Admission requirements
There are no admission requirements for this course.
Apply before 18 February 2020 23:59h (CET) by registering for the course in Osiris or uSis.
The course is intended for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year BA students from all departments of the KABK. The course also welcomes students from Leiden University.
A maximum of 12 students in total (Leiden University and KABK) can participate in the programme.
The course will be taught in English.
Description
The course researches assemblage in art, both as process and as product. It explores how this medium historically led to new forms, by redefining and transforming standard ways of relating heterogeneous materials, fragments. During the course art works will be brought into dialogue with theory and historical, sociopolitical conditions surrounding them. The students will develop their own practice and critically assess the process.
As a result of taking this course the students will learn about the history of assemblage as a term, a concept and an artistic medium, as well as about artistic strategies associated with it. They will be able to experiment with combining heterogeneous fragments and/or materials in their own practice. Through this course the students will be able to further reflect on their own motives and drives for relating and assembling and consequently better contextualize their own position. At the end of the course the students will be able to open up to the public their research process into experimental forms and ways of assembling and relating through a presentation/exhibition.
This course is taught by Eleni Kamma, PhD researcher at PhDArts, ACPA, Leiden University
www.elenikamma.com
Eleni Kamma (1973, CY/GR) studied at the Chelsea College of Art & Design in London (MA) and the Athens School of Fine Arts (BA). In 2008/2009 she was a Fine Art Researcher at the Jan Van Eyck Academie, Maastricht. Her practice moves along a Moebius strip schema, that keeps circulating from her as individual artist (through drawings and objects), to dialectic collaborations (films, performative events, a journal) and writing about it. In her recent site-specific projects Kamma revisits old popular entertainment traditions, such as parades, the theatre of shadows, Ottava Rima Duels and choirs. Such theatrical forms have the potential to revitalize dormant powers within a specific locality and may therefore trigger social awareness and enable the expression of political consciousness. Since 2014, Kamma is part of the artist run organization Jubilee – Platform for artistic research and production. She lives and works in Brussels and Maastricht.
Course objectives
As a result of taking this course the students will:
learn about the history of assemblage as a term, a concept and an artistic medium, as well as about artistic strategies associated with it.
be able to experiment with combining heterogeneous fragments and/or materials in their own practice.
be able to further reflect on their own motives and drives for relating and assembling and consequently better contextualize their own position.
be able to open up to the public their research process into experimental forms and ways of assembling and relating through a presentation/exhibition.
Timetable
Day and time
The course consists of 4 meetings during the 2nd semester on Wednesday afternoons from 10.00-18.00 hrs.
Dates and session contents
19 February 2020
Part 1. The group participants briefly introduce themselves and the reasons for selecting this course, as well as their expectations. Introduction to Assemblage’s predecessors, poets and artistic movements. Lecturing by drawing examples from “The liberation of words” (Guillaume Appolinaire, Dada, Surealism) and “The liberation of objects” (Picasso, Braque, Gris, Hausman, Duchamps, Schwitters), from the book The Art of Assemblage. Assemblage in the 60’s as new medium. Presenting examples of artists and how they worked with assemblage: Meret Oppenheim, Marcel Broodthaers et cetera.
Break
Part 2. During Session #1 we will do a collective reading of Laurence Alloway, Marcel Duchamp, Richard Huelsenbeck, Robert Rauschenberg, Roger Shattuck, William C. Seitz, moderator (1961) ‘The Art of Assemblage: A Symposium’ in: John Elderfield (ed.), Essays on Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992, pp. 118-160.
Small Break
Each student briefly presents to the group the material related to his/her ideas, questions to develop and work with during the course. Each presentation is followed by a brief discussion.
Required preparation: Each student assembles and brings relevant material (images, sketches, music, objects, models) to the ideas and questions he/she wants to develop through the course.
Required reading preparation: ·William C. Seitz, ‘The Realism and Poetry of Assemblage’ and ‘Attitudes and Issues’ in: The Art of Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961, pp. 81-92. ·Claire Colebrook, ‘Transcendental Empiricism’ in: Gilles Deleuze, London: Routledge, 2002, pp. 71-89.
18 March 2020
Relating and assembling in the 1990's. Relational Aesthetics. Assemblage and Appropriation.
