This course explores the origins, pivotal works, and critical theory of time-based media art. An expansive notion of time-based art guides our focus on media art of an active nature: video and film will be discussed as well as live performance, performance documentation, durational art, performative objects, sound and participatory work. Process-based artistic practices from the 1960s will serve as a foundational framework from which we will consider the evolution in time-based art through to global contemporary practices today. This lecture course does not aim to rehearse the canon of media art, but rather introduce a conceptual framework, vocabulary, and resources for thinking through a variety of divergent artistic practices. We will also consider the relationship and challenges between time-based art and institutional exhibitions with visits to SFMOMA, ICA SF, and the Wattis Institute. The goal of the course is to enable students to understand the basic terms, critical contexts, and multiplicity of artistic approaches that have informed the field such that each student can confidently engage in the discourse and analysis of historic and contemporary performative practice. 

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