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counter aesthetics: politics in art graduate studio seminar
27 April 2012
stephen garrett dewyer
248-766-8556
intent
Through weekly seminars, the course counter aesthetics: politics in art seeks to address issues
relating to the politics in art. Although the course is a studio seminar, students are expected to
read in addition to present work for critique. The goal of counter aesthetics is to provide a
forum for the education of graduate students in art by translating work through differing and
different positions in order to make work in response to politics.
conceptual framework
While artists have been deploying a variety of media to alter perceptions of the sensible in
aesthetics, not all art critiques such perceptions. counter aesthetics: politics in art looks at how
art may alter the political by altering aesthetic perceptions of the sensible. counter aesthetics
looks at a variety of media including digital processes to broaden the critical framework within
which an art practice might become understood. Readings in critical theory including
transnational, post-colonial, neocolonial and gendered subjects supplement discussions on art, art
history and theory. This course looks at how artists use art to make sensible the limits of
dominant aesthetics by giving counter aesthetics.
assignments
Weeks 2 – 9 are presentations and discussions related to situating art. Students are expected to
read and write a response to at least one of the assigned texts for each class.
During weeks 11 – 16, each student is expected to present a work for a group critique. Students
may use suggested readings during weeks 8 – 14 in the consideration of their work.
Weeks 10, 17 and, tentatively, 18 are individual sessions.
Students are expected to participate in discussions and critiques.
agenda
*suggested
week
1. introductions
a. stephen garrett dewyer presents his work
b. digital camera and video equipment demonstration
2. discussion: aesthetics, politics, critique and support
a. readings
counter aesthetics: politics in art 2 of 7
i. “The Aesthetic Revolution and Its Outcomes”
(http://www.stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Ranciere,_Jacques_The_
Aesthetic_Revolution_and_Its_Outcomes_Dissensus.pdf. 115 – 131)
ii. “The Paradoxes of Political Art”
(http://www.stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Ranciere,_Jacques_The_P
aradoxes_of_Political_Art_Dissensus.pdf. 134 – 151), “The Politics of
Literature”
(http://www.stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Ranciere,_Jacques_The_P
olitics_of_Literature_Dissensus.pdf. 152 – 168)
iii. “The Monument and Its Confidences; of Deleuze and Art’s Capacity for
‘Resistance’”
(http://www.stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Ranciere,_Jacques_The_
Monument_and_Its_Confidences,_or_Deleuze_and_Arts_Capcity_of_Res
istance_Dissensus.pdf. 169 – 183) in Rancière, Jacques. Dissensus: On
Politics and Aesthetics. Edition and translation by Steven Corcoran.
Continuum International Publishing Group: London, U.K. and New York,
NY. 2010: pp. 115 – 183
iv. “The Ethical Turn of Aesthetics and Politics” in Rancière, Jacques.
Aesthetics and Its Discontents. Translation by Steven Corcoran. Polity
Press: Cambridge, U.K. and Malden, MA. 2009: pp. 109 – 132.
http://www.stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Ranciere,_Jacques_Aesthe
tic_Separation,_Aesthetic_Community_from_The_Emancipated_Spectato
r.pdf
3. presentation: the subaltern in art: inappropriately appropriating space
a. artists
i. no artists
b. readings
i. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “They the people: Problems of alter-
globalization.” Radical Philosophy. Issue 157. September/October 2009
ii. “Scattered Speculations on the Subaltern and the Popular” in Spivak,
Gayatri Chakravorty. An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization.
Harvard University Press: Combridge, MA and London, U.K. 2012: pp.
