The 3rd Mind

ART/INTD 1082  - Conrad/Farrell

“Works of art initiate and provoke other works of art;

the process is a source of art itself.”

-Edward Hirsch, poet

for WEDNESDAY, JAN 7

1.     Read Jonathan Lethem’s “The Ecstasy of Influence: a plagiarism” (ERES)

2.     Read Anne Waldman’s “Going on our Nerve” (ERES)

3.     Sign-up for a username at wordpress (http://wordpress.com). After doing so, send your registered email address (the one associated with your username) to lafarrell@middlebury.edu. If you already have a username, you can just send along the email address associated with it. I will then add you as an “author” of the blog.

4.     Research & prepare a 1-3 minute “diagrammatic-lecture” on your randomly assigned word/topic/project/name. The purpose of the diagram is to visually depict your journey through the cyber-maze of attempted definition (see examples on next page). One way you might do this is by performing a Google search, navigating from page to page via hyperlinks you find especially relevant/intriguing/revealing (you may very well have multiple windows open at once and/or be performing simultaneous Google/Wikipedia searches), then recording keywords that appear associated with your word(s) thereby expanding your diagram (where each “limb” of the “spider” represents a single “train” of thought), until you’ve had enough, gone crazy, or run out of space. Be prepared to make sense of this associative journey for the class (you may need to take notes describing how you arrived at a certain keyword).  This is not a typical “lecture”in the sense of the lecturer’s knowledge taken as singular truth. On the contrary, your personalized lecture will be fueled rhizomatically, by way of associative encounters and curious wanderings, and the “definition” of your word will be more constellatory in nature. Good luck.

for THURSDAY, JAN 8

1.   Read Kester’s “Conversation Pieces (Intro)”

2.   Begin work on your “self-portrait”, which will be due Monday (see below).

for MONDAY, JANUARY 11

1.   Peruse the “Archive of Collaborations” page on the class blog. Start looking for “ancestors”. They may or may not be a part of your life yet. If you have ancestors that are not in the archive, please share them by adding them. This archive is a living, growing organism of thought.

2.   Come ready to discuss (in your 15 minute conference with Lucas/Louisa a possible collaborative project (i.e. your final, major project)! This will be informal and, we hope, generative.

3.   Compose your “self-portrait”. Self Portrait Assignment – Due Monday January 12th

4.   Read Harmon’s “You are Here (Intro, etc)” (ERES)

ART/INTD 1082  - Conrad/Farrell

“For me, it helps to do both my own writing where I have full control and

another form of writing where I trust the collaborative process and let go of control

– they are equally valuable processes, and both strengthen and renew the other.”

-Sierra Nelson, poet

for WEDNESDAY, JAN 14

1.    Familiarize yourself with the work of visiting artist Sierra Nelson, who will be joining us in class on Wednesday. To do so, go to our blog and peruse the links we’ve posted, paying particular attention to her involvement with “The Typing Explosion”.

2.    Complete Assignment #8 from the “Learning to Love You More” website (http://learningtoloveyoumore.com/reports/8/8.php). Here is what it asks of you:

Curate an artist’s retrospective in a public place.

Select an artist whose work you really like and make black & white Xerox copies of their work from books and magazines. Find a public place, a bulletin board, a fence, or a wall, and post the xerox retrospective. Write a curatorial statement describing the artist and your feelings about the work and post that with the exhibition. (Don’t make “art” from the artist’s work–no collages. Just display the images as if you were a curator at a museum.)

In addition: if you have a digital camera, take a photograph of it and post it on the blog.

Writing assignment: (1) In 1 page, explain your choice of artist and artwork (this may be a replica of your curatorial statement from above), as well as your reasoning for choosing this particular place on campus or in town for its presentation. What impact do you hope it might have on its passersby? And (2) sketch a rough map depicting the place you’ve selected for your chosen artist’s retrospective (a la the “Memory Map”). Paper clip the map to the back of your 1 page explanation, and bring to class on Wednesday to turn in.

3. Continue thinking about/working on your final projects.

ART/INTD 1082  - Conrad/Farrell

“Art is a collaboration between God and the artist, and the less the

artist does the better.”

-André Gide

for THURSDAY, JAN 15

1.    Under the newly created “Student Projects” tab of the class blog (www.the3rdmind.wordpress.com), please leave a comment that briefly, but eloquently, describes your final project (in theory) as it exists, though nascent, at this time. To begin with, discuss the collaborative elements of your project as you see it (i.e. what “kind” of a collaboration is it? Of the collaborations we’ve discussed in class, which does it most resemble, if any?). Then, to the best of your ability, describe the methods you’ll use to gather and/or create this masterpiece. Lastly, given your audience and the setting of 51 Main, what might be its most effective/meaningful presentation (as you see it)? Please post this description by TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT.

2.    Tomorrow, before class, read through everyone’s comments.

3.    Be ready to communicate your thoughts to the class on Thursday.

4.    Finally, A REMINDER: to those of you who have not yet left a comment on the “archive of collaborations” tab, please do so, SOON! These don’t have to be examples of other collaborative projects per se. They could just be one or two of the artists or artworks that you’re looking to for inspiration in relation to your own work.

FIN