Pop Art Research Articles

Things to Make and Do

Agamben argues that, in the art of the twentieth century, two forms of art thematize a fracturing of the regime of production: in the case of conceptual ready-mades, the reproducible cannot take on the status of originality; in the case of pop art, that which “ought” to be unreproducible becomes just that. In these cases, Agamben contends, the “bringing forth” of art continues to take place, but what is brought forth is στέρησης [sterēsis], privation, an art which is necessarily alienated. This privation, in Agamben's terms, must be understood through the dyad of ϵνϵργϵια [energeia] and δυναμις [dynamis] to insist that potentiality, unactualized δυναμις is the “existence of a non-Being, a presence of an absence”, which is to say that δυναμις is only what it is because of its relationship to the potential not to take place, to αδυναμία. I argue, following Katschthaler, that a similar case must be made for Cage's 4′33″ (1952), in that it represents the possibility of inaction: the performer could always have not played. I contend that, however, the bringing forth of absence is necessarily, a sort of dead end since, in an important sense, nothing has already taken place: the performer of 4′33″ does not have the option not to play, without the performance ceasing to be a performance of 4′33″. It is my claim here, if only provisionally, that Cage’s turn to indeterminacy, and in particular his use of transparencies in his Variations piece from Variations I (1958) onwards, may be seen as a way out of, or a solution to, the impasse of a privative abyss, be that as found in conceptual art or as formulated in 4′33″.

NFTs and Digital Art

NFTs and Digital Art

Afrofuturism and the Law

Long before the film Black Panther captured the public’s imagination, the cultural critic Mark Dery coined the term “Afrofuturism” to describe “speculative fiction that treats African-American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-century technoculture.” Since then, the term has been applied to speculative creatives as diverse as the pop artist Janelle Monae, the science fiction writer Octavia Butler, and the visual artist Nick Cave. But only recently have thinkers turned to how Afrofuturism might guide, and shape, law. This special issue, “Afrofuturism and the Law,” features articles that explore the many ways Afrofuturism can inform a range of legal issues, and even chart the way to a better future for us all.

The process of word formation as the main problem of stage language

In the scientific article, the authors considered one of the main problems of stage speech - the features of the process of word formation and ways to develop it. In general, it is known that the language of the stage has a special place in the art of acting. This is because the five sections, which are the basis of the stage language, have a great role to play. Speaking on stage is one thing, word formation is another. While it is not easy to speak, the task of creating words is even more difficult and responsible for an actor. He was taught the language of the scene. Stage language, along with actors, is a subject that develops the speaking skills of directors, TV and radio presenters, lecturers, team leaders and public figures, as well as lawyers and judges. The authors of the scientific article analyzed the topic with many examples. For example, he analyzes the peculiarities of its pronunciation on the stage, quoting from the literary works of classical writers. Speaking on stage on a piece of paper, that is, the process of birth of the word, is widely discussed. In addition, it is clearly stated that the main parts of the stage language - diction, breathing, voice, orthoepy, work with the text are very useful in the process of word formation on stage. The method and method of learning the word is very similar and common for drama theater actors, musical theater actors, chamber or pop artists, opera artists, masters of rhetoric. Creating words on stage begins with controlling your inner feelings and mental agility. Avoiding the search for phonetics in speech, on the contrary, will only succeed if you try to reveal the psychology of the character. After all, through the word comes the image of the character. Speech skills and speech activity are mainly developed through the sense organs that influence the process of word formation. In particular, the process of word formation on stage begins with the development of speech techniques, recognition of the speech apparatus, mastering the breath and voice. Similarly, the authors of the article professionally analyze the internal and external words, which are important in the process of word formation, and provide evidence.

