The process of being in class, being out of class, back into class has certainly disrupted the momentum at this point the term. That may be part of the structure. What is interesting is that while the Gen Art class was chomping at the bit to create ideas for projects this class has settled into a much more student/teacher mode. I’m not sure if that is the result of the projects or of how the class has progressed or the fact that we have five more weeks than the Gen Art class. I have felt that for most of the term we were ahead of where we had been last time I taught this class. Since that last time was not project driven but more of a survey of the literature – that might explain the momentum. Given how the class is progressing I am right on the edge of pulling back from controlling the assignments and the overall structure of each day. I think about half of the class is ready for this. In that I mean that they are ready to continue to explore these ideas on their own. The remainder might take it as a sign to completely stop working. This is my fear in the final projects – about 15 or 16 are ready to go all they need is the word, the rest may simply just slack off. Hard to tell without connections in class or in the blogs.
So – I find that when I offer a more traditional day in class – such as showing slides and talking about the Bauhaus – it is much less satisfying than when we just talk about the ideas. Perhaps in the future I will opt for the hybrid class in which some of this presenting can happen online and then we can use the class time for discussion. Although if the presentation were done this way the students wouldn’t be confronted by a room tangled with ropes.
So – the survey of the Bauhaus was designed to give students enough to think about for the space exercise. This set up for this project was that each group received a box of objects – rope, a mirror, cone, paper, ping pong ball, and 2 dowel rods – and that they had to use these elements and the elements that they could find lying around to create a piece about space. They could either present the piece or create an experience for the class. Out of four groups one chose to create a performance piece by binding themselves together. Another created a piece to be displayed and to a certain extent interacted with – basically two mirrors reflecting off of each other with the rods bound by rope in the middle. The third group marched us down to the chapel where we had to make our way through a maze of stuff piled in front of the entrance while they wildly applauded on the other side. The fourth group created a kind of obstacle course in the kitchen to be navigated by a representative from each group.
I found each of the pieces interesting for the exploration of space, but some groups did a wonderful job explicating how and why they generated the piece they did. Having to think about space, navigate space, control it or wrestle with it proved to be an quite useful when discussing it afterwards. I am still trying to remember why the Bauhaus stuff ended up at this point in the term. It really is a 180 from some of the other stuff – perhaps that was why.
A day off and then the Situationist Project – the first written project – based on a Situationist assignment where you praise and then criticize aspects of the group. I will be going more into depth on these writings next class. The goal with the Situationist stuff was to open up the class space a bit more to ideas – and also to get the students outside of the classroom. So – we decorated the bridge with rope, wrote on the sidewalk with caulk, and left messages in the student center about what it means to be an “artist.” I must admit that part of me was wrestling with proving an experience for the class – as well s those that followed after us – and tying this back into the discussion of the Situationists. I did not feel like a did well on either count – so we will revisit these ideas and tie them into Metzger’s on auto-destruction. The most successful aspect of this class was getting out of the gym.
No comments:
Post a Comment