art 728 collaborative strategies / pima 703

Course Description:

A studio course in which students will work together to create co-authored artworks.  Emphasis will be placed on the creation of experimental, performative, and process-based works bringing together disparate media.  The role of collaboration in contemporary art will be discussed, including examples of important collaborative groups and different models for collaboration.   Particular emphasis will be placed on the theoretical examination of the collective dimension of social experience by artists working with participatory projects.

Course Objectives:

• to examine new communicative creative strategies vis a vis other artists
• to articulate these strategies through the production of compelling works of art
• to examine new creative possibilities for social engagement vis a vis the viewer and other communities of participants
• to read and articulate artists’ positions on collaboration through artists’ writings
• to develop an understanding of the history of collaborations and collectives
• to connect with contemporary artists working in collaborative or collective mode in New York Cit

Course Requirements:

• complete all assignments
• read assigned texts
• participate in classroom discussion and critiques
• attend class regularly

Attendance Policy :

The success of this seminar depends upon responsible attendance to the class and full participation with collaborative teams.  Prompt attendance for all class periods is essential. 

Texts and other Resources:

Required texts-

1. Readings for Week One – Week Two are available for you at Far Better Printing, 43 Hillel Place. 
2. Claire Bishop Participation (Documents of Contemporary Art). Cambridge, MIT Press, 2006. Available from Amazon.
3. A course reader with texts other than those from Participation will be available from Far Better Printing, date TBA

Recommended Texts (some of which will be excerpted in the reader/handouts)-

Grant Kester Conversation Pieces: Community and Communication in Modern Art. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.
Blake Stimson Collectivism after Modernism: The Art of Social Imagination after 1945
Whitney Chadwick Significant Others. London: Thames and Hudson, 1999.
Thomas Crow The Rise of the Sixties. American and European Art in the Era of Dissent. New Haven, CT: Yale, 2005.
Martin Duberman Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community. New York, Norton, 1993.

Projects (subject to modification)-

Project One: Working with another artist from a different media, create two works based on themes discussed in one conversation. Then create a work together developing these ideas further. Bring all three works to critique.

Project Two: Working as an entire class, create a dinner, party, or other event. The whole environment must be constituted as part of the work.

Project Three: Working in groups of two, create an installation project. The final piece can incorporate each artists’ technical strength, but should also have elements that go beyond what either one might attempt alone.

Final Project: Working in teams of four or five, create a piece that is meant to educate or persuade.

Presentation: Collaboration in New York: Students will choose a collaborative team or collective to contact, interview, and present to the class. Topics must be approved by faculty in advance.