studios clean and clear

Sadly (and/or happily), below is information regarding the deadline to have your 4th or 5th floor studio space clear and clean by. Studio should be in the condition they were when you started working in them.

By 11:00 a.m., Monday May 12:

Clear work space & return it to previous condition:

Repaint / touch up walls & floors if the space has evidence of "substantial use." ( use only paint from 4th floor Woodshop).

All projects must be removed.

All Lockers must be cleared.

Personal supplies, tools, equipment must be removed from the building.

No ADH ACCESS for undergraduate studio work during summer break.

ID card /access validation ends on Saturday May 10. ADH is closed Sunday May 11. ADH building day-time hours resume 8 am Monday May 12 .

Space will be checked 11:00 a.m., Monday May 12.
Grade will be withheld if space is not cleared / re-painted at that time.

OPRAH BURIAL MASK

http://leokesting.com/

“The Oprah Burial Mask depicts for the viewer a celebration of an inner beauty for which we could all aspire,” says gallery director David Kesting of the life-sized hollowed bust. “If we each imagined an object that represented us at our most ideal for all eternity, we might hold ourselves to the highest standards, both morally and spiritually.”

“Standing before the burial mask of King Tut’s great-grandmother when it was displayed in Philadelphia, I finally understood how the creation of an object could be the act of preparing for a better place. It inspired me to create such an object,” explains the artist, whose favorite reference for his contemporary burial mask was a photo of Oprah Winfrey praying. “I tried to depict the feeling of inner peace that was so evident on Oprah’s face in that photo.”

yale art student controversy

hype machine

free passes to ArtChicago

black is, black ain't @ the renn

april 20-june 8
the renaissance society
university of illinois campus
check out this show and essay.

security detail: new and improved

PLEASE NOTE: THIS HAS BEEN UPDATED!
Security Schedule
(Will sit in great space, except during opening when will stand at 2 entrances to building)

Friday 4/18
11-1:00 Alberto
1-3:00 Pat
3-5:00 Jerry
5:00-5:45 CUPPA entrance: Rand
ADH entrance: Nick
5:45-6:30 CUPPA entrance: Liz
ADH entrance: Joe T
6:30-7:15 CUPPA entrance: Josh
ADH entrance: Nicole
7:15-8:00 CUPPA entrance: Rita
ADH entrance: Luke

Saturday4/19
11-1:00 Rafael
1-3:00 Summer
3-5:00 Joe T

Sunday 4/20
11-1:00 Holly
1-3:00 Chris
3-5:00 Josh

Monday 4/21
11-1:00 Nicole
1-3:00 Rita
3-5:00 Ben B.

Tuesday 4/22
11-1:00 Anna
1-3:00 Linda
3-5:00 Christine

Die Artspeak Die!

No, I don't read Time magazine, but I found a link to this article and enjoyed it....

http://time-blog.com/looking_around/2008/04/the_decline_and_fall_of_wester.html

aktionizzm

When is a Fashion Ad not a Fashion Ad

Press release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Phantom Laureate Promotions
Contact Person: Rand Sevilla
Company Name: University of Illinois at Chicago
Telephone Number: 312.315.1802
Email Address: randsevilla@gmail.com

Year of the Rat: UIC BFA Thesis Show

Chicago, IL, April 18th-April 23rd — The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design is pleased to welcome all interested parties to the 2008 Spring Undergraduate Thesis exhibition opening Friday, April 18th from 5 pm to 8 pm at the school’s Great Space Gallery at 400 S Peoria Street.

Titled Year of the Rat, this semester’s crop of creative hopefuls present their respective bodies of work: video, painting, sculpture, photography, drawing and other media will be on display and up for discussion over catered food and rising talents. Consider this your opportunity to be able to say “I knew them before they were big”.

If you can’t make it on Friday, you need not fret. Year of the Rat will be open for viewing everyday from 11am to 5 pm until April 23rd.

For additional information or Questions Contact:
Rand Sevilla 312.315.1802 or randsevilla@gmail.com
# # #

Gustave Courbet

AMAZING WORK, LIFE, SHOW.

power point pecha-kucha

"Let us now bullet-point our praise for Mark Dytham and Astrid Klein, two Tokyo-based architects who have turned PowerPoint, that fixture of cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Their innovation, dubbed pecha-kucha (Japanese for "chatter"), applies a simple set of rules to presentations: exactly 20 slides displayed for 20 seconds each. That's it. Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down. The result, in the hands of masters of the form, combines business meeting and poetry slam to transform corporate clich into surprisingly compelling beat-the-clock performance art."

