Dear Undergraduate students,

As the Fall term approaches, we wanted to provide some additional course information for the courses below, both of which currently have available space. To check if you are eligible to enrol in these courses, please be sure to review the prerequisites and enrolment controls on the Daniels Academic Calendar.

VIS325 Contemporary Art Issues  R 9am - 12pm (new time)                Gareth Long
What contemporary are you?

Anything being produced in the present is always contemporary, and by the same token all art must necessarily have been contemporary at the time of its production and/or initial reception. It is also clear, however, that the phrase “contemporary art” has special currency today. This course explores the complicated idea of contemporaneity, here referring to the temporal complexity arising out of the fact that different cultural groupings with different historical backgrounds, hailing from different locations and operating on different scales are brought together in the same cultural space, occupying the same historical present. In other words, the term describes the bringing together of different, but equally present temporalities in our present time – the temporality of the globalized world. We will give particular attention to our very specific contemporary conditions in discussions of Covid-19 and its impact on the arts, the institutional attempts at decentering whiteness in art institutions (and art-adjacent institutions such as universities), the climate crisis, NFTs, the resuscitation of “authenticity” and others topics.

Students will be asked to identify themselves in this present-day landscape and to convey that awareness in the seminar discussions and studio projects.

VIS330 Artist’s Writing                     M 2 - 5pm                                             Zach Blas
A survey course of writings created by artists in a variety of forms and practices, including manifestos, essays, theoretical and philosophical writings, stories, electronic literature, art reviews and approaches to criticism by artists, diaries and journals, artist statements, interventions, and other experimental approaches. This course begins from the premise that, in working within, outside, and around traditional disciplines, artists have developed writing practices as modes of art making. These innovative modes of artistic-writerly expression blur the boundaries between art practice, creative writing, and academic work. Students will develop writing skills that are rooted in and inspired by such critical-creative practices and produce a writing portfolio that explores these various approaches to writing that have emerged from the art world.