FA169 Art and EcologySp 2017

Peter R. Kalb MW 2-3:20 Mandel G03.

[There will be modifications to the syllabus as I adapt it to class size and the schedules of several visiting speakers – artists and historians, who will be on campus this spring. If you downloaded this document before jan 10 you’ll already see some changes. (less reading for example) The basic structure of the course and content will remain the same.]

Course Description

This course will provide a theoretical foundation and art historical background for discussion of contemporary art that draws attention to the ecologies, primarily natural but also cultural of which it and we are a part.

Course Summaryand Learning Goals

Human beings have always turned to art to grapple with the meaning and character of their surroundings. From the cave paintings in Lascaux to the fabled still lives of the Greeks to origin myths the world over, the roots of art making are inseparable from our impulse to engage with the natural world. This remains the case today, even as the state of the planet appears so changed and so threatened. Landscape painters and photographers clock thousands of miles to depict every part of the planet, sculptors reconstruct natural features from waterfalls and ice shelves to megaliths and sinkholes, performance artists attune our senses to the movement of rivers and the threat of radiation, while video artists embrace the politics of conservation and the life of bees. The contemporary art world is itself an ecology that intersects, overlaps, consumes and is consumed by the ecologies that sustain, or in some cases fail to sustain, all other life on earth. The purpose of this course is to look closely at some of the practices and art that draw attention to the ecologies of which it, and we, are a part. The texts for the course, both the writings and artworks included in the syllabus and those contributed by students aim to build a dual foundation for understanding contemporary art from a foundation rooted in the historical research and formal analysis of art history and thepolitical and theoretical perspective of ecologically informed theory and criticism.The student will end the course familiar with a range of artistic practices from landscape painting to interventions, as well as with eco-feminist, activist, and new materialist criticism and theory. As elaborated in the outline below, the course will begin with a survey of art and thought from the 17th to the 19th centuries, examine the roots of contemporary ecological art in the 20th century with particular attention to the 1970s and then spend the better part of the course on artist and ideas form the turn of the millennium. The course will take the form of a modified seminar in which professor-led lecture/discussion sessions and student-led presentation/feedback will constitute the major part of the class. There will be visiting artist talks and visits to area museums. Combined this last element will constitute approximately one week of classes.

Text Books (additional required readings will be available online)

Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies, New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press: 2000.

Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter a Political Ecology of Things, Durham NC: Duke Univ Press 2010.

Lucy LippardUndermining New York: The New Press, 2014.

Emily Eliza Scott and Krista Swenson, eds. Critical Landscapes Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 2015.

Course Plan

Introduction: Art and Art History as Ecological Practices
Week I
01.18 / Precedents: Landscape in 17th- 19th centuries
  • Ann Jensen Adams, “Competing Communities in the ‘Great Bog of Europe’: Identity and Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Painting, in Mitchell ed, Landscape and Power, (1994) (read pages 35-59)
  • Barbara Novak, ed., “On Divers Themes from Nature: A Selection of Texts,” in McShine, ed. The Natural Paradise: Painting in America 1800-1950. (Comment on 4 texts. If a text already has 3-4 comments choose another one)
  • Joel Snyder, “Territorial Photography,” in Mitchell ed. Landscape and Power, (1994).(read pages 179-197)
Precedents: Land and Art in the 20th Century
  • Thomas Hart Benton “On Regionalism,” (1951).
  • Grant Wood, “Revolt Against the City,” (1935).
  • Stuart Davis, “Statement on Painting,” (1940). (included in Benton pdf)
  • Robert Smithson, “Monuments of Passaic,” (1967).
  • Nancy Holt, “Sun Tunnels” (1977/1995).
  • Jenkins, New Topographics, (1975).(use NB to comment on the images only)
  • Battcock “The Politics of Space,” (1970).
  • Halbreich et al., “Interview with James Turrell,” (1983).
  • Mark Cheetham, “The Ethics of Earth Art as Catalytic Theory Converter,” 2016.

Week 2
01.23
01.25
Week 3
01.30
02.01
Week 4 - 5
02.06
02.08
02.13
02.15
02.19 Midterm Essay Due / Creating an Eco-Criticism for the New Millennium
  • SuzaanBoettger, “Within and Beyond the Art World: Environmentalist Criticism of Visual Art,” 2016 in Handbook of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology, edited by Hubert Zapf
  • TJ Demos (2013) “Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology,” Third Text, 27:1, 1-9.
  • Emily Eliza Scott and Krista Swenson, “Introduction: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Land Use,” in Scott and Swenson ed. Critical Landscapes (2015),
  • SuziGablik, “The Ecological Imperative: Making Art as if the World Mattered,” 1993
  • Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies, New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press: 2000.
  • Trevor Paglen, “Experimental Geography: From Cultural Production to the Production of Space,” 2008.

