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Contemporary Art Angles

Why should I take this Trinity Elective?

This elective will introduce you to the way artists think, construct knowledge, and communicate, verbally and through their work.
The idea of creative thinking and action has become so familiar a refrain in our contemporary language that it can seem rhetorical,  so it may be of interest to you to understand how in artists hands, engagement with different forces and themes are self generated and often overlap with personal interests.
The label of the artist has come to be applied in increasingly generic ways.  Is the future for artists work under threat now in an increasingly instrumentalized world - does this matter ?
This elective will look at ideas, things, skills and communication and it will require your consistent attendance.
You should take this elective on because it requires a measure of your creativity, experiment and open ended action in relation to communicating in known and alternative ways. This is evidenced through the construction of a contextual notebook.

What will I learn?

  • You should expand your creative capacity to communicate.
  • You will be able to develop a greater reflective capacity by connecting new material and means to your own knowledge bases.
  • You will understand more fully how creative artists’ develop skills and act ethically in an ongoing relationship to the contemporary art field that is restless and is constantly evolving.
  • You will learn the value of experiential engagement in addition to other ways of knowing.

What will I do?

  • You will attend talks and lectures  delivered by significant and active artists and reflect on how meaning is constructed through various ‘tropes’ in relation to artists presentations. This can be, by turns, intense/funny/provocative/awkward /knowledge freshening.
  • You will build week on week, a body of material that you self generate in order to make connections and gain insight in relation to what is ‘at play’. This should be self authored / self generated and sourced through others views.
  • You will discuss with others attitudes to what you are seeing and thinking

How will this be delivered?

  • Through a variety of artist lecture / talk topics: (8) lecture hall talks.
  • Through examples, discussion and questions.
  • Through off site visits in groups and as your individual encounters: (4) encounters with art works beyond the  campus.

How will this be assessed?

The elective will be assessed (100%) on the submission of a contextual notebook. The forms and means of this will be described at a very early in the elective to support your understanding and experiment.  At mid-point we will look with you to make sure you are on the right track.

Who can take this Trinity Elective?

  • Any student eligible to take a Trinity Elective can select this Trinity Elective except for any student in their final degree year.

More Information (PDF 197KB)