VPA 302 :Process of Art, Fall 2005
Fridays, 10- 12:45, Arts 111/101
Instructors: Judit Hersko, Kristine Diekman
Email: jhersko@csusm.edu, kdiekman@csusm.edu
Office: Diekman, Arts 301
Office Hours: Diekman, Fridays, 1-4 pm or by appointment
Office: Hersko, Arts 309
Office Hours: Hersko, Tuesdays 4-5 pm, Thursdays Noon-1 pm and Fridays, 1-2 pm or by appointment
Web address: http://www.csusm.edu/diekman/vpa302f05/syllabus.html
Course Description
This class is an
exploration of the artistic process with a special focus on
interdisciplinary/multimedia approaches to art making. The variety of skills
that you as participants bring to this class makes this a unique opportunity to
expand the scope of your work through collaboration and interdisciplinary
experimentation. To inspire and facilitate this process we will study artists
at the forefront of experimental, multimedia art through videos, readings and
visiting artistsÕ presentations.
The goal of this course is:
Grading
StudentsÕ grades will be determined using the following guidelines:
Web CT: Web CT will be an essential component of this class. All email correspondence with the instructors should be conducted through Web CT. You will also receive assignments and submit some of them through Web CT. We will send you messages and communicate information this way.
VPA 302 Process of Art Reader.
This reader can be bought at CopyServe 760-599-9923. It is absolutely necessary that you purchase this and bring it to every class. CopyServe is located at 754 S. Rancho Santa Fe Rd., San Marcos on the corner of Rancho Santa Fe and San Marcos Blvd. If you are traveling west on San Marcos Blvd. from CSUSM, it is on your right, just across Rancho Santa Fe near the NW corner. Turn right into the parking area, and then an immediate left. Purchase your reader immediately as, if they run out, it may take a day to have them make it up. They do not take phone orders. It is under the title and number of the course and instructor name. Other handouts may be given to supplement the course reader.
Keeping a binder in which you can organize your thoughts, research, drawings and assignments is essential to the creative process. The binder will serve as a portfolio of your activities (or process) throughout the semester. You are asked to organize the items so the instructors can easily assess your overall progress and effort. The binder will be handed in at midterm for assessment. Please bring the binder to every class. Items you will want to keep in the binder include:
á Notes on readings and visiting artists
á Free writing exercises
á Printouts of the responses to the readings
á Sketchbook ideas such as images, thoughts, drawings, notations, observations, mind maps, etc.
á Project proposal
á Midterm refection on artists
á Final Project development including sketches or compositions, ideas, scripts, and documentation of your process
We will plan an end of semester exhibition/performance event for one evening to showcase final projects. This event can take place in the arts studios, sculpture pad or (if available) performance space. Consider this a ÒfestivalÓ of your work, which can include objects, installations and performances to which everyone is invited. In executing and exhibiting/performing your final work, you can work individually or in small groups if the work is multidisciplinary and collaborative. In preparation for this event, you will learn how to write a press release, publicize the event, create posters or stickers or postcards, create a website, talk to the press, organize the reception and document the event.
This schedule is subject to change. It is your responsibility to check the course website for updates and changes.
Assignments are posted on web CT. Writing assignments are due on Web CT at 10 pm on the Thursday night before the class. For all assignment due dates, please check Web CT.
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Introduction to the course
Introduction to the VPA department
How to use a mind map
Your process of art reflection
Screening: Janine Antoni
Exercise: due next week, September 9. Purchase a bar of soap that you can use to create an ÒartworkÓ. Use this soap as material for a performance, sculpture, an action, a video, a photograph, a drawing, or a musical instrument, etc. Document the process of making the work, and document the work itself. Bring your results to class. We will have group discussions about your work, as well as a larger class discussion. The purpose of the assignment is to take an ordinary every day object with metaphorical possibilities (a bar of soap) and to transform it in the process of making art.
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Exercise (Soap) due for discussion.
Due: Your process of art reflection
Reading due: Linda
Weintraub, ÒJanine Antoni, Compulsive ActivityÓ, Art on the Edge and Over, Art
Insights, Inc., Publishers, 1996
Screening: work by Ann Hamilton
Reading due next week: Ann Hamilton
Metaphor and Material
Discussion: Ann Hamilton
Reading due: Ann Hamilton: Whitecloth Nancy Princentahl, p. 36-66, The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, January 24- May 23, 1999
Ann Hamilton, San Diego Museum of Art Ð Between Taxonomy And Communion Ð April 7 Ð June 3 1990 Ð a conversation with Ann Hamilton (Hugh M. Davies and Lynda Forsha) p. 61-76
More more information on Ann Hamilton: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1285/is_7_29/ai_55084047
Screening: work by Ana Mendieta
Reading due next week: Ana Mendieta
Identity, History and Memory
Discussion: Ana Mendieta
Reading due: Mary Sabbatino, ÒAna Mendieta: Identity and the Siluetas SeriesÓ and ÒAna Mendieta Personal Writings,Ó Ediciones Poligrafica and Centro Galego Contemporanea, 1996
Introduction of SPECFLIC by Adriene Jenik, visiting artist for next week.
NEW
There are questions on WebCT due next week based on her websites:
Required: visit website for SPEC-FLIC http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~specflic
Desktop Theater: http://www.desktoptheater.org/
Screening: Guillermo Gomez Pena and Coco Fusco
NEW
EXTRA CREDIT: On reserve in the library is a video entitled, ÒFrontier LifeÓ. It is on reserve under VPA 302, Diekman. This video represents border and ÒcolectivaÓ culture in Tijuana today from the perspective of car culture (racing) and music/mixing (Nortec Collective), as well as others After watching this video, write a two page response about what unites these border practices, what their characteristics are and how the border influences these activities. You can link this to many of the ideas in PenaÕs writing. Please submit a hard copy into me at the beginning of class on Week 6, October 7. Those of you interested in mixing or racing will find this interesting.