Interesting "State of the Arts" article - Museums Refine the Art of Listening

SPREENG BRAKE!!!

I'm DJing tonight and I made a video flyer:


And heres an hour long, totally dated (but nonetheless relevant) BBC4 Documentary called (don't laugh) "Rave New World". The stern baritone british narration make it feel like your watching a nature documentary about "techno-hippies". This is almost my ideal date movie.

John Gage's Colour and Culture

Please read Intro only (pp 7-10). Comment with a 2 paragraph response (thoughtful, intelligent, etc.)

CANCELLED: My show on saturday

see a few posts below

Silvia's list

How to Read Donal Duck. Dorfman & Mattelard
This book was burnt by the Pinochet Government in Chile, censored in Argentina and banned in the USA in 1975. It is a classic popular study on cultural imperialism and children's literature.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Paulo Freire.
It deals with the philosophy of education for the practice of freedom. It is based in the conviction that every human being, no matter how ignorant or how submerged in the "culture of silence" is capable of looking critically at reality and transform it.

One Hundred Years Of Solitude. Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
It made me think about literary possibilities. How to think about time, history and memory. How history, culture, magic and the supernatural can be expressed.

The Catcher in The Rye. J.D. Salinger.
I identified with Holden when I was 19, and felt that Salinger understood.
It is towards the end of the book when Holden decides that he would leave and take off to California or somewhere. He wants before he leaves, to give a note to his sister and takes it the her school. When he’s going upstairs to the Principal's office to deliver it he sees the word “Fuck you” written on the wall and he erases it. He didn’t want the children to think about it and to worry. But when he comes back downstairs by a different staircase he sees another “fuck you” on the wall. He says : “ I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the “Fuck you” signs in the world. It’s
impossible."

Sister Outsider. Audre Lorde.
For many things, and her essay Poetry is not A Luxury.
"For there are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt - of examining what those ideas feel like being lived on a Sunday morning at 7 A.M., after brunch, during wild love, making war, giving birth, mourning the dead - while we suffer the old longings, battle the old warnings and fears of being silent and impotent and alone, while we taste new possibilities and strengths."

There are many many more.....

colin's list

Young Lonigan by James T. Farrell

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Highlights Magazine (which is what truly shaped me in to the terrible man i am today)

Rand's Upcoming Performances

Saturday Randall Bailey, Camilla Ha and I play dress-up in Club Sashay (music at myspace.com/clubsashay)
Sunday Rotten Milk and I play kitchen electronics
Tuesday I'm DJing sweet italioelectrdisco and sour ghettotronix

pamela's list

1. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
2. "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" by Jorge Luis Borges
3. A History of Colors by Manlio Brusatin
4. if on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
5. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Karen Kilimnik Possessed, NYTimes Style Section

Karen Kilimnik, Possessed, NYTimes Style Section, January 20, 2008

THE world is a complicated place. So perhaps it is fitting that we should conjure a pointedly optimistic way of thinking just to dispel the voices of certain doom and jaded irony. The first says, “It can’t be done”; the second says, “It has been done to death.”

Proponents of blue-sky thinking often cite the Wright brothers as validation. But why not the artist Karen Kilimnik? Like an all-too-human version of Giselle, the blithe princess in “Enchanted,” Ms. Kilimnik has expressed her brand of blue-sky thinking, most recently with a show, at 303 Gallery in Chelsea, of small paintings of, yes, blue skies. Some are even circular, suggesting the bowl of heaven. And though there are a few cirrus-y wisps wafting across her skies, they are, like all of her paintings, free of irony.

It is hard to believe that Ms. Kilimnik is sincere in a world ruled by archness and artifice, but there it is. The woman loves a forest, loves Kate Moss, loves an Alpine landscape, loves a blue sky, and her paintings say so. It’s kind of conceptual minimalism.

“I don’t know why, I just like it,” she said last week. She was talking about one of her favorite things: a bottle of Penhaligon’s Bluebell perfume. But Ms. Kilimnik, who is notoriously shy, could have been explaining the reasoning behind any of the myriad subjects she has painted, or articulating an entire aesthetic manifesto.

