THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY Fall 2017 | Baruch College | Macaulay Honors

Arts in New York City

Final Module Project

Fall 2017

Opera for the Modern Age

Opera has long been a medium for addressing and commenting on contemporary issues and concerns. In writing The Magic Flute, for example, Mozart sought both to entertain and to persuade his contemporaries to reject obscurantism and embrace enlightenment and reason. The opera’s overarching message would have been fairly clear to an audience attuned to the issues and topics of the day.

What present-day topics, issues or stories would make the basis for a good modern opera? Pick one that you think would attract contemporary audiences. Once you come up with a topic, sketch out the plot for a new modern opera based on that topic. Provide details about characters and scenes. You do not need to write an entire libretto, but should provide the level of detail found in the program notes for The Magic Flute by the Met Opera. You an encouraged to present your plot as an illustrated synopsis (like in the playbill), though a written synopsis will also be accepted. In your description (illustrated or written) include information about costume, stage sets, music, and lighting and how it will contribute to the overall message of your opera.

Final projects are due to the course e-portfolio site by December 15 at 11:59 pm. Please categorize as Blog Assignment #12, even though it will count as a module project.

City Stories Project

Instructions

Using an artistic medium(s) of your choice (see below) create a “city story” that: 1) is set in New York City; 2) tells a story that is shaped in some way by the geography and spatial organization of New York City; 3) uses references to specific sites and places in the city that add another layer of meaning and specificity to the story for you and for audiences who know the city.

The goal is to think creatively and to use artistic methods to create and tell a story. However, your story does not have to be fiction; it can be creative non-fiction as well.

Your artistic production does not have to be complete. For example, you can sketch out the narrative for a longer story, but just produce/create/write one scene. Or, if your story is a kind of performance, you can just sketch out your vision for the performance (i.e. provide illustrations of the performance space, scenery, costumes, chorography, etc), but not actually stage a performance. Be ambitious, but realistic about what you can complete before the deadline. It is better to have part of the story done well then an overly-ambitious project that is hastily done and poorly executed because you ran out of time.

Suggestions for Artistic Mediums

You may choose any artistic medium except photography. (Note: You may incorporate some photographs into the story you create, but photography may not be the only artistic form you use. In other words, you may not create another photo portfolio). You are more than welcome to combine artistic mediums to create a composite piece. Ask Professor Heath if you have questions. Apart from the photography restriction, you may experiment however you like.

The following is a list of suggestions to inspire your creative side:

Short story

Poems

Digital Short Story

Play

Songs

Musical compositions of any form

Musical

Opera

Ballet

Video

Movie

Performance Art

Installation Art

Paintings. Pastels, Sketches, Drawing, Collages

Found Art Assemblages

Fabric or Textile Arts

Sculptures or 3-D Printer Creations

Timeline

Mapping Project (Digital or Traditional)

Podcast

This list is not exhaustive—feel free to choose other mediums that appeal to you.

Technology and Posting Your Story to Your Blog Site

Depending on what kind of story and artistic form you chose, you may find that you need help figuring out what technology will allow you to realize your vision and post it to your blog site. Please contact Denisse for advice and help.

Final Submission

You should submit your story and a short 450-500 word reflection on your story to your blog site by Sunday, November 26^th.

In your reflection piece you should talk about the creative process: how did you come up with your story? What inspired you? Why did you choose the particular mediums that you used? How do these mediums enhance the story? You should also discuss how particular references in places in New York City that are found in the story add to the narrative.

We will also do a peer review during part of class on November 28. Final versions of the City Story project will be due on Friday, December1.

The “Art in the Open” exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York explored the many different forms that public art projects in New York City have taken over the years. These art projects have varied from physical structures (statues and installations) to more performative and conceptual pieces. In addition, many have explicitly engaged the community in debate about contemporary topics.

This blog assignment asks you to explore the ways that public art does and can engage the community (in this case, the NYC public) in contemporary debates. It has four components.

1. Read about Ai Weiwei’s current public art exhibit, “Good Fences Make Good Neighbors.” Think about the goals of the artist for this exhibit. You can find the link here: https://www.publicartfund.org/ai_weiwei_good_fences_make_good_neighbors
2. Visit at least three (3) of the instillations in the exhibit. The exhibit takes many different forms (structures, banners, bus shelters, etc). Try to visit at least 2 different kinds. Take a photograph of each that you visit.
3. Post your photographs of the 3 installations and a short reflection about how each piece “works” to engage the community to the course blog site. The reflections can be short (less than 100 words), but should be thoughtful and engaged.
4. Finally, brainstorm about the following questions: If you had to create a public art project that engaged the NYC community around the theme you chose for your curatorial project, what would it be? Where would it be? What form would it take? How would the form reflect the content and engage the community in discussion? Write up your thoughts and provide a short (300-500 word) description of the public art project you envision.

After the deadline has closed, please read the entry of 1-2 of your classmates and, if at all possible, go to the building or space and use their entry to take a quick tour. Then post a comment about what you learned about the building or space from their tour to the course blog site.

