Dystopia, extraterrestrials & and androgyny are some of the themes in Bowie’s avant-garde artistry. This course is a celebration of a unique musical genius.
The passing of David Bowie in January 2016 left planet Earth decidedly blue.
Dystopia, extraterrestrials, surrealism, and androgyny are some of the recurrent themes in Bowie’s avant-garde artistry that endeared him to mavericks around the world.
He mastered musical genres as diverse as folk, glam, soul, rock, funk, drum & bass, industrial, and jazz, updating his image with every ground-breaking step. Bowie’s enduring impact reaches beyond music, influencing the fields of the internet, fashion, cinema, painting, dance, and theatre; we lost a veritable multi-media virtuoso.
His embodiment and shedding of various alter egos (Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Thin White Duke) became a symbol of bold experimentation; these characters were masks he initially relied on as a performer to cover up shyness and crippling stage fright.
In this 2-part online course, we will turn to psychoanalytic theory to establish the interpretive framework of David Bowie’s music videos and filmography, with a focus on his personas, experience of childhood trauma, struggle with mental illness, addiction, isolation, resilience, and creative autonomy.
This course is a celebration of a unique musical genius, our dearly departed glamorous alien, one so evolved that he confronted his own mortality with unimaginable courage, turning death into a work of art.