In the case of Bluebell, at least, the reasons can be documented. In the 1970s, when Ms. Kilimnik was a struggling artist, she saw the flowery British perfume at Saks Fifth Avenue. “I couldn’t afford it,” she said, recalling how the old-fashioned packaging and English heritage tugged at her heartstrings.

“I always loved England,” said Ms. Kilimnik, whose Anglophilia was practiced at great distance, from her childhood in Philadelphia. “I liked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and Sherlock Holmes and Mary Poppins and ‘The Avengers.’ But mostly the Beatles.”

Over the years she also developed a soft spot for British royalty, especially Prince Charles and Diana, who, as luck would have it, was herself an ardent fan of Bluebell — at least, according to Penhaligon’s, which holds the royal warrant. “I read all the books about her, and none of them ever mentioned Bluebell,” Ms. Kilimnik said suspiciously.

By late 1998 Ms. Kilimnik had become enough of a success to go to London in style on an art fellowship. There, in a pharmacy, she came face to face with her old flame.

“I thought, I shouldn’t spend all that,” she said. “I had never bought a real perfume for myself.” But spend all that she did. (Today a 100-milliliter bottle is $90.) One might think that the perfume reminds her of this glorious moment, of having arrived professionally, and in London no less, but Ms. Kilimnik said no.

“I love the apothecary shape of the bottle,” she said. “I love the label, which is so old-fashioned, and I love the royal warrants. But primarily I just love the smell. It’s very pure and essential. It smells like fresh-cut grass.”

The perfume is stored in Ms. Kilimnik’s refrigerator; she’s not taking any chances with its going bad. “Although it didn’t stop the last bottle from turning green after a while,” she said.

More than a sweet aroma, though, the perfume distills rather nicely the genius of Ms. Kilimnik’s blue-skied world. In a culture where you open yourself up to ridicule for liking anything — headbands, Kelly Clarkson, Los Angeles — unless you’re doing it ironically, Ms. Kilimnik has tapped into the sweet smell of her own world, and her own creation.

And if you don’t like it, well, why don’t you try?

3/17: The UIC Faculty Screening Series, Part One (BEN RUSSELL)

To Whom It May Concern;

You are cordially invited to attend an informal screening of THE SELECTED WORKS OF BEN RUSSELL on Monday the 17th of March at 6:00pm. This screening of film and/or video works* by UIC Faculty Member BEN RUSSELL (in person) will take place in The Screening Room (ADH 3320) on the 3rd Floor of 400 S. Peoria. Discussion and refreshments are encouraged.

Yours Truly,

The Management

*FEATURING: Black and White Trypps Number One (6:30, 16mm, 2005), Black and White Trypps Number Two (9:00, 16mm, 2006), Black and White Trypps Number Three (12:00, 16mm, 2007), Black and White Trypps Number Four (10:30, 16mm, 2008), Trypps #5 (Dubai) (3:00, 16mm, 2008), Workers Leaving the Factory (Dubai) (8:00, 16mm, 2008)

* * * * * * * * *
NOTE: This screening marks the first of THE SELECTED WORKS OF UIC
FACULTY screenings. Numbers 2 - 6 shall transpire as follows:

#2) 31 March: The Selected Works of JENNIFER MONTGOMERY
#3) 07 April: The Selected Works of BUKI BODUNRIN and EMILY KUEHN
#4) 14 April: The Selected Works of SILVIA MALAGRINO
#5) 21 April: The Selected Works of DOUG ISCHAR
#6) 28 April: The Selected Works of DEBORAH STRATMAN and PAUL DICKINSON

quick reads on big art

http://grammarpolice.net/
light weight industry stuff.
also:

A 35-minute documentary on the discourse surrounding the 2005 vandalism of a deer sculpture by New York artist Marc Swanson, titled 'Fits and Starts.' More than just a timeline of events, the documentary traces the public discussion about the vandalism--from Facebook to the DePauw newspaper, to the 'rally' and D3TV, student/faculty protests and some considered thoughts, from faculty, staff and students in the following weeks. The film doesn't attempt to sway opinion or incite emotion, but it instead works to capture the local reaction to a very unique and largely polarized event.

