Personal Research Assignment: Due 2/24

Research artists that interest you at present moment. Prepare to share images and detailed information about your artists’ work in a 10-15 minute oral slide presentation. You are welcome to choose artists from Harrington’s paper, my slide lecture references, or any other artists, provided that they interest you and have some bearing on your relationship with glass. You are also free to research one artist in depth or several artists in less-depth. You will be evaluated on whether you are able to convey what interests you about the artists work (how they work, how they think, how they make, and how they move between these different areas of art practice). In addition to your presentation, have prepared one digital image you find representative of the artists work.

Data Gathering Exercise: Due 2/24

Collect data and information on a subject matter that fascinates you. (Language, astronomy, wind, urban history, The Beatles, what have you . . . this does not have to be related to glass at all.) Fixate, at this stage, on the information and data; not where it will lead. Your fascination should be palpable in its thoroughness and your enthusiasm. Think contagion. Be prepared to share this information. This does not have to be as formal a presentation; this can be a looser amassing and sharing of information in various forms and/or modes of communication.

 Project 1: Due Wed., March 12

Develop a project that builds its form/experience from a source of data. Consider the ways in which “glass” relates to information through: shape, proportion, interior reflection, how it is sourced, phenomenon, etc.) Your work will be evaluated on conceptual development (from data to form), technical execution, and evidence of studio research. This work should grow directly out of your Data Gathering Exercise.

Mapping Assignment Heads-Up: Due after midterm — this information just provided as a heads-up/fyi as to what’s coming and what this is all leading up to.

Create a visualization of “glass” (glass as an area of activity/the field of glass/contemporary glass practice) as it is relevant to your studio practice. You may use Jerome Harrington’s work as a starting point, but I would strongly encourage you to define parameters that are relevant specifically to your interests in your studio practice. Look to the questions Harrington raises in his “note to the reader,” specifically:

How do you describe what you do?

What would your answer be (to the question of “what is glass?”)?

Where would you position your work on the diagram?
(and by extention, how would your personal diagram differ?)

You are free to be as inventive with this mapping as you wish. You may stick with your own references, pull from those from your classmates, Harrington’s paper, or my lecture references. You may insert your own work and/or your classmates work from the midterm crit into this map. You may include things outside the realm of art. Make a map that fits your practice.

This is not a casual assignment; your map should be evidence of a deep-dive into what pushes/inspires/interest you, as well as evidence of iterations and critical thought development. Last-minute, hand-scrawled diagrams on the most convenient piece of paper that happens to be lying around will warrant a D.