Choose three of these ten questions to answer. EACH answer must be at least four comprehensive paragraphs (400 words) but no longer than two pages; include the initial prompt directly above each response.
1.How does post-porn re-invent the medium of pornography? Describe the ways in which it transforms societal ideas about sexuality, gender, and the erotic. Provide a comprehensive definition of post-porn as stipulated in the course texts that you read. Illustrate your argument with examples you have seen in presentations such as Annie Sprinkle's lecture, Shine Louis Houston's and Jiz Lee's"Crash Pad° Series,and Saul Lopez Garcia's presentation of La Pocha Nostra's work to support your answer. If you have already written about Annie Sprinkle and Jiz Lee for the midterm, focus your response on Saul Garcia Lopez and/or the work of other artists discussed in the class. 2. Using course materials covered throughout the quarter as evidence, describe how heterosexual norms have been both maintained and challenged throughout the history of pornography/erotic art. Be sure to reference some of the films we have watched and discuss how 'other sexualities have been created, made visible or even normalized. What is the role of visual representation in the construction of different sexual identities? 3.How does the work of Saul Lopez Garcia and La Pocha Nostra defy conventional understandings of identity? Discuss in reference to Guillermo Gomez-Pefia'sessay entitled "Culturas-in-extremis: Performing against the cultural backdrop of the mainstream bizarre" labeled "ethno-techno" in the canvas file under Week 9. How does the written text complement the performance art and how does each act as vehicle for radical political expression by foregrounding the body? 4. What is the definition of "Ars Erotica" and how does this concept challenge older forms of power and incorporate itself into our current era?How is sexual repression exerted in the political realm today as opposed to the past? In what ways have artists, pornographers, and viewers/consumers challenged such repression in the present day context through their production or interaction with the erotic? 5.How has Ars Erotica developed as a genre? Please give an example of an erotic artist not mentioned in class and relate their work to at least two artworks and/or concepts we've viewed and discussed in the class. You could consider the difference between mediums, for example, how does an erotic painting differ from an erotic animation posted to Instagram? How have visual representations of the erotic shifted from past to present? What are the similarities and/or differences that you can locate across eras? 6.How do constructed sexual and gender categories and the subsequent policing of these imposed norms benefit the hegemonic state? Reference class materials (lectures, visiting artists, films or readings) to support your argument. 7. How does ecosexuality aim to change methods of environmental activism and encourage our culture to reimagine the Earth as Lover instead of Earth as Mother? Use examples from the Gender/Nature article on Ecosexuality by Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle. Reference the work of at least two visiting artists to help support your answers. 8.How does Avital Meshi use the cyborg body to push boundaries around sex, technology and gender? Frame your answer by referencing Paul Preciado's "History of Techno-sexuality." 9.Compare Marlon Riggs' "Tongues Untied" (available at the library) with one of the visiting artist's work or presentations made in the class to discuss inter-sectional ways of approaching ars erotica. Include issues of: voice, identity politics and agency via art and film. 10.How has the representation of sexual organs been politicized and/or aestheticized throughout this course? In what ways do artistic representations of vaginas, penises and/or hybrid visions of the anatomical defy or hew to the pornographic? Provide three examples drawn from the class and discuss.
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