On a larger scale, the film is an examination of university culture at a small liberal arts school that was the setting for the vandalism of a $60,000 work of public art. Was this incident specific to DePauw or is it just as probable at any liberal arts school or university? Who points at whom when public art is vandalized? And most importantly, who is responsible?

the same template as this blog

http://stevehamaker.blogspot.com

Oh, The Excitement of the Weekend!

There is much afoot in our fair city this week-end - here are some suggestions:

FRIDAY - SCREENING
Experimental Film Club Presents SANS SOLEIL 7:00 at Film Studies Center, 5811 S. Ellis Ave, Cobb Hall 301 (at U of C) - FREE
One of the true classics of the essay film genre, Chris Marker's travelogue of a trip through the contemporary global society is brimming with a remarkable range of wit, stylistic invention and insight. (1993, 35mm, 100 minutes)

FRIDAY - SCREENING
Experimental Film Club Presents ALTERNATE VIEWPOINTS 9:00 at Film Studies Center, 5811 S. Ellis Ave, Cobb Hall 301 (at U of C) - FREE
Women are the focus, but not the object of Trinh T. Minh-ha's influential first film Reassemblage (1982), a complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a complicity of interaction between film and spectator, Minh-ha reflects on documentary filmmaking and the ethnographic representation of cultures. Literally and stubbornly a remake - that is a perfect replica in color and in English of Harun Farocki's hugely influential essay film Inextiguishable Fires, What Farocki Taught (Jill Godmilow, 1998) explores the political and formal strategies of Farocki's film about the development of Napalm B by Dow Chemical during the Vietnam War. (16mm, 70 minutes total)

SATURDAY - SCREENING
Roots and Culture Presents MICHAEL ROBINSON 8:00 at Roots and Culture Gallery, 1034 N. Milwaukee Ave (at Noble St.) - FREE
An award-winning local filmmaker (AND UIC MFA GRAD), Robinson's work focuses on "the poetics of loss and the dangers of mediated experience." This screening will feature four of Robinson's films, including "And We All Shine On" and "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," which won the Best International Film prize at the 2006 Images Festival in Toronto. Supplementing these films will be four movies by other filmmakers that Robinson has selected to highlight his influences and interests, including work by Kent Lambert and Lewis Klahr. Michael Robinson's films have screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, New York Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and Anthology Film Archives. He is a co-founder of Philadelphia's Small Change Film Series, and recently curated and presented a program of American film and video at multiple venues in Moscow and St. Petersburgh. Originally from upstate NY, Michael holds a BFA from Ithaca College, and an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. More information on his work can be found at his website, www.poisonberries.net
www.rootsandculturecac.org

SIGN UP! THE SIGN IS UP!

Dear AD463,

We wanted to let you know that the SIGN-UP SHEET for faculty advising on Thursday and Thursday-Next is on the door of the 5th floor faculty office. Slots are for 20:00 each and advising will take place during the first half of each studio class. Students who want to meet with a specific faculty member and/or plan for a meeting are advised to use this sheet. All others will be subject to the whims of wandering professors (in the second half of the class)...

Yours,
The Management

Tarantino's Code

Character Continuum in The World of Quentin

Prelates and Rappers Strike a Pose

Insane Clown Posse Juggumentary

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7098395097637744886
WIKIICP

HOP ON IT! Leap Year Film/Video Screening!

"The Leap (Year) Show"
Friday the 29th of February at 7:30pm
at GOLDEN AGE
1500 W 17th Street, Chicago, IL
www.goldenagestore.com
$4

In celebration of Greeks who won't get hitched in intercalary years, of the "Ladies' Privilege", of the Gregorian calendar that extends our collective lives by one day for every 1460 lived, and of all y'all birthday leaplings, Ben Russell and your pals at GOLDEN AGE are proud to present an evening of Experimental Films Featuring Things That Leap. We're talking FROGS and TOADS, of course - so hop on down to Pilsen and check out our kino-swamp of frame-fluttering frogs, animatronic amphibians, pixellated pipas, and truly terrifying toads. Don't miss out - this is the sort of batrachian magic that only occurs once every four years...

