Jina Valentine

Interdisciplinary studio seminar course designed to support the production of creative work by first and second year MFA graduate students. Graduate level discourse will be fostered in relation to contemporary issues in visual art and the history of ideas with an emphasis on aesthetics. Course programming will include: select readings/discussions, invited guests, student presentations and critique of creative work.

The thematic structure of this course is situated around ideas of the archive. In its simplest form this refers to the aggregation of materials, practices, languages, information. We will also examine how the archive conceptually relates to more performative, gestural, or ephemeral forms; the ways an entire studio practice, a human life, or a single object can be considered an archive. What is at stake when we consider the breadth of history embedded in a single thing, word, or place? How does this change our negotiations with found matter (photographed, remembered, absorbed, etc).

From a practical standpoint, students will be examining their own studio practices and the ways in which their research relates to developing the underlying conceptual thread spanning their works: how can artistic research change the core questions fueling our inquiries? How can our research practices symbiotically nourish our studio practices? Students will be required to visit local archives, meet with researchers/professors outside the department/school, and to write critically about their own work.

Assignments include:
Weekly presentations / close reading of The Archive (Whitechapel Press)
1 page artist statement based on interviews and studio visits with classmates
10-15 page research paper related to studio practice (Based on research in archives around Chicago; Expanded from 1 page artist statement - 'Paper' may exist in printed, digital, or other alternative format)