Week 2: Aura

February 2

Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproducibility” (1936)

 Two things in addition to reading:
  • Send an image with an “aura” to Laura by Monday morning at 9am
  • Annotate the syllabus — note texts you are excited about, add readings/films, ask questions, offer suggestions


Screening 7pm:
Man with a Movie Camera
(USSR: Dziga Vertov, 1929)




February 4

Read N. Katherine Hayles, “How We Read: Close, Hyper, Machine,” in How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis (2012)

We will begin class with a discussion of Man with a Movie Camera—bring your notes and be ready to share some shots or sequences you’d like to discuss. 

Here is one resource that introduces terms for analyzing film: Yale Film Analysis








Man with a Movie Camera (1929)