FEATURING: Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm on video, 1922); A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989); Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006); Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988)
TRT 86:30

SYNOPSIS:
Frogland by Ladislaw Starewicz (8:00, 35mm, 1922)
Fleeing for his life following the Russian Revolution, Starewicz settled in Paris and began to infuse his work with a subtle political agenda. Sponsored by the expatriate Russian Art Society of Paris, this short, sometimes entitled "Frogland," uses actual preserved frogs as puppets to retell the fable of a group of frogs who demand Jupiter send them a king. At first, he sends a log, which sits and does nothing. Dissatisfied, the frogs plead to Jupiter (does he look a little like Karl Marx?) to send somebody a bit more active. So Jupiter sends a stork, who eats the frogs. Finally, Jupiter tops it all off with a lightning bolt attack on the survivors. A conspicuous critique of the recent political turmoil in Russia (from the disinterested tsar to the vengeful Lenin), this beautifully animated work stands as a political fable for any generation.

A Frog on the Swing by Robert Breer (5:00, 16mm, 1989)
This animated fable is centered around a backyard pond shown intermittently in live-action scenes. A small child appears and disappears in a ballet of crows, rabbits, monkey wrenches, and goldfish. When the police arrive there are pot-shots at backyard varmits, but the frog on the swing seems to survive it all. As usual in Breer films, the soundtrack is often conspicuously out of sync with the picture. Or is it vice versa when a crow goes "moo?"

Habitat Batrachian by Rose Lowder (8:30, 16mm, 2006)
In this film we move away from the notion of a work based on a preconceived filming procedure adjusting the visual characteristics of the image in order to approach the temporal dimension of a pond full of frogs. In front of such creatures that tend to be elusive there arises a question of more general interest as to how can one record moments that are meaningful, how can one render visible, present a moment that is alive and connect the items forming the different recorded moments up together?

Cane Toads by Mark Lewis (65:00, video, 1988) Cane Toads is a documentary detailing the spread of Hawaiian sugar-cane toads (toads which live in the cane fields) through Queensland and then into the rest of Australia following a mis-informed attempt to introduce them to counter pests. Turns out they wouldn't eat the 'cane grubs' but they would multiply like no one's business... and they have no natural enemies in Australia at all, partly due to their poisonous skin.

good advice for writing artists' statements

ARTIST STATEMENT ESSENTIALS
An artist statement is an introductory text that provides a contextual background for your artwork. There is no formula for an artist statement, but it might include information about how the work developed (its source and direction), the underlying idea and structure, the conceptual aspects, your philosophies, and/or possible influences. In some cases, the statement may address the use of particular materials and processes.
The artist statement is extremely important because it provides insight into the work by helping to clarify the focus or concept. Many directors, gallerists, reviewers, and curators rely on statements to help them understand and evaluate your work, particularly when all they have are reproductions to review.

DOS
Tone should be expressive of your work, i.e. it could be reserved, theoretical, academic, analytic, humorous, antagonistic, or political as long as it provides an accurate reflection of your work.
Statement should relate to the visuals.
Be simple, concise, clear, and direct – statement should be no longer than one page.
Do a spell check and review for grammatical errors.
Refer to yourself in the first person, not “the artist”.
Talk about the media if it there is potential for confusion.

DON'TS
Avoid “artspeak” and convoluted lingo.

Do not attempt to impress anyone with statements that do not ring true with the work.

Do not describe what is visible.

Do not outline your entire history and upbringing, unless your artwork is autobiographical or it has a direct relationship with your work, and if so, be brief.
Don’t tell the reader how they will feel, change their outlook on life or whether or not people liked it.

Avoid self-indulgence.

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
What are the basic themes of your work? Why did you create this work?

What drives you as an artist to make the work you do?

What are some of your sources or influences?

How does this work differ from your previous work?

Are there artists you can think of who are working in a similar way or with similar themes?

Where do you believe your work fits with current contemporary art?

How does your work relate to other art?

