The link between photography and sculpture in conceptual art is fundamental, even though most people perhaps do not recognize this anymore; it’s not enough assigning to photography the task of documentation; the problem is more complex. In conceptual art in its clearest moments, photography displaces or takes on the condition of the object or dismantles the traditional parameters of spatial and material organization. I cannot separate photography from my sculptural practice. I don’t know in advance whether I will need to use photography or whether it will, at the end, become an object. What I am doing, how it ends up as a sign, is all about language, but sometimes it becomes a physical thing, sometimes it is just photography. -Gabriel Orozco

Class Standing: This all-level program is designed to combine students who have done previous work in a variety of artistic media and are ready to create intermediate and advanced work at the same time it supports 25 percent freshman students finishing their work on building skills in English Composition and basic skills in photography, digital imaging and mixed media art.

Program Description:
Students in this program will work to build a variety of skills using traditional and digital photographic techniques, video production, and study the techniques of assemblage and mixed media art. They will use those skills to build both individual and collaborative art installations that are conceptual in nature. Over the course of two quarters, students will be expected to do reading and attend slide lectures and seminars on photography and installation art. They will study the way that artists around the world have combined these media to make complex and challenging works of art. As part of this study, we will examine works by a diverse group of artists including Alfredo Jaar, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, Anish Kapoor, Shirin Neshat, Jolene Richard, Chen Shun-Chu, Felix Gonzales Torrez, Daniel Joseph Martinez, William Wilson, Kip Fulbeck, and Pat Ward Williams among others. Students will learn about a variety of strategies for developing both personal and political themes that create a rich visual language for viewers to interpret. Credits will be earned through the completion of assignments and participation in classes, workshops, and critiques. All students must post to the program website forum; each week, before Seminar on Tuesday, each student is required to respond to the readings in the form of 1-2 substantial paragraphs that bring up questions for seminar as well as addressing the books and lectures that are part of the program, critical issues, theory, and history discussed in class.

Assignments:
All students are expected to develop and complete one major installation, as either a group or individual project. Several assignments in photography, video, writing, and the wood shop will precede your final installation project. Finally, each student will conceptualize two “dream” installations and go through the process of applying for grants that would be able to fund such projects. These (mock) grant applications will be complete with project descriptions, sketches, a budget, and all other supporting material. All projects are designed to help students gain skills that would be necessary to carry out the planning, development, and completion of an installation art project as well as understand the history, concepts, and dialogue that surround this dynamic new art form.

Weekly Schedule:
Mondays: 9 AM- 5 PM Open Studio in Lab 2, Room 2223, the Design and Weaving Studio
Tuesdays: 10 AM-12 PM, Seminar; 1- 4 PM, Lectures, films, and presentations, Seminar 2, B1105.
Wednesdays: 9 AM-1 PM, Lecture/Workshop, Library; 1-5 PM, Open Studio, Lab 2, Room 2223
Thursdays: 9 AM-12 PM: Workshops, Various Locations; 1-5 PM: Workshops, Various Locations
Fridays: 9 AM-12 PM, Open Studio, Lab 2, 2223A; 1-4 PM Woodshop, Art Annex.

Book List:
Installation Art in the New Millennium: The Empire of the Senses, Nicolas De Oliveira
Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space, Brian O’Doherty
Air Guitar: Essays on Art & Democracy, Dave Hickey
Course reader and/or other readings will be handed out in class, posted on the web, or on library reserve.

Required reading from last quarter:
Installation Art by Claire Bishop
Seizing The Light: A History of Photography by Robert Hirsch