Readings
• Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart, Off the Grid: Re-assembling Domestic Life, Routledge, 2015. Chapters 1, 5, 12, 13. I’ve uploaded the entire book here, so please feel free to read as much as you’d like! But please prepare for discussion by reviewing the four chapters I listed.
Class artifacts
Update: I swapped days this week. The book and documentary are so interrelated (even containing many of the same interviews) that it felt strange to discuss the book on Tuesday and watch the film on Thursday. So we’ll be watching the film first, and discussing the film and book together on Thursday.
Tuesday, February 1: We will watch Life Off Grid (complete film available here) by Jonathan Taggart and Phillip Vannini. Slide presentation introducing some themes from the film. Zoom recording, text transcript, chat log. Note: the Zoom recording today only includes the part of our discussion up to the start of the film. If you want to watch the film, please use the direct link to it above. Because I edited the recording, the text transcript doesn’t line up. If you are trying to read the transcript, note that the Zoom recording starts about 9 minutes into the transcript. I’m including the complete chat though because it includes so much great commentary. I really appreciated all your remarks & observations and I encourage you to look over them if you’d like to revisit some critical analysis of the film.
Thursday, February 3: Reading discussion. Presentation slides, Today in class we had a self-organized discussion session. Fantastic work everyone. Link to the report on this here. Thank you everyone for your grace, understanding, and adaptability under the circumstances! Zoom recording, text transcript, chat log links to come.
Links to other media
These are some other items you all shared in the chat during the film screening.
• “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner”: a movie if you’re interested in seeing northern indigenous lands presented very beautifully. It’s entirely Inuit produced. (Thanks Viyan.)
• “Frontier House” (2002). A PBS reality TV show recreating the conditions of homesteaders for people to live in as an experiment for 4 months. In regards to a fascination with homesteading and the “frontier.” From a Lang class on the history and politics of domestic labor. YouTube link. (Thanks Ysa.)