Summer ’24 Syllabus

Art 110: Introduction to the Visual Arts

• Session: May 28 – Aug 16, 2024
• Section: 1, Class No. 10219
• Instructor: Glenn Zucman
• Contact: glenn.zucman@csulb.edu
• Format: Online, Asynchronous
• Exams: None
• Textbook: This website, glenn.zucman.com/i2va, +The Internet
• Prerequisites: None
• Due Date: Thursday by Midnight PDT (California Time)
• Deadline: Sunday by Midnight PDT (California Time)
• No late work
• Original work: your work should be yours, and it should be done this summer during the class (no past work, no copying from classmates or the web, no AI such as ChatGPT)

Class Structure

Each week of summer, you will:

1. Research & compare-and-contrast a pair of living artists
2. Try a new art activity

Photos, essays, and analyses will all be posted on Canvas.

Objectives

This class introduces you to Art and Ideas as practiced in the 21st century. Each week, you’ll try different art media, from traditional to contemporary. You’ll also research and compare and contrast two living artists, their work, and their ideas. All work in this online, asynchronous class is posted on Canvas.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Describe some of the styles, ideas, and issues found in contemporary art.
• Understand and articulate some of the ways that art functions vis-a-vis human culture.
• Build upon their direct, introductory experiences in Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Photography, Animation, and Data Visualization in both Physical and Virtual worlds.
• Articulate their understanding of the relationship between art and culture, speech, creativity, and expression.
• Describe the role of the artist in culture and society.

Schedule

Weeks of Summer

Activities

1. Drawing (Partner Drawing)
2. Sculpture (Plaster Casting)
3. Painting & Street Art (Graffiti Writing)
4. Museum Visit
5. Time Based Media (Vlogging)
6. Art & My Major
7. Printmaking (Zines)
8. Photography I (Headshots & Environmental Portraits)
9. Photography II (Photo Stories)
10. Intermedia Art
11. Student Choice
12. Performance Art

Artists of the Week

Some weeks I’ll give you two artists to research and write “compare & contrast” essays about. Some weeks you’ll get to pick. In all cases it will be Living Artists. Dead artists are important too! But since we only have 12 weeks to think about a lot, let’s focus on artists who are sharing this contemporary world with you.

1. Russell Crotty + Trisha Brown (a choreographer but focus on her drawings)
2. Juliana Cerqueira Leite + Tara Donovan
3. Your Choice – Pick two living painters. Painter #1 should be a Graffiti Writer. From anywhere in the world. Or maybe from Los Angeles. Painter #2 should be a Fine Art or Gallery Painter. Meaning simply that they show paintings in art galleries. Maybe a blue-chip artist collected by museums like The Broad. Or a red-chip or emerging artist. Maybe a young painter from the LBSU SOA. Once you’ve got your two painters, do some research. Look at their work. Find video interviews with them.
4. Joanne Heyler (curator, The Broad) + David Wilson (founder, Museum of Jurassic Technology)
5. Your Choice – find 2 YouTube/TikTok/Twitch Content Creators who are currently active (have posted at least 6 videos in 2024) Pick 2 that are personally relevant to you in some way. Try to find one “popular” (100k or more followers) and one less popular (10k or fewer followers)
6. Your Choice – Find 2 Artists/Scientists/Engineers/Business people/Biologists/Nurses, etc., that do work related to your field. Search the net and find two interesting people. They might be “artists” who use your field’s media or professionals in your field who also make artworks or present their work artfully. Your first few searches might not find much. When I tried to find Artworks based on Financial Data I mostly found articles about paintings selling at auctions. If you keep searching and get clever with your search terms, you will eventually find people you can write about.
7. Tom Sachs works in many media, and Johanna Fateman is a musician and art writer. Both have included zines in their oeuvres.
8. Nan Goldin + Annie Leibovitz
9. Lynsey Addario + Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller.
10. Joseph DeLappe + Micol Hebron.
11. Your Choice – pick any two living artists!
12. Marina Abramovic + Paweł Althamer.

Optional Meetups

You probably appreciate the flexibility of an online asynchronous class. But you might also miss the chance to interact with classmates. We have four optional meetups, and you may attend some, all, or none:

• Wk 1 – Thu, May 30, 11a – 1p, CSULB Umbrella Tables outside Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf – Partner Drawing Activity
• Wk 2 – Thu, June 6, 11a – 1p, Seal Beach Pier – Plaster Casting Activity
• Wk 3 – Sat, June 15, 11a – 1p, Venice Beach Art Walls – Graffiti Writing Activity
• Wk 4 – Sat, June 22, 11a – 1p, The Broad Museum, DTLA – Museum Visit Activity

Alternative Activities

Most of the class activities should be fun and not too difficult. You are never forced to try an activity. While it’s nice to stretch a little out of our comfort zones, if an activity is emotionally or technically problematic for you, let me know. We can pick an alternative activity for you for that week.

Your Canvas Posts

You’ll post Activity and Compare & Contrast essays on Canvas each week.

Activities

Include Photos of both your Process and your Final Results. Or a video.

Describe what you did, how it came out, and what you would try differently if you did this project again.

Be sure to answer the questions on the Activity Page. This post is not “academic writing”. It can be short and casual. It’s mostly about trying the activity and photo-documenting your work. But do answer the questions.

Compare & Contrast Artists

Include samples of the Artists’ Work.

