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Concept/Formula Project

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The value of an idea is proved by its power to organize the subject matter.
                 -Goethe

 The world is full of objects, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.
               -Douglas Huebler
 

Concept art is first of all an art of which the material is concepts,  as the material of e.g. music is sound. Since concepts are closely bound up with language, concept art is a kind of art of which the material is language.
                 -Henry Flynt
 

Conceptual art is made to engage the mind of the viewer rather than his eye or emotions.
                  -Sol LeWitt

 

For your first assignment, you will be taking a series of photographs that reveal a system by which you obtained them.  They must reveal your overall idea/concept, through a strict formula that you devised and executed.  The formula is the idea that will run the project, think of the formula as the machine that makes the art. Your formula should involve all details, including what time or occurrence the photographer would click to take a photograph, framing/angles of the shot including what is or isn’t included in the background, vantage point, focus area, size and perspective, and the boundaries of when to start and stop the project.

For the most part, projects that come from this assignment work with either an action, or inventory.  This is not to say that you might not come up with a formula that does something other than conform to an action or inventory -honestly go for it, I dare you to find another formula type! But to give some examples, here are a few explanations:

  • Your formula might pick an action in which you (or someone else or thing) will perform, and document each iteration in front of a camera.  An example:
    • Photograph someone jumping in a room with a tall ceiling.  Take a picture at the highest point of each jump, in an aim to reach the ceiling.  Keep going until the subject touches the ceiling.  Once the jump is high enough to reach the ceiling, then the formula is complete, and the project ends.  Each ‘failed’ jump photograph is a part of the series, including the successful jump at the end.
  • A photographic inventory, or taking a picture of each artifact of a collection.  A formula you create might be:
    • Take a photo of all the gifts your past romantic partner purchased for you. You would take a picture of every gift separately, (perhaps even use the formula to depict the order, such as a chronology of the relationship through the gifts, or perhaps order them in your preference -from favourite to least favourite) and would stop photographing when all the gifts were recorded.
    • An inventory of all the physics books written by women at the UBC library.  You would have to scour the UBC library and take a picture of the front (or side, whatever your formula dictates) of every book in the physics section that is authored solely by a woman, once you photograph all of them, your formula is complete.

Please decide on a formula that is actually feasible and executable within the time frame of a couple of days or less, work within your means!  But be sure that your method, framing decisions, and chosen subject matter informs one another to create a cohesive and well thought out concept and resulting piece that is also an intriguing thing to document.  There are ways to create formulas that will bring out social, political, even emotional meaning without interfering with the documentary quality of photography.  Be creative and engage with the challenge of how different photographic modes can have different effects!

I suggest you focus much time on pre-planning and organization of your formula, after executing the formula, be considered in how you will display the images in your final presentation of pictures, framing, layout, proportions, etc…. Be sure that your formula is consistent, has a notable beginning and end, and avoids as many ‘arbitrary’ decisions as possible, for these would corrupt the objective nature of the piece.  Techniques of display are essential in creating a narrative or map that correlates and enhances the subject matter of your piece.  Choose a subject matter that interests you and you have some sort of attachment or investment towards, and test that subject matter against the objective mechanical documentation of the camera.

DUE  

Week of February 6-9 at the start of your registered lab time. The project is due in your lab, even though the due date in this assignment module indicates otherwise!

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

  • You must take, (or scan) your own photographs, adjust them in Photoshop and create a format/display/layout/map in Photoshop so that it is many layers , one image per layer, all within one document.
  • This project MUST be in colour, and colour/density adjusted. We highly recommend using adjustment layers to practice a professional mode of colour and density balance.
  • The final project will be shown on a flat screen monitor for viewing, therefore the resolution should be approx 100 ppi.
  • You must place all the images (no minimum or maximum number of images) in one document at the dimensions and proportions you choose with any side (height or width) no smaller than 2000 pixels and no larger than 9,000 pixels.
  • The minimum and maximum number requirement of images compiled together is flexible, but more ambitious projects usually demonstrate a more challenging formula and set up that usually results in more images. However there are always other challenges of a more riskier formula that can dictate the final number of images that would also show ambition.
  • Please be careful of how you add corresponding text in the image, try not to unless absolutely necessary for your formula.  Your audience is smart, so trust them to figure things out with the images and presentation rather than descriptions.
  • Please save one image as a JPEG for upload on CLAS for viewing, and another version of a working, unflattened PSD on a flashdrive.
  • Consider a title for the series, but do not put that title on the image itself.  Instead title your JPG file your project title.


