Art in Society (AAD 450/550)

Module 4 essay

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Thu, 03 Dec 2015 17:47:09 +0000

English: Side-engraving of a seal (art). A essay; A picture of shrimp. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take a look at this prior to class today (if possible). And don’t forget to check the guidlines for our “Fieldguide symposium”!

2015 Field guide symposium slide guidelines

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 18:59:03 +0000

Please review these guidelines and bring any questions you have to my attention! Remember that these slides will illustrate the short presentation each student gives at our final meeting (12/8/15, 12:30-2:30pm ).

Due: Monday 12/7/15, by 5pm

What: a digital file (Powerpoint, Keynote, OpenOffice, or PDF format) that contains 1 slide.

This slide should have 1 image (representative of your field guide subject) and no more than 3 bullet points (representing key aspects of your research).

Each student will have approx 4 minutes to present during our symposium on Dec. 8, and the slide should act as a visual prompt for the field guide rather than a full summary. I will group presentations into smaller sessions, with brief question/discussion periods in between those sessions. The metaphor describing this symposium in the recent past is “speed dating” (though I’ve only actually had this phenomenon described to me in a second-hand manner…). The point is, you’ll each have only a few minutes to articulate both the topic and a point or two about your field guide!

Don’t worry, it’s fun….

Module 4 Essay Prompt

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:03:27 +0000

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Components:

Essay = 1500 words (inclusive of all elements listed below)

Presentation = 20-30 min.

Resources, materials, and discussion for Module 4 engaged us in discussion about the future of arts and culture programming, including the kinds of experiences and environments we might find ourselves in based on our understanding of today’s trends. But what about education for future arts managers or culture workers in years to come? What should they learn about or explore in a graduate program training them to engage in near futures?

Currently, this course is built on four primary modules/questions spanning a range of interrelated concepts and issues. In your group essay, imagine the syllabus for the course in 2035: what four questions will comprise the syllabus twenty years from now? Support each question with brief discussion of trends, issues, concepts, or practices that you believe will shape arts and culture fields two decades from now. While the questions you pose may be influenced by technological developments, they should also address broader issues and topics. In addition to posing four questions, describe how the learning environment for the course will be like and/or unlike the one we operate in today. Finally imagine and describe the final project for the course. Keep in mind that the students taking the course in 2035 are currently in elementary school (or thereabouts)—such that the “audience” for the course you design will be living through (and aclimating to) any of the dynamics you address.

As with the other module essays, this one need not be laden with citations for course readings in order to present your central argument. However, feel free to draw on module resources or links posted to Diigo in order to ground or illustrate your discussion/response to the prompt.

RUBRIC:

* pose four future questions = 4 pts

* evidence supporting the questions = 5 pts

* describe learning environment = 4 pts

* describe final project = 3.5 pts

* correct spelling/grammar/editing= 2.5 pts

Module 4 main question & responses

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 23:06:15 +0000

What do you imagine the future of art and culture to be?

How can art and culture participation sustain society in this future?

How might transmedia experience/materials figure into this future?

So we reach our final set of module questions for this term, and we look into the future. Add your thoughts, comments, and questions to this post in order to get our conversation started.

Module 3 essay

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 17:48:54 +0000

Download Module 3 Essay for your reading pleasure…

An Essay concerning Humane Understanding in four books (1690) by John Locke (1632-1704) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Structure & schedule for 11/12/15 class meeting (Week 7)

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 21:53:56 +0000

Students- A reminder that this coming Thursday we will not meet according to our standard schedule. Instead, we will gather at Millrace 4 (discussion of location below) at 1:30pm in order to participate in the Fall MFA Open Studio tours. At 2:30, the tour ends and I will participate in an MFA review until 3:30pm. We will then gather in our classroom for the Module 3 essay presentation. Please email me with questions…Below are some important details:

* Millrace 4 is the UO building across Franklin (and a bit east) from Lawrence Hall. If you cross the street at the traffic light at Onyx & Franklin, turn right on the northside of Franklin and proceed until you see a coffee kiosk in the parking lot. Millrace 4 is the large building behind and slightly to the right of the kiosk (feel free to grab some coffee…though there may be some as part of a reception in the building!)

* There are opening remarks and refreshments starting at 1pm in Millrace 4, and there will be maps of the Millrace complex with listings of students/studios at that location. I will likely walk over around 1:25 or so, leaving from Lawrence Hall. Should anyone want to go over as a group, meet near the Laverne Krause Gallery by 1:20pm. Otherwise, show up at the studio tour whenever you can (I recognize that our class does not officially start until 2pm, so you are not required to go to the open studio tour until then…).

Module 3 essay prompt

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 05:51:26 +0000

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Components:

Essay = 1200-1500 words

Presentation = 25-35 min. exploration of your programming example

WHAT COULD INNOVATIVE or ORIGINAL ARTS PROGRAMMING LOOK/SOUND/FEEL LIKE IN THE 21st CENTURY? AND WHAT PLACE MIGHT AESTHETICS HAVE IN SUCH PROGRAMMING?