Artist Statement Guidelines

Persepolis

If you are interested in love and war, telling stories, and making things move, go and see Persepolis. It is playing in Chicago.

http://www.sonypictures.com/classics/persepolis/

http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/briefs/32660_PERSEPOLIS.html

Exhibit

Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print

January 18–April 6, 2008
Main Gallery

Space, Color, and Motion

January 18–April 6, 2008
Alsdorf Gallery

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art 40 Arts Circle Drive Evanston, IL 60208-2410
Phone: 847-491-4000 Fax: 847-491-2261 E-mail: block-museum@northwestern.edu

http://www.blockmuseum.northwestern.edu/

Exhibit

Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print

January 18–April 6, 2008
Main Gallery

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art 40 Arts Circle Drive Evanston, IL 60208-2410
Phone: 847-491-4000 Fax: 847-491-2261 E-mail: block-museum@northwestern.edu

"Please Post Your Thesis Proposals Here"

a few upcoming shows, lectures, events of note

rirkrit tiravanija speaks at the chicago cultural center on wednesday the 30th:
http://www.saic.edu/news/releases/index.html#current/SLC_16239

arturo herrera lecture at gallery 400 on monday the 28th:
http://www.uic.edu/aa/college/gallery400/02_voices.htm

adaptation at the smart museum, opening on thursday the 31:
http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/

Describe and sketch-out your project for finals

If you know how to use PowerPoint or Keynote do the following:

1. Create one slide (page)

• Briefly, in one sentence describe your background. Include up to three images to illustrate your point (this is similar to your artist’s statement)

Example: In the last ……. (years or months) I have been creating …….. to address……… . I’ve done a series of …..

• Briefly, in one sentence comment on what you think is successful in the work and/or problematic.


2. Create one slide (page)

• Describe your proposed project answering and addressing the following:
What medium or mediums do you intend to use?
What issues will you address in the new work? Why those issues are important to you ? Describe plans to produce the project
How will this new work impact your development

Example: During this semester I intend to create….
I will be making a….
I will be dealing with….
This is important to me because….
I plan to….
This work will…

If you don’t know how to use PowerPoint or Keynote, you can use Photoshop and save as JPEGs. You can also use Microsoft Word and
save as a PDF. If you don’t know any of the above, well.. type and make sure you attend the technical workshops because final presentations will be done similarly.

Bring the presentation in your flash drive (if this applies to you)

Questionnaire:

The Social Turn

Claire Bishop,
The Social Turn: Collaboration and its Discontents, 2006

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:enTO08zHDh8J:www.arch.kth.se/unrealstockholm/production_2006_07/Claire%2520Bishop.rtf+the+social+turn+claire+bishop&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=us&client=firefox-a

plus related reading:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/arthistory/research/staffinterests/bishop/

http://www.communityarts.net/readingroom/archivefiles/2006/07/socially_engage.php

http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/170456721.html

http://www.kollectiv.co.uk/Labour.html

Doig & Ofili

My Grandmother could do that

Video Art Thinks Big

Syllabus

Advanced Thesis (AD 463)
SPRING 2008
TUES/THURS 1:00-3:40
AD Hall, Room 2236
Instructors: Ben Russell (br@dimeshow.com); Tony Tasset ( tasset@uic.edu); Silvia Malagrino (libraes@uic.edu ); Pamela Fraser ( HYPERLINK "mailto:pfraser@uic.edu" pfraser@uic.edu)
Office Hours By Appointment

THE CLASS

This team-taught interdisciplinary seminar is your final step in the long journey towards achieving an arts degree. Because the focus of this course is necessarily on your THESIS PROJECT and the exhibition thereof, the emphasis of this course is placed directly on the process of making and refining your work. Group critiques and individual meetings will work towards this goal, and your arts education will be rounded out by a series of lectures, readings, discussions, field trips, and workshops, all of which will prepare you for life as a practicing artist in the World Outside.

REQUIREMENTS

Group Meetings: Each class period will begin by meeting as a group for one hour in the Advanced Sculpture Room on the fourth floor of AD Hall. This time will be utilized for lectures, discussions, presentations, and organizational meetings regarding the Thesis Exhibition.


Individual Meetings: Sign-up sheets for individual meetings with each of the four professors will be placed on the door of the faculty office on the fifth floor of AD Hall.

Group Critiques: There will be two large group critiques. Attendance and participation at these critiques is extremely important. An absence on one of these days will count as double.

Required Readings: The Class Reader will be available at blogspot.ad463.com. The blog will be continually updated, and interactive. Please check it regularly and add thoughtful questions and commentary. Reading all posted texts is mandatory.

Artist’s Statement: Students will continue to develop and refine their Artist’s Statement. A final draft will be handed in at the end of the semester, as well as read during the Final Presentation.