Six by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss

Reviewed by: Sixby Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss Horacio Sierra SIX. By Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. Directed by Lucy Moss and Jamie Armitage. Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City. October 9, 2021. In a theatrical landscape regularly awash with jukebox musicals that cull the catalogs of big-name pop artists such as ABBA, Alanis Morrissette, Gloria Estefan, the Go-Gos, and more, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss's Sixarrived on Broadway with an original score of radio-friendly hooks, TikTok-ready dance moves, and a racially diverse cast of tabloid-worthy divas that gave legitimate pop stars a run for their money. The musical's selling point is that its supersonic score takes inspiration from King Henry VIII's six wives as much as it does the pop sirens of the last twenty years. This dynamic combination gave the audience the chance to veer from silently thanking their high school history teachers for giving them the ability to laugh at puns about the Protestant Reformation to priding themselves for recognizing choreography indebted to Beyoncé's "Formation." By amalgamating the academic humor of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)with the rhetoric of superficial third-wave feminist pop stars, Sixcreated a frothy but provocative musical that offered bespoke narratives for sixteenth-century women whose travails are all the more relevant in the #MeToo era. Whether on London's West End or the various cruise ships where Sixwas staged before it debuted on Broadway, its creators proved that they found a formula that caters to an audience of pop music–loving millennials and Generation Zers who, in a post-Madonna cultural landscape, are liable to see Catherine of Aragon, Gloria Steinem, and Selena Gomez as equals in the feminist canon. Like a Black Pink music video, Six's plot was threadbare but straightforward enough: the women form a girl group and each one is competing to become the sextet's lead singer. The sole criterion for becoming the leader is winning the audience's applause by proving they suffered the most during their marriage to King Henry VIII. The competition format is more akin to the messy politics of twenty-first-century reality TV shows that pit women against one another rather than the sororal communities portrayed in actual early modern literary works such as Christine de Pizan's City of Ladies(1405), María de Zayas's Desenagños amorosos(1647), and Margaret Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure(1688). The show's earnest though superficial take on feminist discourse attempts to mirror Zayas's work wherein a safe space is created for women to be candid about the ways in which men belittle, deceive, and murder them without repercussions in a patriarchal society. Six's opening number, "Ex-Wives," encapsulates how the show borrows from the historical lore of England, Broadway, and pop music. Each character is given a verse to flesh out the details of the dreary-but-catchy refrain of "divorced, beheaded, died / divorced, beheaded, survived" à la the imprisoned women of Chicagoin "Cell Block Tango." But unlike the "merry murderesses of the Cook County Jail," these women were unable to exact revenge on their husband. Catherine of Aragon's (Adrianna Hicks) stature as a regal Queen Bee was solidified with its keen homage to Beyoncé at her peak with the fist-pumping "No Way." But more could have been made of how Earth-shattering her divorce was. As the daughter of Europe's most powerful royals, Spain's Catholic monarchs Fernando and Isabel, Catherine was a queen among queens. Her fierce devotion to the Roman Catholic Church and twenty-four-year marriage to the king proved her as a loyal steward of traditional monarchies. Henry's divorce from Catherine ensured that England, Europe, and the world would never be the same as the Reformation ushered in religious wars, geopolitical standoffs, and a refreshing stream of liberal intellectual discourse. Anne Boleyn, played by the addictively charming Andrea Macasaet, garnered hearty laughter every [End Page 77]time she reminded the other wives and audience about the horrors of being beheaded. Lily Allenesque lines such as "The rules were so outdated / Us two wanted...