Week 6
02.27
03.01
have readings done for the first class back after break. / Ecofeminist Interventions
  • Kelly C. Baum, “Earthkeeping, Earthshaking,” in Scott & Swenson Critical Landscapes (2015).
  • Harcourt, Wendy, “The Slips and Slides of Trying to Live Feminist Political Ecology,” in Harcourt and Nelson eds. Practicing Feminist Political Ecologies (London: Zed Books, 2015) 238-259.
  • Orenstein, “The Greening of Gaia: Ecofeminist Artists Revisit the Garden,”Ethics & the Environment › Volume 8, Number 1, Spring 2003
  • Solnit, Rebecca, “Elements of a New Landscape,” (1994)
  • SuzaanBoettger, “In the Missionary Position: Recent Feminist Ecological Art,” in Joanna Frueh, Cassandra Langer, Arlene Raven eds.New Feminist Criticism: Art, Identity, Action (New York: HarperCollins, 1994) 248-263.
  • Trinh T Minh-ha, “Nature’s r A Musical Swoon” (1996) in Trinh, elsewhere, within here, 2010.

Week 7
03.06
03.08 / Material Ecologies
  • Iovino, Serenella and SerpilIppermann, “Introduction: Stories Come to Matter,” in Iovino and Opperman eds. Material Ecocriticism Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2014
  • Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter a Political Ecology of Things, Durham NC: Duke University Press 2010. (selections)
  • Bruno Latour, “Politics of Nature: East and West Perspectives,” Ethics and Global Politics, 4.1 (2011), 1-10.

Practices and Platforms
Week 8
03.13
03.15 / Practices I: Tours and Touring.
  • Sarah Kanouse, “Critical Day Trips: Tourism and Land-Based Practice,” in Scott and Swenson, Critical Landscapes (2015).
  • CLUI, Center for Land Use Interpretation,
  • Yao Jui-Chung, Lost Society Document 2010-1014.
  • Lucy Lippard,Undermining, (2015) last two sections
  • ChimPom, RyutaUshiro "Art Cannot Be Powerless" Frontline (May 2011).
  • Andrey Bold and Tamura, “Interview with ChimPom,” Gadabout.com nd.
  • Edward Burtinsky, interviews,
  • OuNing, “Shadows of Times,” Cao Fei, “A Wild Side of Guangzhou,” in Cao and Ou, The San Yuan Li Project, Beijing: People’s Architecture, 2006.

Week 9
03.20
03.22 / Platform I: Tuvalu National Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017
  • Conversation with Vincent J. F. Huang, artist and our own Prof. Aida Wong, curator about the Tuvalu Pavilion and issues of art and climate justice.
  • Readings will be provided in advance by our guests.

Week 10
03.27
03.29 / Practices II: Engagement and Intervention
  • Andrea Bowers USA v Tim de Christopher (2010), video.
  • Allan Sekula and Noel Burch,The Forgotten Space (2010) video.
  • Sekula & Burch, “Notes on The Forgotten Space,”
  • KeesLokman, “Interview with Fritz Haeg,” Work Journal, (August 2010)
  • Brian Holmes, “Visiting the Planetarium: Images of the Black World,” (2010)
  • Subhankar Banerjee, Banarjee, “Ought We Not to Establish ‘Access to Food’ As a Species Right?” Third Text 27.1 (January 2013), 33-43.
  • Natalie Jeremijenko, “An Interview with Natalie Jeremijenko,” Substratum Issue 07: Collective Responsibility,

Week 11 -12
04.03
04.05
04.19 / Practices III: Seeing and Sensing
  • Eliasson, Bruno Latour “Atmosphere, Atmosphere,” in Eliasson, The Weather Project, London: The Tate, 2003, 30-40.
  • Mark Dion, “Neukom Vivarium,” Art 21interview,
  • GuiseppePenone, Artist Statements, New York: Gagosian Gallery, 2014.
  • Peter Brown “Finding the Shape in the Wood: An Interview of Robert Adams” in Adams, Along Some Rivers, Aperture Press, 2006.
  • Andy Goldsworthy. Goldworthy discusses the DeCordova Snow House: In addition browse the Andy Goldsworthy Digital Catalog (find a few of the images that are accompanied by diary entries)
  • Liu Xiaodong, Confrontation with the Outdoors: Heinz-Norbert Jocks in conversation with Liu Xiaodong,” and “Liu Xiaodong’s Diary in Eisenerz” in Liu Xiaodong, The Process of Painting, Graz: Kunsthaus Graz, 2012.
  • Roni Horn Keynote Speech, Graduating Class of 2006, Iceland Academy of the Arts, Reykjavík

Week 13
04.24
04.26 / Platform II: World of Matter
  • There is a lot of material here. We will spend the entire week with it.

Week 14
05.01
05.03 / Platform III: Class Presentations on Inventing Eco Art History.
  • Each student will present on an approach to eco art history they are developing for their final paper. The presentation will be scripted, pre-recorded, audio visual presentations. Non-presenting students, and will be prepared to offer constructive criticism.

