Kurs: Art Composition

Sekcja ogólna

Five Words. Society and Politics. What? By What?

General assumptions.

The aim of the proposed two artistic compositions is a creative processing of emotions related to the socio-political issues. In general, it is about personal views and feelings, but it must be also considered that architects are operating in a specific socio-political context and respond to very specific needs of various individuals and to the expectations of different social and political groups as well. The creativity of architects is based on specific legal acts of a given country and region.

Description of the issue and the working methods.

The student proposes five words related to the socio-political situation. These words can express ideas, dreams, illusions, imaginations, associations, e.g.: democracy, totalitarianism, right wing, pluralism, utopia, the tripartite division of state power, courts, president, elections, conservatism, liberalism, etc. Another five words will be some kind of answers or commentary to the previous ones. These words should describe emotions related to the preceding words, e.g.: democracy - joy / indifference / doubt; president - pride / indifference / shame; pluralism - love / indifference, hate; etc. Then the student will draw out by the chance one word of the socio-political words and other one word describing emotions. The student should treat the juxtaposition of these two words as the subject of his / her own implementation, which in the first task it will be a spatial object or a sculpture, abstractly (symbolically) or literally expressing the interpretation of the already selected two words. At the same time, this interpretation and work with meaning of words should assume that one word, regardless of the order in which it was drawn, will be the subject, and the other one will be the way of expression or a kind of medium, through which the topic could be define, e.g. to represent the totalitarianism by lightness, to tell about the violence by democracy. At the first task, the student creates a spatial object, made of any materials and of any scale, taking into account durability, aesthetics and colour. By the second task, the student creates black-and-white graphics in the 100 x 70 cm (B1) size (any orientation of the work). In this case again the student has to interpret the words picked up by chance, but now using only black and white colours. The work might be inspired by the meme culture or possibly that trend which seems to be very popular nowadays. The black and white work can contain motives derived from ready-made images which are appearing in various cultural contexts, available through mass media. It is also possible to create a new image without any appropriation of motives that can visually exist in the public space. In this case the representation can be figurative, abstract (see American abstract expressionism, constructivism in painting etc.) or it might have the form of poster (see Polish poster school). One can also adopt the experience of concrete poetry or conceptualism in general. While creating graphics, you can use a photography, drawing, painting or computer aided graphic design, etc.

The first stage the process of work takes a month and will be focused on the preparation of preliminary notes, sketches, models and gathering materials from visual and popular culture, from the television, Internet, etc. That source material can be applied by creation the spatial object or sculpture. This stage of working will be completed with the credit. Another following month was planned for the second stage of work on the final object. The first task ends with a public presentation of the completed work along with the record of research process, sketches, etc. The spatial object will be evaluated along with the process of working and the student's commitment. The third stage of work lasts three weeks. The student makes introductory sketches, collects materials from various cultural contexts, and makes her / his own attempts to create black and white graphics. This stage ends with a credit. The fourth stage will last two or three weeks, until the end of the semester, and it will be the work on improvement and final execution of the black and white graphics. The student's process of working and the work itself will be assessed. In the end, both two grades and student's commitment as well, will be eventually components parts of the final assessment.

* (due to the online classes, the draw will be carried out by entering words in the google form. The link will be sent by the teachers (https://forms.gle/bTUgGDDE1ae2EPJE6)

Then, from among the total number of words entered in the form, the student will draw two of them, giving the random coordinates made up of letters and numbers. Words associated with the socio-political situation in the letter fields: b, c, d, e, f and numerical from 2 to the maximum number of completed questionnaires. Words describing emotions in letter fields: g, h, i, j, k and numerical ones from 2 to the maximum number of completed questionnaires. Sample of draw: student proposes two fields: b 43 and k 94, then the tutor reads two words from the spreadsheet, which become eventually the topic and medium of both works.