Doran Hrothgar Ross Scholar, Trickster, Connoisseur

Doran Hrothgar Ross Scholar, Trickster, Connoisseur

A Well-Tempered Modernist

In the vast archive of literature from, and on, Hans Blumenberg, there are few mentions of theories of modern or contemporary art. Two exceptions exist, which both took place in 1966. One deals with the topic more obliquely: a lecture on Paul Valéry given at the Akademie der Künste in West Berlin. The second takes the topic of pop and op art head-on in a discussion led by Blumenberg for the research group Poetik und Hermeneutik. In neither does Blumenberg offer anything like a working theory of contemporary art, but his lecture enacts a performative contemporary reading of Valéry’s attempt to make Leonardo da Vinci relevant for the French poet’s age. Comparing Blumenberg’s comments on contemporary art with those in US formalist art criticism (Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried) provides a unique constellation of later modernist thinking on the plastic arts (painting and sculpture, chiefly). This article attempts to read Blumenberg as a contemporary thinker for art, an attempt that revisits the provocation that Blumenberg set for himself in 1966 when considering the stakes for contemporary art forms. Can one say that Blumenberg was himself a modernist?

UKRAINIAN VOCAL STAGE: PERFORMING ASPECT

The article is devoted to the development and role of the stage in forming the cultural background of the modern era and establishing a dialogue between art, society, and the state. The main tendencies of development and functional preferences of the stage in the contemporary information and communication space are revealed, its structural and genre modifications are traced. With the receipt of the status of an "independent" country, the Ukrainian stage begins to institutionalize. If, until that time, it played the role of compensation for the oppressed complex of ethnic underestimation, then from the time of gaining independence, it has become an independent cultural phenomenon. Differentiation occurs at several levels at once. The most important thing is genre and style. Ukrainian stage is divided into popular, folk, and rock levels. An essential factor in the functioning of Ukrainian pop music is the emergence of such a phenomenon as the pop art industry. The saturation of contemporary music trends correlates with the amount of investment. Accordingly, the art of music becomes dependent on general trends in the country's economy.

THE SECOND LIFE OF EVERYDAY OBJECTS IN BARRY FELDMAN’S WORK

The following text makes special reference to the transfer of common industrial objects from the category of utility or even waste to autonomous works of art. The concept and image of the industrial object as garbage, by-product or as a thing without value, has occupied the artists of Cubism, Dada, Pop Art, Fluxus and Conceptual Art more recently (Cornell, Schwitters, Duchamp, Arman, Rauschenberg, Oldenburg, among many others). Barry Feldman, a New York artist and art historian, discovered through the permanent collection of MoMA avant-garde art and when he moved to Greece his New York experience remained alive for his work. Every industrial object finds its place in some of his three-dimensional compositions which he categorizes as boxes, portables, portholes and rockets. In wooden boxes, old or made by him, the worthless objects of our world are recycled and return to their autonomous existence.

Abdias do Nascimento in New York

This essay examines the life and work of the Afro-Brazilian activist, politician, and artist Abdias do Nascimento in 1968–70, when he lived in New York City. I argue that, in this new space, Nascimento employed painting as both a vehicle to address his migratory experience and a tool to continue his anti-racism activism. Engaging with African American art both from the 1930s Harlem Renaissance and the 1960s Black Power movement, Nascimento produced images representing transnational Black solidarity within a cultural space that operated beyond national confines. Ultimately, Nascimento’s work unsettles dominant modes of Brazilian and US representation at the time, employing elements from pop art to interrogate the art world’s exclusion of the Black experience.

Post-truth, gender issues and sports entertainment: the setting in Ibero-America’s main digital media for the Super Bowl halftime show 2020

The subject of this research topic is the frameworks and the media representation of the role of women in mass sports events. The case study corresponds to the participation for the first time in the halftime show of the “Super Bowl 2020” of two of the main Latin pop artists: Shakira and Jennifer López. The objective of the study is to characterize the treatment of the event given by the media (both generalist and sports-themed) of the 22 countries that make up Ibero-America together with that on social networks. The assumptions that have guided the research seek to determine whether an objectification of women in the image that is built from the media and on social networks really exists; and whether the frames that occur in both are identical or different. The methodological design includes a content analysis and impact measurement with Big Data technology. The main results and conclusions include the objectification of women in all the generalist media; and 50% in sports-themed media. Similarly, it should be noted that social media reflect the impact of conventional media more than tenfold and most importantly, a change in trend and progress is foreseen in media frameworks with a gender perspective.

