Credits: 5
Schedule: 10.01.2019 - 14.02.2019
Teaching Period (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
The course is taught every other year. 2018-2019: III
Learning Outcomes (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
The participants will gain an understanding of diverse artistic practices and agencies operating at the fringes of official culture. Getting familiar with the mechanisms of reification and exclusion in the field of contemporary art, the students will also gain the ability to position themselves as active agents in various domains of visual culture.
Content (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
Vandals, terrorists, recluses, philistines, forgerers—unconventional artistic agencies go by many pejorative names, and fall under diverse definitions. What is routinely seen as a common denominator is marginality, the position of the outsider. Hence, the notion of outsider art is customarily defined as work created by people with unquiet minds, by people under institutionalisation, psychological challenges or chemical enhancements, or at the very least, by people without any formal training in the arts. What kind of singular artistic agencies and philosophical outlooks get muffled under sweeping notions and processes of normalisation? Is operating at the fringes of official culture an affirmative, creative or political choice, or merely the result of the art world's exclusionary mechanisms? Why are we so drawn to the margins? What kind of dynamics exist between centres and peripheries within contemporary art?
The course offers a comprehensive look at unorthodox artistic agencies and cultural 'detritus'. During the course we examine a diversity of artistic practices beyond the established infrastructure of contemporary art (education, funding, museums, galleries, biennales, art fairs). We delve into domains of unfettered experimentality and self-actualisation, and discuss the contours of use value and play tactics. We inquire about the possibilities of transgressing legitimate cultural forms. We look at the uses and abuses of vocabulary to describe singular agencies, and ponder processes of exclusion on the one hand, and mechanisms of reification on the other. The specific thematic focus of the course changes from year to year. The course touches upon a wide variety of domains, such as: vernacular/outsider art, trash cultures, comic arts, graffiti culture/street art, urban exploration, improv & noise, etc.
Assessment Methods and Criteria (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
Course participation, course assignment.
Workload (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
24 hours of contact teaching, 111 hours of individual work. Requirement of all schedules activities a minimum of 80%.
Course Homepage (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
https://mycourses.aalto.fi/course/search.php?search=TAI-E3133
Grading Scale (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
0-5
Registration for Courses (valid 01.08.2018-31.07.2020):
Registration via WebOodi. Please see WebOodi for registration dates.
The order of priority for admitting students to courses at Aalto ARTS 1.1.2018 onwards (approved by The Committee of Arts, Design and Architecture on 10.10.2017)
The order of priority is as follows:
1. students for whom the course is compulsory for their major/programme and who have scheduled it for the current academic year in their personal study plan (HOPS);
2. exchange students for whom the course is a part of his/her officially approved learning agreement and scheduled to be taken during the current semester;
3. students for whom the course is compulsory for their major/programme and who have not completed it yet;
4. students, for whom the course is part of his/her major's or programme's alternative studies and has been scheduled in the student's PSP (HOPS) for the current academic year
5. students, for whom the course is part of his/her major's or programme's alternative studies and who have not completed the requisite number of credits for alternative studies yet;
6. students for whom the course is compulsory for their minor;
7. students, for whom the course is part of his/her minor subject's alternative studies and who have not completed the requisite number of credits for alternative studies yet;
8. students who have applied for the course through a student mobility scheme (internal mobility within Aalto University, flexible study right (JOO) studies etc.);
9. other students.
Courses that are intended to be multidisciplinary (e.g. UWAS courses) may apply an order of priority based on the learning outcomes of the course, while bearing in mind the university obligation of enabling students to complete their degrees within the normative duration of study set for the degree. The order of priority does not apply to courses organised by the Centre for General Studies or doctoral courses.
This decision on the order of priority does not influence the right of the teacher to define prerequisites for the course.
- Teacher: Euro Pia
- Teacher: Yli-Annala Kari