It doesn’t behoove an emerging generation to placate the world view of those who came before them.

— Hennessy Youngman, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 2011

Syllabus

Contents

A. Class Overview
B. Schedule Overview
C. Full Syllabus

Full Syllabus

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Final
• Format
• What’s Due?
• Late Policy
• Attendance
• Points and Grades
• Extra Credit
• Rubrics
• Post Names
• Writing about your conversations with artists
• Artist Tags
• Other Details

Art 110: Introduction to the Visual Arts

• Section 2: Class No.4568 – F2F Course
• Instructor: Glenn Zucman

Class

Office Hours

• Tuesday 12:15 – 12:45, School of Art, Art Gallery Courtyard
• Thursday 12:15 – 12:45, School of Art, Art Gallery Courtyard
• By Appointment, FO4-267

Contact

• glenn.zucman@csulb.edu
• 415-203-5571 or Glenn_IRS (WhatsApp, Telegram, Line, Kik, or LMK if you like another IM app)

Art 110 – Vision

I’ve tried to honor the Hennessy Youngman quotation at the top of this syllabus. This course is designed to try to “speak in your language.” As much as possible the design of this class will reflect Millennial Culture rather than Gen X or Baby Boom Culture.

Gone

• Paper Textbooks
• Work “turned in” via ink on paper
• Class “lectures” with me talking while you sit and listen

Instead

• Your Phone is your Textbook
• Activities are “turned in” by posting on your own website
• Class Activity time focuses on meeting artists and discussing their work

Yes, there will still be times when we need to be “academic” about it. Each week you’ll write about a CSULB Student Artist exhibiting that week in the School of Art Galleries, and those essays will need to be carefully written for compelling ideas, correct details, proper grammar and punctuation, and so on.

Prerequisites

• None

Objectives

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to Art and Ideas as practiced in the 21st century. Each week students will try a wide range of art media from traditional tools like paint, to contemporary media like Snapchat. Each week students will visit the CSULB School of Art Galleries, see the work of 4-5 different student artists, have conversations with the artists, and write blog posts about the work.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will have:

• Been introduced to a dozen creative media tools
• Produced an ePortfolio of their work in Art110 and at CSULB
• Seen 50 – 60 different art exhibitions at the CSULB SOA Galleries
• Conversed with a dozen or more student artists about their work
• Conversed with a dozen or more classmates about the work on exhibition at the CSULB SOA Galleries

Format of the Course

Each week this course includes:
1. Art Activity
2. Conversation with a student artist exhibiting in the CSULB SOA Galleries
3. Conversation with an Art110 classmate about the work in the CSULB SOA Galleries

Each week you’ll make 3 blog posts on your WordPress.com website, 1 for each item.

Due Dates

Each week’s posts are due by 11:59pm on Sunday night.

Late Policy

You may submit work up to 1 week late. After 1 week late work is not accepted. On time work will automatically be graded. Late work you should email me asking me to take a look and letting me know what items (URLs) you want me to look at.

All points below are “up to” full value for excellent work. Deductions listed in the Rubrics.

• Artist Conversations: On time: 30. Late: 20.
• Activities: On time: 20. Late: 14.
• Classmate Conversations: On Time: 10. Late: 7.

Textbook

• Your Mobile Device

Materials

• See the Materials page for info on the Art Kits available in both the Main Bookstore and the CSULB Art Store located in FA3.

Attendance

This is not a “textbook” course, but an experience course. If you don’t come to class, you haven’t done the course. Each Tuesday in class we’ll look at some of your best projects from last week and prepare for this week’s activities. Each Thursday we meet at the CSULB School of Art (SOA), Art Gallery Courtyard where you can have your Artist & Classmate Conversations. On Thursdays in the SOA Gallery Courtyard you can also prepare for, and sometimes complete, the week’s activity. (you can’t do activities like Spray Painting or Plaster Casting in the Gallery Courtyard)

Drawing Your Student ID Card

Starting Week 2 I’ll be taking attendance via your ID Cards. You’ll turn in, not your physical ID card, but a drawing of it. Your art kit includes a package of 3×5 index cards for this purpose.

Draw your ID card. As long as your name is clearly legible, the rest is up to you. A simple copy of the card. A detailed self-portrait. A campus landscape. An alien world. Highly representational. Abstract. Every class it’s your choice. Have fun!

Give your ID Card Drawing to Glenn at the end of every Tuesday class, and anytime during Thursday class.

• NO Scraps of paper! Please use the 3×5 index cards in your Art110 Art Kit.
• You can only turn in Your Own card: no turning in cards for friends!

Periscope

• You must attend the Thursday Gallery visits in person.
• Tuesday class you may attend in person or via Periscope. You can switch back and forth on Tuesdays, attending F2F or by Periscope as you like. My Periscope ID is:
• Glenn_IRS

Our Tuesday sessions are not intended to be be “watching a lecture” but participating in a discussion. Therefore your Periscope viewing must be during classtime, Tuesdays 11-12:15.

In some ways its even easier to ask questions and offer comments via Periscope than F2F – be sure to participate!

• If you participate via Periscope, you won’t turn in an ID card. Instead be sure to comment “Your Name” once at the beginning of the class and once at the end.

Missing 1 or 2 classes across the span of the semester should not be too detrimental to your final grade. If you need to miss more than that, you should see me immediately and most likely plan to take Art110 a different semester.

Points and Grades

Points

• 12 Artist Conversations x 30 = 360 points
• 12 Activities x 20 = 240 points
• 12 Classmate Conversations x 10 = 120 points
• Attendance: 26 classes x 7 = 182 points
• Final: 98 points

Course Total Possible = 1,000 points.

