CONNECTING: Facilitating Investigations into Historical, Cultural and Social Context

National Core Arts Anchor Standard #11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.

"The encounter is one that moves the soul...forces it to pose a problem." (Deleuze)

My MA in art history is an excellent foundation to thoroughly enjoy this week's readings and topics, particularly the selection from Why is That Art? by Terry Barrett. I remember the moment when I made my first real connections to conceptual art - when I fell in love with Marcel Duchamp's work. I was at a West TN Art Education Association conference, very green, very new to art education - a student in college in fact, sophomore. I signed up for a lecture-based workshop on art history which involved a crash course in the rise of post-modernism. I can't remember all that was said about him, but I had an immediate connection to the humor and conceptualization in Duchamp's work. In 2008, I got to see some of his work in person at the Frist Center for Visual Arts in Nashville in the traveling exhibition The Société Anonyme: Modernism for America which was delightful!

Since that early introduction, I find myself becoming excited connecting with and learning about conceptual art. When I worked on my MA, I was introduced to an even deeper understanding of historical, cultural and social connections to art which were further developed working in a museum dedicated to the history of the Civil Rights Movement!

I'll admit several of the theories presented in this week's readings are familiar. We aren't close acquaintances, but I've heard of most of them. However, I'm considering this week's lesson to be my crash-course in Deluzian philosophy. The only thing I know about them prior to this week's readings is an early memory from virtually meeting Dr. Unrath for the first time. She was telling me about how excited her students become about art education. "One has to have her 'D & G' with her at all times," she said. And she didn't mean fashion, she meant Deleuze and Guattari.

I'm very curious to go deeper into the statement "Transcendence for Deluze is violence." I hope that is discussed a bit in class.

"Guattari and Deluze advocate radical social change through a liberation of desire by which individuals free themselves from Modernist notions of fixed identity." Go on...

What is meant by "liberation of desire?" Specifically "desire?"

What are Modernist notions of fixed identity?

encounters, lines of flight, sense and nonsense

Though I appreciate conceptual art, I have never enjoyed Francis Bacon's paintings. If they are acting on the nervous system, it seems I much prefer a "story through the brain." I do see the point though that sometimes great artmaking and artmaking experiences do not always make practical sense.

Carroll's better practices text is a great resource of ideas. I'll certainly keep it as reference!