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IVT105 /

Art Events

As a way to broaden your art experiences, you are required to attend at least four Art Department or off campus art events (anything sponsored by the Art Department or Boyden Gallery, and or field trips or your own independent visits to museums and galleries). Because these events take place outside of class time, you should plan ahead which events you will attend based on interest and your schedule. An events calendar is available on the department web site or via a link on our blackboard site.

Art Event Write Up Assignment:

Write a 650-word (2.5 pages) reflection for each of the four events you attend. These reflections will be evaluated based on a your ability to make meaningful connections between the content of the event and class topics. Be aware that just describing an event and simply naming a class topic isn’t enough…I’m trying to get you to synthesize the two, meaning that you should explore the class topic in the context of the content of the event lecture or exhibition. These event write-ups are to be completed throughout the semester but not due till the end of the semester.

A quality event write-up should include:

Summary of the content of the event including

· Correct information (names, terms, references, dates etc.)

· A brief description of the specific content

· Summary of overall points

· Connections to class material including both naming and briefly characterizing the class material(s), characterizing the way the content of the event is specifically related to this material, and how it adds, modifies, expands our discussions.

An ‘A’ write-up must exceed 2.5 pages and do a particularly thorough job making connections to class content. The following sample, while very good, could go farther in this way.

Sample Art event write up:

Note how well the essential ideas are summarize and how it goes into specifics when comparing to class materials.

Introduction to Visual Thinking

4/16/11 / Art Even Write-Up #2

Public Art Panel Discussion

This talk was given by several professors from different disciplines and tried to answer questions such as “What is public art?” and “What is its function?” The panel at the talk defined public art with a few different parameters: it is any form of art that is created or enacted in public, it is meant to have a place in our public, social lives, it is accessible to all, it is socially interactive, and it liberates art from closed/regulated spaces. This process makes art more available to people who would never actively seek it out. It frees art from the snobbish oppressive confines of the museum. It is inherently democratic. The speakers claimed that there are three major ways in which public art can operate: it can serve to beautify or amplify a public space, it can direct political critique and protest, and it can introduce new ways of seeing our everyday lives. The speakers wanted to address how art could have political ramifications without direct protest or direct political effect. They explained that art could change the way we think and inspire and motivate us. Art is unique, often emotional, and great for showing people new perspectives.

Lisa Scheer spoke about her own work, which is often commissioned for public spaces such as building fronts, airports, and sites of public transportation. She said that she wants her sculpture to be a part of the environment for which they are commissioned – blend and become part of the architecture itself. One way that she does this is by attaching sculptures to existing buildings; for example on the walls or at the entrances. She argued that not everything placed in a public space can be called public art. She thought that public art must consider the context of the work, not just the artist. The best public artwork responds to and integrates with the environment. She wants her work to be a collaboration between the physical site and the community of people. Her inspiration usually comes from a place’s function, identity, or history.

Billy Friebele described some of his work as well, work that takes a different approach to the idea of “public” art. Rather than making art objects that become part of the public environment, his goal is to increase our awareness of the public spaces that we experience everyday. His work is directly interactive; he creates participatory activities through which his audience reflects on their daily experience in public places. He described one project that was a time-based portrait of Washington D.C; he received pictures sent in by the public and superimposed them on a map of the city. He also stated that the internet is the ultimate public space of the 21^st century.

Finally, there was a brief discussion of the history of public art in Paris, France by Katie Gantz. We were told about Haussmann’s 19^th century redesign of Paris, in which he emphasized grandeur, cohesion, conformity, and power by straightening and widening streets, as well as by erecting monumental buildings. In a reaction to this, the people of the city felt compelled to personalized the city, making it their own, rather than an oppressive environment that had been force onto them.

This talk can be best related with our discussions about context-based meaning in art and the role of the audience in forming an artwork’s meaning specifically whether the audience or the artist plays a more central role in shaping the meaning of the work of art. All three speakers made the point that what makes art “public” (as opposed to private) is an artworks’ ability to respond and be shaped by its human context, primarily defined in terms of human interaction. Instead of being something that an artist makes as an act of individual self-expression, public art takes the audience into account often giving them a direct role in its formation. Friebele’s interactive artwork is a good example of how both the artist and the audience can play a vital role in creating the meaning of a work of art. Although Friebele organized and acted as a catalyst for the artwork, without the community considering and responding to his idea, he would have nothing to show.

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