Magic Circles: Art Without an Audience
General
Course Long Title
Magic Circles: Art Without an Audience
Subject Code
CHMN
Course Number
382W
Department(s)
Academic Level
UG - Undergraduate
Description
Magic Circles: Art Without an Audience
Of Nordic Larp, Elvia wilk writes that the "Magic Circle" can be "defined as a 'membrane' that circumscribes virtual worlds. Once you step into the magic circle, you have committed to suspension of disbelief. You have bought into the communal fantasy, the collective delusion, and agreed to the terms."
Our course will examine the methods by which artists construct playful, political, and spiritual spaces outside of, or otherwise protected from, normative pressures and the dynamics of viewership, wherein they might "mediate and reinvent the self." From the esoteric and extra institutional-such as tabletop games, larp, online networks, alter egos, film sets, intentional communities, music scenes, new religious movements, group therapy, interactive theater, one-on one performance art, and escape rooms-to critically sanctioned forms of traditionalism-such as the picture frame, stage, and camera lens—we'll learn about (and experiment with) the myriad ways creative producers establish new social contracts to access ways of being repressed or elided by dominant culture. We'll examine art that works in non-presentational modes, does not imagine an audience, and rejects larger social entanglement in favor of personal or communal introspection. What happens when, instead of breaking down the gallery walls, for a time, we simply lock the door?
Over two weeks, students will first engage in a collective reimagining of the classroom space through meditation, group writing, discussion, and some small lectures. The remainder will unfold as a private group performance of learning, documented to a mutually agreed upon degree using collaborative methods and materials. The idea is for students to have an opportunity to teach one another through their art practice. Readings will be assigned by both the instructor and the students, so the material could veer in all sorts of directions, but will represent a sampling of relevant theory, journalism, poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms.
Possible co-thinkers may include Fritz Haeg, Cory Doctorow, Giorgio Agamben, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fred Moten, Hellen and Scott Nearing, Herbert Marcuse, Antonin Artaud, Ellen Willis, Adrian Piper, C G Jung, Andr Breton, Jacques Rancire, Guy Debord, Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, Clair Bishop, and others.
Magic Circles is open to all mtiers, but students should feel comfortable integrating research into their practice and join with a desire to contribute to this collective, experiential style of critical expression that reflects the ethos of our topics of study.
Of Nordic Larp, Elvia wilk writes that the "Magic Circle" can be "defined as a 'membrane' that circumscribes virtual worlds. Once you step into the magic circle, you have committed to suspension of disbelief. You have bought into the communal fantasy, the collective delusion, and agreed to the terms."
Our course will examine the methods by which artists construct playful, political, and spiritual spaces outside of, or otherwise protected from, normative pressures and the dynamics of viewership, wherein they might "mediate and reinvent the self." From the esoteric and extra institutional-such as tabletop games, larp, online networks, alter egos, film sets, intentional communities, music scenes, new religious movements, group therapy, interactive theater, one-on one performance art, and escape rooms-to critically sanctioned forms of traditionalism-such as the picture frame, stage, and camera lens—we'll learn about (and experiment with) the myriad ways creative producers establish new social contracts to access ways of being repressed or elided by dominant culture. We'll examine art that works in non-presentational modes, does not imagine an audience, and rejects larger social entanglement in favor of personal or communal introspection. What happens when, instead of breaking down the gallery walls, for a time, we simply lock the door?
Over two weeks, students will first engage in a collective reimagining of the classroom space through meditation, group writing, discussion, and some small lectures. The remainder will unfold as a private group performance of learning, documented to a mutually agreed upon degree using collaborative methods and materials. The idea is for students to have an opportunity to teach one another through their art practice. Readings will be assigned by both the instructor and the students, so the material could veer in all sorts of directions, but will represent a sampling of relevant theory, journalism, poetry, fiction, and hybrid forms.
Possible co-thinkers may include Fritz Haeg, Cory Doctorow, Giorgio Agamben, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Ursula K. Le Guin, Fred Moten, Hellen and Scott Nearing, Herbert Marcuse, Antonin Artaud, Ellen Willis, Adrian Piper, C G Jung, Andr Breton, Jacques Rancire, Guy Debord, Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, Clair Bishop, and others.
Magic Circles is open to all mtiers, but students should feel comfortable integrating research into their practice and join with a desire to contribute to this collective, experiential style of critical expression that reflects the ethos of our topics of study.