Art and its Publics: The Death of 'The Public' (VBPUB1)

Course language: English
Participants: Max 12
Schedule: Tue-Fri 10:00-16:00
Course leader/more information: Matthew Rana
With invited guests (TBC)

Taking as its starting point, literary critic and social theorist Michael Warner’s notion of a public as a discursive community of individuals organized around a shared interest, this block course will explore the possibilities that take shape around a group of individuals engaged in a common practice of reading and writing. Over five weeks, we will work our way through how reading, writing, and publishing as artists, might differ, not only from reading, writing, and publishing in general, but also from reading, writing, and publishing about art.

Together with Valand’s Printmaking department, course participants will work collaboratively in groups to produce a publication that actively engages the thematics of the course. Through a mixture of reading, writing, design and production, students will address their work to a public, while considering issues of form, content and distribution.

Thematic
What is a public today? How does it compare with a multitude, a community or even an audience? Can the ‘public’ in its more traditional sense be considered dead? If so, what new forms of 'publicity' and engagement have arisen in its place? Can a public also be understood in terms of a process or an ethic—not merely as production, but also as a shared space, a way of being and being together?

Beyond questions such as these, how do we understand and engage with the effects of technologies that allow for instant communication among global networks, a supposedly ‘unlimited’ amount of information access, e-books and print-on-demand? What factors are involved? What shifts have arisen with with respect to notions of attention, coherence, transparency and understanding? Similarly, what roles can inattention, fragmentation, intimacy and exclusivity play?
Can we distinguish the space of a publication from more traditional sites of display (i.e. white-cube gallery or an institutional context)? What are the formal possibilities for publications, and what are the different economies, audiences and distribution networks that they can access and/or create?

The course will look at several examples form small/independent presses, artists' publications, and journals such as Dot Dot Dot, F.R. David, OEI, the Thing Quarterly and 'The Happy Hypocrite.' We will also touch on historical uses of publications in the arts from the catalogues of Seth Siegelaub, to magazines such as FILE and Avalanche. Theoretical texts exploring various understandings of the term 'public' will be part of the course as well. These will include texts from artists and thinkers such as Seth Price, Richard Sennett, and Michael Warner. We will also discuss concepts developed by theorists such as Paolo Virno on issues surrounding new modes of perception and ‘total communication’.

Goals
Through a process of mutual exploration, we will develop a theoretical and practical perspective on the role that publication and distribution strategies can play within an artistic practice. Participants will gain practical production skills (i.e. design, printmaking, writing etc.) and an understanding of how to collaborate effectively within a group.

Schedule
This is a 5 week course. The first week will focus primarily on assigned readings. The remaining weeks will be devoted to the design and production of the group project, during which time students will work in groups and have the opportunity to work in Valand's printmaking workshop. During this period workshop sessions with guest teachers and group meetings will also be scheduled, along with evening activities such as talks, shared meals, readings and film screenings.

Course Requirements
A collaborative publication project specific to the content of the course is required. Students will be required to give oral presentations of their work and will be evaluated individually according to their contributions to the group effort.

Open to students from all disciplines.

Instructor Bio
Matthew Rana is an artist and writer whose research deals with issues surrounding socially engaged art practice, speech-acts and the politics of language. He holds an MFA in Social Practice and an MA in Visual & Critical Studies from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco.