Course Syllabus
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Graduate MFA Program
Seminar: MFA 730-01 Reframing Theory: Connections to Contemporary Theory and Visual Art
Instructor: Tom Csaszar; email: rbtc@infionline.net or: csaszar@pobox.pafa.edu
3 Credits Fall 2016 Room 503 Thursday 8:30 AM – 11:20 AM
Syllabus
Course Description
This seminar will explore the relation between critical theory and contemporary art. The course will focus on some of the key thinkers, ideas, and schools of thought informing debates around contemporary art and aesthetics. The seminar will both situate theoretical ideas within a larger intellectual context and historical framework, while also providing the opportunity to explore these ideas through visual works of art. Primary and secondary texts pertaining to the course material will further extend a student’s understanding of the ideas, individuals, groups, and movements informing aesthetic questions today. Emphasis will be placed on the methodology of forming aesthetic judgements that further the contemporary dialogues in works of art. The course will further the development of verbal, written, and critical thinking skills for this purpose.
We will read and discuss historical and contemporary criticism and aesthetics. Through lectures, guided discussions, direct field observations, written responses, and selected readings, participants will examine how contemporary aesthetic and critical theory reflect the experiences that we have of art. The direct experience of galleries, exhibits, museums, and presentations by professionals in related fields will be incorporated into the course – to the extent that these are available throughout the semester – in order to study how usefulness, meaning, and pleasure are embodied in and derived from objects, events, and presentations made by artists. We will examine how aesthetic systems and journalistic criticism engage works of art and help us understand visual experiences. We will look at visual experience in our own culture and other cultures.
In addition to readings, class discussion, and field observations, participants write two short research papers and one longer paper, take an active role in discussion, and make class presentations. The longer assignment will provide an opportunity to consider the potential theoretical frameworks pertinent to their creative work. It involves a critical investigation into the aesthetic and philosophical issues of art, as well as examining professional issues and practices of viewing, researching, and reading works of visual culture.
This course fits into the academic program by teaching information and the acquisition of skills needed to evaluate works of art and discuss them in relation to particular and more generalized contemporary, historical, and cross-cultural contexts. In conjunction with studio experience, readings, and other seminars, it is designed to ensure that the participant graduates with an ability to understand and present to others an expertise in understanding the value and significance of visual experience and visual communication.
Major Learning Objectives
Students will learn how to research works of visual culture and be able to state their responses to them in relation to the formal, contextual, and historical elements of visual works. Students will learn to use the writing process and the process of presentations to others as a means to explore and conceptualize their responses to visual works and the social values and exchanges provided in them. One of the primary goals is to express their responses to visual works, through the development of writing skills, and to do this in relation to the on-going dialogue of the visual arts and in relation to the contemporary contexts of visual arts.
These learning objectives should support the participant’s future abilities to function as an independent artist, add to the breadth of their intellectual knowledge to understand the aesthetic and the cultural context of their current and future work, increase their ability to formulate and articulate artistic philosophies and goals, and enhance their knowledge of art histories. It should also increase their ability to understand, discuss, write about, and present in public forums contemporary issues, including what constitutes art and how art is judged now and was judged in the past, to understand the profound significance of visual experience, and to understand a range of aesthetic viewpoints and critical voices.
Course Outcomes
The course is designed to provide specific, practical, critical skills through which to enjoy, discuss, and understand visual experience. There are four specific learning outcomes of the course, which will be evaluated by the verbal, written, and visual presentations of class assignments. First, that each student understand visual experience in terms of contemporary and historical parameters in our culture, including the contexts of Modernism and Postmodernism. Second, that each student be able to describe the elements of visual experience they respond to and the responses that these elements elicit. Third, that each student be able to professionally present and discuss their original and independent research and ideas on visual culture with the class, questioning themselves and each other critically, setting a foundation on which they can develop professional habits of seeing how their own ideas interact with those of others, as informed viewers and participants of works of visual culture in our own and other communities. Fourth, that each student observe and begin to understand how visual works and aesthetics of different cultures interact with one’s own culture currently and in the past.
Readings
In addition to the readings handed out in class, the primary texts for the course are:
Art Theory, A Very Short Introduction. Cynthia Freeland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-19-280463-1 (Also published under the title But is it Art? in 2001)
The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics. Part V, Contemporary Aesthetics. Edited by Joseph Tanke and Colin McQuillan. London: Bloomsbury, 2012. ISBN 978-1441138262 $37.95
Art Since 1989. Kelly Grovier. London: Thames & Hudson, 2015.
