Course name: Contemporary Art and Media Culture
Essay Proposal Content:
1) In one paragraph, please express the argument/dominant idea you wish to defend in your paper.
2) Please list your selected references in your bibliography. Please include after each reference a two-line summary of the selected reference (it’s dominant idea) and why you have selected this reference.
For the 10 reference: 4 materials chosen from class (see attachment for the course readings, you can choose 4 from them)
1 primary source (could be interview/diary of the artist you choose)
5 sources of your own choices (must be peer-reviewed journals or books, no internet sources)
Please ensure you have at least two theoretical references to draw on:
(Marcuse/Ranciere/Dewey/Freud,etc.)
Essay topic: Betwixt Art and Life
Choose one artist/maker of the contemporary visual culture whom you feel an affinity and write a 12-page research paper about him/her and his/her art work. (Could be any type of artist) Discover the “operations” at his/her work (the processes, concerns, social-historical context, struggles of making the art, vision or theory behind the art, inspirations etc. ) around the art-making process of this one specific artist.
Please address these questions as a topic in your paper:
“How did this artist/maker contribute to the social transformations of the times?
How did this artist’s vision seek to collapse/interrogate the boundary between art and everyday life?
What was his/her vision/theory/argument?
How was his/her work in reaction/revolution to the work that came before them?
What was the process/methodology he/she used to express this vision?
What was his/her struggle against the dominant beliefs/historical conditions of the times?
What was his/her greatest opposition, in your personal viewpoint?
Do you think his/her work would have a similar resonance for contemporary culture?
