ENGL 18
Can I Ask You Something? Winter 2020

Cross-listed ARTS 18
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

“Can I Ask You Something?” takes students on an exploration of the ways personal narrative can become fuel for making art. For their project, each student will begin by interviewing a meaningful person in their lives (this can be a family member, a mentor, a friend, or even someone you have never met and have been dying to talk to!) and recording the interview in video or audio form. The interviews will revolve around questions which are personally meaningful and urgent to each student, for example, but not limited to: identity and its relationship to the body; the politics of everyday life, family dynamics and the way they affect one’s identity and worldview. These recorded interviews will then become the fuel for artworks ranging in media from video, performance and dance to sculpture, photography, drawing, and audio collage. Each student’s trajectory will be completely unique and informed by their own curiosity, the art-making techniques they wish to learn, and the topics explored in their interviews. In addition, we will learn about contemporary artists who have used interviews and personal narratives as the inspiration and jumping-off point for their work. Adjunct Instructor Bio: Gabriela Vainsencher is a Brooklyn-based visual artist who makes videos, site-specific installations, drawings, and sculptures. Vainsencher was Williams College’s Levitt fellow in 2009, and since then she has taught a winter study class in 2012-2018. She is also a curator and an art critic. Vainsencher’s recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at A.I.R. Gallery in New York and a two-person show at the MuMA museum in Le Havre, France. She is also a Bronx Museum AIM Fellow for 2019-20.
The Class: Format: lecture
Limit: 12
Grading: pass/fail only
Requirements/Evaluation: final project or presentation
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: preference will be given to students who write the instructor about why they are interested in the class
Materials/Lab Fee: $40
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
ARTS 18 ENGL 18

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