Exploration
of the Arts 1301-02
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Syllabus AP 1301 Professor Alex Argyros Jo. 3.918 Extension: 2781 Office Hours: TR 12:30-1:30; W 12:30-1:30 Texts: 1) Feagin and Maynard, Aesthetics 2)Conrad, Heart of Darkness
General
Information
This class serves as an introduction to the Arts.
The semester will be divided roughly into two parts.
The first segment will be devoted to an investigation of the nature of
the aesthetic experience. Among the
questions to be addressed are the following:
What is a work of art? What
is the function of art? How does
one evaluate art? Is beauty in the
eye of the beholder, or is it an objective feature of a work of art?
How does art relate to social and political issues?
Does art have any relation to other disciplines such as math and science?
The second part of the semester will give students a sense of what the creation
of art entails. During this period,
students will take two three-week workshops during which they will learn some
techniques that artists use. It is
important to remember that the hands-on part of this semester is not intended to
teach students to be artists. Such
a goal would be as absurd as the goal to teach students how to be physicists or
biologists in six weeks. The
purpose of the workshops is to give students a sense of the immense complexity
and difficulty the making of art entails.
The focus of the workshops will be on the final project, which will entail the
transformation of a work of art (students will choose from among three poems and
three paintings) into another work of art.
The notion of transformation will be discussed in class; what follows is
a brief summary of its basic principles.
Transformation is a middle category between inspiration and adaptation.
At one end of the scale, all artists are inspired by other works of art,
but the nature of that inspiration is often nebulous.
At the other end of the scale, works of art are frequently adapted from
one medium or another, for example, any one of Kenneth Brannaugh’s adaptations
of Shakespeare for the screen. In
the case of a play, clues that you are looking at an adaptation are:
the title of the work is the same; the characters have the same names;
the plot is essentially unchanged. Transformation
occupies a middle ground between inspiration and adaptation.
As opposed to inspiration, a transformation is clearly related to
previous work of art. As opposed to
adaptation, a transformation typically has a different title than the original,
a different setting, different character names, an altered plot, etc.
What remains of the original in a transformation is a kind of ghostly
presence: enough of its essential
core to make the connection between original and transformation clear, but not
so much that the transformation can’t stand on its own.
In other words, a transformation functions as a meaningful work of art
even if the audience is unaware of the original.
Evaluation 1.
Academic Portion: 30%
of final grade. This part of this
class will be evaluated by a quarter term exam (10%) and a midterm exam (20%).
There will be no make-ups. The
quarter term will cover the Plato lecture and Feagin #s 44, 45, 54, 52, 39.
The midterm will cover Feagin #s 10, 23, 20, Heart of Darkness, and
Apocalypse Now. 2.
Two workshops: 15% each. These
will be evaluated by the teaching assistant teaching the class. 3.
Review: Students
will write a one to two page review of three approved AP events on campus (5%
each). Students must choose one art
exhibit, one music event, and one theatrical performance.
Although they are due in no particular order, the reviews are due on the
date noted on the schedule. No late
reviews will be accepted. 4. Final project: 25%. This project will consist of a transformation of a poem or an image into another art form. The workshops will be used by students to help them develop and execute their final project. Students must take the workshop of the target art form of their transformation. In other words, if a student intents to transform a poem into a short story, he or she must take the short story workshop. The final transformation will include a short essay that will consist of the answers to a series of questions concerning the transformation. The grade for the project will not be based on its aesthetic excellence; instead, the grade will depend on the care, commitment, and amount of work that went into it. Academic
Dishonesty: Any student who is
caught passing off someone else’s ideas as their own (cheating, copying,
plagiarizing etc.) will be given an F for the course and will be reported to the
dean of students. Attendance:
Attendance is expected. The
only acceptable excuses are medical (with doctor’s note) or a conflict with
another university sponsored event. Please
do not contact the professor or the teaching assistants with other excuses for
absence. If you are convincing we
will sympathize with you, but you will still get an absence.
Students have three allowed absences (with no penalty).
After that, each absence will result in on a one percent deduction from
your final grade. Web Site: The following web site will be provided for the course: www.utdallas.edu/~aargyros Much useful information about the course will be included on the website; for example, the poems and images to be transformed, dates and locations of art events that can be reviewed, study hints, etc.
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