4.301
Introduction to the Visual Arts
Instructors:
Joe Zane
Office: N52-390
Phone: 617-253-4415
joezane@mit.edu
Yvonne Doderer
Office: N51-338
Phone: 617-324-6471
ypd@mit.edu
Units: 2-4-6
Level: U
Doderer Description (PDF of Syllabus)
Zane Description:
PDF of Syllabus
This class will introduce students to a variety of contemporary art practices and ideas. The class will be begin with a brief overview of 'visual language' by looking at a variety of artworks and discussing basic concepts revolving around artistic practice. The class will work in video, sculpture and in public space.
Knocks offs, Phonies, Fakes, Frauds, Forgers.
A number of artists, from Marcel Duchamp to Andy Warhol to Eric Doeringer, have used 'faking' or ‘copying’ as their primary artistic process. Comedians and satirists have used the power of parody to make politically charged entertainment with a strong critical edge. Tribute bands, celebrity impersonators and drag queens have taken homage to a new level. Cheap knock offs, from perfume and purses to cell phones and computers have created an economy based on ‘close enough’. In this interdisciplinary seminar/studio, you make your own ‘genuine fakes’ and take on your own false personalities. Through drawing, photography, rapid proto-typing, performance and video installation, we will explore the crisis of the 'real' in the digital era and its historical precedents. How have our current notions of authenticity been contested by the pervasiveness of doctored images? What new spaces for artistic practice does this altered relationship to the 'real' create? Through our readings and studio work, we will investigate issues such as deceit and fraudulence, drag and parody.
The course meets twice a week for 3 hrs each session for a total of 12 units of credit. A minimum of six hours per week outside class work is expected. There will be 3 studio projects that must be completed for the course. You are required to prepare a written 1 page statement for each project. Readings are assigned to provide a historical and theoretical framework for each studio project.