Part 1. Assembling and relating in the 1990s. Lecturing on Bourriaud’s Relational Aesthetics. Assemblage and linguistics, assemblage in comparison to the concept of a remix in music (see Nicolas Bourriaud in Postproduction). Assemblage becoming a type of appropriation. Artistic examples of that period: Mike Kelley, Pierre Hygue, Mike Nelson et cetera.
Break
Part 2. Group Discussion. Students present their thoughts and new material tests following their required preparation. Feedback. Choosing orientation; focusing on the process or towards a final work.
Required preparation: Students elaborate on the discussions of Session # 1. How did the input affect their initial ideas and questions? How do they intend to make them visible, give them a form?
Required reading preparation: ·Nicolas Bourriaud, ‘The Flea Market: The dominant Art form of the nineties’, ‘The Use of Forms’, ‘Deejaying and Contemporary Art: Similar Configurations’ in: Postproduction. Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2002, pp. 28-45. Translated by Jeanine Herman.
8 April 2020
Relating and assembling in times of hyperconnectivity. Bruno Latour's Re-assembling the social. Judith Butler's Notes toward a performative theory of Assembly. Post-Internet Art.
Part 1. Group discussion of Berardi’s text and relevant material. Examples (short films, documentaries, accessible online) of artists and artworks related to the texts above. Introducing Manuel Da Landa’s Assemblage Theory (2016), specifically chapter 7: ‘Assemblages as solutions to problems’.
Break
Part 2. Each student presents his/her concept for the final project and method of research. Collaborative projects between the students of this course are also possible. Required studio preparation of the final project or process concept and method of research.
Required reading preparation:
· Franco Berardi, ‘Concatenation conjunction connection’ in: And. Phenomenology of the end. Cognition and sensibility in the transition from conjunctive to connective mode of social communication, Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books, 2014, pp. 9-24.
· Bruno Latour, ‘Introduction: How to resume the Task of Tracing Associations’ in: Reassembling the Social, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 1-17.
13 May 2020
Students present the final works and/or presentation of the process. Group discussion, reflection on the works and processes, in order to prepare for the final presentation and exhibition.
Required preparation:
Research and work for the final presentation.
Location
Address: The Royal Academy of Art (KABK), Prinsessegracht 4, 2514 AN The Hague.
Classroom: BA.013 (KABK)
Mode of instruction
Seminar
Course Load
3 EC
Assessment method
The students will engage in the discussions during the course. They will present their ideas and reflect upon them, as well as exchange opinions regarding the individual practices and ideas of their fellow students-participants. At the end of the course, they will present their findings in an exhibition and write a (reflection) paper.
Assessment
Key competencies addressed in this course are: creative ability, capacity for critical reflection, capacity for growth and innovation, communicative ability and contextual awareness.
Blackboard
No.
Reading list
Franco Berardi, And. Phenomenology of the end. Cognition and sensibility in the transition from conjunctive to connective mode of social communication, Helsinki: Aalto ARTS Books, 2014.
Nicolas Bourriaud, Postproduction. Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World, New York: Lukas & Sternberg, 2002. Translated by Jeanine Herman.
Nicolas Bourriaud, Relational Aesthetics, Dijon-Quetigny: Les presses du réel, 2002. Translated by Simon Pleasance, Fronza Woods, Mathieu Copeland.
Claire Colebrook, Gilles Deleuze, London: Routledge, 2002.
John Elderfield (ed.), Essays on Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1992.
Bruno Latour, Reassembling the Social, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
William C. Seitz, The Art of Assemblage, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1961.
Registration
Enrolment through uSis is mandatory.
General information about uSis is available on the website
Registration Studeren à la carte and Contractonderwijs
Registration Studeren à la carte
Registration Contractonderwijs
Contact
For questions about the courses in the Art Research Programme, please contact Emily Huurdeman, coordinator of the lectorate, at mailto:e.huurdeman@kabk.nl.
Remarks
No laptops allowed in the class room. Students should bring pens, pencils, and enough paper to enjoy a lot of hand writing in class.
Information about ACPA's education: [Elective courses music and fine arts](https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/humanities/academy-of-creative-and-performing-arts/tuition "Elective courses music and fine arts")