Art as/and Research: Archives and Creativity

(4 Credits)

This dynamic and intimate seminar aims to inspire and deepen our creative practice while gaining research fluency with archival materials. As part of this seminar, we will be holding 3 in- person sessions at the Special Collections at NYU. Joining us will be the Curator of the Arts and Humanities at NYU to guide and facilitate how to utilize an archive to inform our awareness and inspire our creative production. Together, we will be shown how to review and browse material from the collection, learn how to access and request archive materials and have items we requested retrieved for us to view. Finally, we will be in creative discourse to create presentations from our research. I am very thrilled about this unique opportunity. For example, one of our assignments from our visit to the NYU Special Collections will be examining the archive of gay artist and activist David Wojnarowicz, who died of AIDS in 1992. A pertinent work is his "Magic Box" which was a box of personal objects, bric-a-brac stored in a wooden box under the artist's bed. The collection of the artist will be a point of departure to consider creating our own version of a "Magic Box". In addition to the above, we will have a parallel inquiry: the 7 stages of creativity as a framework to identify the incremental steps in decisions and direction in artistic practice. These stages include orientation, preparation, analysis, ideation, incubation, synthesis and evaluation. Through studying and exploring these junctures we hopefully will come to understand the mystery of inspiration, originality and invention. We will examine other related theories such as the relation of symbolism to the unconscious, trauma and creativity, the role of spontaneity and chance as a direction, artistic expression as a voice for empowerment, and the function of freedom and agency in heightening cultural movements. Along the way we will discover insights together. Individually you will discover what interests and inspires your particular project research. There will be complementary readings, assignments and individual or group creative exercises. Besides the NYU archives the class may utilize other collections, public art, performances, galleries and libraries for reference. We may have guest artists and scholars. Students will use these resources as they consider furthering the ideas covered in class through the archive, studying a series of stages, to a final project and paper."