Introduction to the Visual Arts, Fall 2004

Abstract:: Introduction to artistic practice and aesthetic analysis through studio work and lectures. Students communicate ideas and experiences through various media such as sculpture, installation, performance, and video. Projects evolve through stages of conceptual and material development to final presentation. Lectures, visiting artist presentations, field trips, and readings supplement studio practice, providing an index to the historical, cultural, and environmental forces that affect both development of artistic vision and reception of works of art. Lab fee.

The Production of Space: Art, Architecture and Urbanism in Dialogue, Fall 2006

Abstract:: Subject engages a dialogue with architecture and urbanism from the perspective of the visual artist. Ideas investigated thematically from early modernist practices to the most recent examples of contemporary production. Art making as an adjunct to the design process is challenged by both synthetic and critical models of production. Visual art practice is examined as a conceptual prologue to architectural and urbanistic thinking, as an integrated part of the design process, and as a critical epilogue. Lectures and discussions lead to the development of realized projects to be coordinated with architectural studio. This seminar engages in the notion of space from various points of departure. The goal is first of all to engage in the term and secondly to examine possibilities of art, architecture within urban settings in order to produce what is your interpretation of space.

Abstract:: Focuses on the production of visual art for public places outside the gallery/museum context. Readings and discussions that engage aesthetic, social, political, and urban issues relevant to this expanded public context complement studio production. Traditional approaches of enhancement and commemoration are contrasted to more temporal and critical methodologies. Historical models are studied and discussed, including Russian Constructivist experiments, the Situationists, Conceptual Art, and more recent interventionist tactics.