Untimely Images, Fallen Figures: Sarah Charlesworth at the End of Modern History

Sarah Charlesworth’s Stills (1980), a series of monumentally enlarged newspaper photographs depicting people plummeting from buildings, is commonly framed as a self-reflexive inquiry into the experience of time and mortality occasioned by photography. Based on archival research into Charlesworth’s journalistic source material for Stills and its antecedent, Modern History, this article advances an alternative reading of the works and their memorial-like format in terms of more collective experiences of temporality and history. These concerns, I argue, link Charlesworth’s project to a longer Pop art tradition, complicating established art historical accounts of the so-called Pictures Generation and its political imagination.

A Brief Discussion on the Minimalist Power of Extreme Sculpture: A Case Study of Tony Smith's Sculpture

Minimalist art, also known as the simplest art, simple abstract, ABC art, etc., the ideology of extreme art is anti-trend, in the 1960 s was once eye-catching. Today, with the weakening of abstract expressionism and pop art, minimalism has also declined, but its existence still brings inspiration and encouragement to today's people. There are many works of minimalism presented in front of people. This article will talk about the background of the times minimalism and to Tony Smith ' s sculpture as a column, analysis of Smith ' s sculpture contains the power of simplicity, minimalism in the study of the use of sculpture, showing people to limit the simplicity of beauty.

Aesthetic values in Assemblage art and their role in stimulating artist and recipient interaction

The emergence of the art of assembly in the modern art movement appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century; The spread of assemblage art coincided with the emergence of Dada artists who depend on the technique of (ready-made things), raising them to the level of works of art. Such as the work of the artist Marcel Duchamp (1886-1969 AD) (The Fountain), in which he used a (toilet) signed in the name of the toolmaker (where (Dadaism) as you can see (Al-Qara Ghouli, 2018) contributed to strengthening the ideas of this art in the art of the second half of the twentieth century. Starting with the Pop Art, which was called neo-Dadaism, as a result of its influence on the Dadaism (Duchamp) that adopted the technology of ready-made things and opened the way for possibility of producing art with any available material. Then followed the emergence of multiple technologies in the post-modern stage, which paved the way for the emergence of Assemblage art (Smith, 2000). And assembling art took the pace of postmodern art formation, through its aesthetic and structural characteristics associated with the effectiveness of technology, because the products of this art touched the levels of simplicity and ease of the recipient, and his sense of a kind of aesthetic values through ideas and multiple technical media for the work performed, was the style of And the artist's technique is an active role. And a prominent presence in highlighting the aesthetic values of assemblage art, and the recipient was able to understand those aesthetics due to its simplicity and feeling that it was close to it, and from here the research goal came to identify the role of aesthetic values in assemblage art in enhancing the interaction between the artist and the recipient، By building a questionnaire that was distributed through the intentional sample to the audience of the 1/3/2021 exhibition of assemblage art in Riyadh (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) and their number reached (117) individuals. Art, which contributes to the development of artistic awareness of the recipient. Problem:Research answers these questions: 1- What are the aesthetic values required in contemporary assemblage art from the viewpoint of the recipients?2- How do the aesthetic values (cultural and social) in contemporary assemblage art contribute to the development of artistic taste?3- What are the mechanisms for activating the reciprocal relationship between the artist and the audience in assemblage art? Methodology: Descriptive analytical method. Objective: Identifying the most important aesthetic values required in contemporary assemblage art from the viewpoint of the recipients and how aesthetic values (cultural and social) in contemporary assemblage art contribute to the development of artistic taste. Results: The most important aesthetic values of the works of assemblage art from the artists' point of view are the value of the culture of difference and the consolidation of the values of environmental preservation and recycling, and the consolidation of the values of innovation, in the formation of the idea and the employment of things in a way that improves the reciprocal relationship between the artist and the recipient. It was also found that the most important aesthetic values required in contemporary assemblage art from the viewpoint of the recipients are: visual visual values, followed by innovative values (creativity and originality), followed by the impact value (the effect of work on the recipient's conscience). It was found that the aesthetic values (cultural and social) in art Contemporary synthesizer contribute to the development of the artistic taste of the recipient. And that the aesthetic values in assemblage art contribute to the development of artistic awareness among the recipient, and it was found that the most important mechanisms that contribute to activating the reciprocal relationship between the artist and the public in assemblage art are the adoption of the responsible authorities for artistic talents in the field of assemblage art, and the provision of encouraging support to artists and the public to hold exhibitions of assemblage art.

