Artists in all media have historically responded to common, formal, and ideological motivations. These motivations encompass the very fabric of a liberal arts education. This course is intended to strengthen such a liberal conversation among the various studio art disciplines, as well as to develop that conversation as the foundation for making art. The course centers on a topic determined by the instructor. The class will function as a study group (of painters, sculptors, photographers, and so on) that tackles the topic through the act of making. The topic will be introduced through readings and visual precedents, and through discussion we will determine means to respond as artists, each student in his or her own medium. These individual responses will then be analyzed in group critiques. Later in the semester, students will be asked to expand their investigations to include studio disciplines other than their own.
What is information? How does it pertain to art? How does information proliferate? How is it organized? How reliable is information? These questions and more will be explored through artistic production and discussion. This course is offered as an elective for studio arts majors but can, at the discretion of the instructor, be offered to majors from other departments with adequate experience in visual arts. For admission to the class, students are expected to be capable of self-expression in at least one visual art medium. |