One Curatorial Research Project in Eight Acts
The curator's statements and label copy that you write for your mini exhibition of 4-5 objects will be published in the undergraduate refereed journal Spectrum. You will be working in teams of two-three to develop your exhibition.
Local objects:
1) INSECT/ENTOMOLOGY. Anonymous. Insect album (30 paintings). ca. 1810. Album imported paper; overall dimensions1.6 cm x 44.6 cm x 36.5 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.3.
2) HUMAN BODY/ETHNOLOGY/ANTHROPOLOGY Liangyou [The Young Companion] ethnographic photographs.UA AP 95 C4 L33 folio Library has: no.1 (1926)-no.172 (1945)
3) LANDSCAPE/CARTOGRAPHY Anonymous court workshop. Battlescene from the Nian Rebellion. Late 1870s. Tieluo, Ink and colours on paper; 137.8 cm x 305.6 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.49
4) ANIMALS/ZOOLOGY: Yu Fei'an and Zhao Kejia. Hanging scroll depicting cats, lilies, and a butterfly [untitled]. First half 20th century. Hanging scroll, ink, colour; 98 x 32.7 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.89.
5)
BIRDS/ORNITHOLOGY: Li Yuankai. Hanging scroll depicting birds, flowers, and insects [untitled]. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper; 124.2 x 36 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.81 or Zhang Chong, Goose. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper; 121.1 cm x 44.9 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.33
6) PLANTS/BOTANY: Gao Jianfu. Lilies. Hanging scroll, ink and colour on paper;
88 cm x 39.8 cm. Mactaggart Art Collection 2004.19.43
For ideas about objects that you might curate along with the objects listed above, click here.
Formulation of a question about the visual object from the Mactaggart Collection or the Rutherford Library that you are researching. What I would like you to do is to carefully think through and develop a meaningful, provocative question that you wish to pose of it. The work should suggest the question, and not the other way around. In your short essay, first do a visual analysis (and keep in mind that subject identification is not the same as visual analysis), then detail the process you used in devising the question, the problems you foresee in answering it, and why you think it is meaningful in relation to sciences and the arts. That is to say, do not simply draft a generalized, simple statement of the question; I want to see evidence of your deliberate and reasoned approach to evolving a good question. Why are you asking this question? and not another question? Do NOT attempt to essay uninformed, generalized (and therefore uncompelling) answers to your own question. One lengthy paragraph or two, post to the blog by Wednesday, October 11 at 10 am EARLIER IF POSSIBLE so that we will have enough time to read and review before conference on Thursday.
Late assignment policy: Late assignments will be accepted, but will be reduced two grades and will not receive any comments. The final date to submit an assignment is Wednesday, December 6.
Note: If you are not in conference when assignments are returned (please review attendance policy below), you will be able to pick them up outside Lisa's office (Art & Design 3-89B).
All students are expected to do the assigned readings and participate regularly and rigorously in the conference discussion. If you miss a conference, you will be responsible to turn in summaries of texts that were discussed on the day of your absence (these summaries will not be returned to you until the end of the semester and they will not be graded). More than three unexcused absences will result in low marks for the course. Acceptable excuses are illness and serious emergencies.
Please note: I expect students to participate in a conversation with me and with your peers about the curatorial process. This demands a certain flexibility and openness of mind, and a willingness to ask questions and challenge the authors we read and each other in constructive ways. Students who elect not to engage in this process will earn low marks.
Leading Conference Discussion. During the semester, you and one other student will work together to facilitate the discussion. Before the conference meets (on Wednesday at 5 pm for Thursday conference), please distribute a list of six discussion questions to every member of the class on the course blog. Feel free to upload images to the blog or any other materials you think would be helpful to creating a dynamic discussion. All conference participants will read the questions and reflect on the issues raised before conference meets.
Each question should be preceded by two or three sentences that contextualize it and explain its significance to the discussion. Ideally, the questions will perform three interrelated functions: 1) they will highlight the main point of the text; 2) suggest its relationship to other texts we have read and images we have seen, and; 3) illustrate its influence on the way we look at and understand visual images under consideration. For an extended set of suggestions on how to lead a good discussion, click here.
Graduate Student Proseminars
Graduate students in the class will work with undergraduates to develop curatorial projects as the senior members of each team. Extracurricular proseminars will be offered periodically throughout the term to enable graduate students to better understand the curatorial process and facilitate project development by teaching and guiding the undergraduate students. These will be scheduled at times convenient to all, and led by Lisa Claypool and possibly by other professors in the Art & Design Department.
500,000 images, mainly European and American
Digital image database of more than 700 works of visual art, including textiles, paintings, and artifacts from imperial and modern China.
Style guide, handy abbreviated guide to using the Chicago style
The Chicago Manual of Style Online (16th edition)
Web sources on Imperial Chinese Visual Culture
Late Neolithic period (ca. 5000-2000 BCE) through Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
Web sources on Modern Chinese Visual Culture
Republican era (1912-1949), Maoist China (1949-1976).
