Advanced CP: Art at the End of the World

Catalog description

The world is awash today in stories that anticipate an end to the world as we know it. These daunting narratives often anticipate techno-apocalypse, global pandemics, runaway climate change and mass extinctions. Their scale can appear to dwarf the actions of individual humans, and yet this is exactly where the work of the artist is proportionally most significant. Artists write the myths that help us understand the present, and create the monuments that explain the present to the future. They sound the alarm anew when sympathetic ears have grown deaf, and most importantly, they invent hopeful futures that were previously beyond imagination. Students in this course will learn significant historical and contemporary "end times" narratives, both utopian and dystopian, as well as the cultural responses to them. We will be using these as launching points for creatively engaging with our present apocalyptic predicaments. Students will visit regional locations that provide real-world grounding for these stories. They will use joy, introspection, humor, and courage, to create works using the full range of artistic expression from the highly ephemeral to the timeless. This course may never be offered again.