ISBN-13 978-0-500-20426-9
Calliope’s Sisters: A Comparative Study of Philosophies of Art, 2nd Edition. Richard L. Anderson. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2004. ISBN 978-0130936097 $79.43
Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, 2nd Edition. Edited by Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996, 2012. ISBN 978-0520257184 $24.51
Assessment
The quality and richness of this seminar depends greatly on your active participation and contribution to the class dialogue. It is your responsibility to remain current in all readings and assignments. You are expected to prepare all oral and written assignments in time for class discussion and by specified due dates. Each person will be evaluated primarily on how clearly she or he can express their ideas, encourage others to express their ideas, and how fully and rigorously they can evaluate the topics and ideas being spoken of or written about in class discussions, research papers, and presentations.
Grading
Graduate courses are pass/fail. Individual papers and presentations will receive letter grades, but these will not be part of your permanent record and are intended to let you know the relative quality of the work you are doing. In previous years it was considered necessary to maintain a B average or better to pass. You are in severe danger of failing if you: 1) miss more than 2 classes without making them up (see next paragraph), 2) miss more than four classes total, 3) fail to turn in any of the three written assignments or make the final presentation, or 4) get a grade of D or lower on two assignments.
Absences and Lateness
You are expected to attend all class meetings and to notify the professor in advance if you anticipate a problem with attendance, as an unexcused absence or arrival of more than 20 minutes late could adversely affect your grade. Any student may miss up to two classes for any reason. If more than two classes are missed for any reason, each additional class must be made up by either doing another short research paper or by meeting with the instructor to review material missed. If papers and assignments are not turned in when due, the instructor must be contacted ahead of time and if the assignment is more than one week late, the grade for the assignment may be lowered. If a student misses more than a total of four classes for any reason they will not be eligible to receive credit for the course unless extraordinary circumstances exist that the instructor and program director deem worthy of exception.
Technology
Students will need to conduct their research and communicate to their professor using the appropriate technologies, which could include printed material, paintings, sculpture, photography, films, digitalized media, and the internet. They need to use the library computer system and the Canvas system on-line.
Academic Integrity Policy
Students will be expected to uphold their work to the highest degree of academic integrity, including crediting and citing all sources appropriately per the MLA guidelines.
Course Structure/Class Format and Research Paper Requirements
We will meet weekly to discuss the readings and assignments in a format, which could include lectures, discussions, and visual presentations of various kinds, through objects, visual works, gallery and exhibition viewings, videos, DVDs, and internet sites. Please see the attached Class Schedule for a list of specific readings and assignments.
Research papers generally require your interpretation of selected readings or response to specific works. They should be written on a professional level. This does not necessarily mean that you strictly conform to a particular academic style, but more that you express, in a concise and organized manner, ideas and observations that are carefully and critically thought out and that are vivid and responsive to the work under consideration. The intention is not only to assimilate the material, but also to use critical thinking skills by questioning and examining ideas in order to develop an integrated personal point of view about visual experience. When submitting papers, please include a cover sheet with your name, assignment title, course number, and date. Each paper should include a bibliography.
There will be two shorter research papers due, each 1 - 3 pages in length, double-spaced (roughly 500 to 1000 words).
The longer research paper will be 8 - 12 pages in length, double-spaced (roughly 2500 - 4000 words). This essay should be based on a topic or works under discussion or on questions, responses, or critiques of such a topic.
The longer paper will also require that the student:
(1) Submit a proposal of the paper, one paragraph or two or three sentences in length containing a statement of the topic of the paper and the approach of the paper to the topic.
(2) Make an oral presentation 20 minutes in length of the final, revised version, which can include visuals.
How to be Successful in this Class
The quality and richness of this seminar depends greatly on your active participation and contribution to the class dialogue. Remain current in all readings and assignments. Prepare all oral and written assignments in time for class discussion and by specified due dates. Choose themes for papers that are well defined and not too broad for short papers. Carefully think about your ideas and edit and proofread your papers. In your papers and comments, consider how you are adding to the professional discussion of the ideas being examined, rather than listing facts about a topic, as an encyclopedia or Wikipedia would.
