Dal Pra: 2009

Just thinking about this stuff lately...

Currently the university, which the community college I teach at transfers students to, is revamping their foundations program. They are trying to keep current and deal with ideas and practices and have less technique based approach, courses like drawing and 3d are now mapping and space. In order to have our transfers get equal experiences and keep the experiences the class (3D) is required to have for transfer to other schools as well, I have adjusted my projects to include exercises that give more time to brainstorm and think about ideas. Often because there are a number of techniques to cover, the Idea development, even though stated to be the focus gets left behind during the need to cover technical skills and design vocabulary. The concept focus of the U of A foundations had reminded me of a foundations program organized by Christopher Horton and others at a previous school. I thought I might share some of the things he had talked about as issues in concept based art instruction. This has been around for a long time, nothing new, but I try to look at these things every now and then to think about what I’m doing (or not doing) in class.

How can instruction in technique lead to a deeper understanding of the nature and meaning of materials and be inclusive of the idea that there are no set art materials?

If, in contemporary art, process can be an end rather than a final object, how can ways of making be taught that which do not end in a predetermined specific object?

If non art concepts and processes-nature, technology, politics, biology, science theory-are now practices for making art, how do we deal with, blend with, traditional distinctions of figurative and abstract as well as divisions of sculpture, painting, drawing…?

If the idea or concept is the initial premise for making, limited only by means, how do we teach the process of developing and refining ideas?

How do we keep an understanding of art based on an open accessible field for comprehension of the world rather than based on a high art elitist (or personal) sensibility and taste?

So, some thing to start,

An Exercise before first project:

Exercise 1. nonobjective / nonrepresentational

Choose an object. Get a sheet of paper and writing utensil.

What expressive qualities does it have? For example, is it loud, quiet, fast, slow, strong, weak? List these on the left hand side of the sheet of paper.

What are the physical characteristics of the object? What is the color and texture? What is the overall form- linear, large mass, planer? What are its proportions? Is it geometric or organic shaped? Does it have lines on the surface? How is it balanced, symmetrical or asymmetrical? List as many characteristics as you can on the right side of the sheet of paper.

Now, see if you can make any connections between the expressive qualities of the object and the qualities of its form.

Bring your Sheet to class. The class will break up into groups to compare and compile information and see if any conclusions can be made about the information. Each group will share information with the class.

The focus is to analyze how objects express things through their form and then apply this understanding in the project. After doing this exercise with the classes, I will have act out the exercise more than the explanation above, model it for them. The negative of that is often students recreate the modeling without exploring individually, which may just mean I have to do a better job of focusing on the questions to ask about an object and not give examples of answers, such as red being loud.