«KALUSH» IS A RAP GROUP AT THE STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF NATIONAL YOUTH HIP-HOP DIRECTION IN UKRAINIAN MODERN MUSIC

The aim of the article is to analyze the development of youth hip-hop direction in Ukrainian contemporary music within the creative activity of the rap group «KALUSH» in retrospective aspect of musicology and performance. There are discussed the conditions of transformational trends of spreading and promoting quality rap culture. The author has revealed the importance of using authenticity and national folklore traditions in integration with electronic music in hip-hop youth direction in pop music of Ukraine, modern show business and mass culture. There are used the research methodology of comparative, historical-logical, analytical and art methods. Such methodological approach allows the author to clarify the features of Rap in art at the stage of formation and development of hip-hop culture, including youth subculture in the spread of transformational processes taking place in modern Ukrainian pop music and show business. The author is considered the influential factors of the group «KALUSH» on the development of rap music of the performing industry and use of ethnofolk motifs with electronic music in the integrated synergy between the band and the audience. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the main elements of the creative activity of the KALUSH group are revealed in accordance with the development and spread of transformational processes in modern pop art and show business. There is described the use of integration ethno-folklore origins, Ukrainian folklore motifs and electronic music in the development of the rap-cultural industry in show business as a synergetic genre of youth hip-hop. The author is noticed the significant contribution of the group in raising Ukrainian rap music to a higher level of youth subculture. Conclusions. The reflection of the realities and evolution of rap music in pop art is been in constant search of new faces who are able to update the direction of rap music. The popularization of national folklore features, the establishment of the performing rap group «KALUSH» on the territory of the modern Ukrainian pop industry in the conditions of fundamentalization, globalization and commercialization in the modern music market hasn't been studied well and it is at the stage of change and transformation.

ТЕОРЕТИКО-ПРАКТИЧНІ ЗАСАДИ РОБОТИ ЗІ СТУДЕНТОМ-ВОКАЛІСТОМ ЕСТРАДНОГО СПІВУ

Pop art is one of the most socially widespread and mobile types of art. The study of this phenomenon helps to better understand the spiritual processes taking place in society. In this regard, in recent decades there has been an increased interest of researchers in this type of art: in its sources, history of formation, questions of theory and terminology, definition of its role and place in artistic culture, problems of professional training of specialists. The purpose of the article is to identify the professional foundations of the training of pop singers in institutions of higher education. The methodology of the work consists in the application of such methods as: empirical method, method of analogy, axiomatic method, elementary-theoretical method, method of systematization. The scientific novelty is to determine the theoretical foundations of the professional training of a pop singer, to highlight the criteria and basic principles of teaching pop singing, to characterize the basic principles of the educational process in working with student vocalists in institutions of higher education. To find out the methodological and pedagogical principles of the development of the skill of pop singers in institutions of higher education. To find out that the formation of a professional musician requires the integration of a lot of knowledge, abilities and skills, personal attributes into a complex structurally organized system. To reveal the practical principles of the professional training of pop vocalists in institutions of higher education, to consider the main methods and forms of organization of the educational process. To determine that in order to create the most favorable conditions for the development of musical abilities, aesthetic taste and professional growth of the student, a combination of different teaching methods is effective. As a conclusion, the article notes that the methodological and pedagogical principles of the skill development of pop singers need further professionalization. This will help solve the task of training a qualified pop artist and teacher in the formation of professional education in the field of pop music.

