General Information

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DM7022: The Real World, Winter 2007
Digital+Media Dept., Rhode Island School of Design
Tues/Thurs, 7 - 10PM, CIT Room 413

Catherine D'Ignazio, professor
kanarinka@ikatun.com
AIM: kanarinkabot
Yahoo: kanarinkabot
GoogleChat: kanarinka

Del.icio.us Archive: http://del.icio.us/therealworld

username: therealworld
password: therealworld

Course Description

This course will be an incomplete introduction to several of the "real" art worlds that exist. Contemporary art is a strange and complicated landscape full of privilege, inherited myths, fictitious capital, bad investments, naive idealism, romantic idealism, critical idealism, cynical exploitation, conscious hype, careerism, bubble communities that think they are universal, globalization, elitism, populism, some success, lots of failure, community-building, precarity, experiments and shopping. Being an artist means hanging out in these slippery territories, continuously interrogating them, and, most importantly, learning how to navigate them without becoming a cynical jerk (but still managing to eat, pay rent and believe in what you are doing).

In this class, we'll look at several real art worlds:

The Gallery & Museum World, the Fair/Festival/Biennial World, the Academic World, the Grant & Residency World, and the DIY/Alternative Space World.

This is not to say other art worlds don't exist or that the worlds above do not overlap (they overlap a great deal). Also, one very viable way to be an artist is to have a money-making career unrelated or tangentially related to art which funds your artwork. We won't address all of those worlds since there are so many of them. Another viable strategy that we will not discuss, though I encourage all of you to do your own research, is marrying a rich person.

The class will be focused on introducing the above worlds from a sociocultural standpoint and thinking about them critically. The class is NOT about making value judgements (i.e. that one world or path is more ethical or morally superior to another). As we will see, all of the worlds involve myths, contradictions and complex decisions. We will focus on "the rules of the game" and the cultural ecology of these worlds, what it means to "succeed" in these worlds and how to get there.

As part of the class, we will also work on basic professional strategies like public speaking, documenting your work, writing skills, following protocol (the CV, the artist statement, the teaching philosophy), and understanding terminology ("tenure", "fiscal sponsorship" ).

Final Project #1: A REAL project

Each student will do a final project that involves selecting and researching a real career opportunity and preparing their materials for it. The opportunity can be a job, a show, a grant, a competition, forming your own non-profit, forming your own collective group, preparing a portfolio presentation for a gallery/museum or preparation for a studio visit from a curator. The opportunity should, at the very least, involve the preparation of a CV, written materials and digital documentation of artwork.

Final Project #2: Career Opportunity Portfolio

Download Template

Each student will create a Career Opportunity Portfolio that will collect 25 or more examples of opportunities/resources relevant to their career goals. Opportunities in your portfolio can include

5PTS EXTRA CREDIT: Upload your career opportunities to our delicious archive.

 

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Requirements

25% PARTICIPATION. Participation, peer feedback, discussions and attendance are extremely important.

20% Tuesday, January 9th: PRELIMINARY OPPORTUNITIES COLLECTION + PRESENTATION

10 min. presentation on 5 - 10 opportunities that you will research, eventually deciding on one to use for your final project. Tell us about each opportunity, its history, what its requirements are, and what your strategy is for researching it further and for putting together your materials for the application/portfolio. We will make suggestions for your process.

IMPORTANT: Use the CAREER OPPORTUNITIES TEMPLATE to collect and present them. You only have to collect 5-10 opportunities for this initial meeting.

15% Thursday, January 18th: TWO PUBLIC SPEAKING PRESENTATIONS

  1. BAD Presentation: 5 min. Present one artwork of yours as poorly as possible. [my suggestions | Babson MBA Guide]
  2. GOOD Presentation: 5 min. The opposite of the Bad Public Speaking presentation. [my suggestions | Babson MBA Guide]

20% Thursday, Feb 1: FINAL PROJECT PRESENTATION

10 - 15 min presentation of your final project materials, including CV, documentation, and written materials. This is an opportunity to get teacher & peer feedback on all of these things to be incorporated into the final version of the materials due on Feb 13th.

