Visualizing James Bond : Course introduction
This course will explore how James Bond is embodied in visual culture. This is not the look of the character (Connery’s dark chest hair compared to Craig’s muscled chest) but the visual cues and design elements of the franchise: from the iconic, such as the gun barrel, to the less obvious but still pervasive elements, like the minimalist architecture of villain lairs.
It will address questions such as: What are the visual elements that represent the James Bond franchise? What symbolism is implicit in these notable characteristics? Where are they used outside the franchise and what are they used to communicate? How has the imagery permeated or influenced other genres/forms? What are the differences in the depictions of Bond across mediums? How has the Bond style and symbolism been adapted?
With an introduction to the visual depictions of Bond through the familiar representations of the films, the course will also touch on: TV, movie posters, book covers, marketing and advertising, media, video games, comic books, parodies, and revisualization through info graphics and visualization.
In addition to iconic symbols of the franchise, it will consider graphic design and colour, placement and stance of bodies, architecture, cars, sartorial elements and other visual aspects.
Assignments will include online forum discussions and blog posts, a visual analysis, and a final assignment in the form of a written paper on an aspect of the visualization of Bond (approved by the instructor) or a student’s own re-visualization (infographic, posters, marketing campaign, etc) with summary of design influences, representations, and meaning (and the research that supports it).
The goals of the course are to:
-Recognize the cultural impact of James Bond
-Identify pervasive themes in our everyday visual culture
-Think critically about representation in common imagery
Course demographics
This is an online summer course for upper-level (third and fourth year) undergraduate students at a small private university in North America. Enrolment is restricted to upper-level students in order to be broad in scope—drawing on basic concepts that students at this level would have already engaged in, from disciplines including sociology, communications, film studies, arts and visual design, marketing, and contemporary studies—and encourage self-direction and critical thinking in the final assignment.
Because this is an online summer course, the content is intended to be 1) broad to appeal to a variety of students during a term with fewer course options, 2) authoritative in its foundation, yet subjective in application and casual in tone, to encourage online participation, and 3) reflective of the course setting and easy for students to access readings online.
As a visual topic, assigned resources (“readings”) for students, and modules constructed by the instructor, will include a lot of visual content. Some academic articles/excerpts, and other textual content, will be used in modules or assigned for the course foundation and critical engagement and with the topic.