SUBMISSION PROCESS

Please submit the final work as a single image uploaded to CLAS, (link on left hand index bar of Canvas) in the “Formula” playlist folder of your lab section. When uploading, you may want to add an informative title that works with the piece in the title area of CLAS.  Please do not put a title on the work directly.  Informative does not mean tell us everything -nor does it want something as arbitrary as a poem.  Work somewhere in-between, and be careful how much the title imposes or confuses a viewer.  Titles will not directly affect your grade, but practicing writing a title for this project will help you for the next.

  • In CLAS, please upload a JPEG file of your project under the “Formula” playlist, this version will be shown in class for the feedback session.
  • Bring in a working, unflattened PSD version of the project. to hand in to your TA.
  • In this Canvas text box, please write a maximum 250 word (total) reflective summary of your process making this project.  Please provide a title of the project and answer some or all of the following questions:
    • Why did you pick this subject matter and what went into deciding the formula?
    • What were the results of executing the formula, was anything surprising?
    • Were there other connotations that revealed themselves that you did not anticipate?  How did you feel about this?
    • Is there anything you would do differently?

Online Peer Review -Appropriation

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When artists work in a studio, a useful part of the environment is the ability to give peer critique, suggestions and even evaluations of how a work is functioning.  In lieu of a physical studio, this component of the course and project aim to create a virtual studio that enables the same type of communication.

Part 1:  Upload your Project to ComPAIR

To start the online peer review process, please upload a rough or complete draft of your work, and please provide a working title for the work.  As it is a visual artwork, it should communicate with the viewer visually so do not add an explanation, however you should add notes of what sources you are appropriating.  If the work is unfinished, you may add a description of what you still have left to do.  But remember, do not add an explanation, your project should explain itself visually!  At this point you should have your idea and sources found, and brought some into Premiere for rough editing to work out formal decisions in how you will execute.  A rough MP4 file of your project can be uploaded to ComPAIR for your peers to see and critique at a maximum of 250 MB.  Please create a compressed version and reduce the file size to upload it.  Another option, if it is too large, is to upload the video on a free video platform, such as vimeo, google drive or youtube, and paste the link into the text box in Connect.  If you password protect the video, remember to give the password! 

Part II:  Online Critiques

You are then asked to compare student projects and give thoughtful feedback. The online critiques will have NO BEARING on your grades, and are a tool to help you grow with the project and generously create a sense of community, not count as peer grading or competitive in any way.  This is about making people better and reach their potential in the project.  You are graded on how generous you can be to another student in improving their work.  A review of the process is as follows:

  • The peer review is set up to do comparisons (2 projects) of peer work, three times.
  • Therefore, you are to complete three sets of comparisons, viewing 6 works, writing 6 feedback boxes of approx 200 considered words each (total of 1200 words).
  • For each comparison pair, you have three specific questions to answer. They are provided on the comparison form.
  • After completing the three question comparison, you are able to give feedback to each student you have compared using the comparison rationale as a way to foster feedback.

ComPAIR Questions

1. Which project demonstrated better purpose and precision in presentation, editing, and formal delivery decisions?

Specific to time-based works, you can think of:

  • Footage framing choices (letterboxes, uneven proportions, etc)
  • Placement – form, scale, balance, etc…
  • Composition of scenes individually
    or as multi-channel displays (for projects that play multiple footage in the same screen)
  • Timing, build up, duration
  • Pacing & rhythm
  • Use of repetition or lack of
  • Framed edit points (in and out)
  • Duration, looping or ending, a scene or compilation, etc…
  • Deconstruction of narrative elements
  • How scenes interact
  • Colour and density balance
  • Role of sound, how it is aligned
  • And other areas by which stylistic editing and visual choices are rendered

2. Which work better utilized a conceptual framework that revealed or uncovered hidden meanings?

This is the category that deals with meaning.  Is the work critical?

  • What is the main idea or purpose of the piece?
  • What is foregrounded?  What associations does the work evoke?
  • How do display or editing choices influence how we see the footage or artifact?
  • Is there anything in the work that references outside of itself? Is it common knowledge, or is the reference provided somehow in the work?
  • Does it change how you approach or interpret meaning?
  • How does the title further play with the arrangement and information?
  • Are pertinent symbols or themes researched and handled with intellectual understanding?
  • What is at stake?  If the piece changes how we understand something –how does that challenge how we know?

You should compare how the appropriated footage is understood in its initial context, and how it has changed viewpoints in the new rendering, this should reveal new insight to the meaning -should bring about a change in the audience’s reception of the footage.

3. Which project did better to meet (or even surpass) the challenges of the project goals of how one can use appropriation to change insight on an artifacts meaning?

