Photos from Performing the Process on Flickr

Some photos from Friday night's gallery performances are now posted on the class Flickr site. Take a peek.

Readings for Week 9

Here is what you need to do before our next class on Monday, April 2:

Read pages 266-286 in the Fusco book; read the following two JSTOR articles dealing with audience theory (follow the links):
Shaping Belief: The Role of Audience in Visual Communication, by Ann C. Tyler
Art and Audience, by Nick Zangwill;
post two comments on the upcoming assignment post; post four links to your del.icio.us page; write your proposal for the Being Audience project.

Have a nice Spring Break!

Reminder! Class Meets in Gallery Monday

Just a reminder that we are meeting for class in the Gallery of Contemporary Art instead of in University Hall on Monday (at the usual time, 1:40pm).

Also, if I don't yet have your final version of your proposal for the social intervention project, I need it ASAP. Thanks.

See you then!

Readings Week 8 (Assingment Post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 97-113, 177-194, and 203-224 in the Fusco book.

Here are some considerations:
•Comment on the usefulness and functionality of some of the alternate labels for work (other than "performance art") mentioned in the Ramos essay. How might some of these terms better describe your own work? How are they useful in the context of Venezuelan work, or do you find similar problems with all terms?

•Discuss the claim from the 1981 CADA work that "the work of improving the accepted standard of living is the only valid art form/the only exhibition/the only worthwhile works of art." Pay attention to specific implications of words and how they translate for you and your experience, i.e., if this statement is assumed to be valid, what is really meant by "form" and "exhibition"?

•Are you persuaded by Lotty Rosenfeld's discussion of her work? Why or why not?

•What are the implications of Felipe Ehrenberg's designation of the street happenings between the two galleries as art? If these are pieces, is he the artist of the piece because he identified them as such? Or do the pieces have unwitting artists, or no creating artist at all?

FYI Events: One Act Play Festival

For Your Information:

UCCS Director's One-Act Play Festival

Thursday March 15 & Saturday March 17
The Problem directed by John Herrera
&
In the Living Room with Naomi directed by Nick Elgas

Friday March 16 & Sunday March 18
The Boundary directed by Greg Reilly
&
The Sound of Music in My Head directed by Colin Gregory

Thursday March 22 & Friday March 23
Venus and Adonis directed by Kathryn Ross
&
Words, Words, Words & Variations on the Death of Trotsky directed by Kim Felton

Location: Osborne Studio Theatre (UHall 233)
Dates: March 15-23
Time: All shows begin at 8 p.m.
Cost: Tickets are FREE (donations accepted!)

Readings for Week 8

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 97-113, 177-194, and 203-224 in the Fusco book; post two comments on the upcoming assignment post; post four links to your del.icio.us page; write your proposal for your Performing the Process project to be performed in the UCCS Gallery of Contemporary Art on Friday, March 23.

Extra Credit Options

If you haven't already looked over your midterm report, please do so. For those of you interested in extra credit, here are the guidelines we discussed in class:

I am open to extra credit options that allow for individual and unique experiences and demonstrate student initiative. From time to time I have and will announce and suggest some options--like the flyer for the gallery show and attending the Philip Auslander lecture. You are also welcome to design and propose your own extra credit ideas. The amount of credit possible will depend on the extent of the project you propose, how relevant it is to class, and how much it incorporates theories and issues we have read about. You can propose a small project or self-assignment, a series of small options for a larger cumulative effect, or one or two larger, extensive projects. Be creative and consider areas of our study that are most useful to you in your personal practice. You can email me your proposal idea or give me a write up in class, and then I will tell you how many points the project would be worth before you start.

For those of you preparing flyers for our gallery performances on the 23rd, make sure that you bring a copy of your flyer to class on Monday or email me a copy of your flyer by that time for credit. Get your flyers stamped at the University Center Information Desk (ground floor) to be posted on any University bulletin board. If it is a department or other organization board, (i.e., Student Government or Science department) then you have to get approval from that particular organization. You also will need special permission to post in dorms or the library. You are also welcome to take flyers around town.

Readings Week 7 (Assignment Post)

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 59-96 in the Fusco book and section 5 in the Readings Binder on reserve in the library, In Defense of Performance by Guillermo Gomez-Pena.

Here are some considerations:
•What is your response to Jesusa Rodriguez's theories of humor, and do you see these claims translated into her work?

•How do you think Tito Vasconcelos' characters, especially Tatiana Illhuicamina, translate differently to an American audience than to his community?

•What was the most persuasive argument to you in Gomez-Pena's chapter? Why? And what was the least persuasive argument in your estimation in his chapter? Again, why?