Discuss how each artist works. What do they create? What are their goals? How do you perceive them? What does their work have in common? How is it different? How do you experience them? If you were to create this type of work, would either of these artists be a model for you? How would your work be similar or different from theirs? What would your goals be?

This is more formal writing. Try to watch your spelling and grammar. Aim for 500 words. Try to think less about how many words and more about thinking about these two artists, their ideas, and how you do or don’t connect with them. If you really think through their work, it should be easy to write over 500 words.

Points & Grades

Points

• Weeks 1-10 Art Activities x 4 points = 40 points
• Weeks 11-12 Art Activities x 5 points = 10 points
• Weeks 1-10 Artist Essays x 4 points = 40 points
• Weeks 11-12 Artist Essays x 5 points = 10 points
• Total Possible = 100 points

Grades

• 90 points = A
• 80 points = B
• 70 points = C
• 60 points = D
• 59 & below = F

No Late Work

Be Professional – there is no late work.

• If you’re late for an interview, you won’t get hired.
• If you’re late delivering work, you won’t get rehired (and may get sued)
• Take this course and your career seriously.
• Meet your deadlines.

Each week, your work is due on Canvas:

• Due Date is Thursday @ 11:59 pm PT
• Deadline is Sunday @ 11:59 pm PT

If you plan to have your work completed and submitted by the weekly “Due Date” of Thursday, then you’re giving yourself a cushion for anything that might come up: technical issues, personal things, and so on.

Work submitted by the Sunday Deadline receives full credit. Work submitted after the deadline receives no credit.

Early is OK

You’ll notice that all the activities for this summer are already up on Canvas. Our asynchronous class is designed to conveniently fit in with your summer plans. If you’d like to do work in advance, that’s fine.

You may post the work for any week anytime before the due date. For most students this will be the week that it’s due. However if you’d like to do work in advance and bank some time off or finish the class early, that’s completely fine.

Note that I won’t grade work till after the due date. Early posting is fine, but you’ll have to wait a bit to get your points.

Resubmissions are OK

If you submit an activity and then want to submit something different, that’s fine. When you click “Resubmit/Another Attempt” Canvas will throw out your first attempt and replace it with your new submission.

If you only want to comment on your submission or add something to it, do not Resubmit. Instead, simply add your new info as a Comment in the sidebar.

Other Course Details

Incompletes

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

Withdrawal Deadlines

• CSULB Enrollment Services: Key Dates & Deadlines
• CSULB Dropping & Withdrawing Policies

Accommodation

LBSU will make reasonable accommodations for any student who has different needs. It is the student’s responsibility to notify me in advance of the need for special accommodations.

Eliminating Anti-Blackness

Faculty at LBSU strive to create an environment that supports meaningful dialogue grounded in research, academic inquiry, and mutually respectful relations. We also strive to remain conscious of and attentive to the damage that anti-Blackness does to the lives of our students, faculty, staff, administrators, and their related communities.

Freedom of Expression 

The College of the Arts (COTA) at Long Beach State University (LBSU) embraces freedom of expression in the arts and encourages students’ creation of work that thoughtfully engages with all facets of the human experience. COTA recognizes that respect, openness, inclusiveness, and access are essential to creating a productive and constructive place for our students, faculty, and staff to teach, learn, study, create, and expand their fields. LBSU supports creative, thoughtful, and respectful discourses in which conflicting perspectives are vigorously debated and thoroughly discussed. LBSU is dedicated to affording all members of the LBSU community freedom of speech, expression, right to assemble, religion, and press, and protections for all identities under the U.S. and California constitutions, as well as under all applicable federal and state laws, in accordance with the University’s purpose and function except insofar as limitations on those freedoms are necessary to LBSU’s functioning. 

For more information about the First Amendment, freedom of expression, and hate speech, see:

• csulb.edu/student-affairs/free-speech/freedom-of-expression
• csulb.edu/student-affairs/free-speech/faq
• csulb.edu/academic-senate/policy-statement-00-07-faculty-professional-responsibility-policy  

For more on COTA’s support of inclusivity and diversity, see:

• csulb.edu/college-of-the-arts/mission-and-vision

Campus Confidential Advocates, Not Alone @ the Beach

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination, including sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. If you have experienced sexual harassment, sexual assault, rape, dating/domestic violence, or stalking, the Campus Confidential Advocate is available to help.

Jaqueline Urtez and Rocio Telumbre, email: advocate@csulb.edu, phone: 562-985-2668, can provide free and confidential support, accommodations, and referrals for victims without having to report the assault to campus authorities. While students are welcome to discuss assaults with faculty or disclose such experiences in class discussions or assignments, both faculty and teaching assistants are responsible employees who are required to report all known incidents of sexual harassment/misconduct to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office for follow-up. Reporting this information will result in the student being contacted by the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office with information on accommodations and reporting options for possible investigation. Students do not need to respond to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office, but students who do wish to report the assault for possible investigation are encouraged to contact the Campus Confidential Advocate, who can help them through the reporting process, or they can report the assault directly to the Office of Equity & Diversity/Title IX Office by completing an online reporting form at https://www.csulb.edu/equity-diversity/title-ix or contacting the Office of Equity & Diversity at OED@csulb.edu.

For more information about confidential advocacy services and violence prevention education at LBSU, please contact our campus project Not Alone @ the Beach https://cla.csulb.edu/natb