Thinking Through Craft: Wood

REVISED

Fall 2011 and Winter 2012 quarters

Faculty

Robert Leverich visual arts, architecture

Fields of Study

visual arts

Preparatory for studies or careers in

arts and humanities, craft studies, woodworking and furniture design.

Prerequisites

Students must be willing to work long hours at physically demanding work in a collaborative studio environment, and be willing to reimagine their ideas and approaches to art, craft and design.

Description

What if we acknowledge the recent historical status of craft as "inferior" to fine art and then seek out the potential of that unique vantage point? What if contemporary craft is used as a subversive strategy to question issues such as function, materiality, skill, and the role of the amateur in our culture? The direction of this program is based on Glenn Adamson's book of the same title, a text that treats craft as an idea that transcends discipline. Students in this program will be working side by side with metal workers in the program Thinking Through Craft: Metal. There will be collaborative assignments and joint seminars, as well as separate lectures, studio and design assignments.

Fine woodworking readily addresses issues of function, structure, ornament and comfort, but might be particularly effective at challenging ideas about such things as power and personal space, privileged resources, the uses of discomfort, or the limits of utility. This program will explore questions and skills through a studio practice in fine woodworking and mixed media. Studio work will focus on the use of wood, wood composites and substitutes, as well as a wide variety of mixed and recycled materials and found objects, all able to be formed, joined, finished and re-defined using the well equipped wood studio facility on campus. The tools, materials and rich history of woodworking will provide a backdrop for both appreciating this studio practice and moving it forward.

Readings may include: Thinking Through Craft , Glenn Adamson; The Poetics of Space , Gaston Bachelard; The Shape of Time: Remarks on the History of Things , George Kubler; NeoCraft: Modernity and the Crafts , Sandra Alfondy; The Chair: Rethinking Body, Culture and Design , Galen Cranz. 

Many visual artists today are interested in the meaning of workmanship and the physical experience of manipulating and interacting with three-dimensional forms. This program will be an opportunity to participate in the redefinition of craft today. Eschewing the well-worn "craft vs. art" arguments, we hope to investigate the potential of craft as a vital subject in contemporary art and design.

Location

Olympia

Online Learning

Enhanced Online Learning

Books

Greener Store

Required Fees

Winter $100 for supplies.

Offered During

Day

Program Revisions