351 – 371.
http://www.stephengdewyer.info/Spivak,_Gayatri_Scattered_Speculations
_on_the_Subaltern_and_the_Popular_from_An_Aesthetic_Education_in_t
he_Era_of_Globalization.pdf
4. presentation: minimalism and post-minimalism: the maintenance of U.S. hegemony in art
a. artists
i. Carl Andre, Eva Hesse, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Dan
Flavin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Mona Hatoum, Agnes Martin, John
McCracken, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Fred Sandback, Richard Serra,
Frank Stella, Anne Truitt, Richard Tuttle and Rachel Whiteread
b. readings
i. Alberro. “The Turn of the Screw: Daniel Buren, Dan Flavin, and the Sixth
Guggenheim International Exhibition”
counter aesthetics: politics in art 3 of 7
ii. Cason, Juli. “Two Walls: 1981.” Surface Tension: Problematics of Site. Edition
by Ken Ehrlich and Brandon LaBelle: pp. 81 – 102
http://stephengdewyer.com/PDF%20files/Juli_Carson_Two_Walls_1989_pp_81-
102.pdf iii. Graw and Moltke. “Just Being Doesn’t Amount to Anything (Some
Themes in Bruce Nauman’s Work)”
iv. Pincus-Witten, Robert. "Eva Hesse: Post-Minimalism into Sublime."
Artforum. November 1971
5. presentation: colonialism, post-colonialism and neo-colonialism
a. artists
i. Nanna Debois Buhl, Brendan Fernandes, Teresa Margoles and Walid Raad
b. readings
i. Bhabha. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.”
http://stephengdewyer.com/PDF%20files/Bhabha,%20Homi%20K_Of%20
Mimicry%20and%20Man_The%20Ambivalence%20of%20Colonial%20D
iscourse_October_Vol%2028_Spring_1984.pdf
ii. Charles. “Imaginative mislocation: Hiroshima’s Genbaku Dome, ground
zero of the twentieth century”
iii. Spivak. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the
Vanishing Present
iv. Margolles, Teresa. “Santiago Sierra.” BOMB. issue 86. Winter 2004:
http://bombsite.com/issues/86/articles/2606
6. presentation: the neoliberalization of economies as an instrument of globalization: travel
and accumulation in art
a. artists
i. Liam Gillick, Natascha Sadr Haghighian, Laura Trujillo Muñoz and Raqs
Media Collective
b. readings i. Gillick, Liam excerpt from an interview with Heinz Norbert Jocks. Frst published
2009. http://www.liamgillick.info/home/texts/interview-2009
ii. “Culture Now: Liam Gillick in conversation with JJ Charlesworth.” 8 October
2012. ICA London. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6s2oQCXYQ
iii. “Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee, and Certain Scenes of Teaching” in
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization.
Harvard University Press: Combridge, MA and London, U.K. 2012: pp. 301 –
315.
http://www.stephengdewyer.info/Ethics_and_Politics_in_Tagore,_Coetzee,_and_
Certain_Scenes_of_Teaching_Spivak,_Gayatri_An_Aesthetic_Education_in_the_
Era_of_Globalization_Harvard_University_Press_2012.pdf
iv. "Harlem" from Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. An Aesthetic Education in the Era
of Globalization. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA and London, U.K.
2012: pp. 399 - 428.
http://www.stephengdewyer.info/Spivak,_Gayatri_Harlem_from_An_Aesthetic_E
ducation_in_the_Era_of_Globalization.pdf
v. "Tracing the Skin of the Day" from Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. An Aesthetic
Education in the Era of Globalization. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA
and London, U.K. 2012: pp. 500 - 508.
counter aesthetics: politics in art 4 of 7
http://stephengdewyer.info/PDF%20files/Spivak,_Gayatri_Tracing_the_Skin_of_
Day_An_Aesthetic_Education_in_the_Era_of_Globalization.pdf vi. Amor, Enwezor, Minglu, Ho, Mercer and Rogoff. “Liminalities:
Discussions on the Global and the Local”
7. presentation: shifting cities: the diaspora in cosmopolitanism and vice versa
a. artists
i. Daniel Bozhkov, Mina Cheon, Jane Jin Kaisen, Mike Kelly, Gordon
Matta-Clark, amitis motevalli, Michael Rakowitz, Georgia Sagri, Anri
Sala, mounir al solh, Mierle Laderman Ukeles and Hector Zamora
b. readings/viewings
i. Kitnick. “Bad Memory: Interview with Georgia Sagri”
ii. Rakowitz. “Three Projects, Maybe Four - Michael Rakowitz.”