Project Goals particular to Appropriation

  • Borrows from the world around us, and uses particular footage that reflects cultural codes we need to dissect in order to add layers of complexity to viewing
  • Evidence of knowledge and further research into background information and status of footage used in the project and ideologies it carries
  • Spent time with borrowed footage, finding just the right points to pursue a poignant unravelling
  • Recognize the nuanced and complex aspects of appropriating footage, using the act in a respectful yet critical way
  • Using authorship in a contemporary understanding of current issues and deliberations
  • Engages with time-based/moving image with attention and conviction
  • Creatively problem solves challenges of critical and complex negotiations of how meaning translates
  • Reveals new aspects or calls our attention to how an audience understands certain established meanings in a way that we can’t help but ‘feel’ and ‘reflect’ on our positioning, leaves space for a viewer to contemplate

Rubric

(This part of the online peer review is graded automatically by the Canvas/ComPAIR system)

Criteria Total: 5%
Submission Successfully Uploaded (1) Not Uploaded (0) 1.3%
Comparison Questions Complete (1) Incomplete (0) .66%
Feedback (in other description) 3%

 

Feedback

This grade accounts for the online peer critique written feedback.  This feedback box is vital!  Please deliver generous and thoughtful constructive feedback so that the student may improve or understand where things may have gotten distracted.  The feedback box answer will be delivered to the student who has created the work, please be tactful and appropriate in your answers. Comments are meant to be constructive and helpful for the student who receives it; understand that text can come across sternly, and you are to be mindful in how it reads. All judgements are to be backed up by hard proof found in the work.

  • In the feedback box, write one succinct paragraph (minimum 200 words) for each work advising them of how the goals of appropriation as a critical art form was achieved, or how it could be pushed further.
    • Take the time to describe how you analyzed and interpreted the work.
    • Did the artwork meet the criteria and communicate a purposeful appropriation?
    • Did all formal and process decisions demonstrate appropriation?
    • Are any execution decisions arbitrary or distracting to the greater meaning?
    • Was there a personal investment, originality and creativity in approaching the subject matter?
    • And finally, if there are areas of the project that could have been improved you should relay this, you may want to add suggestions/examples on how they could do this.

Read Feedback & Make Improvements

Allow the lessons of viewing the other work inform your self-evaluation. After looking at other work, think of what you might change or reconsider about your own work.You will receive feedback from your colleagues that should help you to improve your work as well.  You are allowed to change it as much as you want from the input you received, and in some cases, you may wish to start again, (as long as you learned from your previous iteration of the project what you wish to improve).  Please read your feedback to see where there might be disjoints in how your project is functioning to a viewer.  From here, you can adjust.  You are allowed to make changes on your project after this peer review, that is actually the point!  Please reflect on this process in your project reflection.

 

Feedback Rubric

3.0 pts

Proficient
Feedback included a thoughtful considered and detailed interpretation, which gave rise to various high level suggestions and/or points to help in improving and considering aims of the project

2.7 pts

Accomplished
Interpretation was considered and of high quality, which gave evidence to certain suggestions or points for the peer to consider, feedback was generous, helpful and took on a critical lens

2.5 pts

Competent
Feedback included interpretation, showed thoughtfulness and gave at least one critical suggestion or offering for each peer project on points connected to the preliminary questions

2.2 pts

Developing
Appropriate and accurate interpretation that was thoroughly considered for all works, evidence of some constructive feedback towards peer growth

2.0 pts

Novice
Feedback was simple or brief, attempted relaying interpretation, was somewhat relevant and complete

1.7 pts

Satisfactory
Appropriate evidence of interpretation, however, some inaccurate information or lack of criticality in viewing resulted in lack of useful constructive feedback

1.2 pts

Below Credit Value
Feedback was incoherent or irrelevant, lacking thoughtfulness, and only partially complete (missing interpretation or missing constructive feedback) or too short to be constructive

1.0 pts

Missing Components
Feedback inadequate, did not reach minimum word requirement, or not completed on all 6 required works

0.0 pts

Incomplete
No feedback evident

Grading in Canvas

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Step #1:  Go into the “SpeedGrader” for the project

In this example, we will go into the “Artist Poster” Assignment.

You can go into the Speed Grader one of two ways:

  1. Through the Grade book, click on any student (in this case I chose the test student) and then click on the grade cell of the project you wish to grade.  From here, click on the little speech bubble on the top right.

You will then get a pop-up box where you can click on “More details in the SpeedGrader” to open.

or

2.  Through the Assignment Description, open the description and on the right side panel you should see an option of “SpeedGrader” for the assignment, click it.

Step #2:  Navigating “Speed Grader”

You can select a students’ grade area for the project by clicking on the name on the top right, which will expose a drop down menu of all the students in the class.  This is how you can switch between student projects in the speed grader.