Make enough copies so that the whole class can review your materials.

20% Thursday, Feb 13: REVISED FINAL PROJECTS & CAREER OPPORTUNITY PORTFOLIOS DUE

We will have 15 minute individual meetings where you will turn in your final project, your Career Opportunity Portfolio and discuss work/life/career goals.

5% EXTRA CREDIT: Upload your career opportunities to our delicious archive.

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Policies

LAPTOPS: No Laptops during class discussions & critiques

LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Each day that your assignment is late, it will lose one point.

NOTE: If you are absent for a presentation assignment you will get a zero unless you have made prior arrangements with me.

ABSENCES: If you have more than one unexcused absence you risk failing the class.

 

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Course Calendar

NOTE: ANY RESOURCE NOT LINKED BELOW WILL BE DISTRIBUTED IN CLASS

Thursday, Jan 4, 2007

  1. Art School cartoon from "Why Art Can't be Taught" by James Elkins
  2. Overview
  3. Circle time - discuss class, work & life goals
  4. Group reading & discussion:
    1. Excerpts from Art Subjects, pp. 6, 187 - 189, 204-7
    2. Excerpt from Andrea Fraser "A Museum is Not a Business..." pp. 93-95
    3. Amelia Jones on documentation
    4. "Artists Versus the Market" (Eleanor Heartney)
    5. How Art Has Changed a Lot (Peter Plagens)
    6. The Institutionalization of Aesthetic Radicalism (Judith Adler, pp. 40-44)

DIY/ALTERNATIVE SPACE WORLD

Tuesday, Jan 9, 2007

  1. DUE: Opportunities Collection & Presentation (5-10 min each)
  2. DIY/Alternative Space overview & group reading:
    1. Death of the Artist? (Trebor Scholz)
    2. "The Co-operative Galleries in Context" (Lawrence Alloway)
    3. Upgrade International catalog (in-class book)
    4. Warhol Initiative, Foreward, p. 10, pp. 14-21
    5. Canadian Alt space network (in-class book)
  3. Come up with questions for Turbulence.org, Art Interactive, & Anna Shapiro

Thursday, Jan 11, 2007

CLASS MEETS AT ART INTERACTIVE IN CAMBRIDGE, MA, AT 5PM. We will do a Q&A with Turbulence.org, a non-profit organization that funds Internet and New Media art. We will also hear about some of the challenges of running a non-profit space like Art Interactive.

Note: At 7PM, you are welcome to stay for the Upgrade Boston event. I will be moderating an Upgrade! Boston discussion about alternative economies and the Internet as public space.

Tuesday, Jan 16, 2007

Guest: Anna Shapiro, Director of Firehouse 13, discusses life with 10 hats: accounting, art-making, running an alternative art space, local arts and housing advocacy, and more.

Resource Links from Anna Shapiro on her work and the Providence underground art scene:

Public Speaking Workshop

Thursday, Jan 18, 2007

  1. Public Speaking cartoon
  2. Babson MBA guide to Public Speaking
  3. 5 min each: Bad Public Speaking presentations
  4. 5 min each: Good Public Speaking presentations
  5. Grants overview + come up with questions for Lize Mogul

GRANT WORLD

Tuesday, Jan 23, 2007

Guest: Lize Mogul, grantwriter, artist and mapmaker.

GALLERY & MUSEUM WORLD

Thursday, Jan 25, 2007

  1. Videos: Andrea Fraser's "May I Help You?"
  2. Group reading & discussion:
    1. How to Break into NYC Galleries (NYFA article)
    2. Excerpts from Talking Prices (Olav Velthius), pp. 11 - 18, 21-23, 28-40
    3. "The Support System and the Art Galleries" (Lawrence Alloway)
    4. "A Museum is not a business but it is run in a Business-like fashion" (Andrea Fraser)
    5. "Why have there been no great women artists?" (Linda Nochlin)
    6. Excerpts from Art Incorporated (Julian Stallabrass)
  3. Come up with questions for Laura from Bitforms

Tuesday, Jan 30, 2007

Guest: Laura Blereau from Bitforms Gallery

Sample Artist resume from Jeff Talman

Final Project Draft Presentations

Thursday, Feb 1, 2007

DUE: Final Project Draft 1 Presentations: 15 minutes each.