Your group should address the above question by taking the perspective of arts and culture workers pursuing creative and recombinant arts programming. In order to focus your discussion, choose a “box” to start with—museum exhibition, performing arts season, community arts event, festival, etc. These are suggestions, and established options, so feel free to move beyond them. However, I want you to be able to definitively articulate the “box” that you’ll be thinking from/within/without. Your group shoud then generate an aesthetic framework or set of principles that guide the look/sound/feel (or some combination) of your programming; this should be a short list(think bullet points), with brief descriptions. Finally, design and describe the programming (at a reaonsable scale or granularity), explicitly drawing on the aesthetic framework you’ve developed.

The essay is brief, so make sure you hit the following:

A. explain the “box” or orientation for you programming; be brief, as this is primarily background information.

B. articulate an “aesthetic framework,” consisting of a set of principles (no firm number) that will guide the look/sound/feel of your programming.

C. design and describe a specific example of innovative/original arts programming that stems from both the “box” and the aesthetic framework you’ve created.

Feel free to draw on writings and other resources that we have examined in class in order to contextualize and illustrate your comments. There is no set number of sources you should reference, and since this is an essay it should demonstrate a logical argument toward a goal that represents your group’s collective thinking; it needn’t be laden with outside citations, but should address relevant ones as needed.

RUBRIC:

* clearly identify/describe the “box” = 5pts

* articulate an aesthetic framework = 5pts

*design/describe an example of programming (original/innovative)= 7.5pts

* correct spelling/grammar/editing= 2.5pts

Module 3 main question and responses

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 16:02:08 +0000

What drives current aesthetics of art and arts participation?

What cultural institutions and structures are involved? What social forces/issues?

In what ways do practices, ideas, narratives, or ideologies associated with this aesthetic depend on transmediations?

Append your comments, thoughts, and questions on the main ideas for Module 3 to this post. Feel free to draw on any of the course readings, as well as any other examples or materials that you feel resonate with the above main question.

Module 2 group essay

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 16:31:40 +0000

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Module 2 Essay

Please take a look at the essay (PDF link above) that the module 2/clubs goup has produced. Additionally, I’d like us all to look at this piece for class today. It is short, so there will be time to read it in class, also. We’ll be tackling it in the second half of our session….

Module 2 essay prompt

jfenn@uoregon.edu — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 00:27:23 +0000

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Due: 10/27/15, via email or posted to a learning portfolio (send me a link)

Details: 1500 words (or so), with accompanying transmedia materials (see below)

In the essay by Roberto Bedoya that we discussed in class this week (here), he explores the practices and policies of creative placemaking through the conceptionalization of a “politics of belonging.” His essay pushes several crucial questions regarding a wide spectrum of political and social processes, from urban planning to racist exclusion, all the while pointing us toward an ethical and balanced consideration of the space(s) art and culture occupy in our experience. Your group essay(s) will extend Bedoya’s central goals by applying some of his questions (i.e. those he poses in the essay) to a creative placemaking project of your choosing.

Your essay(s) should contain three primary components:

a description of a creative placemaking project
a narrated application of several questions from Bedoya’s essay (i.e. state the questions you are attending to; explain why the group choose each one; and offer any illuminations, critiques, understandings, or affirmations that a given question offers when held up to your project of choice), and
an evaluative conclusion that gives your group’s assessment of the project (did it hold up under scrutiny of Bedoya’s questions? why? did your group see room for improvement or redesign? if so, what elements stood out and what might you offer instead?).

This last section should be more than simply celebratory (“Yes, what a great project!”) or demonizing (“Ugh, this sucks!”), and should convey constructive critique and suggestion—though you certainly do not need to cover all aspects of a given project (whether you find them positive or not). Choosing one should suffice, especially if you have a lot to say…

Use the rubric below to gauge how much space (in terms of word count) you should allocate to each of the three sections of the essay, and do include any links or illustrations of the project so as to assist the reader in getting the full picture. Keep in mind that you are constructing an argument about a specific project in light of a selection of Bedoya’s questions, so you needn’t cover all comoponents of the creative placemaking project nor fully explore all your group responses to it. Feel free to draw on (and cite) other material from Module 2 readings/resources, as well as any other sources group members might bring into the discussion. However, I do not have a formal expectation for how many (if any) external sources you end up using.

The group presentation(s) will be at least 30min, and should provide your classmates with a chance to engage with your ideas rather than simply hear you report these. Be creative and have fun with this component of the assignment!

ESSAY RUBRIC (out of 20pts):

– succinctly describe a creative placemaking project = 3pts

– narrative application of some of Bedoya’s questions = 10pts

– evaluative conclusion, extending Bedoya’s ideas = 5pts

– grammar, spelling, and flow of writing = 2pts

Presenation = 10pts