Maryam Taghavi

In this course, we will explore the intricate relationship between perception and art, focusing on the boundaries between the visible and the imperceptible. Using the eye both as a sensory tool and a metaphor, we will examine how culture, technology, and context influence what we perceive and what remains unseen. By analyzing the limitations of human perception, we will investigate how art can expand or distort our understanding of reality, prompting a reconsideration of what it means to 'see.'

We will study the works of artists such as Zoe Leonard, Olafur Eliasson, Ann Hamilton, and James Turrell, whose manipulation of light, space, and sensory experience interrogates the limits of perception. Course texts will include James Elkins' The Object Stares Back, Maurice Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception, and Susan Sontag's On Photography, providing critical frameworks for understanding the act of seeing. The course will also consider how technologies--from smartphones to telescopes--alter our perception, revealing what lies beyond the everyday and reshaping our relationship to the unseen, whether in microscopic or cosmic scales.

Students will undertake research-driven projects involving the collection and archiving of materials from both personal and public histories, recontextualizing these sources to expose the invisible dimensions of culture and memory. Field research using digital tools such as smartphones and surveillance technologies will further examine how modern devices mediate our interaction with the visible world.

In this course, students will analyze and report on art world and cultural ecologies and explore professional work opportunities while reflecting on their current creative and scholarly interests. The course will lead to an expanded understanding of professional opportunities and the tools to pursue them while starting to identify each of our strengths and interests in identifying possible pathways for our lives that include (work life - studio life - love - finances - passion - family - etc...). Toward the end of the semester, as a way to bring into practice what was covered in the course, each student will participate in a class exhibition/presentation of current work and a portfolio of professional presentation materials to support one of the following (grant or job application and an exhibition/project proposal).

Readings will address issues in the class and will include, 'GETTING YOUR SHIT TOGETHER: THE ULTIMATE BUSINESS MANUAL FOR EVERY PRACTICING ARTIST', ART/WORK (Revised + Updated) by Heather Darcy Bhandari and Jonathan Melber, and selections from the follwing books; 'Living and sustaining a Creative Life by Sharon Louden, 'The Creative Habit: a Practical Guide' by Twyla Tharp, among others.

The deliverables in this class will include the following: 1) An illustrated verbal presentation of your current creative portfolio. 2) Research on one of the visitors to the class. 3) Class Exhibition including the entire class in an On Campus Space. 4) Printed and Digital Professional Portfolio.