This studio class will address the increasing social pressure on art to become more widely distributed, immediately accessible, and democratically produced. For the past fifty years, expanding definitions of what art might be fueled by a greater emphasis on active audience participation have encouraged an atmosphere in which anyone can claim to be an artist. Through studio work in a wide range of graphic and digital media, supported by readings and discussions, this class will take a hands-on approach to the question of whether art by everyone for everyone constitutes a dreamed-of utopia, a universal banality, or a cultural nightmare.
Sample reading list:
Andy Warhol, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol
Robert Smithson, Collected Writings
Mike Kelley/Joe Scanlan, Pay for your Pleasure/Pay for your Pleasure (reprise)
Nicholas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics
Claire Bishop, Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics
Boris Groys, Going Public
