The AH192 course introduces students to the practice of art & design through short and inspiring practical assignments in a range of media (drawing/mapping, photography, video, and scale model prototyping). The assignments can be interpreted in an autonomous (art) or applied (design) manner and gravitate around the topic of freedom, in line with the Four Freedoms anniversary and the Vrijheidsfestival in Vlissingen in May 2016, to which we will take part with a one-day exhibition. The course initiates students to current developments in art & design such as visual storytelling, and social design. During the course students learn new, intuitive ways to observe and map a situation, to resourcefully deal with a making process, and to experiment and learn as a group.
Project 1: Drawing | The Bottom line (three weeks) On the first day of the course we will go on a full day excursion to the contemporary art museum S.M.A.K. in Gent. We will visit Drawing/ The Bottom Line, accompanied by artist Loek Grootjans; museum director Philippe van Cauteren will give us a guided tour. Based on this visit, you will research and discuss the work of a selection of the artists in the show in small groups (Mark Manders, Ante Timmermans, Marc Nagtaam, Gabriel Orozco, Francis Alÿs, Michaël Borremans, Tacita Dean, Edith Dekyndt, Alexandre Singh, Erik van Lieshout); and you will produce a series of drawings about freedom inspired by their approach.
Project 2: Mapping Zeeland: video portrait (three weeks) In this second project, you will portray ‘freedom searchers and makers’ in Zeeland, and analyse what kind of (material and immaterial) value these artisans and experts generate. What is the substance of their making process? Which tools and forms of expertise are involved? Guest filmmaker Roel van Tour will give a video tutorial to get started.
Project 3: Vier het Vrije Heden: scale model prototyping (six weeks) LAS, the pedagogical philosophy behind UCR, builds on a long tradition that goes back to the ancient Greek, and propagates a free mind, broad culture and informed citizenship. What can we learn from the LAS philosophy about freedom? What does it mean to be free today? One of the 12,000 questions collected on the Dutch Science Agenda is: “What is a good balance between freedom and (individual and collective) responsibility?” In this project, you will imagine and make a scale model of a Liberal Arts & Sciences-inspired intervention in public space that makes a (temporary form of) free citizenship possible. The Four Freedoms (Freedoms from want, freedom from fear, freedom of worship, freedom of expression) can serve as a compass. Your studies in sciences, social sciences and/or humanities will function as footnotes (scientific background, method and/or argumentation) to your project. Class input: UCR Four Freedoms lecture by Prof. David Woolner.
Class input_Orchestrating encounters.pdf
Class_input_point_of_view_video_tutorial_roel_van_tour.pdf
Components and build up of final grade:
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/dfd53b15-7dd9-4e00-8dcd-38155ffaae88/PRESSLRELEASE_Vier_Het_Vrije_Heden_2016.pdf
