Museum or Mausoleum? The Framing of Art, Culture and Neuroplasticity

REVISED

Fall 2011, Winter 2012 and Spring 2012 quarters

Faculty

Lara Evans (F) art history, visual arts , Sarah Williams feminist theory, consciousness studies

Fields of Study

Native American studies, anthropology, art history, consciousness studies, cultural studies, field studies, gender and women's studies, literature, media arts, media studies, somatic studies and visual arts

Preparatory for studies or careers in

art history, art, cultural studies, writing, anthropology, feminist theory and contemplative education.

Description

Do museums transform living, changing cultural objects into fixed, preserved, inviolate collections? What stories do museums tell? What stories do objects embody? And what stories do we, visitors, tell ourselves? How do objects housed in museums affect our sense of self-identity? What does it take to become aware of how stories we tell both frame and are framed by objects? Is it possible to heal culture and the self through the interactions of narratives and objects? What happens to historical ideas about human consciousness when we explore the mausoleum-like exhibitions of what this consciousness has exhibited as other? What happens to consciousness when it is framed by neuroscience or to the self when it encounters thinking as an evolutionary internalization of movement?

We'll explore the power of narrative objects in a variety of exhibition spaces: museums, galleries, shopping malls, book/web pages. We'll identify curiosities about the relationship between art objects and self-representation, particularly shifts in cultural influences and identities as they relate to shifts between the museological and mausoleum-like aspects of exhibition spaces.

A triptych is a narrative object that uses three pictorial panels to convey movement in time, space, and states of being. A triptych, of sorts, is the focus of our fall quarter work and the model for our winter field studies. Consider our left panel: in the lives and other virtual realities of William Gibson's Count Zero , the effects of narrative objects range from creative to preservative to destructive. Equally significant is how these effects are framed in movements between exhibition spaces experienced as "bird-cages of the muses" and those encountered in computer generated Joseph Cornell-like bird boxes. In the center panel is the narrative power of an artwork in Sheri Tepper's science fiction novel, The Fresco . Here, alien races experience the consequences when a fresco at the heart of their cultural identity has been violently misinterpreted for a millennium. Now, the right panel. Here, in Catherine Malabou's texts the shifting movement or adaptability of self is called neuroplasticity. Her analysis of Claude Levi-Strauss' fascination with two sides--graphic and plastic--of masks illustrates her definition of neuroplasticity. We'll read this post-Derridean theory of self and do fieldwork with masks available for viewing in collections in this region.

During winter quarter faculty and students will explore narrative objects and self-representation through six weeks of fieldwork in museums of their choice. Museums can be exhibitions of art, history or science; even zoos and botanical gardens can be considered museums. Students will document their research on their museum and will return to compile a multi-media presentation of their research project. In studios and workshops during fall and winter quarters students can expect to learn audio recording, digital photography, drawing with color pastels, ethnographic fieldwork, mindfulness practices (yoga, meditation), creative non-fiction writing, blogging and public speaking.

During spring quarter students will have the opportunity to integrate individual and peer-group projects into a core all-program curriculum.  That is, in addition to the 8-credit all-program activities of seminar, lecture, visiting artists' lecture and film series, a retreat week, and related assignments (e.g., weekly seminar response essays, a theory as evocative object chapter, a mindmap and 3D triptych, and mid-term and final reflective and evaluative writing), each student will design an in-program individual or peer group project for 8 credits.  These projects may include (but are not limited to) the curation and/or installation of an exhibition or collection, an internship, a studio-based artistic or technical practice, community-based learning in support of Paddle to Squaxin 2012 ( http://paddletosquaxin2012.org ; http://www.evergreen.edu/longhouse/home.htm ), or a field-based museum-related study.  Partially funded by TESC's Noosphere Award, week 7 retreat week activities will include a range of contemplative practices: 5 rhythm dance; yoga nidra; lectures with Seattle University philosopher and Zen priest, Dr. Jason Wirth; and a retreat day at SU's St. Ignatius Chapel. Students will document their individual or peer-based learning and create a multi-media presentation for week 10.

Academic Website

http://blogs.evergreen.edu/museumormausoleum/

Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Hybrid Online Learning < 25% Delivered Online

Books

Greener Store

Required Fees

$40 for museum entrance fees in fall; $25 for museum entrance fees in winter; $40 for museum entrance fees in spring.

Special Expenses

Additional expenses will vary per project.

Offered During

Day

Program Revisions