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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : Art

Undergraduate Course: Sites and Situations (ARTX10073)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) AvailabilityAvailable to all students
SCQF Credits20 ECTS Credits10
SummaryThis course will expand your knowledge and understanding of the impact of placing work in the public realm through presentations to an external audience. Through participation in an external project, the course will enable you to articulate engagement issues within contemporary art practice. The course will help you to reflect on, and develop, a response to the specific site or situation that you are working within.
Course description Sites and Situations introduces ways to research, reflect, problem-solve, and create resolved works of art in response to a particular site or situation. This course will expand your understanding of how context is critical to the development, presentation and reading of an artwork. You will work individually and as part of a team whilst engaging with an external organisation, by enrolling on one external project from a variety on offer that are organised by tutors. You will learn how artists work with external partners and contexts, and you will be exposed to the range of professional opportunities that exist through residencies and site-specific, or site-responsive, projects, and commissions. You will produce a finely tuned artwork for presenting to a public audience through continuous reflection, practical experiments, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Towards the end of the project, participation in teamwork will ensure that your group creates a self-organised, public facing event or exhibition in an external setting.

Teaching activities are spread throughout two semesters and will take place every 2-4 weeks in order that you are given ample time to develop concepts and production methods. These include external project site visits, discussions, presentations, tutorials, and input from external partners, as well as whole group talks and workshops. With your tutor, you will have the opportunity to observe in detail a particular site or situation and reflect on the material, contextual, ethical, cultural, social, historical, and environmental aspects associated with it. You will be taught how to use appropriate research methods and how to turn observations into concepts for an artwork, whether that be an image, and object, a performance, an intervention, a sound piece, or any other type of work that is deemed appropriate. You will learn how to articulate your findings and original ideas, initially through the production of a proposal and finally through presenting the work in a real-life situation. By the end of the course, you will be able to identify, and use, appropriate methods and strategies in the creation, presentation, and documentation of an artwork within a specific context.

The possibility for you to develop an individual project exists through consultation with the tutor and Course Organiser.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites Students MUST also take: Art in Practice 3 (ARTX10072)
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
High Demand Course? Yes
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Demonstrate awareness of the concepts and issues that relate to creating a site-responsive artwork in the public realm.
  2. Evidence appropriate research and production methods for presenting work to an external audience.
  3. Contextualise and critically evaluate individual practice in relation to staging an external event.
Reading List
Dezeuze, Anna. (2012) The 'do-it-yourself' Artwork: Participation from Fluxus to New Media. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Doherty, Claire. (2004) Contemporary Art: From Studio to Situation. London: Black Dog Publishing.

Doherty, Claire. (2009) Situation. London: MIT Press.

Morra, Joanne. (2018) Inside the Freud Museums: History, Memory and Site-Responsive Art. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Putman, James. (2001) Art and Artifact: The Museum as Medium, London: Thames & Hudson.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Personal effectiveness
Engagement with the communities and world around them, contributing positively, ethically, and respectfully.

Research and enquiry
Knowledge integration and application: respond to major developments in current and emergent debates and ideas within contemporary art

Personal and intellectual autonomy
Creativity and inventive thinking: make connections between intention, process, outcome, context, and methods of dissemination in contemporary art

Communication
Skilled articulation: enhance understanding of context and to engage effectively with others
Keywordscontext,site,engagement,external organisations,public
Contacts
Course organiserMs Susan Mowatt
Tel:
Email: s.mowatt@ed.ac.uk
Course secretary Nanami Chen
Tel:
Email: ychen7@ed.ac.uk
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