WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2022-2023       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Action: Art, Politics, Counterpublics
ARST 265
Fall 2022 not offered
Crosslisting: CSPL 275

In this interdisciplinary studio course, we explore action as a category of art practice. What does it mean to take action, either individually or collectively? What does it mean to refuse to take action? Through a series of projects, assignments, and discussions, we work through various possibilities, drawing on methods from public interventions, performance, institutional critique, social practice, experimental film, and work by non-art practitioners. The course is organized around the production of student projects and research, culminating in a self-directed capstone work. In the initial stages, students will be asked to work through three distinct modalities (performance, site-specific intervention, and collaborative practice) while developing their ideas. Time will be devoted to discussion of historic and contemporary examples, including European avant-gardes (Dada, Productivism), feminist film and performance, Happenings, Indigenous performance art, and work connected to political organizing, such as the Black Panther Party, United Farm Workers, Young Lords, ACT-UP, Art Workers' Coalition, and EZLN, among others. Students will be exposed to a variety of techniques and will gain access a range of facilities, including the woodshop, digital technologies through the Digital Design Studio, etc. Depending on Covid restrictions, trips to contemporary exhibitions will provide a theoretical framework. Work in this class can be created individually or collaboratively. Depending on interest, we may also organize an end-of-semester exhibit.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART
Course Format: StudioGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ARST)(HRAD-MN)

Last Updated on MAR-29-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459