Strategies of Self  

WINTER 2011

Classes meet in Mandeville 106
Office Hours – Tuesday 2:00-3:00pm, Wednesday 11:00 – 12:00pm in VAF 511A


Author your self.
Over the course of the Winter Quarter, we will explore how self-portraiture allows the artist to imagine persona and use the persona to his/her aesthetic & conceptual advantage. Further, we will explore the ways in which persona and aesthetics of narcissism intersect, looking with specific attention at comic-perosonae and the self-deprecating comic gesture.

Take notes.
You should probably take notes. When films, artworks, artists are mentioned in discussion or lectures, I suggest writing them down and then looking them up later. The Geisel Library is good for this. Google is also easy to use.

Collaboration is expected.
There will only be one assignment in which collaboration with a classmate is required (Asgn #2). That said, I expect that students will often collaborate, support, and otherwise contribute to the production of their peers.

There will be grades.
60% will be based on all assignments (exercises, quizzes, and papers).
30% will be based on class participation in discussions and critiques.
10% will be based on four museum/gallery visit reports (one-page)
(vists to UAG and Calit2 Gallery are mandatory. Other venues may include, but are not limited to: MCASD, SDMA, MOCA, LACMA, Getty Museum, Hammer Museum, Compact Space, MFA Thesis Exhibitions, AgitProp Space)

EXCERCISES:
1. Make 3 30-second self-portraits, each stylistically distinct. Watch and crit.
2. Take only ONE of a classmates 30-second self-portraits and use it as inspiration for a new 1:00 portrait of that person's persona.
3. Make a video in which you reveal something private about yourself, but deliberately conceal something else private about yourself.
4. Explore your invented persona without using your own body or voice.
5. Make a work in which your persona is the object of the joke.

UM, PLEASE DO NOT SHOW:
1. alarm clocks
2. walking/running in Eucalyptus grove
3. working on a computer
4. stuffed animals
5. masculine self-discovery at La Jolla cliffs

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updated January 12, 2011