Contacting Instructor
You may reach Tom Csaszar for questions about the course, or to schedule office or studio meetings with him at:
221 Crosshill Road
Wynnewood, PA 19096-3123
phone: 610 642-3218
cell: 610 761-6947
email: rbtc@infionline.net
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Graduate MFA Program
Seminar: MFA 730/01 Reframing Theory: Connections to Contemporary Theory and Visual Art
Instructor: Tom Csaszar; email: rbtc@infionline.net or csaszar@pobox.pafa.edu
3 Credits Fall 2016 Room 503 Thursday 8:30 AM – 11:20 AM
Class Schedule
readings in boldface are primary readings
Class 1 (9/1) Locations in Contemporary Art
A survey and introductory discussion of contemporary theory in our shared experiences of undergraduate education and our responses of meaning and pleasure to works based on comparisons according to viewpoints of cultural histories and connections
Readings for Class 1 and 2: Kelly Grovier Art Since 1989 Chapter 5 Fleshed Out; Raymond Williams “The Analysis of Culture;” Okwui Enwezor “Contemporary Art in Permanent Transition” excerpt; Teju Cole “Wangechi Mutu;” in Theories and Documents . . . Wangechi Mutu p 320 and Pipilotti Rist, p 541; Jerry Salz, “Cecily Brown” and “Pipilotti Rist;” John Stuart Mill “Coleridge” excerpt
Class 2 (9/8) Introduction to Contemporary Culture: Plurality, Truth, and Meaning
(PAFA galleries) a discussion of visual response as reading the value and meanings of works through historical comparison, emotional response and intentions embodied in forms; What are the advantages and limitations of these views and their social uses, their uses in education and in the processes of art making?
Readings for Class 1 and 2: as above
Assignment for Class 2: Each participant should come prepared to present one of the four readings to the class and to talk about one idea from one of the readings and discuss what is at stake in these sort of aesthetic considerations.
Class 3 (9/15) Introduction to Contemporary Aesthetic Judgment: Beauty, Ritual, Shared Values
a further discussion of reading the value and meanings of works through comparisons; plus a consideration of the meanings in works, inherent in their own qualities, What are the advantages and limitations of this second view?
Readings for Class 3: Cynthia Freeland But Is It Art?/Art Theory, A Very Short Introduction Introduction and Chapter 1; Chapter 2; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 43 Alexander Nehamas; in Theories and Documents . . . Andres Serrano p 299; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 20 Kant Sections 1 – 4 and Sections 9 and 21; Chapter 17 Hume
Assignment for Class 3: Come prepared to present one of the readings to the class.
Class 4 (9/22) Aesthetics and Criticism of Art in Other Cultures: Cultural Crossings
(PMA visit) a discussion of how aesthetic theories and art interpretations can be negotiated in other cultures; an introduction to the diverse languages of aesthetics
Readings for Class 4: Cynthia Freeland But Is It Art?/Art Theory Chapter 3; Chapter 4 Wole Soyinka “The Ritual Archetype” pp. 32 – 36; Eliot Deutsch “Cross-Cultural Hermeneutics;” Susan Vogel “Baule Art in Western Eyes;” Valerie Gonzalez “Beauty and Islam;” Richard Bodman “How to Eat a Chinese Poem”
Assignment for Class 4: Write first paper, including a bibliography, focusing on how one reads, describes, discusses or shares one’s view of works of art. How is it that emotions and ideas can be described as sharing the context of the viewer and the artist? Is this the best way to discuss it, or is there a way that better fits a discussion of the pleasures and meanings that you find in works of art? How does this react with your theory of how art is valued or experienced? Come prepared to present ideas from your paper to the class.
Class 5 (9/29) Similarities and Differences in Various Visual Cultures: Myth, Truth, Commentary
a discussion of the role of cultural views in relation to experiencing works of art
Readings for Class 5: Richard Anderson Calliope’s Sisters Chapter 10; also Chapters 6, 8, and 13; Chapters 3, 5, and 9
Assignment for Class 5: Come prepared to present one of the chapters to the class.
Class 6 (10/6) Critical thinking and Representation: Psychological and Social Resonances
a discussion of how visual culture art works are related to differences and ruptures in identity and in society, to psychological, cognitive and social tensions of representation
Readings for Class 6: Cynthia Freeland But Is It Art?/Art Theory Chapter 6; Michel Foucault “Las Meninas; Cheryl Brutvan “I Refuse to be Invisible; Interview with Njideka Akunyili Crosby; Theories and Documents . . . Zhang Huan p. 947; V. S. Ramachandran and W. Hirstein “The Science of Art;” John Dewey Art As Experience excerpt
Assignment for Class 6: Research further one of the reading assignments to date. Consider the importance of the ideas of the reading to a specific work of art and write second short paper on this. Come prepared to present this to the class.
