There’s a lot of material in this course and it spans a variety of formats: our synchronous meetings, the assigned readings, viewings, media we look at in class, ideas brought up by a peer, and the conversations we have on other platforms. While you are welcome to respond to *any and all* of the above, you should include at least two ‘texts’ (which include relevant art and films we look at for the week including on zoom or element, all those things are texts) and at least one should be a “reading”.

Feel free to include quotes from readings, or screenshots of things you’re responding to, but try to use them as jumping off points… don’t let the excerpt do the work. What’s it mean? What intervention is this making? What do you think about it? As we get further along in the quarter, I expect your responses to get more conceptually sophisticated.

These needn’t be as formal as an essay (some unstructured or free writing is fine), I’m mostly looking for your engagement and thinking with (or against) the weekly material. Try not to rely too heavily on description or explanation of what the texts are doing; focus on your own ideas. Subjective writing is okay, but I’d like to see more analysis and ideation than opinion. If you’re writing about two works, address what’s unsaid in the space between them, or what points of friction they might have.

As you read, try to pay attention to the author’s methods; what questions are being asked by the author and how that shapes the kinds of answers they can get.