Dissonance Day Day Day: Things Fall Apart

Typically I set courses up to drive to the end of the term with (hopefully) all of the pieces coming together in the last few weeks. This one was set up differently. It was set up to sort of fall apart. I am fascinated by that gesture – used in Blazing Saddles, and The Holy Grail, and most of Caryl Churchill’s work, some Velvet Underground, some of Brecht’s stuff, some of Shaw’s stuff, Situationists, Metzger, and a handful of other examples.  The gesture is about dissemination as opposed to containment, dispersal as opposed to consensus. The main point is that – sure – I could summarize everything we have discussed and wrap it up in a nice neat little study guide – but why? If most of the artistic activity that we have looked at circles around the idea of floating authority, challenging the rules of the past, and imagining a different future what good is my summery? So – we listened to music and the students looked at books, or slept, or talked. They worked on their projects, or slept, or talked – and in this case about some interesting things. I’m anxious to see what the final projects are like. As with most of the assignments this term – I really have no idea what to expect.