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The students will be closely involved with JHU's Center for Advanced Media Studies (CAMS directed by Bernadette Wegenstein), and the Baltimore Museum of Art (curator Kristen Hileman) in preparing the BMA Black Box exhibit of Mary and Patrick Kelley’s new film, We Are Ghosts, set in a submarine: the film tells the story of life as experienced by the sailors in a U.S. submarine at the end of the second world war. Artist Mary Reid Kelley focuses on “minor aspects of life” in the submarine during non-combat — such as boredom, claustrophobia, and the effects of heavy drinking on the sailors. Included is also a restaging of Harry Truman’s announcement of the bombing of Hiroshima — told from the sailors’ point of view. While this new work will be on display in the BMA’s Black Box, Kelley’s 2016 film This is Offal (set in a morgue) will be showing at the museum. This film is centered around a dialogue between the ghost of a deceased woman, the victim of a suicide, and her animated organs. Students will also be traveling to Woodstock, NY on a field trip with professor Wegenstein for a studio visit with the artists at the beginning of the semester. Mary Reid Kelley is an artist who makes arresting, playful, and erudite videos that explore the condition of men and women throughout history. Drawing on literary and historical material, the videos involve intensive research and critical reassessments of standard historical narratives. Mary Reid Kelley is involved in every aspect of the videos’ creation—from writing the scripts (typically in highly structured poetic verse), to designing the sets, props, and costumes, to performing the leading roles—and all of the videos are produced by her and her partner, Patrick Kelley, at their private studio. Kelley is known for her feminist videos that recall the theater of the absurd and German Expressionist cinema. Please note that this class will be held as a practicum, and some of the dates and times will be flexibly adapted t