Proseminar: Theory and Methods in the Arts: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Catalog description

Theory and critique are not only expected from so-called "serious artists", they are also being produced and consumed at increasingly rapid rates by students, established artists, historians, critics, and others. This course will investigate the foundations and developments of art criticism and analysis. Emphasis will be placed on addressing what it means to be "critical" and how analysis has been influenced or shaped by critical theory, semiotics and psychoanalysis. The course will consider how these disciplines have been used in the writings and artworks by figures such as Nicolas Bourriaud, Julia Kristeva, Meyer Schapiro, Hans Haake, Mary Kelly, Dan Graham, and Andrea Fraser. In this instance artistic practice is viewed as involving both creating artworks and writing/theorizing. The course will stress the role of discourse in art while also allowing allowing practitioners to produce and present art projects.