Course Syllabus
Course: ART 2950
Division: Fine Arts, Comm, and New Media
Department: Visual Art
Title: Experiments in Creative Thinking
Semester Approved: Fall 2020
Five-Year Review Semester: Fall 2025
End Semester: Spring 2026
Catalog Description: Experiments in Creative Thinking is an idea-driven course designed to teach students to solve creative, conceptual, and material problems through interpretation and invention. Emphasis is placed on imagination, experimentation, audience, and on gaining an understanding of the rationale behind one's own and others artistic production. This course incorporates current themes in contemporary art and culture. Students develop an expanded vocabulary of contemporary creative practices while learning how to visually and verbally communicate their ideas and process. Students are expected to be self-motivated and directed. Class hours are devoted to lectures, discussions, creative exercises, and critiques. This course is open to all students interested in the creative process.
Semesters Offered: TBA
Credit/Time Requirement: Credit: 3; Lecture: 3; Lab: 0
Justification: Snow College Visual Arts has an Associate of Fine Art (AFA) in Visual Studies Degree. Experiments in Creative Thinking addresses artistic issues not currently taught in other art classes. Students need to be able to articulate the creative process and support their material production with intellectual rigor in the context of current academic debate. Most higher education institutions teach these ideas and methods and it is important that Snow students can articulate these concepts both visually and verbally. This course will prepare students to transfer to a BFA program with a stronger understanding of contemporary creative genres and concepts. This course transfers well to other institutions in the state of Utah.
Student Learning Outcomes:
MATERIAL PROFICIENCY
Students will be exposed to a range of material processes applicable to the course. Each student will be required to maintain a portfolio and produce a final work serving as a culmination of techniques and concepts learned. Portfolios will be critically reviewed periodically throughout the semester to provide feedback for improvement. This will include class projects, instructor feedback and peer critique.
CONCEPTUAL PRINCIPLES
Students will be educated to discern between material, formal and conceptual principles. Material and formal understanding of creative practice will be emphasized to solve conceptual issues. Each student will create portfolio of class projects. Portfolios will be critically reviewed periodically throughout the semester to provide feedback for improvement and assess progress. This will include class projects, instructor feedback and peer critique.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Students will study significant historical works with particular attention to the context of when it was created. This knowledge will assist in informing their formal creative sensibilities. Artistic influence and imitation is a standard part of the creative development of art students and will be evidenced in their final portfolio of creative work. Portfolios will be critically reviewed periodically throughout the semester to provide feedback for improvement. This will include class projects, instructor feedback and peer critique.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Students will learn the process of critical analysis as it applies to creative process and risk taking. Utilizing the visual vocabulary, knowledge of material processes, concepts and historical context, students will learn to articulate aesthetic qualities, examine effective visual communication, and determine conceptual merit. Students will analyze both historical and contemporary work through oral and written critiques. Oral and written critiques will be reviewed by the instructor.
Content:
This class will include lectures, discussions, critiques, and applied projects as they apply to the following topics in experimental and creative practices: resource building, mapping systems in cultural belief and future planning, risk management in artistic practice, and audience integration. A series of exercises designed to explore the boundaries of creative practice.
Key Performance Indicators:
Portfolio and class projects 50 to 80%
Instructor and peer critique 10 to 30%
Oral and written critiques 10 to 30%
Representative Text and/or Supplies:
This Is Not A Book, Keri Smith, current edition
Pedagogy Statement:
This course will be taught using several pedagogical methods including: lecture, interactive group think tanks, peer critique, risk assessment, and research. Specific attention will be paid to inclusion, diversity, equality, and access as it applies to the creative cultural field.
Instructional Mediums:
Lecture
Maximum Class Size: 12
Optimum Class Size: 12
