Mapping the Classroom, Vera Verboom, 2017
This 100-level, medium specific course introduces students to contemporary art & design practice through short and inspiring practical assignments in a range of media (drawing, photography, video, and scale model prototyping).The assignments allow room to be interpreted in an applied manner, according to a given brief (design) or more freely (art). The course initiates you to fundamental aspects of artistic research through empirical fieldwork, visual storytelling, and speculative thinking. During the course you will learn new, intuitive ways to observe and map a situation, to visually tell a story, to resourcefully deal with a making process, to think beyond what is possible, and to learn as a group.
Components and build up of final grade:
Project 1: Mapping the Studio / Ideas for Drawing (3 to 4 weeks)
The first weeks will focus on the idea of the studio. Through observation and researching what is available in the given space, such as the space itself, books, the traces left behind etc., each student will be challenged to find their own focus. By drawing and making notes these interests will be further explored, together with several approaches from a range of artist practices. We will work with various drawing techniques, methods and experiments to visualise ideas. We will reflect on the work by researching and presenting related artists and the role that drawing plays in their practice. Every week a concrete exercise will be given in order to help you develop a process driven way of working. The ideas and concepts found in these first weeks will be the starting point for a further development during the course.
Project 2: Exploring the Surroundings / Staying In Going Out (3 to 4 weeks)
In this second project these concepts will be brought into a wider context. Students will continue to work on their individual or dual research track. We will start with a workshop by a guest artist to explore the direct surroundings of UCR and the city of Middelburg. Next to drawing, the main medium will be photography or video. Questions of how to find interesting elements and how to visualise these into imaginative narratives will be looked into. For example how to show the relation between documentary and fiction? The material made is this project will be edited into a book form. The possibilities of making artist books will be discussed.
Project 3: Taking Position / It’s Happening Again (remaining weeks)
After researching and collecting various approaches to art making each student will have a well developed set of concepts. It’s time to take a point of view, to distill some sort of conclusion, be it a temporary one. A public presentation is the most suitable way to do this. During this third project the students will be asked to design a pavilion, as the most ideal way to present the works made during the first 2 projects. For this a workshop will be organised. How do artists present their work and which role does this have on their practice? How is the meaning of an work shaped when it becomes public?
Self Study project / Sketchbook
Your term-long self-study project is to keep a rich sketchbook i.e visual research log book, by assembling a generous collection of writings, drawings, images, collages, and related artistic and scientific references, articulated in a personal and meaningful way. You will be regularly asked to share your sketchbook for peer evaluation, and it will be graded Mid and End Term Evaluation.
Self study project / Starting Where?
At the beginning of the course all students will be given the same artwork, this is the starting point of an individual path through the history of art. Each next lesson the student should add a new work of art, the chosen work has to make a connection with the previous one. The relevance is up to the student, but has to be well argued.
Sketchbook, Marleen Doré, 2017