Topic outline

  • Welcome to the course

    This multidisciplinary art course will familiarize students from multiple disciplines with the general discussion and notions of human-material interaction both theoretically and concretely through material manipulation. The topic of materiality will thus be approached from a theoretical, embodied, shared and societal point of view. Lectures and reading material will introduce the current discussions on the topic of materiality and covers sensory experiences, embodied cognition, human-material interaction, theory on new materiality, material agency and non-representational theories. In class, the students will both discuss their ideas and learning outcomes as well as concretise their learning through hands on material ideation and experimentation. The student will ideate and materialise an artefact while reflecting over their own artistic process and share its stages with the group and the teacher. In the end of the course there is the possibility to exhibit the created artefacts in an exhibition that we will design and build together, in the Learning centre Gallery between March 29 - April 6. We will arrange an exhibition opening in the afternoon of the 29th. We can start building the exhibition on the 27th of March.

    Schedule:

    We will meet every Friday in March at 9:15 - 12.00 at Väre Room R 107. We will keep the door open until 9:20 so please be in time!

    1/3 : Introduction, discussions, studio instructions

    8/3 : Lecture: Experiential knowledge, discussions, studio work.

    15/3 : Lecture: Human-Material Interaction, discussions, studio work.

    22/3 : Lecture: Material agency and society, discussions, studio work.

    29/3: Exhibition opening, student presentations, discussions, wrap up.

    Please note that there is only 5x3h contact teaching, and you will need to spend minimum 2h on independent work in the studios or elsewhere in your own time. There will be small tasks given in each class for the following week. You will be given permission to use the studios outside of the contact teaching.

    Pre-assignment: There is a pre-assignment consisting of reading Barbara Bolts paper which you can find in the Materials section of this MyCourses page. Also, write one or two paragraphs to introduce yourself and your motivations for taking this course, as a message to the teachers (and send to us by uploading the text in MyCourses Assignments page). Also bring your favourite object or material with you to talk about when you introduce your self in the first session.

    Structure of each class:

    -       Before each session: read the agreed chapter / article.

    -       For the ideation and thinking: bring drawings in your process diary (you will be given one in the first session)

    -       For the material prototyping: Choose from materials provided in the course: Clay or Textiles. (Alternatively you can bring materials from your own context/study field.) 

    -       During discussion sessions: Take notes of the most meaningful content of the discussions in your process diary.

    -       In between sessions: work on your ideation / material implementation. Read the suggested reading for next session.

    -       In the end of the course: prepare a presentation of your material and theoretical learning outcome in the format of a piece of art for the exhibition accompanied with an A4 ( 400-500 words) contextualisation of the art-piece and your idea. 

     

    Assessment methods and criteria

    You will be assessed based on your active participation in the course and on your completed tasks and the presentation of your artistic process as PASS or FAIL. You will need to attend 80% of the contact teaching sessions to pass the course.


    See you in class: 
    Camilla Groth   camilla.groth at aalto.fi     +358407014703
    Bilge Aktas        bilge.aktas at aalto.fi         + 358469524175