Course Overview

Because many MAE students choose exhibitions and projects as their emphases in their capstones, this course is tailored toward investigating and practicing the autobiographical and autoethnographic skills necessary for completing such art-based research tasks. That essentially means that we will rely heavily on our stories/autobiographies as a means to reflect (reflecting about autobiography is an autoethnographic method) about who I am, what I am interested in, what I am doing, and what I am trying to accomplish in my art and/or writing. This will be our primary task this semester; to begin to describe (autobiography) and possibly reflect/assess (autoethnography) the kinds of art or other research I am interested in creating, why I am, and where it may lead.

We will assume that art is research. (The following books thoroughly investigate that art is research: Leavy, P. (2009). Method meets art: Arts-based research practice. New York: The Guilford Press; Park, C. C. (2010). Creating with reverence: Art, diversity, culture and soul. Tucson, AZ: Sotol Books; and Schneider, A. & Wright, C. (Eds.). (2010). Between art and anthropology: Contemporary ethnographic practice. New York: Berg.) We will be looking at some diverse histories of how artists have created methodological innovations in art and the impact on us as artists and community members. Many of these methods come from non-mainstream places. We will read about visual artists and other artists who are using art as research tools to explore personal, social, political, and community issues. Through these artists, hopefully we can see ourselves in their stories; see our art as relevant; and see our schools, students and communities as part of a broader visual, environmental, and global picture. 

Our first book, is a theory/history book, Linda Weintraub’s (2012) To Life! Art in Pursuit of a Sustainable Planet that documents the beginning of the art eco movement, representing multiple artists developing/utilizing different methods to create art. These contemporary methods include but are not limited to: bio art, performance art, digital, installation, public, social practice, design—all contemporary methods of making research/art. Because of our direct link to Fredericksburg, TX, and our own communities, I am hoping this text will create an excitement for us; a willingness to look beyond the traditional ways we have been taught to think about art as research; what art is, what counts and what doesn’t. We will be perusing sustainable approaches/methods that artists have developed; looking at contemporary methods of making art: digital, performance, social practice, etc. One question for many of us as practicing teachers might be what are the pedagogical implications for such art practices for our classrooms? Much of the book is a compendium describing the practices of contemporary practicing artists. The digital version has lesson plans and many resources that can complement our classroom practices. Our second book is Live Through This: On Creativity and Self-Destruction. It is an anthology of contemporary women visual and performing artists across visual and performing arts disciplines, examining how their art is informed by their personal lived experiences and contemporary social issues. I use this book to show us how nuance of lived experiences not only informs who we are or might be, but informs us making art. Chapadjiev closely examines many critical connections between creativity and self-destruction in many women artists’ lives. Our third book is Roads to Junction: Making Art, Teaching Art. It's a compilation of former MAE student art and research. 

Much of this course will be spent on reading, posting on our blog, and responding to ideas and possibilities in our own research; or at the very least begin to think about areas that interest us; places to begin. Finally, since this is a research course, we will practice using APA Style Manual for our writing. Your writing samples can be in APA Style in text and references. If you go to: http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/apa/ It will give you guidelines to follow without purchasing the APA Style Manual book. It will show you how to cite a book and other sources in APA Style. Please note that we will be posting and writing in our semester projects, but you will not be writing formal research papers. Abstracts and title pages will not be necessary.