FAVz095 The Studio: Environment, Aesthetic, Fantasy

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2022
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Brian Jacobson (lecturer), doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D. (deputy)
Mgr. et Mgr. Terézia Porubčanská, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Pavel Skopal, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 2. 5. 14:00–15:40 C34, 16:00–17:40 C34, Tue 3. 5. 12:00–13:40 C34, Wed 4. 5. 10:00–11:40 C34, 14:00–15:40 C34
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Schedule of Reading 1. Introduction: Studio Perspectives Jacobson, Brian R. “Introduction: Studio Perspectives,” in In the Studio: Visual Creation and Its Material Environments, ed. Brian R. Jacobson. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. Suggested: “Introduction” to Jacobson, Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. 2. Environment: Studio Ontologies of Containment, Control, and Creation Jacobson, Brian R. “Fire and Failure: Studio Technology, Environmental Control, and the Politics of Progress.” Cinema Journal 57, no. 2 (Winter 2018): 22–43. Suggested: Farmer, Richard. “Meteorology and British Film Studios: An Article of the London Fog.” Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print): 1–21. Suggested: Steimatsky and Dickinson chapters in In the Studio 3. Aesthetic: Studio Architecture and Film Form Jacobson, Brian R. “Black Boxes and Open-Air Stages: Film Studio Technology and Environmental Control from the Laboratory to the Rooftop,” in Studios Before the System 4. Fantasy: Studio Form and Architectural Function Jacobson, Brian R. “Fantastic Functionality: Studio Architecture and the Visual Rhetoric of Early Hollywood.” Film History 26, no. 2, "Early Hollywood and the Archive" (2014): 52– 81. Suggested: Street, Sarah. “Designing the Ideal Film Studio in Britain.” Screen 62, no. 3 (2021): 330–58. Suggested: Lewis, Weber, Street, and Spigel chapters in In the Studio 5. Beyond the Studio: Location and World Creation Jacobson, Brian R. “The Studio Beyond the Studio: Nature, Technology, and Location in Southern California,” in Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. Suggested: Peterson, Jennifer Lynn. “The Silent Screen, 1895-1927.” In Hollywood Location: An Industry History, edited by Joshua Gleich and Lawrence Webb, 16–44. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2019. Suggested: Navitski, Bird, and Nieland chapters in In the Studio
Syllabus
  • 1. Introduction: Studio Perspectives 2. Environment: Studio Ontologies of Containment, Control, and Creation 3. Aesthetic: Studio Architecture and Film Form 4. Fantasy: Studio Form and Architectural Function 5. Beyond the Studio: Location and World Creation Schedule: Monday, 2nd May: 14.00-15.40 and 16.00-17.40 Tuesday, 3rd May: 12.00-13.40 Wednesday, 4th May: 10.00-11.40 and 14.00-15.40
Teaching methods
Lectures, reading, class discussion (seminar). Students are obliged to read the items on the reading list marked as required - these will be provided in the student materials - and familiarise themselves with the suggested titles as a way of preparation for the course. The 100% attendance at the lectures is compulsory and will be checked throughout every lecture (with the exception of distance students who are allowed to miss one out of the five sessions).
Assessment methods
Apart from the compulsory attendance students will have to pass two tests. First test is preliminary and it will take place just before the start of the first lecture.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Study Materials
The course is taught only once.
Teacher's information
Brian Jacobson is Professor of Visual Culture in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. He is a historian of modern visual culture and media. His writing about film, art, energy, technology, and the environment has appeared in Cinema Journal, Screen, Film Quarterly, Framework, Film History, Environmental History, History and Technology, Early Popular Visual Culture, and numerous anthologies. He also writes criticism, including essays and reviews in The Atlantic, the Literary Review of Canada, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. Jacobson is currently working on a book about the visual culture of petroleum in post-World War II France. Other projects include a book about mid-century American environmentalist media and articles generally concerned with the visual and material cultures of energy and the environment in a range of national and historical contexts. Jacobson is the author of Studios Before the System: Architecture, Technology, and the Emergence of Cinematic Space (Columbia University Press, Film & Culture Series, 2015), a book that situates the world’s first film studios in the architectural and technological developments of urban industrial modernity and argues that cinema should be understood both as a system of environmental regulation and as a critical component of what historians of technology have termed the “human-built world.” He is the editor of In the Studio: Visual Creation and Its Material Environments (University of California Press, 2020), a volume that examines film, television, art, and new media studios in a range of historical and geographic contexts. Jacobson is the recipient of Fulbright, Social Science Research Council (SSRC, US), Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC, Canada), Carnegie Trust, and other fellowships. He was a 2016-2017 fellow at the University of Rochester Humanities Center. In 2021, Brian has won the 2021 Society for Cinema and Media Studies Best Edited Collection Award for the book In the Studio: Visual Creation and Its Material Environments.
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