Introduction to Artistic Experimentation: Bootlegs & Bastards (Spring 2021)

Instructor

Marisa Jahn

Units

3-3-6

Credit

u

Schedule

TR 2-5

Location

E15-283a (hybrid)

This course is an introduction to artistic practice and critical visual thinking. Through hands-on and maker-kit demos (sculpture, mould-making, sewing, cold connections), quick brainstorms, readings, guest lectures, presentations, and project-driven explorations, students explore topics that interest them and that relate to the theme. Students will develop initial curiosities and interests through two final projects with iterations along the way. Seniors are invited to access labs and facilities for technical instruction, the creation of their projects, and feedback from course instructor and TA. Students from other years will receive Maker Kits to expand their facility with artistic production techniques and also supported through ample one-on-one feedback from the course instructor and TA. Open to undergraduates only.

This course takes inspiration from the following:

• According to the logic of the “bootleg” — the knock-off, simulacra, or pirated work — the greater the infidelity, degradation, and remove from the originary object, the more valuable the bootleg in fact becomes. Here, the new mark of authenticity becomes the messy trail of the bootleg as it wrests away from its signifier. Make way for versionhood.
• Born from irregular or dubious origin, a “bastard” questions (il)legitimacy, (im)purity, and sanctity itself. Excluded from normative customs, a bastard operates via a different logic.