Connected Contemporary Practice: Responding to the Environment

Studio brief

In a connected contemporary art practice you engage with your art’s process in relation to being in place – the experience of site, location and space.

Through this studio, art students realise and acquire the skills that contribute to a connected contemporary art practice. The studio emphasises the importance of process in art. And in the same way that treasuring the journey rather than focusing on the arrival permits serendipity and enriches experience, so relishing the process engages the practitioner and enables richer outcomes. Art themes and concepts this studio teaches are:

  1. The necessity of connectivity and engagement with process in contemporary art practice
  2. Phenomenology, in relation to being in place and responding to the environment and artefacts or images
  3. Psychogeography, in relation to experiencing site, location and space

Art students are directed to pursue a 3-stage methodology. First, students think and research - exploring ideas, making themselves aware of contexts and searching for associated connections through cross-disciplinary enquiry. You research in order to expand your thinking. Students then deploy their practical skills. You make, paint, photograph, interpret a form, translate 2D into 3D or edit time-based media, etc. Finally, you reflect, articulating the work through performed presentation and written text. It’s a constructive cycle – the research informing the reflection, the reflection informing the practical making, the practical making directing the research enquiry.

Image credit Ami Farthing's mum, Soda Springs, Idaho: evidence of cowboys (2012)

Details

Course Fine Art BA (Hons)
Tutors Dr Maryclare Foa
Francesca Vilalta
Website maryclarefoa.com