay of art-world periodicals, artist monographs, exhibition catalogues, documentary films, theses and dissertations on art, design, and architecture in the contemporary era, the interview genre has become so ubiquitous that we are hardly aware of the mechanisms by which it creates historical effects or shapes the celebrity profiles of its subjects. Taking the interview as a focus, this seminar will familiarize students with the styles, methods, and techniques employed by interviewers whose work circulates in the popular art press, on public radio, and in scholarly journals, among other venues. We will study examples that respond successfully to the challenges posed by interviewees, editors, broadcasters, and peer reviewers. The seminar offers opportunities to analyze the impact of the interview genre on the contemporary cultural scene, to learn from professionals who have specialized in this genre, and to gain experience conducting interviews. Critiques carried out in regular workshops will enable students to hone the research, questioning, recording, writing, and editing skills necessary to produce a publishable interview. The class is open to students from any CCA graduate program and, with permission of the instructor, to upper division undergraduates.