Installation, Sculptural, and Documentary Approaches to Memory, Counter-Memory, and the Monumental

In this course we examine the politics of storytelling in contemporary art practice and the effects of different kinds of historiographic methods in a range of media, including video installation, documentary and public sculpture. Contemporary artists often engage in history making by questioning given formats and representational conventions, exposing their latent power and reworking them. The production of histories intimately entwines with the generation of possible futures and this course explores the political responsibility of artistic-historical narratives and their agency in transmitting and shaping the digestion of the stories they tell. Each student will undertake research into a specific (probably local) history, using methods from relevant disciplines, which could include ethnographic methods such as participant observation or transdisciplinary historiographic methods such as oral history, archival and textual research, but could also include Indigenous perspectives, archaeological methods such as surveying and excavating. Students will research the methods and media that are most appropriate to the history they are working on, and then educate themselves on how to go about using these methods and media within their capabilities and the resources available to them. The conceptual design and the realization of each of the students' projects will be informed by critical thinking and analysis of various contemporary art projects which engage in the politics of memory and their approach to formats including the visual essay, the voice-over, re-enactment, the edited interview, archival display, and the monument. Although the media students work with is dependent on the conceptual development of their projects, the course will include some technical instruction on video production, post-production and installation.