Process and Embodied Research

In studio art artistic production is the primary mode of research. Aesthetic inquiry is considered a valid way of knowing and research in this context is embodied in various artistic practices and processes. Through this course you will be challenged to engage in material-semiotic research through the following channels:

Personal Inventory Presentation

Part I Reflection

Preparation:
Begin by gathering images of your art from all of the classes you’ve taken in the past three years in a single folder. Pull out your old sketchbooks. Gather your artist statements. When you have everything in one place proceed to step 2.

Personal reflection process:
Take some time to reflect on the creative work that you’ve done over the past three years. Use the tools provided in Unit 1: Taking and Artistic Inventory (The Good Time Journal, Your Creative DNA or the Ignatian Examine) to reflect deeply on your artistic interests.

Reflect on projects, classes and rate your level of engagement using The Good Time Journal worksheet from Designing Your Life. You may also find it useful to work through the “Your Creative DNA” questions from Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit.

Part II Class Presentation

The in-class presentation offers students an opportunity to reflect on their artistic practice to date, explore recurring themes, concepts, strategies and ways of working, consider how they might move forward in light of how their practice is developing, draw together other interests from extracurricular involvement, other courses and experiences. This presentation is also essential to forming a classroom community and helping the instructor get to know you and your creative practice.

Include the following in your presentation:

ARTWORKS: 15-20 images of your work throughout the program (this is not the time to show images of work that you got the best grades on, this is the time to consider which projects most engaged and energized you) include title, medium and date with each work
SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES: Images relating to other courses and experiences that inform your work, for example an image of you doing volunteer work that has influenced your art, work you made outside of school (optional)
THEMES: Pull out themes, concepts, big ideas, visual explorations that recur throughout your work. Include 4-6 themes, interests or questions that you recur throughout your work. Connect the themes to specific artworks.
MANIFESTO: 200-300 word statement that distills what you believe about art, why you make art, what you hope your art does, why you care about art etc. Refer to Unit 1: Taking and Artistic Inventory for more resources about manifestos.
STATEMENT OF DIRECTION: A brief statement regarding the direction that you would like to take your work over the next year. How does this relate to your spiritual life? Your sense of calling? Your connection to social and global issues? Your self-understanding? Your artistic skills and development?

Following the presentation, there will be time for your classmates to respond to what you’ve shared. Your colleagues will help you identify areas of interest, speak to your blind spots, identify areas where interests intersect.

Assessment:

Oral Presentation: Presentation is rehearsed, student speaks clearly, presentation is focused, remains within the 10-15 min time limit
Visuals: Learner has included 15-20 images of their own work, supplementary images are relevant to topic, images are good quality, images are properly labeled (title, medium, date)
Themes: Learner clearly identifies 4-6 themes that recur throughout their work and articulates how themes relate to their work
Manifesto: manifesto clearly articulates what the learner believes about art, why they make art and what they want to do through their art
Statement of Direction: Student clearly articulates the direction they would like to take their practice in the coming year

Personal Inventory Rubric

Seed Projects (Practice Projects)

Create a series of 5-10 small-scale projects over the course of five weeks. You will design these projects yourself in consultation with colleagues and the instructor. The purpose of this series of projects is to test materials, processes, ideas, concepts, visuals, evaluate viewer response and gather further visual information. Keep these projects playful, experimental, open and exploratory. These process projects will be the jumping off point for your body of work.

These projects are playful experiments. Risk-taking is essential.

Take the next illogical step: Having reviewed your work over the past years make something that goes against the grain. Try something that you don’t feel permission to do. Consider this permission. Sometimes we get stuck in what we’ve done in the past. This is permission to use a colour you love but feel is not “you.” Try a medium you feel incompetent in. The goal is to broaden your idea of what’s possible.

If you need some ideas to get you started you could try one of these:

Transform your practice: Take an idea, material, process, theme that you have explored in your work and transform the medium. Turn a painting into a performance. Turn a video into a drawing. Turn a photograph into an installation.

Team up: Work with a colleague and make something together. This is a chance to inhabit someone else’s practice and learn how they work. What can you each bring to the project? What can you learn? You may choose to work with an artist whose work is quite similar to yours or someone who is quite different.

Extend a project: Extend one of your explorations from the past three weeks or try out something that you wish you had got to do.

Assessment:

Evidence of risk-taking in media, concept or process. Artist moves beyond their comfort zone.
Significant investment of time, effort and thought into the weekly projects.
Evidence of inquiry: projects demonstrate authentic curiosity and inquiry.

Mini Process Project Rubric

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