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CS92PROD
Intermediate Public Practice
ARST 381
Spring 2022 not offered
Crosslisting: CSPL 381

What are the possibilities and challenges of making work in the public domain? This intermediate studio course provides students with the framework, conceptual language, and technical means to develop ambitious projects in public space. Over the course of the semester, students will be introduced to a range of working methods, including new genre public art, research-based practices, site-specific projects, and collaborative practices. While the course focuses on contemporary issues and debates, it situates these topics within a set of broader global and historical traditions. Through group discussions, critiques, site visits, and presentations, the course will assist students in developing a series of works that build towards a self-directed final project. We look thematically at a range of sites as spaces of memory and belonging, sociality and resistance. We explore the manifold ways in which people have engaged with place through a range of forms, including roadside monuments, site-specific sculptures, landscape films, community-based performances, architectural interventions, collective rituals, and political protests. Attention will be placed on sites around Middletown in order to situate our research and practice. These may include Harbor Park, Middlesex Historical Society, Beman Triangle, Connecticut Valley Hospital, Colt Armory, Portland Brownstone Quarries, among others. Support will be provided to students along the way in negotiating relationships with local institutions and stakeholders. Supplementary readings will introduce students to questions related to spatial theory and practice, agonism and democracy, monuments and counter-monuments. Successful completion of the course will prepare students for advanced work in the public domain. Course is open to all students. Preference given to students who have taken ARST131 and ARST235 or ARST238 or ARST239 or ARST245 or ARST 251 or ARST286 or other course in a related discipline.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ART
Course Format: StudioGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (ARST)

Last Updated on MAR-28-2024
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