REGULAR COURSE SYLLABUS
School of: Letters, Arts, and Sciences
Department: Art
Course Title: Social Practice
Catalog Course Description:
This course introduces social practices such as conversations, relationships, situations, networks, every day life, interventions, meetings, participation, and service work with an emphasis on their role in contemporary art and design. Lectures and discussions demonstrate the increasing use of relational and dialogical aesthetics informing conceptual and formal structures in contemporary art and design.
Required Reading and Other Materials will be equivalent to:
Kester, Grant (2004). Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. University of California Press.
Bourriaud, Nicolas (1998). Relational Aesthetics. Le Press Du Real, France.
Bishop, Claire (2006). Participation. The MIT Press.
Specific, Measurable Student Behavioral Learning Objectives:
Upon completion of this course the student should be able to (format: 1, a, i, ii, etc.):
1.Experiment with a range of materials and techniques for the realization of social practice art.
2.Conceive and develop project ideas through to completion and presentation.
3.Criticize social practice artwork through the evaluation and discussion of relational and dialogical aesthetics.
4.Evaluate the role of a social practice in combination with a studio practice.
Detailed Outline of Course Content (Major Topics and Subtopics) or Outline of Field Experience/Internship (experience, responsibilities and supervision) (format: I, A, 1, a, etc.):
I. Themes in social practice art
A.The practice of every day life and the anti-studio model
B.Relationships, conceptual work, and social spaces
C.Dialogues, conceptual work, and social spaces
D.Participation
E.Community
F.Authorship
G.Collectives
H.Performance installations
I.Service work
J.Creative survival environments
K.Interventions
L.Guerilla Architecture
II. Current issues, concerns, and other topics
A.Survey of media, artists, and artwork using performance techniques
1.Historical precedents
2.Contemporary artists
B.Planning and resource management
C.Curating social practice
III. Materials and media as appropriate to the individual direction of each student
IV. Critical Analysis
A. Associate and contextualize the work of other artists and students as contemporary art.
B. Writing critical analysis or responses to visual and written works
V.Social practices
A.Listening
B.The porous artist: idea generation and research
C.Grounding social practice in contemporary theory
D.Documentation and objects of/in social practice art
Evaluation of Student Performance (format: 1, a, i, ii, etc.):
1.Studio projects
2.Written materials as appropriate
3.Critiques and class discussions
4.Attendance and participation