Kelly F. Kaczynski

This course is an introduction to the materials, methods, and concepts of sculpture. We will investigate making in relation to material, time and space. We will consider aspects of sculpture such as meaning, scale, process, social engagement, ephemera and site; and explore the formal properties and expressive potential of materials including mold making and casting, wood, metal and experimental media. We will combine the use of materials and methods with ideas that reflect the history of contemporary sculpture. Demonstrations and authorizations will provide students with experience and technical proficiency in sculptural production while readings and slide lectures venture into the critical discourses of sculpture.

This studio course investigates issues of size and scale through lectures and discussions, outside readings, and the studio work of the participants. Its aim is to pursue our attraction to the gargantuan and the miniature. The course examines not only the formal factors which effect our perceptions, but, more importantly, the social, political, and psychological implications of such works. Issues of public and private space are addressed by comparing the monumental and the propagandistic elements of spectacle, as well as the enchanted, intimate, and fetish qualities of the small. Topics discussed range from Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty to David Hammons's Bliz-aard Ball Sale. Student projects are generated from their own related interests and concerns with interdisciplinary work encouraged.

SAIC¿s Low-Res MFA Program conducts Y2 Reviews for students in their second summer residency. These reviews provide an evaluative milestone midway through the program, and consists of critical responses to second-year students from a panel of faculty and peers. The Y2 Reviews are an opportunity for students to be involved in evaluative discussions with multiple voices directed toward their work, enhancing and challenging the conversations they¿ve experienced with the faculty, mentors, and peers they have already worked closely with. These critical discussions are designed to prepare students for their thesis year and to provide reciprocal feedback to faculty in understanding our students¿ overall progression.

The course will center on the review of student work, with supplemental readings offered by faculty to contextualize the critiques. These might include Daniel Buren's 'Function of the Studio,' Andrea Fraser's 'The Critique of Institutions and the Institution of Critique,' and other artist-centered texts that examine the critical stakes of studio practice.

All Y2 students are asked to prepare a 3 - 5 min introduction of their work. You may choose to script your introduction, or speak candidly. The following questions may serve as a guide:

What are the concepts, contexts, or histories that meaningfully position your work?

What are the set of questions or problems that you are working through?

How do you understand your craft, methodology, or approach to your practice?

If you intend to present written work or time-based media or documentation of performance work, please consider sending materials a few days ahead of time (preferably 1 week or 3 days minimum) to give your panel time to review. You may then wish to present an excerpt during your review. If you wish to present time-based work in the review, it is recommended to keep this to under 10 min to give time for qualitative discussion.

This seminar consists of weekly studio visits, discussions, and small group critiques. Students are expected to arrive with completed and semi-completed works and be prepared to make and re-make new works throughout the summer sessions. A wide variety of readings chosen by faculty will guide discussions that concentrate on problems concerning methods of artmaking, distribution, and interpretation. Readings will include examples drawn from the emerging category of conceptual writing as well as crucial art historical texts, literature, and poetry.

Over the course of each six-week summer residency period, all students in the Low- Res MFA program engage with a series of world renowned artists and scholars to expand our collective conceptual frameworks and discourses. Invited speakers participate in our Visiting Artist & Scholar Lecture Series. They deliver a public lecture open to the entire SAIC and Chicago community and the general public, and then participate in a Colloquium the next day exclusively for Low-Res MFA students. Each Colloquium takes place with the artist present, and is a space where the artist¿s work and concepts (direct or adjacent) are discussed, questions are raised, and topics are debated. Colloquium asks for consensus, but rather a dynamic and in depth discursive exploration of ideas. This form allows for a multiplicity of voices to build on concepts through questioning, contributing, challenging, and listening to each other. The colloquium is considered a Gift anchored with the presence of the visiting artist. This Gift is generated by enacting full attention to the concepts present in the artist or scholar¿s work. In the spirit of Lewis Hyde, the Gift is an exchange which generates or propagates further attention and exchange in culture. Thus, the Colloquium is a Gift meant to propagate further exchange in the world, as artists and citizens.

This specialized professional practice course prepares students for active participation in the artistic and scholarly life of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, including familiarizing them with on-campus and online components of the Low-Residency MFA infrastructure. Students will be introduced to in-person and online library resources, including SAIC¿s special collections. We will become familiar with both bricks-and-mortar and digital research, communication, and production tools available through the school. Students will be trained on digital platforms including Canvas, SAIC's learning management system, in preparation for their fall and spring online courses. Additionally, this course will introduce Chicago area resources that may be useful in students research and practice. Through this course, students may be authorized on some equipment for use during the residency.

Taken every semester, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.

What are the most urgent issues in contemporary art now? This online course addresses the central themes and ideas shaping the production and distribution of art. Students will develop and manage their own blogs and participate in continuing online discussions. The final requirement will be a finished paper. This course investigates issues of size, scale, scope and proximity. Its aim is to pursue our fascination with - and comprehension of - the gargantuan and the minute. The course examines the formal factors which affect our perceptions and, more importantly, the psychological and political implications of encountering the extreme spectrum of scale. Issues of public and private space reveal inherent conditions when addressed by comparing elements of the monumental and the spectacle to - and within - the intimate and fetish qualities of the small. Our primary question might be: how do we comprehend scale? Or, it might be: how is scale mobilized towards modes of comprehension? Prerequisite: Must be enrolled in the Low-Residency MFA Program.

Taken every semester across the Graduate Division, the Graduate Projects courses allow students to focus in private sessions on the development of their work. Students register for 6 hours of Graduate Project credit in each semester of study.