http://youtu.be/5zmc_tIhOGo
iii. Camacho. “Migrant Modernisms: Racialized Development under the
Bracero Program”
8. presentation: interventions
a. artists
i. Dennis Adams, Francis Alÿs, Michael Asher, Sophie Calle, David
Hammons, Leopold Kessler, Liz Magic Lazer, Jill Magid, Miles Huston,
Teresa Margolles and Krzysztof Wodiczko
b. readings
i. Buchloh, Graw and Knight. “Who’s afraid of JK”
ii. Bishop, Claire, Carol Becker, Teddy Cruz, Maria Lind, Brian Holmes,
Shannon Jackson, Ann Pasternak and Nato Thompson. Living as Form:
Socially Engaged Art from 1991 – 2011. Edited by Nato Thompson. MIT
Press, 2012
9. presentation: artist collectives
a. groups/organizations
i. Audio Visual Arts (AVA), Cave Gallery, Claire Fontaine, Design 99,
North End Studios, Orchard, Powerhouse Productions, Real Fine Arts and
WochenKlausur
b. Readings
i. Graw, Isabelle. “Social Realism: Isabelle Graw on the art of Jana Euler.”
Artforum. Volume 51. Issue 3. November 2012: pp. 234 – 241.
http://stephengdewyer.com/PDF%20files/Graw,_Isabelle,_Social_Realism-
Isabelle_Graw_on_the_art_of_Jana_Euler_Artforum_Volume_51_Number
_3_November_2012_pp_234-231.pdf
ii. Collectivism after Modernism: the Art of Social Imagination after 1945.
Edition by Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette. University of Minnesota
Press: Minneapolis, MN and London, U.K. 2007.
10. individual sessions (format suggestions: studio visit, meeting)
11. group critiques
12. group critiques
13. group critiques
14. group critiques
counter aesthetics: politics in art 5 of 7
15. group critiques
16. group critiques
17. individual sessions (format suggestions: studio visit, meeting)
18. (tentative) individual sessions (format suggestions: studio visit, meeting)
readings
Alberro, Alexander and Stimson, Blake (eds.). Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists'
Writings. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. 2009
Alberro, Alexander. “The Turn of the Screw: Daniel Buren, Dan Flavin, and the Sixth
Guggenheim International Exhibition.” October. Volume 80. Spring, 1997
Amor, Mónica, Okwui Enwezor, Gao Minglu, Oscar Ho, Kobena Mercer, Irit Rogoff.
“Liminalities: Discussions on the Global and the Local.” Art Journal. Volume 57.
Number 4. Winter 1998: pp. 28-49
Bhabha, Homi K. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” October.
Volume 28. Discipleship: A Special Issue on Psychoanalysis. Spring 1984: pp. 125 –
133
Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge Classics: New York and London., 2004
Bishop, Claire, Carol Becker, Teddy Cruz, Maria Lind, Brian Holmes, Shannon Jackson, Ann
Pasternak and Nato Thompson. Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from 1991 – 2011.
Edited by Nato Thompson. MIT Press, 2012.Buchloh, Benjamin H. D. “Conceptual Art
1962 – 1969: From the Aesthetics of Administration to the Critique of Institutions.”
October. Volume 55. Winter, 1990: pp. 105-143
Buchloh, Benjamin H. D. , Graw, Isabelle, Knight, John. “Who’s afraid of JK.” Texte zur Kunst.
n° 59, Berlin, Germany
Camacho, Alicia. “Migrant Modernisms: Racialized Development under the Bracero Program.”
Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the US-Mexico Borderlands. NYU Press.
2008: pp. 62-111
Cason, Juli. “Two Walls: 1981.” Surface Tension: Problematics of Site. Edition by Ken Ehrlich and
Brandon LaBelle: pp. 81 – 102
http://stephengdewyer.com/PDF%20files/Juli_Carson_Two_Walls_1989_pp_81-102.pdf
Charles, Matthew. “Imaginative mislocation: Hiroshima’s Genbaku Dome, ground zero of the
twentieth century.” Radical Philosophy. Issue 162. July/August 2010
Coggins, David. “Stranger than Fiction: an interview with Daniel Bozhkov.” ArtNet.