Web sources on Contemporary Chinese Visual Culture
China Now (1976-today)
Museums and Gardens (digital databases of museum collections)
Critically Assessing Information on the Web
Remember that materials on the web must be evaluated as critically as any other texts we consider in this course. See the Carleton College library guidelines on thinking critically about the web as a starting point.
Conservator's Guidelines to Handling Asian Art Objects, Freer and Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC
Undergraduates will write 3 labels each. Graduate students will write 1-2 labels. The labels are intended to do two things: 1) provoke thought; 2) provide some factual information about the object. Double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 2200-2500 characters, (use word count app, but check for characters with no spaces rather than words).
Graduate students will draft the curatorial statements for the section of the exhibition that they are co-curating in consultation with the other member or members of their team. Revision and expansion of the exploratories into a curatorial statement . This is the curatorial statement that brings the theme or question connecting your objects together. Double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, 7600-8000 characters (use word count app, but check for characters with no spaces rather than words). The graduate students will write the curatorial statements, but members of the team will contribute to it through discussion and collaborative research for the labels.
Grading scale: A+=98-100, A=94-97, A-=90-93; B+=87-89, B=83-86, B-=80-82; C+=77-79, C=73-76, C-=70-72; D+=67-69; D=64-66; F=63 and lower.
Effective September 1, 2003, the University of Alberta uses a letter grading system with a four-point scale of numerical equivalents for calculating grade point averages. To view guidelines concerning this system please see www.grades.ualberta.ca Above is the scale used in this course as a guideline in determining letter grades.
These will be confirmed in the first week or so of the term. Undergraduates are welcome to attend. The proposed dates for the sessions are:
October 16-18 on a date and time TBA / curating a theme
October 23-25 on a date and time TBA / visual arguments
October 30-November 1 on a date and time TBA / label writing
November 20-22 on a date and time TBA / workshopping curatorial statements
Students will be evaluated according to the 4-point scale adopted by the University of Alberta, which will result in a letter grade (from A+ to F). Students who receive a grade below a B- in either a studio or a History of Art, Design and Visual Culture course will not be permitted to continue to the next level in that discipline.
Audio or video recording of lectures, labs or seminars or any other teaching environment by students is allowed only with the written consent of the instructor or as a part of an approved accommodation plan. Recorded material is to be used solely for personal study, and is not to be used or distributed for any other purpose without prior written consent from the instructor.
Students registered with SSDS (Specialized Support and Disability Services) requiring accommodation should inform the instructor during the first week of class.
The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour that could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.
Policy about course outlines can be found in §23.4(2) of the University Calendar.
From the Code of Student Behaviour
The U of A considers plagiarism, cheating, misrepresentation of facts and participation in an offence to be serious academic offences. Plagiarism, cheating, misrepresentation of facts and participation in an offence can be avoided if students are told what these offences are and if possible sanctions are made clear at the outset. Instructors …will be fully supported by Departments, Faculties and the University in their endeavours to rightfully discover and pursue cases of academic dishonesty in accordance with the Code.
30.3.2(1) Plagiarism
No Student shall submit the words, ideas, images or data of another person as the Student's own in any academic writing, essay, thesis, project, assignment, presentation or poster in a course or program of study.
30.3.2(2) Cheating
30.3.2(2)a No Student shall in the course of an examination or other similar activity, obtain or attempt to obtain information from another Student or other unauthorized source, give or attempt to give information to another Student, or use, attempt to use or possess for the purposes of use any unauthorized material. 30.3.2(2)b No Student shall represent or attempt to represent him or herself as another or have or attempt to have him self or herself represented by another in the taking of an examination, preparation of a paper or other similar activity. See also misrepresentation in 30.3.6(4). 30.3.2(2)c No Student shall represent another's substantial editorial or compositional assistance on an assignment as the Student's own work. 30.3.2(2)d No Student shall submit in any course or program of study, without the written approval of the course Instructor, all or a substantial portion of any academic writing, essay, thesis, research report, project, assignment, presentation or poster for which credit has previously been obtained by the Student or which has been or is being submitted by the Student in another course or program of study in the University or elsewhere. 30.3.2(2)e No Student shall submit in any course or program of study any academic writing, essay, thesis, report, project, assignment, presentation or poster containing a statement of fact known by the Student to be false or a reference to a source the Student knows to contain fabricated claims (unless acknowledged by the Student), or a fabricated reference to a source.
30.3.6(4) Misrepresentation of Facts
No Student shall misrepresent pertinent facts to any member of the University community for the purpose of obtaining academic or other advantage. See also 30.3.2(2) b, c, d and e.
30.3.6(5) Participation in an Offence
No Student shall counsel or encourage or knowingly aid or assist, directly or indirectly, another person in the commission of any offence under this Code. The Truth In Education (T*I*E) project is a campus wide educational campaign on Academic Honesty. This program was created to let people know the limits and consequences of inappropriate academic behavior. There are helpful tips for Instructors and Students. Please take the time to visit the website at: http ://www.ualberta.ca/tie