Last Monday my first class was Drawing 1 at 6:45 PM.... I know what you are thinking... why the hell am i taking Drawing 1? Its my last studio art class for my degree. I'm a 3-dimensional artist. I'm horrible with most things 2d :) I think I'm going to like the instructor. I knew before coming in that he was a new MFA painting student. There was a good chance that this was his first class he's ever taught and he could have been a horrible instructor. I think I lucked out though. he has a masters degree in art education. Sweet deal. I might actually learn something!
Tuesday was long. My first class was Topics in East Asian Art: Japanese Art Revival and Reinterpretation. Sounded cool. After seeing the syllabus and listening to the topics covered... I decided I'm going to drop the class. It covers a few very specific and random topics, but doesn't really provide a strong background in Japanese are like I would have liked. Plus, I didn't fancy writing a 15 page page paper on woodblock prints.
Immediately after I went into my 19th Century Painting II class. The class coveres from the pre-raphaelites through the worlds fair exhibition in paris in 1900. I think I like this class. Two exams, one paper. The paper is an exhibition proposal that makes a statement that relates to current events. My plan is to propose an exhibition of recreations of works destroyed by war, most specifically WW1 and WWII. Which relates to the present time for obvious reasons. This should be a fun class.
Finally, I went into my last class of the day, a graduate course, "Art, Entertainment, and Information". This is essentially an intro game design class for graduate students. Its a collaborative learning environment. Everyone is either a writer, an artist, a programmer, or musician. We form groups and make things. Should be fun :) Its a great program if anyone is looking for a graduate school to apply into... http://www.mime.indiana.edu
So this morning I made a really stupid mistake. I have a meeting with the director of undergraduate studies in Art History. She emails me stating "Tomorrow at 12:15". Unfortunately I didn't check the date of the email and thought it was today. So, I came to campus way too early (and you wondered why this was an unusually long journal entry!!). I'm currently working on getting approval to take an independent "Readings and Research in Art History" class with a studio art professor. I'm planning on doing some research on interactive art and gaming, or even collaborative online 'grassroots' art making (like we are essentially doing here). No art history professor is going to be able to help me with that, so I am planning on working with Margaret Dolinsky, and leading expert in networked virtual reality research. If this goes well, I'd also like to extend this into a senior honors thesis.
I'm about to go to my class that replaces my japanese art class. Its the MFA seminar in digital art. Should be pretty easy, coincides with my independent study. Meets once a week.
The second half of the semester I'll be picking up one other class. Its "Sources and Resources in Studio Art". Its a class that teaches me about dealing with galleries, writing proposals, and generally how to survive as a career artist. Should be informative.
And... beyond that, I've got a deadline with NASA on Sept 10th, as well as with Fruny and Acoustica's game on Sept 10th (international talk like a pirate day, ARGH!). I have an exhibition proposal due and a final letter describing my internship last spring due October 1st. The nice lazy days of summer are certainly over :(
