Seminar (372-0-1)

Topic

Art and Labor

Instructors

Lane B Relyea
640Lincoln St, Evanston Campus

Meeting Info

Fisk Hall 114: Thurs 1:00PM - 3:50PM

Overview of class

This seminar will consider art works engaged in labor politics and, moreover, artmaking as itself a form of labor. Starting with the claim that artistic production is distinct because, unlike working for wages, it manifests unalienated labor, we will go on to look at how art adopts, approximates, resists, romanticizes, etc., such moments in modern labor history as deskilling, the replacement of guilds by unions, the rise of the professional managerial class (PMC) and ultimately the current scourge of neoliberal precarity. We will examine the affinities or lack thereof between artmaking and not just blue and white collar work but the affective and cognitive labor ("pink collar" work) so crucial to the newly dominant service economy. Finally, we will weigh arguments that artists are indeed members of the managerial PMC and therefore actually antagonistic toward the working classes.

Class Materials (Required)

No course costs, readings provided.

Class Attributes

Advanced Expression
Literature and Arts Foundational Discipline
Literature & Fine Arts Distro Area
Attendance at 1st class mandatory