Spring 2005 Advance Course Information

This information effective for Spring 2005. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Art

[ART-023] [ART-109]

23. Intermedia I

Note: This syllabus from Winter 2005

Instructor: E.G. Crichton
Office Hours (G103): TTH 1-2
Phone: 459-5627
E-mail: egc@ucsc.edu

Course Description:

This class explores the role of an artist as someone who integrates a variety of media in order to develop conscious subject matter. Emphasis will be on contemporary art forms such as ephemeral imagery, assemblage, installation, and performance.

We will cover:

• How to research an art project
  
• How to identify appropriate materials, media, and technical skills
  
• How to experiment with process, chance, time, motion, space, sound, and materials
  
• How to edit, critique, and revise your own work
  
• How to give articulate feedback about other's work

This class is about experimentation. It is about making mistakes and taking the kinds of risks that push your creative process. It is also about being resourceful, finding ways to learn or invent techniques suggested in your work. This could mean collaboration and exchange of knowledge between people. It might also mean using the wood shop to make a box or the computer lab because you need to combine text and image. Class discussions and brainstorm sessions, along with technical demonstrations, will serve as guides to suggest what strategies might improve a particular piece.

Class Requirements / Basis for Evaluation

1. Complete all projects on time. Work is evaluated on the following criteria:

• careful attention to both concept (10% each project) and technical resolution (10% each project)
• willingness to experiment with new forms and ideas
• progress throughout quarter

2. Maintain good attendance and come to class on time. You get 2 free class absences; after that, your grade gets docked 5% each time. I would recommend saving your absences for unexpected sickness or emergencies later in the quarter.
   Please note: Saturday class periods are independent workdays, except where indicated on schedule.
3. Participate in class critiques; give critical feedback to other students about their work. (7.5%)
4. Read class handout articles and participate in discussions. (7.5%)
5. Arrange at least one individual meeting with instructor to discuss progress of work.
6. Participate actively in Open Studios the last day of the quarter. (5%)
7. Important: access your campus or private e-mail regularly for class communications.

Assignments

1. Score A score is a system of symbols that convey, guide, or control a work of art. Read the handout on scores first. Bring to class: 1 tool, 1 material to manipulate, 1 image, 1 small object, and 1 text fragment. You will make a score to pass to another class member.
2. Chance: Using the score you receive as a guide or map to both form and concept, identify and use the following to make an art work:

• 2 or 3 materials to manipulate (e.g. rope, dirt, photograph, water, light, dowel, the color green)
• 1 process to use (e.g., tearing, wrapping, burning, gluing, sprinkling, copying, melting. etc.)
• 1 compositional or structural element (e.g., grid, line, sphere, figure, architectural fragment, etc.)
• let an awareness of subject matter grow out of the "stuff" you use.

3. Slide Projection: Start with a specific childhood memory and create a 5-minute slide projection piece that includes sound. Pair up to plan and shoot your slides (each person creates a separate piece). Each pair gets a roll of 36 slides. Think about pacing and rhythm, sound, what to project onto, and whether to manipulate the physical slides. Sound must be original and can be live or recorded. You can use your voice, someone else's voice, machine or object sound. No music CD's!! Plan your timing carefully to allow for film development and reshooting if necessary.
4. Installation: Identify and find 2 objects that are "loaded" for you in some way. This is your starting point for creating an artwork that takes up space at least twice your size, one that the viewer enters. Your process will involve totally deconstructing your objects through photography, drawing, writing, replication, and destruction/transformation. Use repetition as a formal strategy.
5. Collaborative Performance: In pairs, identify something to collect from others; use this as a starting point to create a 10-minute performance. The collecting can happen before or during the piece. Examples: words, motion, item of clothing, story, object, statistic, secret, etc. Consider the aesthetics of your physical space, props, costumes, and whether anyone else participates and how.

[top of page]

109. Intermedia II

Note: Syllabus from Winter 2005

Instructor: E.G. Crichton
Office Hours (G103): TTh 1-2
Phone: 459-5627
E-mail: egc@ucsc.edu

Course Description

Intermedia II is a continued investigation of the multiple-media art strategies introduced in Intermedia I. Emphasis is on concept development and how to effectively integrate appropriate forms, materials, and media. Students experiment with images (moving and still), objects, language, mixed media, time, sound, and space. Projects address conceptual practices such as interactivity, narrative, media intervention, site specificity, process, simulation, and virtual representation. At the same time, students gain experience in combining mediums effectively to develop conscious subject matter.

Class Requirements / Basis For Evaluation

1. Complete all projects on time. Work is evaluated on the following criteria:

• careful attention to both concept and craft
• willingness to experiment with new forms and ideas
• progress throughout quarter

2. Maintain good attendance and come to class on time. You get 2 free class absences; after that, your grade gets docked 5% each time. I would recommend saving your absences for unexpected sickness or emergencies later in the quarter.
   Please note: Saturday class periods are independent workdays, except where indicated on schedule.
3. Participate in class critiques; give critical feedback to other students about their work.
4. Read class handout articles and participate in discussions.
5. Arrange at least one individual meeting with instructor to discuss progress of work.
6. Participate actively in Open Studios the last day of the quarter.
7. Important: access your campus or private email regularly for class communications.

Projects

Incorporate the following forms into a project at least once during the quarter:

• Time and motion (video, slide sequence, kinetic object, etc.)
• Text and/or sound
• Collaboration on some aspect of a project
• Installation: create a space that viewers can enter
• Performance or ritual
• A medium or technique that you've never used before

Subject Matter: Your projects for this course will center on the development of a unique persona that evolves throughout the quarter. This persona will not always be visible, but should make it possible for you to access new matter and ideas. It will sometimes have a mind of its own, other times operate more like a shadow or part of you. You will determine the materials, forms, and media of your art works in collaboration with this persona. Your persona may interact with those of other class members to form unique and dynamic hybrids. You are the author of both fact and fiction.

1) The Remains (Due Jan. 21)

Make a piece from the point of view of some future period when your persona is knowable only through physical remains (body, marker, home, objects, letters, artworks), memories, and records. Work backwards in time to begin to envision this persona. Consider when they lived and what made them (you) visible or invisible. Also consider the point of view of the artist, the one delving into this past. At this stage, you are still somewhat outside your persona.

2) Public Self (Due Feb. 3)

What is the public face of your persona? Make a piece that suggests surface and style, outer demeanor, the trappings of identity, stereotype, and projection. In this piece you are starting to step inside your persona enough to imagine what they are like on the outside.

3) Dream Life (Due Feb. 22)

Imagine the dream/interior life of your persona. Step inside their subconscious and make a piece in which what is ephemeral becomes visible. Consider both "light" and "dark" aspects.

4) Destiny (Due March 8)

What are the hopes, concerns, goals, and passions of this persona? Rework one of the above pieces into a totally new work that transforms both surface and interior into a new destination. Consider a vision of what's possible for this persona, and incorporate contradictions that get in the way.

5) Open Studios (Friday, March 11)

Select your best piece to show in Open Studio. Consider tweaking or reworking it to full resolution. Create a typed label and brief statement to hang near the piece. Participate in collectively curating and installing the show.

[top of page]