ARTS 307
The Body Reorganized
Last Offered Spring 2021
Division I
This course is not offered in the current catalog

This tutorial course asks students to abstract and re-contextualize the body as a topic of conversation in order to expand our discussions about identity. We will discuss the work of artists in which the body remains conceptually central; such as Nick Cave, Saya Woolfalk, Sarah Lucas, Annette Messager. Students will look to their own lived experiences and supporting communities, research historical precedence for contemporary perspectives on identity, and find, through written and collected research, additional cultural work centered within multi-layered and non-normative experiences. Students will react to readings, Christian Enzensberger’s “Smut: An Anatomy of Dirt”, Mary Douglas’ “Purity and Danger”, etc. Students will design their own methods of making with foundational introductions to flexible plane paired with movement-based workshops including stop motion animation shot with cell phones. Students will construct a structural and/or wearable work that references the body, it’s topographies, and potential for performance/pose. Research will culminate in an online exhibition documenting student projects through photographic stills and video.