Course Descriptions

Fall 2008

Art 305-335 Studio

Studio hours in the following disciplines are offered each semester: Drawing, Painting, New Genre, Photography, Sculpture, Installation, and Digital Media. Students may register for these units with core, adjunct and visiting artists.

Core Faculty: David Pagel (Chair), David Amico (on sabbatical fall 2008), Michael Brewster, and Rachel Lachowicz

Adjunct Faculty: Anne Bray, Carmine Iannaccone, Gary Lang, Constance Mallinson, John Millei, Kelly Sears

Visiting Artist Faculty: China Adams & Michael Reafsnyder

Art 319 New Genres Anne Bray

This class takes into consideration the specific background and interests of the enrolled graduate students. Precise priorities are established at the first meeting via a democratic process. For students with little background there are recommended readings to fill in their absences. For the more and less advanced students there are articles to accompany the chosen topics and media. As one of the few new genres courses, the class covers a broad range of potential material: video, performance, public art, Net art, interactive digital media, and some installation. Professional development topics for all students are covered too: grants, proposals, documentation and potential venues. Weekly events are recommended for students to attend at art venues in greater Los Angeles. Group critiques are scheduled with each student devoted to their current project. Generally a thematic discourse is developed, such as complexity as a strategy, body in art, relation to audience, high and low tech, or appropriate medium, so that some cohesion develops among the diverse interests and projects. Each semester the content changes significantly.

Art 322 Digital Media: 2-D Design Kelly Sears

In this class we will be introduced to 2-D imaging programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, Image Ready) as a way to develop work for large scale printing, photo, web, video projects. The class will look at how we circulate images in a larger visual culture and will workshop various ways of creating, manipulating, and examining 2-D digital media.

Emphasis will be on design and conceptual frameworks surrounding the images. We will examine how narrative, history, memory, and authorship can be embedded or removed from the work. Class workshops and projects will be supplemented with readings.

Art 323 Digital Media: Web Design Curtis Stage

This class covers mostly Flash8 which is used to develop and design websites, CD-ROMs, animation for the computer, or to integrate into video projects. Emphasis is placed on promoting students' portfolio (whether they are a digital artist or not) by making CD-ROMs with websites on them (or for the internet) we cover scanning slides and image compression building and designing sites containing their work, and animation or interactive art which can be the work itself. Learning even the basics of Flash8 has incredible real world application potential since most sites are designed in Flash now. The first 11 weeks of the course are usually in studio demo/lectures. The remainder of the course is spent in individual meetings which serves a dual purpose: first to help students clarify issues with the tools and second to make sure the vision they have as artists is working.

Art 324 Digital Media-Video Processes Kelly Sears

This course offers an intensive introduction to digital media production, specifically digital video cameras, digital editing software, lighting, sound equipment, and DVD authoring. Through this course we will explore the moving image as an art form, a narrative, a document, and hybrid creation. We will investigate various modes of production, diverse visual strategies and how these approaches exist in several theoretical frameworks.

Over the course of the semester, each student will produce three short projects. Production strategies will be developed through discussions of screenings and readings and weekly critiques.

Art 344 Seminar in Critical Theory Constance Mallinson

This survey course entitled Point and Counterpoint in Contemporary Theory will focus on introducing the student to landmark essays in critical theory from the last fifty years. Beginning with the seminal theories of Greenberg and the demise of Modernism, we will follow the development of key postmodern theories impacting the art of the last thirty years to the present. Feminist theory, identity theory, post-colonial discourse, and theories of transgression are some of the topics introduced. Weekly readings that offer opposing viewpoints encourage the students to debate the authors’ positions in class: Example: Benjamin Buchloh’s Figures of Authority Essay v. Thomas Lawson’s Last Exit Painting essay debates the continuing role of painting in contemporary artistic practice. Authors range from Rosalind Krauss,Jean Baudrillard,Dave Hickey, bell hooks, Mike Kelley,Donald Kuspit,Lucy Lippard,to very recent essays on visual culture. The final will consist of a short paper relating a chosen author’s theory to the student’s own studio work.

Art 344 Seminar in Critical Theory Carmine Iannaccone

Many commentators believe that what has been called the Golden Age of critical theory is now over. They're probably right, but just because it's over, doesn't mean it's finished. Anything as far-reaching as the body of thought that is also known as "Continental Theory" will permanently bend the light through which all successive history is viewed, to one degree or another. These theories were influential not just because they got written, but also because of how they were interpreted, discussed, unloaded and applied by legions of others in a process that (for better or for worse) is certainly still underwa y. And that may make it crucial to understand the theories now more than ever. The process of exegesis can become vapid and attenuate the original ideas, to the point where we forget what made them revolutionary in the first place. As more and more people talk about them, the key terms become markers of fashion rather than insight. Anyone can now throw around the word "deconstruction" and sound very informed, hip, and up-to-date without needing to know what deconstruction means. That's a problem.

