The University of Arizona,
Tucson, Art
Department
Bogdan
Achimescu,
Visiting Assistant Professor,
2002
Art as Social Practice
arts
643B
A course syllabus in the form
of FAQ
Who
should be interested in
the information below?
Who can take the course?
How many people in class?
How can people that are
not art graduate students interact
with this class?
Who is the teacher?
Are there any prerequisites
for taking the course?
What is this course about?
What will be my responsibilities?
Will I have time to do
anything else?
Who should not enroll?
What are the incentives?
What is this project not?
Why is it called "Art
as Social Practice"?
So, again, what exactly
is required??
I
want to enroll.
When
does the class meet, what is
the course number, which room?
Who
should be interested in the
information below?
The students that want to take
the course and any other students,
faculty as well as non-UofA affiliated
active professionals.
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Who can take
the course?
Graduate students only as this is a 600 level
class (please note "prerequisites")
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How many people in class?
6 to 10
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How can people
that are not art graduate
students interact with this
class?
This is an opened invitation
to everyone. While enrollment
will be limited, possible interactions
are not limited to taking the
class.
Also see below, "What is this course about"
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Who
is the teacher?
Bogdan Achimescu, Visiting Artist with the Art Department this year
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Are
there any prerequisites for taking
the course?
Yes, definitely:
-you should allocate a lot of
time and work for it, throughout
the second semester but also
before the course starts, for
preparatory meetings
-you should already be developing
a body of work and/or a strong,
serious theoretical core preoccupation
-you should have either basic
computer knowledge or an interest
to acquire it. Embarking on additional
workshops (like the ones offered
by the Multi Media Lab) may be
necessary. See also "What
is this course about?" below
-you should posses, enrich and
use in this course other abilities
than just art-production or art-theoretical
reflection. The non-exclusive
list of those abilities contains:
general writing, bookmaking,
book design, general personal
charm to be used for PR, knowledge
of fundraising methodologies,
video and photo knowledge, foreign
languages, driving vehicles,
the in-depth knowledge of a particular
political or social topic, etc.
Note that: the limit in the list
of those abilities is only your
fantasy.
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What is this course about?
The end product of this course
will be one or another or
a combination of the following:
-physical artwork
-an event or series of events
(exhibition, tour, performance,
roundtable, seminar, presentation,
etc.)
-a set of documentary traces
of the event and its making (CD-ROM,
catalog, web site, video, other
learning tools for future reference,
etc.)
This is a production-oriented
course. There will be no lecturing
and no theoretical knowledge
to convey, other than the knowledge
that you will pragmatically decide
you need.
When you need information, tools
or resources, you will be responsible
for finding those.
In doing so, you will be expected
to creatively interact with people
outside of the Art Department.
In fact, throughout the making
of the above "product" we
expect to interact with people
of different backgrounds that
could become our collaborators,
critics, detractors, helpers,
advisers, sponsors and audience.
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What will
be my responsibilities?
You will be expected to work
a lot.
This work will involve participating
in organizational meetings, brain
storming and discussions.
It will involve independently
producing your own work (your
"insert" in the project.
The focus of the class will not be
on helping you produce this
"insert".
It will involve doing non-art-production
work (like writing texts, designing
web pages, books and display
systems, etc.)
It will involve advertising the "product" and
raising its profile in other
ways.
In
essence, you will have three
equally important things to
do:
1. to develop your own work in
an independant way (that too
can be a collaboration if you
wish)
2. to participate in a collective
effort (that may involve designing
a catalogue for the whole class,
putting together a web site or
raising funds)
3. to reach out of from the department
into other areas (for example
by collaborating with an institution
or person: musician, librarian,
restaurant owner, janitor, architect
or writer)
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Will I have time to do
anything else?
Yes, sleep.
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Who should not enroll?
Students that work hard in order
to master a variety of topics
but do not have a clearly
defined body of work yet
should not enroll.
Students that enroll out of curiosity
and end up not working hard should
not enroll.
Students that do not expect or
wish lots of interaction and
criticism and students that are
too shy to speak should not enroll.
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What are
the incentives?
Talking a lot and drinking tons
of coffee
Also (and seriously):
-the possibility of embarking
on a project that is structured
around the idea of an
"independent group of artists" rather
than a
"teacher-student" situation
-you will get out of the art
department building and meet
people whose interest and support
will be a nice surprise for you
-you will meet John
Ford,
president and cofounder of ISLA.
We are fortunate enough to have
him as a guest speaker in spring
2002
-you will test-fly your abilities
to function independently in
preparation of your meeting with
the meager-resource and low-feedback
world
-you will get to use new tools
and develop new skills
-you will translate your art
(from images to words and back,
from objects to their representation
and documentation, from an exhibit
to a socially functional apparatus)
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What is this
project not?
This is not (necessarily) about
art that deals with social problems
within its subject matter.
It is not solely a platform or
a showcase for individual work
but a collective effort.
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Why is it called "Art
as Social Practice"?
The base of this project is collaboration
and interaction.
Interaction and collaboration
with entities outside of our
group, sharing of responsibilities,
resources and ideas inside our
group.
It is about being useful to others
as an individual and useful to
the larger collective as a group.
It is about art getting out of
its sweet little ghetto.
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Did
Achimescu curate other similar
projects?
Yes,
for instance OutPrints, in 2000, with students and
faculty of the University
of Virginia. The semester-long
collaboration resulted in an
event ("The
Walk"), 30 site-specific
installations, a paper publication,
a website and lots of debates,
ranging from insider gossip
to press coverage
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So,
again, what exactly is required??
What
is required is you wanting to
make a transition:
from having others tell you what
is required
to deciding by yourself what
is required
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I
want to enroll.
Before this FAQ becomes
longer than Daniel DefoeÕs novels:
Please e-mail me at bogdan@email.arizona.edu with
questions and, if interested,
come to our first meeting.
We meet in the Art Building,
Printmaking Grad Studio 303 A
(click here for
map)
on Thursday October 25 2001,
at 8PM
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When does the class meet,
what is th ecourse number,
which room?
On
Mondays and Wednesdays between
6 and 8:50 PM in room 307 or
303B.
This is couse # 643B
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