A Battle or a Conversation: Imagining Africa and Its Diaspora in Beyoncé’s "Black Is King" and "Lemonade"

In her visual albums "Black Is King" (2020) and "Lemonade" (2016), pop artist Beyoncé engages with audiovisual representation as a way of "rewriting" existing narratives of Blackness and re-presenting the African diaspora and the African continent. The albums navigate a contentious space in which feminist empowerment mingles with sexual objectification and conservative gender roles, oppression is countered by hyper-capitalist consumption, African and Afrodiasporic cultures are mobilized or appropriated, and powerful counter-narratives are made in ways that can seem like hegemony reproduced. In this paper, I argue that a determinant factor of the ability to navigate those complexities is the notion of "community": its representation, its scope, and its tensions. Both formally and in content, Beyoncé and her co-creators’ audiovisual narratives stimulate a reflection on how to make the individual collective, the personal political, and how to unite disparity into “the Black diaspora” as a community and an addressee. Beyoncé’s Afrodiasporic projection requires strong authorship and the creation of a unifying myth. The ensuing narrative and profitability imperatives provoke the question whether Beyoncé’s visual albums can truly be sites for the envisioning of the African diaspora as a community marked by diversity, tension, and negotiation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUITY IN THE FIELD OF ART SYNTHESIS FOR THE INTEGRITY OF THE URBAN CENTER ENVIRONMENT

The article is devoted to consideration of the requirements for organic unity, harmony and integrity of the synthesis of arts in the architectural environment, which made such unique buildings – temples and theaters of antiquity, Gothic cathedrals, medieval urban complexes, ensembles of the Renaissance and the era of modernism – the basis of cultural memory, ignoring which is tantamount to human cultural degradation. The theory of the synthesis of architecture and fine arts substantiates the connections between different types of art by their nature, through which architecture ensures the achievement of a holistic unity of various spatial and visual systems. Any historical style of the past can rightly be regarded as the result of an organic synthesis of arts and architecture, but one should keep in mind that stylistic integrity was not the goal of synthesis but came from the integral worldview context of a particular era, embodying the unity of society’s material and spiritual culture. Socially aggravated turning points in the art of the era of "machine" industrial capital in the half of the 19th century gave birth to the idea of eliminating socio-ideological contradictions by the united efforts of all types of arts that have undergone an active separation, disunity and "Stankovism". New currents of the 20th-century, a period of functional (constructivist) architecture, define it as a synthesis of artistic and industrial principles, which are characterized by the truthfulness of forms that excludes any synthetic connection with fine arts. However, L. Corbusier sees the unity of the syntax of architecture, painting and sculpture based on the principle of determining the points of the highest intensity in the architectural ensemble. A complex structure of connections “reality – artist – viewer” is inherent in the integrated work of art synthesis as a form of reflection of the real world. The creative concepts of an architect and an artist must have common ideological and visual tasks, an understanding of aesthetic reality, artistic scale, compositional regularities, etc. The historical experience of creating architectural and urban spatial compositions demonstrates that the interaction of arts touches on the essential issues of the formation of each type of plastic arts, issues of the unity of the artistic culture of the era, style. However, simultaneously with the recognition of the undoubted artistic value of the masterpieces created and tested over the centuries in the field of synthesis of arts in the architectural environment of historical cities, highly professional criticism from the elitist – philosophers, thinkers, outstanding architects and representatives of other types of arts, such as Ortega-y-Gasset, Jean Baudrillard, E. Fromm, K. Teplitz, A. Sokal, J. Brickman, D. Chapperfield et al., received the postmodernist boom at the end of the 20th – beginning of the 21st centuries. They realized that it was inconceivable without the pseudo-philosophy of mass culture with its permissiveness to please the nouveau riche, which flooded architecture with pseudohistoricism of pseudo-styles. Today's state of aggressively ignoring the leading principles of Function, Tectonics and Form requires an uncompromising separation of the aristocracy of architectural-aesthetic canons from mass cultural pop art in the field of synthesis of architecture and other types of arts.