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Digital Identities and New Narrative
Adriene Jenik visiting artist
Adriene Jenik, professor at UCSD in
Interdisciplinary Computers and the Arts will present the process of her work,
SPECFLIC. SPEC-FLIC seeks to stimulate greater
awareness, debate and discussion about our shared future. A series of fictional
events performed as distributed cinema, SPEC-FLIC is a platform for
speculation, creative experimentation and imagination among UCSD students,
faculty, staff and the larger public.
Required:
visit website for SPEC-FLIC http://jupiter.ucsd.edu/~specflic
Due next week: One page summary of Jenik presentation.
Your midterm binder is due next week: Prepare binder with all assignment material in chronological order for midterm assessment. Binder includes all writing assignments, notes, free-writing, and reflection on artists to date. You will receive more detailed guidelines before due date.
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Discussion: Pena, Fusco and Jenik
HAND IN MIDTERM BINDER
EXTRA CREDIT DUE: writing on Frontier Life due. See Week 4.
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Week 7 Ð October 14
Community, Art and Intervention
History and Memory
Discussion: Shimon Attie and Mierle Ukeles
Readings due: James Young ÒSites Unseen: Shimon AttieÕs Faces of Remembrance 1991-1996Ó, Sites Unseen (Verve Editions, 1998)
Tom Finkelpearl, ÒInterview: Mierle Laderman Ukeles on Maintenance and Sanitation ArtÓ, Dialogues in Public Art (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2000)
Show William Kentridge
Reading due next week: William Kentridge
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THIS SYLLABUS HAS BEEN REVISED FROM
HERE ON DOWN (10-21-05)
Materials and Media
Identity
History and Memory
Discussion: William Kentridge
Reading due: Theater and Change in South Africa, Edited by Geoffrey V. Davis and Anne Fuchs, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1996
ÒAn Interest in the Making of Things.Ó an interview with William Kentridge Ð pages 140-154
William Kentridge, Catalogue Museum Of Contemporary Art, Chicago, New museum of Contemporary Art, New York with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers ÒAn Interview with William KentridgeÓ, Dan Cameron - pages 67-74
Introduction to Paul Demarinas http://www.well.com/~demarini/
Discuss final exhibition/performance
and participation in the various tasks to make it a success (Event
Responsibiliteis: See handout PDF):
Press Releases/Outreach/website
Postcards/poster/flyer/graphics/website
Reception/food/music
Documentation/still and video document
Organization of space and technology/installation of work
Presentation of work/title cards/statements/lighting
Discussion of how to create a project proposal for the final exhibition/performance. Project Proposal Guidelines on Handout and on WebCt PDF
DRAFT PROPOSAL DUE
for discussion on Week 10, November 4. We will use this to discuss your
ideas for artwork and possible group affinities.
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Materials and Media
Paul Demarinis, visiting artist, will present his work in sound, installation and performance.
Paul DeMarinis has been working as an electronic media artist since 1971 and has created numerous performance works, sound and computer installations and interactive electronic inventions. Much of his work involves speech processed and synthesized by computers, uses optics and computers to make new sounds by scanning ancient phonograph records with lasers, uses the interaction of body and electricity to make music, and examines the myths of electricity in communication.
Required: Please look at this website before class: http://www.well.com/~demarini/
Due: November 3: WebCT assignment for Demarinis: Please answer questions on WebCT.
Dal Vivo Ð Fondazione Prada, Milan, selections Ð Contents, Some Backgrounds on ÒDal VivoÓ p. 25, 530 Canal Street, New York, May 13, 1998 Germano
Celant and Laurie Anderson, p. 233 (No
WebCT questions due)
DRAFT Project Proposal due next week, Nov 3. See assignment handout for details.
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Materials and Media
Video Screening: Bill Viola
Discussion: Bill Viola and Paul DeMarinis (installation, sound, video art).
Reading due: Bill Viola
Reasons For Knocking At An Empty House, selections: p. 32-45, 58-72 Interview 265-285
(No WebCT questions due. However please complete reading.)
Project Proposal 1 due. Print out a copy to bring to
class for discussion. (Due on WebCT Thursday, November 3.)
We will have presentations and discussion in class of your
ideas for artworks/performance for the final show. Be prepared to share you
ideas with each other and to form groups for final projects. Groups should
ideally cross over mediaÑmusicians, visual artists, video, performance and
computer artists working together to create a final work. You must have your
project proposal with you on hard copy to share with the class.
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Week 11 Ð November 11
Work in class on projects and refining FINAL project proposal and begin work on the projects Ð we expect you to begin the work as you are finalizing your proposal
Receive assistance in organizing the exhibition
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Due: First work in progress report. Bring to class the work you have achieved to date on your final project. This can include drawings, sketches, storyboard, shooting tests, maquettes, etc. You must have a compelling visual to share with your group to convey your work.
UPDATE: Progress report on your work in organizing the exhibition are due. Oral presentation to class. Does not need typing up.
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Week 14 - Dec. 2
Show work in progress to classÑthis must include elements of the final work. The work should be 3/4 complete by this date.
Due: Statement about your project. Details on how to create an artist statement will be provided on handout.
Discuss final details of organizing exhibition. Flyers must be completed by this dateÑhand out to classmates to distribute.
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Week 15- Dec. 9
Final exhibition and performance: 5-8 pm.
Location: Arts Patio, Arts 346, 344, 342.
Everyone invited!!! VPA faculty will attend!!!
We will use the regularly schedule morning hours to install work. However, if you work is complex, we will be available all day to help. Those responsible for final exhibition details such as text, lighting, and food, will need to be there in the afternoon as well.