VAST-310

In this linked academic and studio course, students will explore the intertwining of human activity and natural environments, responding to personal experiences and research through field journals. Trips to local sites in Vancouver (all accessible by public transportation), will offer opportunities for on-site drawing and photography, with the spontaneous observations and unpredictable energy of being on location. Students will also select their own unique site for detailed study and field guide development. 

We will explore strategies for on-site drawing and research as well as other approaches to capturing observations and experiences. Course activities will range from research in archives, expert interviews, exploring documentary, reportage, storytelling and new ways to consider the role of the artist as visual commentator. The range of artistic output could vary from photodocumentary to imagined illustrative visions. Students will develop artwork and writing as personal responses to the class investigations. 

Field journals provide a methodology for documentation, research and personal expression. Throughout the class, students will develop a thematic field guide as a means to collect imagery, expand research and develop ideas. The course will culminate with a longer investigative project that could take forms such as artist books, illustrated journals, posters, narrative photographs or a series of paintings with texts.

Topic: Persona
This studio course will examine the role of “persona” in performance art practices. In an interdisciplinary framework, we will discuss readings, artists, lived experiences, and practices that address how a character comes into being in the world.  Coursework includes technical, creative, and critical exercises that provide students the opportunity to develop performance personas in a range of approaches, which may include sound, text, voice, movement, film/video, photography, animation, AI, social media etc.

This studio course investigates ways of collaborating with the land within a studio-based practice. In this course we will be conducting hands-on field work gathering natural materials, processing mineral and plant pigments, installing finished work both inside a gallery setting and out on the land, working in field journals to record findings and ideas, written reflections, and readings that relate to the lessons. We will discuss and explore the ethics as well as the health and safety of working with gathered materials. 

Throughout the class, students will be creating three small projects that lead into a final artwork.