ARTS 303
Public Address System: Art, Language, Action Fall 2020
Division I

This interdisciplinary tutorial engages the role of language in art, as students examine the role of text, speech, and gesture within their own work. The course engages the material and transformative effects of language in and alongside artworks, exploring the link between words and actions, the convergence of personal and political through speech and writing, and the role of the reader/viewer/receiver. Students articulate tactical strategies for deploying language within and alongside creative studio practices, through coursework that combines intensive studio work, writing, reading, and discussion. The tutorial format allows for a wide variety of media and approaches. Students will meet weekly with a peer and the professor to review work, as well as several sessions where the entire class will meet for presentation, critique, and discussion. The course demands significant outside studio time as well as maintaining a regular writing practice for the duration of the course. Emphasis is on the creation of an original body of artwork. Assignments include several independent studio projects (8 short assignments and 1 major final assignment) independent studio projects that engage language (text, speech, gesture) and weekly writing meditations (1-3 pages in length). Weekly writing meditations engage the text score, hybrid essay, film essay, memoir, and auto-fiction, paying close attention to repetition, difference, codes, and systems of signification. All coursework must be completed by the final tutorial meeting.