- Winter 2019
Syllabus Description:
Beginning Ceramics: ART 253 B: Fall 2017
Professor: Michael Swaine
Office Hours: By appointment only
e-mail: swaine@uw.edu
matter(s) of concern turning
into matter(s) of action
This ceramic class will push how far a material can stretch in space and time. We will look at mud, clay & ceramics, all with the lens of action and interaction. How can objects that we make become tools for conversation, props for protest? Can clay compete with twitter?
"the aim of art
is to uncover the questions
that have been occluded
by the answers"
- James Baldwin
"The public realm, as the common world, gathers us to gather and yet prevents our falling over each other, so to speak. What makes mass society so difficult to bear is not the number of people involved, or at least primarily, but the fact that the world between them has lost its power to gather them together, to relate and separate them. The weirdness of this situation resembles a spiritualistic seance where a number of people gather around a table might suddenly, through some magic trick, see the table vanish from the midst, so that two persons sitting opposite from midst, so that two persons sitting opposite each other were no longer separated but also would be entirely unrelated to each other by anything tangible." (p.48-The Human Condition-Hannah Arendt)
Please watch these videos during the few weeks -thank you
more to see:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BFz9mrcDCjh/
http://www.annhamiltonstudio.com/videosound/aleph_video.html
http://www.williamforsythe.de/installations.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/feb/19/ai-weiwei-vase-miami...
The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (bell hooks 1994: 207)
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Failure to comply with any of the following will undermine your learning and negatively affect your grade.
1. Absences from class
Absences from class prevent participation and UW guidelines suggest that participation may account for at
least 15% of your grade. Check your syllabus, in some cases participation may account for as much as 30%
of your grade.
If you miss class due to illness or emergency, notify your instructor immediately, provide documentation, and
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Students are required to take final exams as scheduled by the University of Washington.
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Grades in Art, Art History and Design courses are based on:
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o participation and engagement in the classrooms and studios
o meeting deadlines for the completion of all assignments, exams and critiques
o the quality of the work you submit during the quarter
o you have been in attendance and done satisfactory work through the eighth week of the quarter.
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Here is a link to other Art + Art History + Design school policies:
http://art.washington.edu/advising/policies/general/ (Links to an external site.)