Dushko Petrovich

This seminar consists of weekly lectures, colloquia, and studio visits. Students are expected to arrive with completed and semi-completed works and be prepared to make and re-make new works throughout the summer sessions. A wide variety of readings chosen by faculty will guide discussions that concentrate on problems concerning methods of artmaking, distribution, and interpretation. Readings will include examples drawn from the emerging category of conceptual writing as well as crucial art historical texts, literature, and poetry.

This seminar will look at the mental faculty of attention and the role it plays in the production and reception of art, specifically how attention mediates experience between artists and viewers. We will examine the attempt to direct attention as a basis for making meaning within artworks, particularly in moving-image, spatial, and place-related work. We will also ask how the issues of attention and attention span that have become so ubiquitous, may impact the art context. In short, we will take up attention as an attribute, tool, or condition for making work in relation to other subjects rather than as a subject in itself, treating attention as a register for looking at artworks. The seminar will consist of readings and screenings drawn from philosophy, psychology, art theory, film theory, fiction, and other disciplines.