Readings for Week 7

Here is what you need to do before class on Monday:

Read pages 59-96 in the Fusco book; read section 5 in the Readings Binder on reserve in the library, In Defense of Performance by Guillermo Gomez-Pena; post 2 comments on the forthcoming "assignment post;" add 4 links to your del.icio.us page; attend one of the options for a required event this week and post a blog entry describing the experience and critiquing the performative elements.

The Tania Bruguera performance last night in Boulder was a bit of a problem in that CU never posted the details of the performance, and I was unable to get the details from the phone number listed. Therefore, if you made it up there last night and found the event, SUPER kudos to you, and post about your experience. Otherwise, because it was a slight fiasco, I have added another option for required events this week. Here are your choices:

•Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
Hip Hop to Hardcore: Miles White and the Flobots
March 10, 6:30 - 9pm
The Lab at Belmar, 404 S. Upham St. Lakewood, CO 80226

•Attend the opening for Katrina: Catastrophe and Catharsis at the FAC Friday evening and critique the performative behavior of the patrons. I am interested in interactions and behaviors of artists, curators, and patrons, not the art being exhibited (except in the way that the art affects behavior and creates observable space). Follow link for details on the show and opening.

Extra Credit Opportunity

For anyone interested in extra credit and design, you are welcome to create a flyer for our gallery performances, print a bunch of copies, get them stamped/approved, and post them around campus (or around town). Here is the information for the flyer:

"Friday, March 23, 2007
6:00 - 7:30pm
Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS
Free and open to the public

Performing the Process

Students from the Visual and Performing Arts Seminar, VaPA 390: Theory and Practice: Performance Art, will present projects concerned with performing the process of art making, shielding or disregarding a "product," and demonstrative, ephemeral, or live art. Artists include Andrew Castle, Amelia Charter, Ultra Donahue, Sean Fallon, Jonathan Herrera, Joshua Kemp, Sooin Kwon, Jeffrey Phelps, and Karla Russell.

The VaPA 390 Performance Art course is a studio-based course exploring practice, theories of, and issues in performance art and includes visual art, theatre, film, and art history students who develop and perform a series of performance works throughout the semester engaging methods of performing self, being audience, and social intervention among other concerns in historical and contemporary performance. Performing the Process is the one project in the semester locating the students' work in a traditionally understood art space and requiring an audience."

The second paragraph contains optional information, but the flyer should include date and location details, and at least the information in the first paragraph.

Email me an image of your flyer or bring a copy of it to class by March 19th for credit.

In Class Project

I made flyers and posted them in various places aroung the Beth-El Nursing College. The flyers read, "What do you think about art?", and made a false claim about an important psychological nursing study as a way to generate more responses. The flyer included my email address, the official seal of the VAPA 390 Performance Art Class, and the incentive of having your opinion published in the UCCS art gallery. A week after posting the flyers, some were still hanging but most were gone. As of today, I have received no email responses. I guess nursing students just don't care about the accuracy and integrity of important psychological nursing studies on art. Or, they are not fooled by phony looking flyers that contain very little evidence of academic rigor.

Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed (assignment post)

For those of you who attended Friday night's screening of Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed, post 2 thoughtful comments on the film and/or Dr. Macaulay's lecture. Consider performative elements in the history, the festival, and the hype of the circumstances.

(Assignment Post) Readings Week 6

Please post at least two thoughtful comments on the readings for this week: pages 133-173 in the Fusco book; and "Presence" in Absentia: Experiencing Performance as Documentation by Amelia Jones.
Here are some considerations:

•Are you convinced by Jones' claims and contentions about experiencing a work only as documentation? How does it's presence in document differ from the live experience of the piece? How do these issues affect your process of deciding methods of documentation?

•Respond to and critique one specific work by Mendieta, Clark, or Oiticica. Given that your experience of this work is solely description in an essay and possibly documentary photographs, what elements of your response do you think are owed to this written perspective?

Reminders

Here are some reminders:

•A required event Friday evening, March 2, 2007, 7:00 p.m. at the Gallery of Contemporary Art, UCCS: Film Night: Grandpa's Still in the Tuff Shed. $2.00 UCCS students, faculty, staff

•Fourth Annual Colorado Springs Undergraduate Research Forum (CSURF) abstracts due Monday, March 5. Follow this link for information and to submit an abstract.

•Pick one of two required events next week:

CU Boulder Visiting Artist Lecture Series
Tania Bruguera
Tuesday, March 6
OR
Rock Your Mind Lecture and Performance Series
Hip Hop to Hardcore: Miles White and the Flobots
March 10, 6:30 - 9pm

For more details, see last week's events post.

•Please post your photos from Monday's in-class project on your Flickr page or responses to your projects as a post on this blog so that we can all remember how awesome your projects were.