Once you select the student you wish to grade, you will see their assignment on the left side, and the grade area on the right.  To go into the rubric, in order to enter their grade, click on “View Rubric”.

The rubric can be quite large, therefore you may want to move the dividing line of the screen over to the left.  You can do this by clicking on the grey line (the white line on the right changes the size on the other side) and slide it to the left to make the right side of the screen larger.  From here you should see the rubric in front of you. If you were to switch between students it should keep the size in tact.

Step #3:  Use the Rubric & Save the Grade

At this point, just click on the boxes that best represent proof of learning in their project for each of the areas.  A sum is tabulated in real time so you can see the total of their project grade on the bottom right of the rubric box.  You can adjust as you see fit while selecting the boxes.

From here, you need to click both “Save” and “Submit” for it to record into the Gradebook.  If there are brief comments you wish to relay to the student, you can do it here.

C-Week 12

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April 2-4  “Engaged Learning Wrap Up”

Outcomes

  • Enact a critical outlook as visual readers, recognizing how meaning is cultivated and perpetuated through representation.
  • Produce ethical, informed, multi-dimensional, work that is situated in contemporary concerns.
  • Activate the process of making, as a way of knowing.

Lecture

Artist Talks: Ramey, Alejandro & Nazanin

Lab

Today is an engaged learning wrap up.  This is meant to be a celebratory last class to reflect on their time learning about artistic practice and images, the community and their own agency in making.  Have students show their GIF’s and take some time to talk about their experience making work after witnessing a professional artists’ journey with their work.  How does the conversation continue?  How does it feel to be a part of that?

Reminders

  • Please give all remaining flash drives back today!  The GIF and reflection are due online.
  • Grades are due 5 business days after the last class, therefore if student work can no longer be accepted after April 9/10.  At that point they will need to go to Advising to get a concession/deferral.

C-Week 11

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March 26 – 28  “Gallery Trip”

Outcomes

  • Enact a critical outlook as visual readers, recognizing how meaning is cultivated and perpetuated through representation.
  • Produce ethical, informed, multi-dimensional, work that is situated in contemporary concerns.
  • Activate the process of making, as a way of knowing.

Lecture

Artist Talk:  Christine (this lecture might be cancelled altogether because the gallery trip is more important!)

Lab

March 26 March 28
  • Tuesday 4-4:30pm (13 students) Ramey
  • Tuesday 4:30-5pm (14 students) Ramey & Nazanin
  • Tuesday 5-5:30pm (13 students) Nazanin
  • Thursday 4:30-5pm (14 students) Ale
  • Thursday 5-5:30pm (13 students) Ale & Nazanin
  • Thursday 5:30-6pm (13 students) Nazanin
  • Thursday 6:30-7pm (10 students) Ale
  • Thursday 7-7:30pm (10 students) Ale

 

Exhibition:  That which identifies them, like the eye of the cyclops

 / Opening  @ 7:00
Performance with Marién Valez: March 23 @ 2pm

Monique Wittig’s 1969 novel Les Guérillères envisions the aftermath of a violent war of the sexes in a future where women have toppled the patriarchy. Santiago Muñoz’s work That which identifies them, like the eye of the cyclops, takes Wittig’s text as source of inspiration. Her three-channel video installation follows a group of real women—all friends and collaborators of the artist’s in her community in and around San Juan, Puerto Rico—as they tend to farm animals, play music, and occupy protest sites at government buildings, not as a speculative vision about what might be, but as a provocation of how an imagined future can be actualized in the present.

In conjunction with this exhibition, Western Front will be hosting Muñoz and her collaborator Marién Velez for a short residency to further develop and perform a new performance that extends from Wittig’s novel and the work they did together in the process of making the video.

Beatriz Santiago Muñoz lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her work arises out of long periods of observation and documentation, in which the camera is present as an object with social implications and as an instrument mediating aesthetic thought. Her films frequently start out through research into specific social structures, individuals, or events, which she transforms into moving image, at times supported by objects and texts. Santiago Muñoz’s recent work has been concerned with post-military land, Haitian poetics, and the sensorial unconscious of anti-colonial movements. Recent solo exhibitions include: Song, Strategy, Sign at the New Museum, A Universe of Fragile Mirrors at the Pérez Art Museum of Miami, MATRULLA, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, México City; Post-Military Cinema, Glasgow International; The Black Cave, Gasworks, London. Her work is included in public and private collections, such as the Whitney Museum, Solomon Guggenheim Museum, and Kadist.

Western Front Gallery @ 303 East 8th Avenue (Mount Pleasant)

Reminders

  • Next week students will bring in a GIF piece as a response to Beatriz’s work, they will be shown in class for a very relaxed celebratory critique.

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