Introduction to Artistic Experimentation (Fall 2024)

Instructor

Laura Anderson Barbata

Lab Fee

Per-term $75 fee after Add Date; SMACT students are exempt

Credit

3-3-6 U

Schedule

T 2-5 | W 9:30-12:30

Location

E15-235

This course introduces artistic practice and critical visual thinking through three studio-based projects using different scales and media, for instance, “Body Extension,” “Shaping Time,” “Public Making,” and/or “Networked Cultures.” Each project concludes with a final presentation and critique. Students explore sculptural, architectural, performative artistic methods; video and sound art; site interventions and strategies for artistic engagement in the public realm. Lectures, screenings, guest presentations, field trips, readings, and debates supplement studio practice. Also introduces students to the historic, cultural, and environmental forces affecting both the development of an artistic vision and the reception of a work of art.

Through various artistic techniques, creativity games, and experiments, the class will first identify the internal drive that inspires artists, scientists, and inventors to create. The activities will activate students’ internal artistic curiosity and foster artistic experimentation. The class will introduce students to novel ways of looking at materials, objects, and activities in our immediate surroundings -as well as our relationship to them- and respond creatively through specific projects created by the students. Each project concludes with a final presentation and critique.

Students will explore sculptural, drawing/painting, performance and theater methodologies, video and sound art, site interventions, and strategies for artistic engagement in the public realm.

To supplement studio practice, the class incorporates lectures, screenings, field trips, readings, and discussions.