ROUGH DRAFT OF SYLLABUS

Sustainable Practices in Mixed Media Art Making
Ren Dodge
Art 669-67 Special Study

Objectives: To develop and exercise techniques for sustainable art making. Sustainable means of art making should require minimal waste of energy and materials. Should not support the creation of toxic materials and can actually serve as a means for reducing and removing toxic bypducts of art making from the ecosystem by binding these materials in a stable art form.

Focus will be on flat work or wall hanging type work to include painting, drawing, assemblage, collage, other compositing techniques, etc...

Skills and Techniques I would like to develop include
-Reconstitute dried paint
-Use of/making of sustainable non-toxic glues and binders
-Collage and assemblage techniques; glues, sewing, folding, laminating, etc..
-Substrate Recomposition
-Learn archival techniques for sustainable art
-Learn archival properties of recycled materials

Find Artists Doing This: Robert Rauschenberg
http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/visualarts/NYT-Kimmelman-Rauschenberg-in-Retrospect-12-23-05.html

Serial Work
Once I develop some of the techniques I will be using, I will connect it to my artistic style and develop a series. I would expect to complete 6-12 quality pieces by the end of the semester. I can imagine some elements of the work already; it is wall hanging, composited of recycled artwork and art materials. (As I usually do I try to make my work "about" as much as possible and to be dense with meaning. I consider the state of being alive, infuse the work with a sense of my personal self, and feel the greater human culture is naturally referenced thereby, and of course any work is going to be about ITself too and thus relate to other art, I could go on...)

Challenging art as a sacred object
Art has long been held above other material things created by humans, in fact to say something is "art" is to elevate it to a higher value than other objects. Is art making such a rare and special event that it may be exempted from conventions of sustainable production desirable in other fields? Is the the use of toxic manufacturing techniques (pigments, resins, solvents, etc..) acceptable by otherwise conscientious persons. And of course it must be fastidiously preserved by more energy intensive methods of conservation. Art can never be recycled, reused, reclaimed for another use it is apart from other objects.

EXPLORE: Art as a material or process for waste handling and disposal.