Deadline for blog: Sunday, November 19th at 5:00 pm

Deadlines for comments: Monday, November 20^th at 11 pm

In “What is a City?” Lewis Mumford writes that “The city in its complete sense, then, is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity. The city fosters art and is art; the city creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city as theater, that man’s more purposive activities are focused, and work, out though conflicting and cooperating personalities, events, groups into more significant culminations.” He also writes that “One may describe the city, in its social aspect, as a special framework directed toward the creation of differentiated opportunities for a common life and a significant collective drama.”

With these ideas in mind, go to Madison Square Park and find a place to observe the people who have gathered at the park. How, and in what ways, can you see their actions as a “theater of social action” and a space of “significant collective drama.” How do their actions shed light on what Mumford means by these two descriptions of the city?

As you observe, find a way to capture examples of the park (as microcosm of the city) as a “theater of social action” and a space of “significant collective drama” using any medium that you find appropriate. When you return to your computer, post your “notes” and write a brief analysis in which you say how these examples help to elucidate Mumford’s conception of the city as something more than an agglomeration of people and buildings.

You should post everything to the course blog site. Remember to categorize it appropriately.

After the deadline has closed, please read the blogs of your classmates and comment on at least 2 of them.

Deadline for blog: Sunday, October 29 at 5:00 pm

Deadlines for comments: Monday, October 30^th at 11 pm

Photography has long claimed to represent the “real.” Film, in contrast, has long been a medium for questioning what constitutes reality, the real, and the truth. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the earliest examples of this genre.

Reflect on the various ways that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari undermined or played with your understanding of reality and the truth in the film. Consider the story line, but also the music, scenery, acting, lighting, and cinematography. Which features did you find most noticeable and notable?

Then, imagine you were to create a murder-mystery silent film set in present day New York City. What ways might you use the city and features of the city to play with the viewer’s understanding of the reality or the “truth” as related to the murder-mystery. Remember this is a silent film, so you can use words, but only in the form of intertitles. Write up your thoughts by Sunday night, and be ready to discuss in class on Tuesday, October 24.

Deadline for blog post: Sunday, October 22^nd at 5:00 pm

We will follow up with this assignment when we discuss the City Stories module in class on October 24^th, so no comments are due to peers.

The goal of this project is to have you try your hand at photography and to think about the ways that the camera lens can help you to see aspects of your ordinary surroundings that you do not normally notice in the course of living your everyday life.

The assignment has four main components

1. Photograph. Take a minimum of one or two photographs per day between October 14^th and October 20^th that you think captures a novel aspect of New York City that you had not seen or thought about before. You can take as many photographs as you want on whatever subject(s) you want, but the goal is to narrow down the field to have 7-10 quality photographs to include in your portfolio.

Note: All artistic decisions are yours to make. I encourage you to reflect on photography as an artistic medium and think about what you hope to capture and convey with your photographs before you set out for your photography shoot.

Note 2: You do not have to take your pictures with a digital camera, but you will need to be able to post your photographs in a digital format. If you want to try out a fancier camera than your phone, you can try checking one out from Baruch’s Newman Library.

Note 3: Please spread out these photographs over the 7 day period; do not take them all in one day.

2. Arrange. Organize your pictures on your blog site (this should be a new blog site that is integrated into the larger “shell” site that Denisse has sent you instructions about. Draw upon your experience with the curatorial project to think about how best to order the photographs and what kind of meaning and message you are construct and conveying with this arrangement.

3. Write. Compose a 750-1000 critical essay about your portfolio. In it you should discuss the photographs you have included and address the following questions: Why did you chose this particular subject(s)? What do you hope to convey with these images? How do you think the photographs work individually? How do they work together? Draw upon Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, and others to explain your photographs and portfolio. Remember to cite any references to make to their work.

4. Review. Bring your photographs (on your laptop) to class on October 24th. We will do a photo review in class in which you will discuss your portfolio and your critical review essay and receive feedback from your peers.

A preliminary portfolio (photographs plus critical review) should be posted to your blog site by Sunday, October 22^th at 11:00 pm.  

Before class on Tuesday, October 24th, please review the portfolios and essays of those in your peer review group.

Final Project is due Sunday, October 29th at 9:00 pm.

In On Photography, Susan Sontag questions whether photographs merely “capture reality” or whether they interpret it. (p. 5-6). Reflect on the photographs you viewed and analyzed in the exhibit Modernism on the Ganges: The Photographs of Raghubir Singh. Then write a 450-500 word reflection on photography that considers the ways that Singh’s photography captured the reality of post-colonial (and post-partition) India and in what ways his photographs interpreted that period and its reality.

You can refresh your memory of some of Singh’s photographs at: http://www.raghubirsingh.com

Deadline for blog: Friday, October 20th at 5:00 pm.

After the deadline has passed, post comments on 2-3 of your classmates. Submit comments by Sunday, October 22.

To prepare for this blog assignment you need to do two things.

