Undergraduate Course: Environmental Art (ARCH08066)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | In an era of significant environmental change and concern, environmental art offers a particular lineage of artistic practice revealing the dynamic qualities of the environment we interact with and rely on. This course will consider comparative modes of practice, exploring a range of process-oriented and time-based practices deployed by environmental artists. Precedents will draw from contemporary environmental art practices, including artists working in the fields of land-art, eco-art and conceptual art. From this theoretical foundation, the course offers students an experimental space to develop their own practice-based explorations. Students will identify environmental issues they feel are important, then relate these to a site where they will deploy their own creative methods and tools as an experimental process of interpretation and engagement. |
| Course description |
Environmental art is creative field that addresses ecological and societal issues within our shared environment. With its origins in land art, environmental art represents a critical shift in the definition of art; to abandon the fixation on object-centred experience towards experimental approaches that open-up a stronger sense of environmental dynamics and inter-relationships.
This course explores how artists creatively deploy site-based tools and methods to experimentally reveal the transient and ephemeral qualities of environmental phenomena. In this course we will explore precedents from artists working across a telescopic range of scales; of the cosmic, climatic, seismic, atmospheric, biomorphic, to the microscopic. These precedents will introduce a range of theoretical ideas; on how the environment is experienced and imagined; and what environmental artists do to address critical questions through their practice.
From this theoretical foundation, the course offers students a creative space for experimentation, allowing students to test out new forms of practice derived from an understanding of environmental art. This can include a range of spatial articulations across visual, physical, sound, performance or textual forms, amongst other approaches. Evaluation will place emphasis on process and practice, rather than product and outcome, where experimentation, improvisation, speculation and activism are encouraged. Students will identify the focus for their own practice-based enquiry, while being encouraged to work in-situ; considering how a chosen site relates to contemporary environmental issues.
Through weeks 1-8, a series of combined lecture/seminar sessions (2hrs per week) will present a range of ideas, ethical considerations and experimental forms of practice, from which each student will evolve their own process of creative exploration. Across the semester, individual and group tutorials will support each student in the development of their proposal, from conception through to implementation. Students will undertake self-directed fieldwork, amounting to at least 3 days. A detailed schedule will be communicated through Learn, with teaching and learning activities timetabled as one morning per week.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Environmental Art is a practice-based course which may require students to purchase materials depending on the type of project. This will vary dependent on the type of project and form of practice. Not all projects will require materials or additional costs. A Budget of £50 is recommended. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Conduct a critical comparative appraisal of creative practices which relate to particular environmental issues to inform a process of experimental practice
- Apply improvisation and invention in the use of creative practice to elucidate environmental issues through the interpretation of a chosen site
- Synthesise and rationalise the aims and outcomes of the creative process in regard to the contextual relevance of the project
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Reading List
Barad, Karen. (1996). Meeting the Universe Halfway: Realism and Social Constructivism without Contradiction. In L. Nelson, H. & Nelson, J. (Eds.), Feminism,
Science and the Philosophy of Science (pp. 161-194). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Dolphijn, Rick. and van der Tuin, Iris. (2012). New Materialism: Interviews & Cartographies. Open Humanities Press.
Haraway, Donna (2016). Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.
Mah, Kai. and Rivers, Patrick. L. (2022). Situated Practices in Architecture and Politics. University of British Columbia Press.
Rendell, Jane. (2008). Space, Place, and Site. In: Cartiere, C. & Willis, S. (Eds), Critical Spatial Arts Practice. London: Routledge.
Online resource: The Land Art Generator https://landartgenerator.org/ |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Curiosity: evaluate a range of precedents to identify relevant concepts and theories related to environmental art, using these ideas to inspire an experimental form of critical practice.
Adaptivity: select a site and related environmental issue, while planning and effectively implementing a process of creative fieldwork with confidence in dealing with dynamic circumstances.
Communication: have an awareness in the discussion and articulation of creative forms of practice, while effectively conveying these through a graphic (visual narrative) submission.
Reflection: consider decisions and outcomes of your experimental practice, using a textual (reflective text) submission that succinctly communicates the project and its underpinning rationale, including personal values.
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| Keywords | Site-specific,experimental practice,fieldwork,environmental-art,Reflective thinking |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Ross McLean
Tel: (0131 6)51 5796
Email: r.maclean@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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