Artists' Books & Related Phenomena |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
3524 (001) |
Summer 2025 |
Description
Since the early 1960s, artists have increasingly experimented with alternative methods of disseminating their ideas, using books or records, occasionally collaborating in periodicals, and other uncategorized projects. Students investigate the increasing acceptability of such activities and discuss a broad variety of publishing, from guerrilla fly-posting through mail-art magazines to the exhibition-in-a-book, including the unconventional artists' bookwork. Examining both well-known examples and obscure occurrences, the course attempts to place alternative art publishing in a contemporary context.
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Class Number
1140
Credits
3
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The Dematerialization of the Art Object |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
3710 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
Description
This course charts the demise of the object and image in the work of modern and contemporary art. Known in various guises as concept or conceptual art, process art, information or idea art, this apparent assault on the visual nature of art was undertaken by many artists who were to become very well regarded in the sixties and seventies-and their influence is still felt today. The course will attempt to identify different strands within this general trend in terms of aesthetic, political, and historical precession; and consideration will be given to the possible reasons behind the ramifications of the dematerialization of the art object.
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Class Number
2121
Credits
3
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But is it any Good? Taste and Aesthetics, a Beginner's Guide |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
3920 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
Description
This course introduces the history of aesthetics through a spectrum of ideas about taste, beauty and value--and their place in art and design today. Choosing exemplars from the AIC collection, and reading a selection of texts from Plato to Wittgentsein--and beyond, students will research and discuss different approaches to 'good' in the realm of visual art and design. The aim of the course is to provide a wide and informed visual and literal vocabulary with which each student can begin to forge an individual aesthetic.
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Class Number
2148
Credits
3
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Situation Report |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
5371 (001) |
Fall 2025 |
Description
Even before the First Conference of International Situationists in 1957, there were stylistic differences and ideological contradictions among the participants. Since then, texts and exhibitions claiming connection to the Situationist International have proliferated.
This seminar traces the evolution of those original tendencies that made even a temporary situationist allegiance possible, and follow the trajectories of individual careers. Students explore the images, facts, theories and legends, and compare the heretical ideas and actions of the earliest members of this brief association, to assess the subsequent and current status of the Situationist International.
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Class Number
2254
Credits
3
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Opening and Unfolding Correspondence Art |
Art History, Theory, and Criticism |
5521 (001) |
Spring 2026 |
Description
This seminar focuses on correspondence art in the twentieth century, and the historical relationships with prior and subsequent artistic uses of networks, including academic, informal, postal and virtual. Artists and networks considered will include: Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School; George Brecht and Robert Filliou's Eternal Network - a concept later taken up by John Held Jr.; institutions and resource centers such as Image Bank, Other Books and So, and periodicals such as Commonpress, etc.
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Class Number
2123
Credits
3
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