Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

This course permits students to work in an open studio situation. Students propose an independent program of work in the media of their choice at the beginning of the term and develop it in critical dialogue with the instructor(s). A course materials fee is required.

COURSE DETAILS:

This studio class is devoted to students working entirely on self-directed projects in consultation with the instructor. It is designed to facilitate a critical studio practice and stress the skills required for group critique of art works at all stages of production. Students will complete at least three substantial finished works for critique in time for group critique deadlines. Finished works are to be installed with attention to presentation values such as prepared walls, floors, lighting and spatial considerations and any other factor deemed significant for the work. Each student must keep a sketchbook (or equivalent) with appropriate records of project research and development such as theoretical notes, sketches, material samples, photographs, models, as well as entries

This semester students will be expected to work on multiple projects continuously in a simultaneous manner. You will be required to submit documentation of three works for consideration in assessing your accomplishment this semester. If you make four or more, you are to submit the three that best demonstrate what you set out to achieve. If you make three and only three works, you risk achieving only a marginal or satisfactory grade.

During individual feedback sessions, you must be prepared to outline what you are trying to accomplish and what feedback you are seeking. General feedback will be offered but this will supplement the feedback given in response to your specific requests. If the professor tells you they need to see more work, that indicates your level of work can be increased and success is not guaranteed.

 

Students will conduct studio visits with one another and build an understanding of the work being made by others. Peer feedback should be premised on your extended knowledge of each others work. Feedback should be offered with an assumption of the necessity of care and respect in facilitating creative and professional growth. A short report on your visit of each student will be submitted to the professor. These are scheduled but can happen at any time during the semester once students have settled and have started production of their projects.

Work will be assessed on ambition of the project, relation to existing practice (your work may affirm an established direction or deviate meaningfully from previous work), material handling, quality of presentation decisions, the level of documentation submitted.

We will have two consecutive weeks of crits at the end of semester, after which you will be expected to continue working in the studio on your projects, making new work, refining the work you have already presented or making work in relation to the responses offered during the delivery of feedback from the professor, TA and fellow students. There will be no mid-semester crits, so you will be required to seek feedback from the professor, TA and other students. This feedback can be from fellow students in this class or in other visual art classes.

Students will write a comprehensive 250 word artist statement about their practice relevant to previous work, current work, and potentially future work. This statement should be particularly concerned with the work made during the semester. The statement is meant as a contextualization of the student’s work demonstrating their ability to situate their work in relation to contemporary art. It should note the material traditions you are working within and the questions guiding your practice.

(refer to this document for guidance: https://www.saic.edu/sites/default/files/legacy/Artist_Statement.pdf)Links to an external site.

Students will give a ten minute presentation on the work and interests of a fellow student. These presentations will be assigned.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

• Growth and development over the course of the semester

• Resourcefulness (thoughtful and inventive problem solving)

• Tenacity (especially the ability to pull oneself out of a place of disappointment with a stage in the process and move on to a place of interest)

• Collaborative skills (using the classroom as a community of peers as part of problem solving and knowledge development

• Ability to keep up with projects by working outside of class when necessary.

• Timely completion of studio project and other assignments

• Proper handling of studio tools, equipment

Grading

Materials

MATERIALS + SUPPLIES:

Students will be expected to possess general tools for use in a studio environment. Some are available though these are limited. Materials are assessed on a project to project bases and students are responsible for the purchase of any material that may be needed for the completion of any project.

REQUIRED READING NOTES: