Undergraduate Seminar (390-0-2)

Topic

Care, Community, Collaboration

Instructors

Jessica Ann Hough

Meeting Info

Locy Hall 213: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

How do we make community through care and collaboration? When does collective action become art? Taking art's recent "social turn" as a starting point, this class will explore how public performance, community organizing, forms of communal care, and mutual aid constitute creative interventions. Put differently, this is a course about creative forms of relationality and relationality as a creative form. Together, we will examine projects at the intersection of artistic practice and political activism, ranging from Fluxus and Womanhouse, to the Black Arts Movement in Chicago, feminist video collectives in Mexico City, and radical pedagogies of teaching artists in Chicago public schools, to contemporary tactical media interventions and large-scale international exhibitions. We will seek to understand how the less visible relationships behind artworks, exhibitions, or community projects themselves might constitute creative practices, while taking seriously the artistic value of interventions that may not look like "art." In doing so, we will collectively investigate art historical theories of social practice and relationality. Accessible readings from interdisciplinary scholars will address themes of artistic collaboration and community action in relation to race, gender, queerness, and indigeneity. Along with participation, evaluation will be based on a short paper, a presentation, and a final project in the form of either a research paper, creative project, or community intervention, designed in discussion with the instructor. Depending on scheduling availability, we will also incorporate artist visits and/or a gallery tour.

Class Materials (Required)

Course readings will be available on Canvas.