Проблемы изучения и развития современного вокального эстрадного искусства в России

Vocal pop art is a fundamentally important social institution that is very actively functioning in the modern system of Russian culture. During his research, the author comes to conclusions about the versatility and multifunctionality of modern vocal pop art in Russia, its enormous ideological and applied significance for the current and future development of society. In addition to a considerable number of positive development prospects, it is also noted that in this context there are certain problematic sectors, such as the stereotypical perception of pop songs by ordinary people and some researchers, insufficient elaboration of didactic (including methodological) methods of teaching student vocalists, insufficient attention of reference groups to the huge creative and ideological potential of this type of musical art. The main conclusion of the author was that vocal pop art is a strategically significant resource for the development of domestic cultural capital.

Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger

Reviewed by: Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger Maria G. Traub Ottinger, Ulrike, réal. Paris Calligrammes. Int. Jenny Agutter, Fanny Ardant. Zero One, 2020. The decade known as the “sixties” was a period of intellectual activity and social unrest, fomenting upheaval and breaks with tradition. Arriving in Paris as a hitchhiker, Ulrike Ottinger, an artist from Germany, accepts transport from a group whom she suspects are bank robbers. Her entry into Paris is thus heralded by adventure and surprise. In his Saint-Germain bookshop, “Librairie Calligrammes,” she meets Fritz Picard, a German expatriate, who becomes a good friend and literary mentor. He includes her in his intellectual social circle, and suggests books for her to read. Picard’s guest book is a virtual who’s who of renowned artists, writers, thinkers, and journalists working in or visiting Paris and having stopped by his shop. Titled film sequences showcase meetings or work sessions with famous artists and memorable events. In one, we observe Ulrike’s studies under Johnny Friedlander, noted expert on the art of etching. Welcomed as his guest at family dinners, she met many artists. Living in Saint-Germain, she encountered Raymond Duncan, brother of dancer Isadora Duncan. Raymond habitually dressed in a toga he had woven for himself, following his philosophy of life: one should limit one’s needs to what one could make. From one eccentric’s lifestyle, we move to that of Algerian immigrants in the bidonvilles at the outskirts of Paris, followed by scenes of the October 1961 protest which began peacefully but morphed into a brutal and bloody conflict. The protests against the French involvement in Vietnam as well as the student protests of 1968 appear in film clips that give visual testimony to the efforts of bringing about change, either peacefully or violently. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the well-known student leader challenging the educational system, is shown as a provocative spokesperson in the footage. Culturally, we are treated to clips of world-class performances at the Odéon Theater, celebrities attending film premieres and noteworthy museums. Ottinger shows samples of Pop Art or Nouvelle Figuration which became part of her own work. From this perspective, the phenomenon of Dadaist influence is apparent in her way of portraying images and scrapping traditional approaches. Presenting an array of historical photographs and documentary footage, we follow experiences and influences in Ottinger’s life in Paris. A poetry reading of Walter Mehring’s work concerning the persecution of German writers by the Nazis is a long, plaintive cry against suppression. Not only exploring intellectual and cultural circles in the city, she also observed and discussed political and social incidents, as well as iconic Parisian places such as Les Halles, which has unfortunately disappeared. These dimensions of the film make it an historical time capsule. The information this film provides both visually and verbally is useful for the study of French civilization. A drawback is the lack of in-depth coverage of any one issue. Used in the classroom in short clips, it provides immersion into the decade’s zeitgeist. As a documentary, it is an interdisciplinary tool for history, political science, or art and film classes. [End Page 219] Maria G. Traub Neumann University (PA) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French