Visual+Arts+Methodologies

Before we can begin to discuss and understand the methodologies involved in Visual Arts practice, we need to identify and understand our own preconceived ideas, values and misconceptions relating to Art and the creative processes involved.

To begin:

=**Activity 1. Bad Art**= Open the Bad Art document attached here:

In groups of three, with the scissors provided, cut out the collection of artworks and arrange in order of preference from good art to bad art. There must be consensus in the group as to the correct order. Make sure you record your justifications for your decisions and your rankings. This exercise should take about 15 minutes.

When completed, walk around the other groups tables and look at their rankings. Compare with your own groups findings.

Through class discussion, share and collate the criteria used by each group to define 'good' art and 'bad' art. Attempt to come up with definitions for each. Define the methodologies used to identify 'good' or 'bad' art.

Wider discussion topics:

Who decides what makes art good or bad? Can art be good even if its technically poor but has a strong emotion, feeling or message attached?

This should lead onto the following discussion, "What is Art?" Record initial definitions on the whiteboard along with the criteria for good and bad art.

Once this information is recorded, read: What is Art? by Joseph A. Goguen. Compare the results.

=**Activity 2. What makes Good Art?**=

Arrange yourselves into groups of three. Using the scrap materials provided (each group has the same selection of materials) create a 'good' piece of artwork to hang on the wall. You can only use the materials provided and must complete the task within 15 minutes.

When all the work is hung, the class must vote to ascertain the best artwork using the criteria discussed and decided upon in activity 1.

Class discussion:

Discuss the results - both what they indicate and the validity of the methodologies for identifying the 'best art'. Does the previous criteria work for this exercise?

Go to the following link to discuss the ”The Most Wanted Paintings” art experiment by Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid (see their [|website].

In preparation for the next activity read: After Duchamp by Boris Groys. The full article can be found here at: [|http://www.e-flux.com/journal/marx-after-duchamp-or-the-artist’s-two-bodies/]. Equally, the following question can be addressed after reading the article.

Has the relationship between the arts and technology changed as a result of the possibilities of mechanical reproduction and digital manipulation? = = = Activity 3. The Oak Tree = Read the summary and the accompanying Q & A taken from the Tate Modern website of Michael Craig-Martin's work 'The Oak Tree' here.
 * [[image:Oak_Tree.jpg width="345" height="480"]] ||~  ||

Then watch the following [|video link]

Discussion topic:

To what extent and in what ways might conceptual art be regarded as a representation of reality? What kinds of art might be seen as “realistic”?