Public Art 1
ART 039 PUBLIC ART I
Instructor: Assistant Professor Dee Hibbert-Jones, email hjdee@ucsc.edu
Course description
This lower division class introduces the fundamentals of public art through hands on studio practice, discussions and readings. You will learn about contemporary public art issues and develop the skills involved in creating public art projects and proposals. In class you will design and execute public art projects and learn how to present large-scale project proposals including scale model design, scale drawings, and written proposals, printed project brochures, budgets, and timelines. This class explores the breadth of public art practice, ranging from monuments and memorials; to community based projects, to artworks in the landscape, site specific, and even on-line works. Later in the quarter students will have the opportunity to create public art within the local community. For the final project, students will create a public artwork to be installed temporarily on the grounds of the campus, with the cooperation and guidance of the UC Santa Cruz Grounds Department. Through studio projects, research, and hands on interactions with the community, we will examine what it means to create art with and for “the public.”
Prerequisits: none. Students from outside of the department are encouraged, but require permission from the instructor to join the class.
Class assignments:
There will be a series of four assignments, each designed to address one aspect of contemporary public art practice and introduce you to the basic skills needed to become a public artist.
project1. monuments, anti- Monuments and memorials
This section begins with a slide introduction to public art in contemporary practice and accompanying readings. Students then collaborate in designing a memorial for a specific site on campus. This includes measuring the area and creating a 1/4” scale model of the site, then conceiving and creating a proposed memorial (or anti-memorial) to-scale. We will discuss the role of monuments, anti- monuments and memorials in contemporary public art; with the aid of readings, a slide presentation and Maya Lin’s video of the Vietnam War Memorial. Finally students create a color rendering of their concept and orthographic sketches of their proposed design.
Project 2: Mapping
Students to choose a site in any part of the world and create a project that maps an event, social occasion or place of their choice. Students propose a public artwork that maps a conceptual or physical aspect of their chosen site. After learning to search for sites on the web, and in real time, students use basic scanning, Photoshop, and In Design to design a pamphlet presentation of their project. Students develop skills by writing a project proposal, time line, budget and creating project sketches.
Project 3: community
Readings, slide lectures and discussions focus on an exploration of community based public art. Discussions explore the role and responsibilities of artists working in the community. Students will collaborate with a community of their choice to make a public artwork on site.
Project 4: site specific
The final project of the quarter introduces public art in the environment. Our focus is on ephemeral, site-specific work that either enhances or engages non-confrontationally with an outdoor site. Discussions with UC Santa Cruz grounds department will create parameters for the final project. Readings and slide lectures will introduce a discussion of site-specific interactions. Students create a temporary site specific project either on the UC campus (or arboretum) or design, fabricate and present a scale model of their proposed piece for a larger scale or larger budget public environmental art work.
A list of books which may be used in this class:
Memory
Downing, Francis, Remembrance and the Design of Place, Texas University Press, Texas, 2000
Roth, Michael &Salas, Charles, G, Disturbing Remains, Getty Research Institute, 2001
Young, James, E, The art of memory Holocaust Memorials in history, The Jewish Museum, New York, 1994
Mapping
Harmon, Katharine, You are Here, personal geographies, Princeton Press, 2004
Mack John, The Museum of the Mind, British Museum, Press, 2003
Artist and Community
Doss, Erika, Public Art and Flying Pigs, public art and cultural democracy in American Communities, Smithsonian, Washington, 1995.
Els Van Der Plas, Creating Spaces of Freedom, culture in defiance, Prince Claus Fund, 2002.
Jacob Mary Jane, ed Culture in Action, Sculpture Chicago, Seattle, 1995
Kelly, Owen, Community, Art and the State: storming the citadels, Comedia Pub group, London, 1984
Report from Charleston, Art in America, 2002
Fathy, Hassah , Architecture for the Poor, 1976
Mockbee, Samuel, Rural Studio and an Architecture of Decency, 2002
Wodiczko, Krzysztof Critical Vehicles, , 1998
Landscape
Katz, Sarah, New Landmarks public art, community and the meanng of Place, Fairmount Park Assn. 2001
Mitchell, Art and the Public Sphere, Chicago, Univ Chicago Press, 1992