So whereas our goal will be to survey Continental Theory in the interest of understanding it, this class will also appraise why this theory was important in the first place, consider what made it radical in its time, and ask if that time is really over, or still ongoing. This will require establishing some context: if Continental Theory was once the new kid on the block, it was never the only kid on the block. Some people think that the practice of making art grounded in theory date s back to the advent of Conceptualism in the 1970s at the earliest. It doesn't. All art has always been based in theory, whether that theory was the belief in magic that motivated the prehistoric cave painter, the Neo-Platonism that inspired Michaelangelo, or the Post-structuralism that informs contemporary practice. Another part of our task will be to reconstruct that lineage.

We will do this by moving through three levels of declension, as it were. First, reading and lectures will sketch the outlines of the theories themselves. Second, presentations will illustrate how those theories were translated into the visual arts by postmodern artists. And finally, a series of three short essays will require that students identify the ways these ideas have infiltrated contemporary politics, culture, and their own studio practice.

Art 347 Contemporary Art History David Pagel

This class introduces students to some of the most influential art made in the United States and Europe in the 1960s and early 1970s by examining the transatlantic dialogue that emerged between artists and critics before globalism transformed the art world into what it is now: a multinational, corporate-style enterprise that combines aspects of the entertainment industry, the education business, and naked commercial speculation.

ART 306 Seminar in Contemporary Drawing Mercedes Teixido, Pomona College

Only recently has drawing come into its own in the art world. It occupies a unique position and manifests in a great varieties of forms. Its contemporary applications come from its various histories in popular culture, in diagrams and illustration, and from art such as photography and painting. We will discuss works that address these and other issues. We will also look at technique, learn about paper itself as a material, examine issues of presentation with works on paper and discuss student work.

ART 363 The Art of Social Conciousness Sheila Pinkel, Pomona College

"The Art of Social Consciousness" is a course dedicated to exploring the theory and practice of making art based on contemporary issues and concerns. We will also investigate the way artists are using traditional and non traditional venues in behalf of communicating their concerns and effectively contributing to the dialogue. The course will include readings, videos, visiting artists' presentations and field trips. Class participants will manifest their ideas in projects of their own throughout the semester.

Art 328 Installation Seminar Rachel Lachowicz

description to follow

Spring 2008

Art 305-335 Studio

Studio hours in the following disciplines are offered each semester: Drawing, Painting, New Genre, Photography, Sculpture, Installation, and Digital Media. Students may register for these units with core, adjunct and visiting artists.

Core Faculty: David Pagel (Chair), David Amico, Michael Brewster, and Rachel Lachowicz

Adjunct Faculty: Anne Bray, Carmine Iannaccone, Katie Grinnan, Gary Lang, Constance Mallinson, John Millei

Visiting Artist Faculty: China Adams and Michael Reafsnyder

Art 319 New Genres Anne Bray

This class takes into consideration the specific background and interests of the enrolled graduate students. Precise priorities are established at the first meeting via a democratic process. For students with little background there are recommended readings to fill in their absences. For the more and less advanced students there are articles to accompany the chosen topics and media. As one of the few new genres courses, the class covers a broad range of potential material: video, performance, public art, Net art, interactive digital media, and some installation. Professional development topics for all students are covered too: grants, proposals, documentation and potential venues. Weekly events are recommended for students to attend at art venues in greater Los Angeles. Group critiques are scheduled with each student devoted to their current project. Generally a thematic discourse is developed, such as complexity as a strategy, body in art, relation to audience, high and low tech, or appropriate medium, so that some cohesion develops among the diverse interests and projects. Each semester the content changes significantly.

Art 322 Digital Media: Computer Processes Curtis Stage

This class covers mostly Flash8 which is used to develop and design websites, CD-ROMs, animation for the computer, or to integrate into video projects. Emphasis is placed on promoting students' portfolio (whether they are a digital artist or not) by making CD-ROMs with websites on them (or for the internet) we cover scanning slides and image compression building and designing sites containing their work, and animation or interactive art which can be the work itself. Learning even the basics of Flash8 has incredible real world application potential since most sites are designed in Flash now. The first 11 weeks of the course are usually in studio demo/lectures. The remainder of the course is spent in individual meetings which serves a dual purpose: first to help students clarify issues with the tools and second to make sure the vision they have as artists is working.

Art 323 Digital Media- Imaging Processes Curtis Stage

This Class covers Digital Imaging, large scale printing on our Epson 9800, and Photoshop. Students become proficient at professional presentation of their work and develop necessary skills to scan and correct digital.

Participant will acquire image correction techniques applicable to process images for Print, Internet and portfolio .
Participant will gain skills in use of Levels, Curves, Layers, Composite tools, healing and retouch tools.
Participant will develop an understanding of and facility scanning, printing and color Participant will learn techniques of designing image/video-based portfolio.
Participant will acquire skills adjusting and enhancing digital imagery.