<http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/coggins/daniel-bozhkov3-31-10.asp>
counter aesthetics: politics in art 6 of 7
Collectivism after Modernism: the Art of Social Imagination after 1945. Edition by Blake
Stimson and Gregory Sholette. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, MN and
London, U.K. 2007.
Crimp, Douglas and Louise Lawler. “Prominence Given, Authority Taken.” Grey Room. Number
4. Summer, 2001
Derrida, Jacques. Dissemination. Translation and introduction by Barbara Johnson. The
University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL. 1981
Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Translated and introduced by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.
The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore,MD and London, U.K. 1997
Dudley, Jennifer. “Interview with Daniel Bozhkov.” Highlights.
<http://thehighlights.org/wp/interview-with-daniel-bozhkov>
Fraser, Andrea. "From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique." Artforum.
September, 2005. Issue 44. Number 1: pp. 278–283
Fraser, Andrea. “in and out of place” (1985). Institutional Critique: An Anthology of Artists'
Writings. MIT Press: Cambridge, MA. 2009.
Gillick, Liam excerpt from an interview with Heinz Norbert Jocks. Frst published 2009.
http://www.liamgillick.info/home/texts/interview-2009
Gillick, Liam interview with JJ Charlesworth. ICA London. 8 October 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD6s2oQCXYQ
Graw, Isabelle. “Social Realism: Isabelle Graw on the art of Jana Euler.” Artforum. Volume 51.
Issue 3. November 2012: pp. 234 – 241.
http://stephengdewyer.com/PDF%20files/Graw,_Isabelle,_Social_Realism-
Isabelle_Graw_on_the_art_of_Jana_Euler_Artforum_Volume_51_Number_3_November
_2012_pp_234-231.pdf
Graw, Isabelle and Dorothea von Moltke. “Just Being Doesn’t Amount to Anything (Some
Themes in Bruce Nauman’s Work).” October. Volume 74 (Autumn, 1995)
Kitnick, Alex. “Bad Memory: Interview with Georgia Sagri.” Idiom Magazine. 27 April 2011
<http://idiommag.com/2011/04/bad-memory-interview-with-georgia-sagri/>
Leffingwell, Edward. “The “Empty” Biennial.” Art in America. Volume 97. Issue 3: March 2009: p. 59-
64
Margolles, Teresa. “Santiago Sierra.” BOMB. issue 86. Winter 2004:
http://bombsite.com/issues/86/articles/2606
counter aesthetics: politics in art 7 of 7
Marker, Chris. “The Last Bolshevik: Reminiscences of Alexander Ivanovich.” CINEASTE. Fall,
2008: pp. 12-13
Moallem, Minoo. “The Civic Body and the Order of the Visible.” Between Warrior Brother and
Veiled Sister. University of California Press. 2005
Rakowitz, Michael. “Three Projects, Maybe Rour - Michael Rakowitz.” The Harvard Graduate
School of Design. 27 September 2011.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zmc_tIhOGo>
Rancière, Jacques. Aesthetics and Its Discontents. Polity. 2009
Rancière, Jacques. Dissensus: On Politics and Aesthetics. Continuum: London & New York.
2010
Rancière, Jacques. The Emancipated Spectator. Verso: London and New York. 2009
Rancière, Jacques. The Future of the Image. Verso: London and New York. 2009
Rancière, Jacques. The Ignorant Schoolmaster: Five Lessons in Intellectual Emancipation.
Translated and introduced by Kristin Ross. Stanford University Press: Stanford,
California. 1991
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the
Vanishing Present. Harvard University Press: Boston, MA. 1999
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization. Harvard University
Press: Cambridge, MA and London, U.K. 2012
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. “They the people: Problems of alter-globalization.” Radical
Philosophy. Issue 157. September/October 2009