Art, Environment, and Place is a hybrid (mostly online instruction) upper-division undergraduate/ graduate seminar exploring the convergence of interdisciplinary art practice, field-based creative research and environmental studies through focused writing, readings, discussions, and presentations that demonstrate how important environmental issues, ecological concerns, and sustainable design practices are incorporated into the work of contemporary artists and designers.
Detailed Course Description
Innovative approaches to form and content are evolving in contemporary art practice that transcends traditional boundaries of art-making. Many artists are integrating various field research strategies borrowed from the natural sciences, geography, and other disciplines to create rich transdisciplinary works of art. Offering a critical examination of place, many of these projects focus on regional histories, Indigenous perspectives, environmental issues and ecological concerns including climate change and environmental justice. Some practitioners incorporate sustainable design into their work or propose actual remediation to ecologically challenged sites. Other practitioners offer activist perspectives or are research-driven, implementing tools of documentarians and journalists—using photography, video, audio writing—and often work collaboratively. The interdisciplinary nature of these artworks encourages a diverse and varied audience.
This is a transdisciplinary course and does not require art-specific training. However, creative thinking is required. Course activities center on readings, discussions, presentations, and film screenings. Writing and group discussion are primary activities for this course. Students, working in collaborative groups, are required to post written responses to assigned readings in the discussion forum every week. Projects include an artist research presentation. A final project thesis paper and presentation will be due at the end of the semester.
Kim Stringfellow
Kim Stringfellow is an artist, educator, writer, and independent curator based in Joshua Tree, California. She is a professor at San Diego State University’s School of Art + Design. She received her MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000. Claremont Graduate University awarded her an honorary doctoral degree in 2018.
For the past twenty years, Stringfellow’s creative practice has focused on the human-driven transformation of some of the American West’s most iconic arid regions through multi-year, research-based projects merging cultural geography, public practice, and experimental documentary into creative, socially engaged transmedia experiences. These art-centered projects combine writing, photography, audio, video, installation, mapping, and community engagement to collectively explore the history of place while also examining how the landscapes we inhabit are socially and culturally constructed. In particular, she is interested in the ecological repercussions of human presence and occupation within these spaces. By focusing on distinct subjects, communities or regions she attempts to foster a discussion of complex, interrelated issues for each site while exposing human values and political agendas that form our collective understanding of these places.
Stringfellow’s projects have been commissioned and funded by leading organizations including California Humanities, Creative Work Fund, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the Seattle Arts Commission. She is a 2016 Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellow and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography. In 2012, she became the second recipient of the Theo Westenberger Award for Artistic Excellence. The award honors the achievements of contemporary women who work in photography, film, and new media transforms how we see the American West. To coincide with her receiving this award, Jackrabbit Homestead was exhibited at the Autry National Center’s Irene Helen Jones Parks Gallery of Art from September 13, 2014 – August 23, 2015. Other awards include a Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) “Investing in Artists” equipment grant in 2010.
www.mojaveproject.org
Andy Warhol Foundation Curatorial Fellow
2015 Guggenheim Fellow in Photography
Honorary PhD, Claremont University
Professor, School of Art + Design
San Diego State University
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