• Read and reflect on the assigned reading from Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida (reading posted to course e-portfolio site). While reading pay particular attention to his discussion of photographic “knowledge” and his concepts of studium and punctum.
• Visit the Photographs of Marcel Sternberger: Portraits of the 20^th Century exhibit at the Miskin Gallery (Baruch College located at 135 E 22^nd Street). The exhibit opens October 6^, though there is an opening reception on October 5 from 6:00-8:00 pm, which you are encouraged to attend.

Once you’ve visited the exhibit reflect on Sternberger’s photographs in relation to the Barthes reading. Find one that you think helps you to better understand Barthes’s argument about photography, and especially his concepts of studium and punctum. What do these concepts mean? How do they operate in the photograph you’ve chosen? Alternatively, you could also argue that none of the photographs contain these two elements. If that is the case, explain what the concepts mean and why you don’t see these two qualities in these portraits. Either way, write up your analysis (400-500 words) and post to the blog site.

Then, head out into the world and try to take a photograph that incorporates these two elements.

Deadline for blog: Friday, October 14th at 5:00 pm

After the deadline, please comment on the reflection of two of your classmates and the photograph they have taken.

1) Choose a contemporary issue that interests you. (e.g. climate change, Black Lives Matter, gun violence, LGBTQ issues, immigration, fiscal reform, GMOs are just a few examples of the many possibilities. Not sure? Read The New York Times over the next couple of days and find a thread that intrigues you. It doesn’t have to be a big theme or a big theme in its entirety. For example, you could choose the demise of the bumblebee as a way of getting to a number of questions of climate change).

2) Think about how you might design an exhibit around this topic that helps others to think about and see the issue in new ways. (See Helpful Information below about defining “new ways.”)

3) a) Find a range of 2-D artworks (paintings, drawings, sketches, photographs) as well as a sample of 3-D art forms (sculpture, material objects) in the Artstor database that you think speak to your topic. Pick 10 pieces (preferably a mixture of 2-D and 3-D pieces). Create an image group in Arstor and save your selected pieces to the image group. (Note: When you are done with the work below, you will need to find the stable url for the image group created by Artstor and to add it to your blog post. b) If you’d like, you can also imagine a performance/installation element and/or soundscape that will also be part of the exhibit. These you should imagine and design yourself. Do not use someone else’s work.

4) Then begin imagining the exhibit you would form around the selected pieces and write a detailed description of all elements of the exhibit. Imagine the museum and exhibition space where you will present the exhibit and write a description of it. Provide a map if necessary. Then arrange the pieces in the Artstor image group as you would in this exhibition space and write a description of how you plan to place and show the pieces. Write this clearly enough so that someone else can actually visualize what this exhibit would look like and what it would be like to move through the space from piece to piece. Then write the opening text that will introduce the audience to the exhibit and additional information that you wish to provide on exhibit labels. When you are done with this work, the reader should be able to do a virtual visit of the exhibition.

5) When you are done designing the exhibit write a short 400-500 self-analysis of your work. In it you should answer three main questions: What was your overarching goal for the exhibit? How and why did you pick the pieces in your exhibit? How and why did you decide to exhibit them as described? How and why did you decide to include or not include a performance/installation element and/or soundscape? In short, you should make transparent the curatorial decisions that you made in the course of designing your exhibit that allowed you to use the selected artworks to communicate a set of ideas to used art to an audience.

6) Finally, pull all of your work together and post it to your personal website. Your project should contain 3 main elements: 1) a stable url for your Artstor image group, preferably added as a hyperlink; and also your accompanying materials (performance/installation piece and soundtrack); 2) an exhibition description (everything outlined in #4); and your self-analysis.

Post your curatorial project to you personal website by Sunday, October 1st at 5:00 pm. Then take time to read the projects of the members of your peer review group (see below) in preparation for the discussion that we will have at the beginning of class on October 3^rd.

Helpful Information

You are required to limit yourself to material available in the Artstor for the 2-D and 3-D aspects of this project. All museums face limits in the materials that can be borrowed; this is your version of the limit.

Where to find the Artstor database:

Go to Baruch Newman library > Students > Databases and then look for Artstor.

If you are accessing the website offsite you will need to login using your Baruch credentials.

You will need to register for an account to be able to start creating an image folder.

See the short tutorial provided in the Resources section of the course e-portfolio site for information about how to navigate the Artstor image group program.

How you define “see the issue in new ways” is open. For example, you might decide to use the exhibit to present an argument or to tell a story or to ask questions that lead others to rethink their assumptions or to provoke debate. Or something else entirely. It is your choice, but you must explain your define in the self-analysis that you write to accompanying the exhibit.

Review Groups

Alon
Courtney
Sarin
Ronald

Jayne
Kevin
Yael
Lejla

Julie
AJ
Anastasiya
Lile

Amy
Karina
Ariel
Ellen

Alyssa H.
Grace
Claire
Marie

Veronica
Andrew
Alyssa M.
Julia