Entire USC First-Year MFA Class is Dropping Out

Entire USC First-Year MFA Class is Dropping Out

"We are a group of seven artists who made the decision to attend USC Roski School of Art and Design’s MFA program based on the faculty, curriculum, program structure, and funding packages. We are a group of seven artists who have been forced by the school’s dismantling of each of these elements to dissolve our MFA candidacies. In short, due to the university’s unethical treatment of its students, we, the entire incoming class of 2014, are dropping out of school and dropping back into our expanded communities at large."

Read more here: 
http://www.artandeducation.net/school_watch/entire-usc-mfa-1st-year-class-is-dropping-out/

Website:
http://mfanomfa.tumblr.com/

Chris Burden RIP

Burden, the protean Conceptual artist who rose from doing controversial performances in the 1970s to become one of the most compelling and widely admired sculptors of his generation, died Sunday at his home in Topanga Canyon. He was 69.
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simple outlet for help with thesis proposal

Thesis help- this is an outline for a proposal


The work and the thesis do different things.
There are also different approaches:

A prospectus (in arts disciplines) states an idea for a creative work and predicts specific ways that it can be successful. To state the idea, make clear what skills you will use, how it will work, and what it will demonstrate or illuminate in dialog with other art work. To predict its success, articulate a need for the work, and your reasons for making it, drawing support from existing artwork, theory, and/or criticism. A good prospectus persuades an arts institution that it ought to present your work and support it financially.

FROM UCSC: LOTS MORE GOOD MATERIAL ABOUT THIS HERE INCLUDING A PROSPECTUS OUTLINE AND EXAMPLES

ESPECIALLY READ THIS: http://danm.ucsc.edu/web/resources/student/ThesisProspectusOutline/Samples#IIx2e.1x2e.x20.Statementx20.ofx20.broaderx20.aims

from OSU is this: A thesis is an extremely formulaic type of writing.Every thesis follows pretty much the same organizational structure.

There are four primary parts of every single thesis. They may vary a little as to how many chapters each part has, but every thesis has at least one chapter covering thesis four parts.

1. Introduction: Don’t mess around with it! The only purpose is to introduce the research. You will outline the problem you intend to investigate, state the aim of the research, limit the scope of the investigation, and provide an overview of what lies ahead. 3-5 pages is usually sufficient.
2. Background: The purpose is to position your research into the context of what has gone on before, what is currently taking place, and prove you know how research is generally conducted in this area. This is generally where your literature review goes. You might have chapters that cover the brief history of the topic area, current theory or practice, and/or results of any preliminary studies you may have carried out to help define your problem.
3. Your Own Work: This part is really comprised of two parts nearly always: Your methodology and your Data and Analysis. Your methodology is the design of research developed to test hypotheses or answer questions developed from the background section. Your Data & Analysis is just that, the data and results of your methodology.
4. Synthesis: This is your new contribution to the body of knowledge and is usually handled in two parts. This first part is a discussion that examines your work (part 3) in light of the background you presented (part 2). This may lead to the development of a new model or theory. The second part is a set of conclusions that should arise directly out of the discussion and and respond directly to the aim of the work stated in the Introduction (part 1)

Miniaturized Stories of Minimized Historical Events

Canadian artist TALWST is exhibiting his miniature dioramas at the Art Gallery of Mississauga in Ontario Canada. The gallery describes his work as "miniature dioramas (that) insert marginalize narratives from contemporary culture into the Western Art canon, creating prototypes for a responsive diversified and inclusive history." See his box dioramas at booooooom.com as well as the AGM's artist profile for further information.

I thought his work is interesting because it was in direct contrast to the "bad art" box that I made for class and has some direct correlations to the abyssal theory readings that Sarah has shared with me.

His work calls to light historical events that surround social issues of racism and oppression, events that present-day Western culture would rather forget, or sweep under the rug. This is a classic example of present day abyssal thinking theory where anything that is unwanted or culturally unpleasant to deal with is minimize, marginalized, and ultimately made invisible by the dominant cultural media and its cultural leaders.

  

Constructed from ornate jewelry boxes filled with hand-painted meticulously crafted scenes these pieces take on the role of artifact or cultural fetish in the way that they contain a history and story that can be closed and put away both physically and symbolically but also opened and revealed and put on display in a gallery or museum to provoke thought and conversations on the topics they address.

Society of Control

do we live in a society of control? I just watched Citizenfour last night and tried to soak in the numbers - the numbers of numbers collected, data stored, names and digits handled. the Bifo essay

here are some artworks that reflect on these questions. A video about Deleuze's concept.

here is another one: 

Society of Control. com 

http://societyofcontrol.com/index.htm

The WIND by Eija Liisa Ahtila

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd4V8wGGjp4

Grants for Artists

This should become a page of resources eventually, but here is a start.

Artist grants.
"Making art is expensive business, and working artists look for any financial help they can get. To supplement the costs of fabrication, art materials, studio space, and travel, one of the most popular sources of funds is fellowships and grants. For our ongoing series on resources for artists in these tough times, ARTINFO has researched the many funding options available in the United States, and compiled a handy guides of the ones that are within reach of the average artist.

As with residencies, which we covered in two parts (Part One and Part Two), we discovered that there are tiers to fellowships and grants, and not all are created equal. Some of the most prestigious and hefty prizes are the Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Larry Aldrich Foundation Award. Each come with big money grants — but they are also available by nomination only. When it comes to grant money that is attainable by open application, the pool is wide but the eligibility requirements also vary greatly — from awards for making comic books to small grants to publish limited editions of artist books written by women. The list below is a diverse and eclectic sampling of what is out there, but there's likely something in there for everybody."

LINK
Surdna Foundation Grants for socially engaged art

Paul Thek's Teaching notes

Paul Thek’s "Teaching Notes"

The following is a transcription of Harrell Fletcher's invaluable transcription of Paul Thek's "teaching notes," contained in Fletcher's booklet Thek's Teaching Notes. The notes were generated for a "4-D Sculpture" class at Cooper Union taught by Thek between 1978-1981 (a core class in Cooper Union's curriculum at the time, as Flectcher explains in his introduction). Fletcher's booklet, published at his request by Publication Studio for an event at the Whitney around the current Thek retrospective, comprises a transcription of the artist's notes, and responses generated by Fletcher's 2007 studio class at Cooper Union, which (for lack of a better term) reenacted the content of Thek's original class based on the notes. Being particularly interested in the teaching practices of artists and writers, I find Thek's notes extremely curious, both as a document of his teaching practice and inasmuch as they reflect his larger aesthetic concerns and processes. I also find attractive Thek's approach to art through questions and exercises, which may instigate a process of self-discovery, interrogation, and dialogue with others. Namely, one's students.

Paul Thek’s "teaching notes":

Name
Age
Birthdate
Place of birth
Position in family
Nationality
Religion
Education
Hobbies
Career plans
Parents’ education
Parents’ birthplace
Parents’ religion
Where do you live now? With whom? For how long?
What income do you have? From what source?
What property do you own?....

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