ART 395 •Space Studio Course Proposal
Art and Design Majors: completion of Foundations.
Non-Art and Design Majors: Junior Standing and permission of instructor.
10. Rationale for adding this course to the curriculum:
- 10 a. Explain how this course will strengthen and improve the curriculum.
This proposal is part of a larger Program Change Request for a new emphasis in the Department of Art and Design called
Visual Studies. The change in program addresses two broad areas: 1. the incorporation of new technologies into contemporary visual art studio, 2. expanded contexts for studio practice. These areas are described more fully in the
Visual Studies Proposal sections: Description, Justification/Need, and Explanation of Comparable Areas.
Space Studio increases the curriculum’s capacity to represent established practices in contemporary art exploring considerations of space, site, installation, public art, presentational practices and the theoretical discourse specific to such practices within a studio context. The course addresses the understanding and creation of art projects typically referred to as “installations”. Installation projects take a space as a given context within which a particular experiential encounter is organized. Installations are usually temporary structures. Sometimes the presentation context is a neutral environment in which elements are placed in a whole room or area (gallery or museum). Other Installations are constructed in the context of existing environments: These range from a subtle layer on the viewers experience of the environment to the other extreme in which the treatment is more monumental and dramatic. Existing environments are often used because of a special experiential, social, political, or cultural value associated with the site.
The nature of the work is distinct from working with images and objects and requires a separate course. Besides learning the formal and conceptual challenges particular to space-based works, there are additional things to learn that are particular to such works. The organizational challenge of planning and implementing these works involves issues from building code, facility leases and agreements, insurance considerations, and basic project management. Also the documentation of such works involves the use of various techniques and technologies that are unique.
By working both in and out of traditional presentation contexts the studio engages a consideration of how art is “instituted”: the domain of studio practice is not limited to the objects and images, but directly takes up ideas that engage broad questions about the social, cultural, and political implications of images and their display. These understandings illuminate new opportunities for cultural work as well as enable students to move effectively in standardized art contexts by articulating the process of encounter and engagement with audience in distinct ways.
Experience with the issues and methods of studio works engaging space are particularly suited to transfer to cultural and commercial work involving display: museum preparator, gallery work, exhibition design and construction, trade show portable display systems design and production.
- 10 b. Which student population(s) is this course designed to serve? Explain how and where this course fits into the unit’s existing curriculum.
1. Art and Design students
2. Students from other majors. In particular students whose course of study involves the organization of space.
Most studio courses are organized by discipline (medium). Space studio is organized around an experiential form (space) which has it’s own considerations and may also incorporate products and considerations rooted in various other media. This approach complements the existing curriculum by focusing on important considerations of art practice not primary in other studios.
The course may be repeated once for credit. The nature and pedagogy of studio learning is student-centered. It is standard pedagogy and practice to structure a studio course to accommodate a range of students engaged in a range of projects. The course is structured to facilitate and assess this. Each implementation of Space Studio will have the same framework, but the primary "content" is not prescribed by the curriculum. Within contexts of historic and contemporary history and practice the student develops their studio work. There are technical and production aspects to every project. These too are largely variable and determined by the nature of the studio inquiry. It is standard pedagogical practice in studio courses to require students to not repeat work (content and form) that they've already done. However, we encourage students to progress work in beneficial ways and to see and extend connections among their various courses. Ambition, risk-taking, and progress in studio learning are encouraged, supported and evaluated favorably as are the quality and completeness of the finished product.
- 10 c. Explain the reasons the proposed prerequisites are necessary. If the proposed course duplicates material covered in existing courses in the unit, specify the nature and degree of the overlap, and explain why it is necessary to add this course rather than to reconfigure existing program offerings.
Prerequisites assure that students enroll in Space Studio at an appropriate point in their studies. Because the art and design department requires completion of foundations (6 courses and a portfolio review) prior to enrolling in any 200 or higher-level studio course, enrolling in this course follows that policy. Non-majors are not subject to this departmental policy. Permission of instructor is granted after completion of an interview with instructor in which the student is informed of the unique expectations and challenges of the course. The dual prerequisite is consistent with current practices in Art and Design.
Space Studio comes closest in content and structure to courses in Sculpture. We are discussing cross-listing it as a Sculpture course. An installation course was recently offered as a 380. It was a successful course. Current sculpture curriculum does not explicitly address issues of space in a fixed course. Also, it is most efficient to offer this course because of the conceptual, technical, organizational elements necessary to organize to make learning effective in these forms. Space-based studio works engage a connected but distinct set of conceptual and formal considerations, come with complicated set of organizational issues, and require the arrangement and management of sites for student projects.
The course does not significantly overlap other courses in the department. This is substantiated by the support of this proposal by the department faculty. It was supported with a 12-3 vote and signed off on by the Department Chair.
- 10 d. Will this course increase the total number of credits required for students in any major or minor? If so, explain why that is both necessary. Could existing required courses be dropped or modified to accommodate the addition of this material?
The course will not increase total credits required. It is however part of a new emphasis proposed in Art and Design. No existing course could be modified to adequately accommodate this additional material.
11. Course / content overlap with other units:
- Identify any overlap between this course and courses offered by any programs or units. Indicate the degree of overlap and explain why your students should not take the existing course(s) instead. Submit a copy of this proposal to those units with a request that comments be sent promptly to you and to your C/SCC for consideration and attachment to this proposal. Copies of inter-departmental communication regarding this course must be attached to the proposal.
Space Studio does not overlap any other course in any program or unit.
12.
Syllabus of Record: ART 395 •Space Studio -attached
13.
Curriculum Resource Statement: ART 395 Space Studio -attached
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