Final Presentation: Students will give a short presentation of their work which will include describing their thesis work and reading their Artist’s Statements.

The BFA Thesis Exhibition: The Exhibition will be held on April 18, 2008. All students and faculty will participate in all aspects of putting the show together. This will include the creation and production of graphic materials, the cleaning and preparation of the exhibition space(s),

Materials and Fees: There is a lab fee of $150 for this course that will go towards labs, equipment, materials and the exhibition materials. Photo and MI students, and Studio Arts students who use Photo or MI labs will have the bulk of their lab fee go towards lab costs in those areas. Studio Arts students who do not use labs will be able to order materials through request. More specifics on this will be available soon.

GRADING

Grades will be based on attendance; conceptual and technical proficiency in both writing and creative projects; level of focus and engagement; class participation in discussion and critique.

All work and presentations must be prepared or handed in on time.

Committees will be formed, and there will be an equal distribution of effort toward hanging the Thesis Exhibition. Group effort in exhibition preparations will be monitored.

Attendance and participation are MANDATORY. If you miss three classes, you will FAIL this course. Additionally, you are considered absent if you arrive late or leave early two times.



SCHEDULE

01
1/15: 1:00 Semester Structure, Expectations, Assignments
and Questions.
Handout questionnaire.

1/17: 1:00 Student Presentations and Responses to Questionnaires.
Share three works with class: live or documented

02
1/22: 1:00 Student Proposals read.

1/24: 1:00 group meeting 1:
Ben presents and assigns reading 1
Formation of GBU committee
2:00 work time/individual meetings

03
1/29: 1:00 group meeting 2: discuss reading 1
Pamela presents and assigns reading 2
2:00 work time/individual meetings


1/31: 1:00 group meeting 3: discuss reading 2
Tony presents and assigns reading 3
2:00 work time/individual meetings

04
2/05: 1:00 group meeting 4: discuss reading 3
Silvia presents and assigns reading 4
2:00 work time/individual meetings

2/07: 1:00 field trip: Katerina Šedá at the Renaissance Society

05
2/12: 1:00 group meeting 5: discuss reading 4
Ben presents and assigns possible
reading 5
2:00 work time/individual meetings

2/14: 1:00 group meeting 6: discuss reading 5
Pamela presents and assigns
possible reading 6
2:00 work time/individual meetings

06
2/19: 1:00 group meeting 7: discuss reading 6
Tony presents and assigns possible reading
2:00 work time/individual meetings

2/21: 1:00 group meeting 8: discuss reading 7
Silvia presents and assigns possible reading
2:00 work time/individual meetings

07
2/26: 1:00 MIDTERM CRITIQUE: work in progress

2/28: 1:00 MIDTERM CRITIQUE: work in progress

08
3/04: 1:00 Organizational Meeting for Thesis Show
Formation of Exhibition Committees
Brainstorm Title and Graphics for Exhibition Materials

3/06: 1:00 Screening

09 3/11: 1:00 group: TBA
2:00 work time/individual meetings
Present and Vote on Titles and Graphics

3/13: 1:00 group: TBA
2:00 work time/individual meetings

10 3/18: 1:00 group: TBA
2:00 work time/individual meetings
Designer(s) must show faculty and Director layout for approval.

3/20:
1:00 DVD / Powerpoint Workshops for those interested
2:00 work time / individual meetings
Deadline for exhibition cards and posters to be sent to printer.

11
3/25: SPRING BREAK
3/27: SPRING BREAK

12
4/01: 1:00 Group Critique of Work in Progress

4/03: 1:00 field trip: Karen Kilimnik at the MCA

13
4/08: 1:00 group: What’s Next: Discussion
2:00 work time/individual meetings

4/10: 1:00 group-Organizational Meeting
2:00 work time/individual meetings

14
4/15: BFA Exhibition Preparation

4/17: BFA Exhibition Preparation

4/18 BFA Thesis Exhibition Opening
4/19 BFA Thesis Exhibition
4/20 BFA Thesis Exhibition

15
4/22: Smaller Group Statement Workshops

4/24: Powerpoint / Keynote Presentation with Statement
All Final Drafts of Statement due-regardless of date of presentation.

16
4/29: Powerpoint / Keynote Presentation with Statement

5/01: Powerpoint / Keynote Presentation with Statement