Schedule: Friday 9-12pm
Location: Binning 102
Enrolment: 25-30 students
Calendar Description: Readings in art theory and criticism. This is a required class for the BFA degree.
This course intertwines critical theory towards informing studio art practice. Along with developing your art practice and the creation of artwork, you will also be refining your knowledge base and articulation of these discourses for discussion of art, written in oral. This approach will influence the way in which students can expand their thinking towards certain subject matter, and give a rigorous push towards dissecting the deep intellectual issues that can be found in all and any production, in this case –art making. In order to provide direction but also leave interpretation and entrance points for everyone, the theme of the class will be “nothing”, which will be used to introduce students to a number of theories of how we can deliberate the emotional, metaphysical, philosophical, linguistic, mood and attitude, technological, subjectivity, etc.. of spaces that seem to be unstable, are not known, or simply do not exist for whatever reason. In understanding how the “nothing” has been theorized in philosophical, social justice and art criticism language, students will apply personal articulations towards areas of their own artistic practice that have still not been named, or what intuitive concepts alluded to in choices of inclusion/exclusion, by way of defense of what cannot be represented or what is represented but cannot be seen. The “nothing” can expand our notions of what exists, and how that can influence, as well as potential of what can be. The nothing can be magical, it can be nihilistic, it can be potential, it can be what is not, but by way of saying the word itself, nothing does exist.
Excerpts of Weekly Lesson Plans
- Week 1 “Introduction”
- Week 2 “Nothing to Hide”
- Week 9 “All or Nothing”
- Week 10 “Nothing Lasts Forever”