FINAR604 DPII: What Is It?

This is a critique seminar with two central streams of inquiry and several tributaries. The first and most important of these is your work; the second is the language we use to describe and discuss that work. The presumption of this seminar is that language plays a crucial role in how we engage and interpret the myriad visual signs that surround us. Words ? spoken, written, and thought ? are the means by which we negotiate meaning. They are central to and complicit in determining the limits of what is visible and invisible, sayable and unsayable, audible and inaudible. Therefore, as we discuss art, we must simultaneously critique?be attentive to?the language we use to define and describe it. The tributaries are those unpredictable trickles that are stirred up by our inquiries and, as they grow in size, demand our attention. Put another way, issues that evolve from our discussions of the work and our attempts to be rigorous in our use of language, uncover topics that need to be pursued. The seminar will be structured in a way that will allow this to happen. Students are expected to make two presentations. The first ones will take place toward the beginning of the semester and will be about your work. The work must be presented so that it can stand on its own ? without explanation from the presenting student. In other words, this is not to be a lecture about the work but a presentation of the work itself. You will learn from eavesdropping on our discussions. Your second presentations will take place toward the end of the semester (in advance of your second semester Advancement Reviews). This is to be more of a talk (a lecture) than the first one was. One of the many purposes of this seminar is to give you experience in presenting your work to small groups and committees ? helping you to discuss and show it in ways that supports your ideas, rather than undermining them. You might want to approach this "lecture" as a dry run for your presentations to the review committee that will be taking place later in the semester. We will use the weeks between the critique sessions to pursue issues that were raised during our earlier discussions. These are the tributaries that were referred to earlier. The means we will use to investigate them will be varied: off campus excursions, visitors, screenings of films and videos, presentations on the work/ideas of artists, scholars, writers, and, occasionally, short readings. I will determine the content for some of these. The members of the seminar, in consultation with one another, will determine the subject matter for the others.