NG-206-1 Photoworks: Conceptual Photography Allan DeSouza Prerequisite: NG-201 Photography has played a major role in the development of conceptual and performance art, and it has gone beyond just the mere document. Today, contemporary artists use photography widely in the creation of concept-based work. Context has also shifted with the advent of the Internet where the boundaries are even more blurred. This course is not aimed at addressing technical or darkroom issues or conventions of photography, but instead at the use of the still camera as a tool for idea-based image-making. Inclusive of all approaches, scales, executions, and techniques, the course will challenge students to address all aspects of their decision-making process in critiques. This is a combination critique/seminar class, and will also include regular lectures on the historical developments of the role of photography in performance and conceptual art. Satisfies Photoworks Requirement
NG-220-2 Athletic Aesthetic Jennifer Locke Prerequisite: NG-101 This studio seminar course is for students working with sports-related subject matter in any medium. The course explores sports imagery, language, structures, and aesthetics, and their use in art and popular culture. Topics include parallels between athletic training and studio practice; physical repetition, endurance, and fatigue; the idealized athlete and fandom; competition; and the body, performance, and spectacle. In-class presentations, guest lectures, and readings present a variety of perspectives, such as artists working with athleticism, personal trainers, advertising, professional sports writing, and fan blogs. Students apply these materials during discussion, group critique, and in the studio. Off-site project: Students collaborate to organize a sports-themed “event” and/or create a publication. Satisfies New Genres Elective Satisfies Critical Studies Elective
NG-220-1 Internet Killed the Video Star Tim Sullivan Prerequisite: NG-101 This course will concentrate on a history of television and its relationship to art. We will discuss artists who used television as medium, infiltrating the homes of the national TV-viewing public through acts of intervention, piracy, and more conventional methods. We will address the changing role of celebrity initially brought about by public-access television, game shows, and reality TV. This will bring us into the 21st century, when the “TV set” is nearly extinct, being replaced by the home computer. We will discuss how the advent of video sharing communities like YouTube have given everyone with a computer the ability to become a celebrity seen by a world audience. The class will experiment with performance and persona through a variety of individual/ collaborative projects that will result in a “TV show” premiering on the SF public-access cable channel. In typical TV-show style, we will shoot in front of a live studio audience at the SF public-access station and intercut the “show” with student-made videos. Students will be expected to make their own videos/performances and collaborate on television production and editing. Artists/work to be viewed/discussed include Chris Burden, Mike Smith, Tony Labat, Ant Farm, Groucho Marx, William Wegman, Glenn O’Brien’s TV Party, The Uncle Floyd Show, Sadie Benning, Weird Charlotte, Andy Warhol, Ernie Kovacs, Family Feud, Jackass, Jim Spagg’s Sex Show, The Real World, Stan Douglas, Gerry Schum, and many more. Satisfies New Genres Video Distribution Requirement Satisfies New Genres Issues and Contemporary Artists Requirement Satisfies Critical Studies Elective
NG-220-3 Street Chris Sollars Prerequisite: NG-101 This post-studio course utilizes the street as a source for material and site/location for the production of New Genres work (looking beyond the typical, graffiti-focused conception of “street art”). Classes will meet both on campus in the studio and off-campus at scheduled locations. Students will generate work through found material, observation, and from the street, and develop projects to enact both on-site and off. Throughout the semester we will look at historical context for streets as a site for materials, performance, and protest. Students enrolled in this course are expected to develop foresight and to consider consequences for their actions in public; to work both independently and collaboratively; and to realize independent goals. Street will stimulate dialogue through critiques, guests, readings and lectures. Satisfies New Genres Elective Satisfies Critical Studies Elective Satisfies Urban Studies Elective
SPRING 2013
NG-220-4 Art by Instruction Whitney Lynn Prerequisite: NG-101 This course will focus on the creation of works that start with an instruction, and will examine the transformation of the role of the artist from maker to conceiver. Working in a combined studio/seminar format, students will come to terms with historical and contemporary working methods and issues of fabrication; the role of the artist as director; audience completion/participation; the tension between conceptualization and material realization; and questions regarding the validity of the hand. Allowing for a range of interpretations, the studio component of the class will be supported by field trips, readings, screenings, and guest lectures. Satisfies New Genres Elective