This part of the grade accounts for an overall evaluation of your participation in lab-related work, including classroom climate exercise, workshop exchanges, general discussions and generative feedback sessions including individual meetings with TA’s and group work with peers.  Artistic Growth evaluates artistic challenges taken and overcome throughout the duration of the course, towards artistic growth.  As art-making has elements of ‘risk’ that when starting out to make art, can go awry, this part of your grade accounts for the fact that you went beyond your comfort level, and engaged in complicated discussions to evolve understanding.  Overall, this class tries to get you beyond the predictable, conventional, boring, general or even shallow ways in which we represent, into exciting new territories we’ve never been before.  While this is accounted for in most of the rubrics for the course, this component of the breakdown is to further emphasize that this course is about doing something different, pushing limits, and thoughtful engagement.

This grade is administered ‘holistically’ at the end of the term for up to 10% of the final grade.  Guidance of expectations for students is available on Canvas and reads:

(76% and up) An above average and proficient student demonstrates:

• Arrives fully prepared with notes and opinions, and extended questions to pose to group from concepts in lecture or personal research
• Actively and respectfully listens to peers and teacher contributions at all times
• Comments are relevant, and reflect a distinguished understanding of remarks, material, and overall insight of content towards course goals
• Actively participates at appropriate times
• Engages with unique challenges of the course and artistic practices, overcomes self-imposed challenges with enthusiasm (with either successful or not so successful results, it is still a level proficient growth!)
• Takes risks in challenging personal pre-conceived ideas and conventions of artistic practice, going beyond personal comfort zones and into new exciting territories
• Critical and creative problem solving through self-imposed critical questioning shown in own work and in discussions of peer work and course ideas

(60-75%) Average expectations and competent students demonstrate:

• Arrives with lecture notes and/or understanding and evidence of preparation
• Actively and respectfully listens to peers and teachers most of the time
• Most comments relevant and reflect understanding of content, as well as students remarks and insights about material
• Participates often at mostly appropriate times, but may also demonstrate a lack of attention to timing or appropriateness of participation
• Shows acceptable engagement and investment in personal artistic growth as demonstrated in class discussions, peer conversations, and in personal artistic work
• Competent investment in course challenges resulting in proven attempts of creative and critical problem solving

(59% and below) A below average or novice student demonstrates:

• Novice, or superficial preparations as cover-up, or noticeably unprepared
• Sometimes or frequently displays lack of interest and/or respect of what others might offer their learning
• In class comments sometimes irrelevant, and give evidence of lack of preparation, or indicate lack of attention to previous remarks or remarks of others
• Lack of attention to course content resulting in distracting contributions
• Sometimes participates but is distracted other times
• A failing mark would indicate that the student rarely participates, and is often or almost always distracted and doing other tasks
• Initial stages of artistic growth attempted later in the course
• A student would not receive course credit on artistic growth if there is a lack of personal initiation and engagement in academic contemporary artistic practices, involving critical and creative thinking
• Minimal engagement with course concepts and challenges as through their work and class discussions