Class 7 (10/13) Evaluation and Re-evaluation of Art Connections and Shared Meanings
a discussion of how we extend the discussion of visual culture by responding and revising our ideas of response to visual works
Readings for Class 7: Thierry de Duve "When Form Has Become Attitude – And Beyond;” Kelly Grovier Art Since 1989 Chapter 1 and Chapter 9; Theories and Documents . . . Xu Bing p 1048, and Joseph Beuys p. 745; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 37 Michel Foucault “This Is Not a Pipe;” Nicholas Bourriaud “Relational Aesthetics;” Claire Bishop “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics”
Assignment for Class 7: Choose specific artist and idea from the reading to address your ideas about these readings and come prepared to present this to class
Class 8 (10/20) Psychological Tensions: Themes of the Unfamiliar Familiar
a discussion of relationships of metaphoric thinking, bodily perception, context, and meaning; contemporary and traditional issues of aesthetic representations of the body in the space and the world of the uncanny
Readings for Class 8: Sigmund Freud “The Uncanny;”Pamela Thurschwell “After Freud;” Theories and Documents . . . Rae and Mehretu pp. 70-76; Bacon pp. 222 – 227; Tuymans p. 314; in Unfinished Tuymans Interview p. 253; Steven Levine “The Da Vinci Code According to Lacan;” The Continental Aesthetics Reader Chapter 20 Lacan, Chapter 22 Kristeva, Chapter 23 Zizek
Assignment for Class 8: Come prepared to discuss the ideas of the readings, stating the differences or similarities between your ideas and those of the authors.
Class 9 (10/27) Visual Culture, Identity and Gender (Museum or a discussion of the various visual elements of works and how they are
gallery visit) explored by ideas of place, location, or space
Readings for Class 9: Cynthia Freeland But Is It Art?/Art Theory Chapter 6; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 44 Christine Battersby and Chapter 46 Laura Mulvey; Theories and Documents . . . Jaudon/Kozloff p. 176; Chicago p. 407
Assignment for Class 9: Come prepared to present one idea from the
readings. Turn in topic and main premise of final paper.
Class 10 (11/3) Identity, Body, Race, Politics and Time
a discussion of the various cultural attributes of works and how they are explored through a sense of identity of body, self, or time
Readings for Class 10: The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 40 Cornell West; and Chapter 49 Jacques Ranciere; Kelly Grovier Art Since 1989 Chapter 4; Theories and Documents . . . Bearden pp. 245 – 248, Weber pp. 293 – 296, Ringold, pp.411 – 414, Donaldson, pp. 414 – 417
Assignment for Class 10: Come prepared to talk about what idea of visual communication is most powerful for you and why, with an example. Think of the value of material thus reviewed in class and come prepared to present your summary of the course to the class.
Class 11 (11/10) Issues of Contemporary Visual Experience: New Media, Digitalization and Meaning
a discussion of perception and meaning; how objects and activities have contexts, intentions, goals, and produce a social exchange
Readings for Class 11: Cynthia Freeland But Is It Art?/Art Theory Chapter 7, Chapter 4, and Conclusion; Alexander Galloway The Unworkable Interface; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Chapter 48 Alain Badiou; The Continental Aesthetics Reader Chapter 24 Walter Benjamin; Theories and Documents . . . Bill Viola p. 525, Anri Sala p. 545, Shirin Neshat p. 547
Assignment for Class 11: Come prepared to clearly outline for the class the value of in influences of new media and digital works to our contemporary culture through the example of an artist who addresses these issues and ideas.
Class 12 (11/17) In Terms of the Unfinished and the Unresolved
(PAFA or F/W) a discussion of art objects and artists in terms of their written, verbal, conceptual and visual aspects in social context
Readings for Class 12: Jean LaPlanche “The Unfinished Copernican Revolution;” The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics Jacques Derrida pp 497-502, from “What interested me. . . ”; Derrida by Mark Taylor; letter by Cezanne; Theories and Documents . . . Huyghe, p. 685, Ai Weiwei, pp. 1069 – 1070; The Bloomsbury Anthology of Aesthetics, Heidegger pp. 385-387, and 401 – 402; Schapiro pp 403-407
Assignment for Class 12: Come prepared to present and discuss one idea about your response to contemporary visual works and the role of the artist in society. Turn in final paper.
Class 13 (12/1) Art, Artist, and Society, Our Connections with Art and its Theories
a discussion of the issues raised by contemporary thought in relation to experiencing art; presentation of final papers
Readings for Class 13: as assigned
Assignment for Class 13: One half of the class will present final papers.
Class 14 (12/8) Contemporary Revisions, Our Connections with Art and its Theories
a discussion of the issues raised by contemporary thought in relation to experiencing art; presentation of final papers
Readings for Class 14: as assigned
Assignment for Class 14: The second half of the class will present their papers.
Course Summary:
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