FAIR, FESTIVAL, & BIENNIAL WORLD

Tuesday, Feb 6, 2007

  1. Continue Final Project Presentations
  2. In-class Video: On Biennials (Tate) + Session Discussion 13:22 - 18:30
  3. Group reading & discussion:
    1. Miami Art Basel article
    2. Art Basel Catalog (in-class book)
    3. ISEA Website, kanarinka's post & ensuing discussion on the IDC list
    4. "The Romance of Nomadism" (Carol Becker)
  4. Develop questions for Jesse Shefrin

ACADEMIC WORLD

Thursday, Feb 8, 2007

  1. Guest: Jesse Shefrin, Dean of Graduate Studies at RISD
  2. Discuss academic careers & terminology (How do you learn how to teach? What is tenure and why might you (not) want it? Where institutional affiliation can get you.)
  3. Group reading:
    1. CAA Catalog (in-class book) & Website
    2. Excerpts from "Artists in Offices" (Judith Adler), pp. 1-3, 12-18
    3. "Art-Making in a Post-Postmodern Era" (Carol Becker), especially pp. 28-33
    4. New Media Art Education and Its Discontents (Trebor Scholz)
    5. Ontological Shifts in Studio Art Education: Emergent Pedagogical Models (T. Jackson)
    6. Some examples of academic docs: Catherine's teaching philosophy | Academic CV from Robert Sabal

Tuesday, Feb 13, 2007

  1. No group class - ONLY Individual meetings with me to discuss your final projects.
  2. DUE: Revised final project materials.

 

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Links & Misc.

Some Suggestions for Public Speaking

  1. Public speaking is a performance - don't confuse it with your personality
  2. Make eye contact
  3. SPEAK LOUDLY - take up space in the room and command attention
  4. Make it hard for people NOT to listen to you
  5. Use your body; move it around the room
  6. Speak clearly and slowly
  7. If using notes, don't read them
  8. Use lots of visuals
  9. Get excited, communicate passion about your subject matter
  10. Use humor
  11. Feign absolute confidence (but not arrogance or defensiveness)
  12. Don't use jargon
  13. Use lots of examples, especially for complex ideas
  14. Stories make good, memorable examples
  15. Dress the part (or dress the anti-part to make a point)
  16. Smile a lot as if you really love being present here
  17. Don't say "Um..." or "Uh..."
  18. Don't go over or under the time you have to speak
  19. SPEAK LOUDLY (worth saying again because it's so important)
  20. Check out the Babson MBA Guidelines for Public Speaking

Readings

All readings are linked from the syllabus. If something is not linked it means I'll bring it to class.

Collaborative del.icio.us Archive

http://del.icio.us/therealworld

username: therealworld
password: therealworld

Bibliography

Books that were excerpted for class readings.

Art Subjects (Howard Singerman)

Talking Prices (Olav Velthius)

Surpassing the Spectacle (Carol Becker)

Network: Art and the Complex Present (Lawrence Alloway)

Critical Condition: American Culture at the Crossroads (Eleanor Heartney)

Why Art Can't be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students (James Elkins)

Artists in Offices: An Ethnography of the Academic Art Scene (Judith Adler)

Warhol Initiative (Warhol Foundation)

Art & Its Institutions: Current Conflicts, Critique and Collaborations (Nina Montmann)

Art Truths That You Will Learn If You Don't Know Them Yet

These are meant to be playful and polemic. Hopefully you disagree with some of them.

  1. "Truth isn't something already out there we have to discover, but it has to be created in every domain" (Gilles Deleuze)
  2. All art is interactive.
  3. All art produces agencies and audiences.
  4. All art is site-specific.
  5. All art is public art.
  6. All art is political.
  7. All art participates in various economies even if it's not for sale.
  8. Don't express yourself. Nobody cares (and if they do you probably don't want them to).
  9. Originality is not original. Steal things first.
  10. Work leads to work