Grades

900 points = A
800 points = B
700 points = C
600 points = D
599 & below = F

Extra Credit

We have 3 extra credit opportunities this semester, each worth +35 points. If you do all 3 that’s +105 or over a full letter grade of EC. I hope you don’t even need any EC, but if you do, here it is:

Wk 1: Domain Name

When you make your website on WordPress.com in Week 1, you can either use a free domain name like “me.wordpress.com” or you can pay about $18 for your own domain name, like “me.com”. You can get full credit with any “me.wordpress.com” URL, or Extra Credit of +35 points if you go ahead and buy “me.com”. This EC Only Available in Week 1!

Wk 5: Painting

The best place to paint is at the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls. Just about everyone who has ever gone has had a great time. Yes it’s far. Yes, I know you hate to drive. Just paint at home for full credit, or go to the Venice Beach Legal Art Walls to paint for +35 EC.

Wk 9: 3D Chair

Congratulations on making a chair! You can have it 3D printed at the LB Maker Society. They’re on campus on the 5th Floor of Vivian Engineering. Include a photo of you holding your 3D printed chair for +35 EC.

Rubric: Artist Conversations

Each Conversation starts off with a perfect score of 30. Points are deducted from that if necessary:

1. No Photos: -10
2. Poor Post Naming: -10
3. Too short: -10
4. Not analytic enough: -10
5. No Artist Tag, or incorrect tag: -15
6. Misspelled Artist Name: -15
7. Other misspellings: -10
8. Poor Grammar: -10
9. No link to artist website: -10 (if they have one)

Rubric: Classmate Conversations

Each Conversation starts off with a perfect score of 10. Points are deducted from that if necessary:

1. No Photos: -3
2. Poor Post Naming: -3
3. Too short: -3
4. Not analytic enough: -3
5. No link to classmate website: -3

Rubric: Activities

Each Activity starts off with a perfect score of 20. Points are deducted from that if necessary:

1. No Photos: -7
2. Poor Post Naming: -7
3. Too short: -7
4. Not analytic enough: -7

Photos

Photos of what? For your Activities, document your process! For Classmate Interviews, a photo with your classmate would be great. For Artist Interviews, a photo of the artist, or their work would be ok. Photos of both would be great.

Post Names

Please use this format:

• Wk2 – Activity – Plaster Casting
• Wk2 – Artist Conversation – Brianna Allen
• Wk2 – Classmate Conversation – Geri Weckstein

Writing about Artist Conversations (Analytic Writing)

I’m going to try to be lenient and generous in grading your Activity and Classmate Conversation posts. But I’m going to really ask you to step up your writing game when it comes to writing about the artists we meet at the SOA Galleries. These are almost all young artists just beginning their careers. They’ve typically worked for many months to put up the work we see in the galleries, and you are very likely the 1st person ever to write about them and their work! That’s awesome! But it also gives us the responsibility to be accurate and informed about the work.

Please pay very careful attention to spelling! Get these things right:

• Artist’s Name
• Title of Show & Title of any specific works you discuss
• Name of Gallery the show is in
• Link to Artist’s website, Tumblr, Instagram, or whatever the best way to find more online about them is

This is still an “informal” blog post, and your writing doesn’t have to be completely “academic.” But it does have to have good grammar and be thoughtful and intelligent.

You don’t have to “like” the work. In fact, I’d really rather not even know if you “like” or “don’t like” the work. Try not to think in those terms. A chess master doesn’t have to “like” their opponent or even their style of play, but they do need to try to understand what’s on the other player’s mind and how they’re thinking about this game.

Artist Tags

The CSULB School of Art, Student Artists, are being generous with us. They galleries normally open at Noon, so they’re opening an hour early to talk to Art110. And they’re dealing with a big class like ours coming through their carefully assembled exhibition. And answering lots of questions from us! So lets try to thank them for their hospitality and for sharing their work with us. One great way to do this is to TAG your post. This gives them a tag they can click on to see all the posts we’ve written about them. The tags for your Artist Conversations are:

• Gatov-West
• Gatov-East
• Merlino-Gallery
• Werby-Gallery
• Dutzi-Gallery
• SOA-Courtyard

Each week when we visit the SOA Galleries, you’ll pick 1 of the shows for your Artist Conversation & Blog Post. This will almost always be in 1 of the 5 Galleries: Gatov West, Gatov East, Merlino Gallery, Werby Gallery or Dutzi Gallery. There may also be work installed or performed in the SOA Courtyard on occasion.

Another nice way to respect these artists is to try to have a real conversation with them about their work and their ideas first, and then ask to take a photo of them or their work. When 100 of us rush in with cell phones snapping all at once, the artists can start to feel like victims of paparazzi rather than appreciated artists.

Other Details

Incompletes

The Art Department grants “incompletes” rarely and only for the most extreme conditions.

Withdrawal Deadlines

• By MyCSULB – September 7 @10pm
• w signature, Director, School of Art – November 13
• w signature, Director, School of Art and Dean, College of the Arts – December 9

Accommodation

CSULB will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has a disability. It is the student’s responsibility to notify me in advance of the need for special accommodations. This course utilizes many activities and many tools. Most of you should have no trouble with any of this, however if anyone has challenges with any course aspect for any reason, please be in touch ASAP and we can work to find suitable alternatives. A sincere effort should result in real learning and a good grade, so never be afraid to ask for any accommodations you need, but do make a sincere effort.

Fun

Art is, or should be, a fun, interesting, exciting, and enjoyable subject. Art offers pleasure to the viewer, consolation to the distraught, and wisdom to the seeker. Art will enrich your leisure time, resonate with your life, and offer surprising relevance to almost any career field you choose!