Final paper due: Tuesday, May 9, 2017 01:30 PM - 04:30 PM

Course Assignments:

Midterm

There will be a take-home midterm following the first six weeks of classes. The exam will consist of short essays dealing primarily with the readings in the first half of the semester.

2 Comparative Exhibition Analyses

For each analysis: Using the list of ecologically oriented exhibitions posted on LATTE survey, review, and compare two exhibitions. Explain the theme of the exhibitions, note the selection criteria, and discuss how the exhibitions were presented. Imagine that the two shows represent a trend or a point of conflict within the field of eco-curating and boil that trend/conflict down to its essence.

To write these papers you will need to find exhibitions that have published catalogs or sufficient web presence for you to understand what the show included. If you have any questions about what constitutes sufficient web presence just ask. The list on LATTE is long, but hardly exhaustive and you are welcome to find exhibitions on your own. It is unlikely that the library will have the catalogs so just ILL them. Each analysis should be 750 words.

Final Presentation

The research and analysis you are doing for your final paper will be used as the basis for a short pre-prepared digital audio/video presentation shown to the class in the last week of the semester. The presentations will be no more than ten minutes and will serve as the basis for in-class and online discussion aimed at helping you to hone your final paper. Presentations can be in diverse pre-recorded formats, including but not limited to short film, narrated photo-essay, pre-recorded PowerPoint, musical video, etc. The medium should intelligentlymatch the content. The presentations may be done in small groups depending on what works best with our class schedule. Details will be discussed in class.

Final Paper

The final 12-15 page paper will be about a topic of your choosing, with some guidance, that addresses art and issues raised in the course. You may choose to compare two artists’ approaches to a similar issue, discuss a single work or group of works through the lens of one of the theoretical texts, investigate a particular topic, or media. An outline demonstrating the plan of your project will be due at the halfway point of the semester at which point we will discuss the paper. Drafts will be read by peer editors and the final is due on the first day of the finals period.

Papers will be graded on the clear expression and feasibility of the thesis, a suitable and creative selection of art and ideas to support that thesis, and the logical argumentation of the body of the paper. The most important part of these papers is that you wrestle with the issues raised by the art and I know that writing about art can be hard. That said good writing does contribute to clear thinking and a more persuasive paper. You are encouraged to use your peer editors extensively and to make use of the writing center. An A paper will be intellectually creative, clearly structured and grammatically correct.

Class Participation

This course includes more art and ideas than we could ever completely cover in one semester– this reflects the state of the art world (there is always one more show to see and one more article to read) and is intended to give us the opportunity to shape the class according to the interests of the group.In addition to general in-class discussion, it will be expected that you participate in online discussion of the readings using the nota bene platform. Each person will add 3-5 comments to each reading and we will use those to begin in-class discussion and guide the direction of the course. We will periodically break the regular pattern of the course to spend time looking at art together and we need everyone’s input to make these sessions productive.Your participation is essential and greatly appreciates.Likewise your role as peer-editor is folded into participation. If talking in class is inordinately stressful for you please talk to me. I can validate your anxiety (talking in class is a big deal; I rarely did as a student) and we can come up with ways for you to participate i

Grade Breakdown

NB online contributions10

Midterm20

Comparative Analyses2x510

Class Participation15

Video Presentation 15

Final Paper Draft10

Final Paper20

General Class Policies: Attendance: Absences in excess of three class periods will be considered grounds for a 5% reduction of final grade. Alternative Test Needs: The exams are timed tests, should you require alternative test format for any reason talk to me at the beginning of the semester so we can find a test to meet your needs. Cell Phones: Please turn the ringers of your cell phones off. Laptops: Laptop use is fine, online shopping, facebook, instagram … not so much. Non-course-related computer use will be considered grounds for 5% reduction of final grade. Late assignments: Paper grades will be reduced 1/3 grade per day late. Academic Honesty: Unless stated otherwise, you are encouraged to share ideas and information as you write and study. You must, of course, complete your own quizzes, write your own essays, and I expect no two papers to be identical in part or whole. When using the writings and thoughts of others cite your sources in footnotes. Start any research you do with One Search, Art and Architecture Databases on the Brandeis Scholar, and WorldCat (on LTS find Databases page). Internet sources need to be footnoted with full notation of the name of the essay found and the website on which you found it. If I can’t get to it, it doesn’t count. Cite journal articles downloaded from Jstor as hard copy not webpages. Honor CodeTo establish in a formal manner that your work has been completed in accordance with all codes of academic honesty please write and sign, “I have neither given nor received un-authorized aid on this exam/essay” at the end of all tests and papers.

Success in this 4 credit hour course is based on the expectation that students will spend a minimum of 9 hours of study time per week in preparation for class (readings, papers, discussion sections, preparation for exams, etc.).