Art 324 Digital Media-Video Processes Kelly Sears

This class covers video editing, sound production and camera work. Students also learn advanced techniques of DVD authoring and video compression for the internet and specifically to insert video onto the website they have been working on in the BEG. Comp. course. We also cover concepts that could actually provide income in the real world after graduation. Our editing software, Final Cut Pro, is rapidly becoming the industry standard in post prod. (It is also the software most used by art departments to teach video art) the 1st 9 weeks of the course are usually in studio demo/lectures- the rest of the course we meet individually which serves a dual purpose: 1st to help students clarify issues with the tools and 2nd to make sure the vision they have as artists is working-- both critical and technical concepts are investigated. Students do not need to be advanced to take this course (but it helps.)

Art 332 Material - Methodology - Ethic Ryan Taber

M-M-E is a seminar class meeting once a week that will focus on introducing graduate students to basic material knowledge and fabrication techniques while considering the effect of these processes within contemporary art history. Projects and demonstrations will facilitate an introduction to working with wood, metal, plastics and casting materials, with an emphasis on applications within each student’s individual work. Reading topics will consider the evolution of materials and practices that have been deemed viable over the course of the last century by critics and patrons. Others will examine past methodologies that would be considered dangerous or socially irresponsible today. This aspect will include an assessment of the relative impact of such approaches, on both aesthetics and the environment, as well as the artist’s physical and mental health.

Art 342 Blais Seminar: Alternative Practice/Alternative Space Mark Allen (Pomona College)

Is art school preparing you to produce unique luxury goods for the ultra rich? Alternative Spaces, Alternative Practices, modestly proposes other approaches to a life in the arts. This class traces a rennet history of the “alternative”, specifically the history and current state of non-profit and post-profit spaces in Los Angeles. In addition we will consider theories of social art practices and discuss contemporary readings on art and life. Along the way we’ll grapple with some sticky questions such as: Does the rise of relational art practices reflect the global transition from a commodity economy to a service economy? This class will include frequent self=organized field trips for class meetings and visiting alternative spaces in Los Angeles.

Art 345 Seminar in Critical Theory Constance Mallinson

This survey course entitled Point and Counterpoint in Contemporary Theory will focus on introducing the student to landmark essays in critical theory from the last fifty years. Beginning with the seminal theories of Greenberg and the demise of Modernism, we will follow the development of key postmodern theories impacting the art of the last thirty years to the present. Feminist theory, identity theory, post-colonial discourse, and theories of transgression are some of the topics introduced. Weekly readings that offer opposing viewpoints encourage the students to debate the authors’ positions in class: Example: Benjamin Buchloh’s Figures of Authority Essay v. Thomas Lawson’s Last Exit Painting essay debates the continuing role of painting in contemporary artistic practice. Authors range from Rosalind Krauss,Jean Baudrillard,Dave Hickey, bell hooks, Mike Kelley,Donald Kuspit,Lucy Lippard,to very recent essays on visual culture. The final will consist of a short paper relating a chosen author’s theory to the student’s own studio work.

Art 345 Seminar in Critical Theory Carmine Iannaccone

"Killing Our Fathers; Does the History of Art Progress?"

It is self-evident that contemporary art - of any era – defines itself in contrast to the past. But how do historians locate that point of rupture and inscribe its position in time? Typically, the criterion is style; the “contemporary” separates itself from the past at the point where artworks begin to look and feel substantially different from what came before. One metaphor that is often invoked to describe this impulse to be different is patricide (although we should now update that to include matricide): the new generation slays its predecessors. The historian’s prime task in these cases is to identify the youthful art community’s new approaches toward form and media, subject matter and iconography. From there, one is positioned to ask why these changes are taking place, what they mean or what they say about society at large.

But these observations are a two way street. Rupture from the past is also reverence for the past, if only as a crucial point of reference. To vividly sketch the differences with preceding generations, one must understand those precedents very clearly. By integrating what is “contemporary” into the larger body of the historical in this way, lines of continuity between tradition and innovation are also traced. The writing that constitutes this part of the critical record opens up broader themes like how artwork is used by a culture, how it positions itself vis-à-vis an audience, what rhetorical strategies it deploys, what social forces it activates.

Taking the 1960s as our point of departure, this class will examine some of the features that differentiate and identify various art movements of the four succeeding decades. These include degrees of performativity, attitudes toward the vernacular, relationships between the visual and the linguistic, positioning with regard to electronic media, and approaches toward form and design. At the same time, we will investigate a set of critical agents (like facture, value, and authorship) that can be used to integrate those former “presents” into their own pasts.

Art 348 Seminar in Contemporary Art History David Pagel

This course surveys some of the ways contemporary artists have sought to make a place for their work in the world – from striving to insert it into established historical narratives, to breaking from such conventional accounts, to making up entirely new narrative structures: parallel universes of sorts. It picks up where last semester’s course on art from 1947-74 left off, with the Great Wheel of Art, but in no way assumes students were enrolled in that class. The first half of the semester will be dedicated to setting the philosophical foundations to some of the radical transformations that swept art and society at the end of the sixties. In the second half, we will focus on some of most influential art made over the last 25 years. This part of the course will consist of student presentations of a group of artists selected by me and another group chosen by students. The philosophies underlying the materials, approaches, and conventions engaged by the art, as well as its social implications and the place it proposes for itself in the world, will be explored in relation to the critical discourse of the time and from our perspective in the present.

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