What transforms an ordinary object into art? Have you ever wondered why a giant metal sculpture of the Energizer Bunny speaks to the disguised banality of consumer culture? Or why a bicycle wheel on a pedestal is one of the most significant works of art in the twentieth century? Investigate the found object as you create and critique art through hands-on studio projects, readings, films and discussion. Learn to craft a story through objects that you encounter in your daily life. Collage, photomontage, trash art, digital art forms, and social media will all be considered. Discover how artists working in this manner challenge our relationship with objects, history and the role of the artist.
Course Details:
3 Credits
CRN 30621
TR 2-3:20
197 LA
About the Instructor: Colleen Choquette-Raphael
As an instructor in the photography area I have taught beginning black and white photography every term for over a decade and I never tire of sharing my passion for the poetry and alchemy of this process. As an artist and instructor, I am primarily interested in the materiality of the photograph and its role as a cultural artifact. My research investigates the theoretical intersection between the material and immaterial, digital and analogue. In an increasingly virtual world, our relationship with objects is undergoing a significant transformation. I think a freshman seminar provides a wonderful opportunity to involve ourselves in collaborative unraveling of this changing narrative in the history of art.
Colleen Choquette-Raphael received her MFA in art with an emphasis in photography and multimedia from the University of Washington, Seattle and holds three undergraduate degrees from the University of Oregon, in art history (with an emphasis on Italian Renaissance art), visual design, and art education. Since joining the faculty at the University of Oregon in 1998, she has taught in the photography department where she specializes in darkroom based black and white courses. She has also taught foundations, a seminar on the body as metaphor and public art, experimental book arts, The Constructed Image and Visual Storytelling. Instructor Choquette’s personal practice embraces video, photography and book arts. European literature informs her creative work and she is currently writing a book about her solitary travels in Greece.
