week two

This week we got rolling with some of these classes I'm taking.

Graduate Seminar: This is supposed to be a discussion about art theory and what not. For this week we had to read something from "The Radicant" by Nicolas Bourriaud. It is a pretty cryptic read and because I accidentally read the thing for next week instead I ended up reading it pretty quickly and was unable to internalize it the way I would have liked. The actual class got out of hand pretty quickly, incidentally what you would expect from a night class as it includes some non-graduates who are auditing in their time off. We didn't really discuss Bourriaud we talked about capitalism a lot because one of the kids got a degree in anthropology, he also started talking smack about function and how that wasn't "art" which incensed a lot of us in the "craft" based media. We didn't really get into it yet, and thats good because we already weren't discussing course material.

Basic Metals: I'm interning in this class, so I am the Teaching Assistant. I'm trying to make sure that I

add to demonstrations and the like without sounding like I know more than the real life teacher, because if he doesn't like me it would make it harder for me to get the real life teaching job for next semester. If I don't say anything then he won't know how awesome I am and how much stuff I know. I think its going pretty well.

Walk-and-Talk: this is what we call individual crit with professors. I talked with both Myra and Jamie this week and it went pretty well. I think Myra and I might butt heads about material choices because she has a

less than favorable view on some of the things I've been using in my work and a formidable disdain for the store "Michael's". Jamie and I talked about fractals which he seemed to like after I showed him some pictures. I'm not sure how things are going to work out with these kids yet, but its been pretty fun thus far.

Screen-printing: This class is quite lengthy, it starts at 3:05 pm and is supposed to go until 9:20 pm so even if we leave early there is still at least 4 and a half hours of class. This class is supposed to be something where we incorporate screen-printing into
our own work, I had planned on printing on metal and plastic but he actually wants paper for this first project. boo. I also volunteered to do the first artist presentation. It is supposed to be on a screen-printing artist but I saw the Nicola Lopez show in wisconsin before I left and I really liked it so hopefully it will be so awesome we just forget about the screen-printing part.

At Home: Marc is leaving next week and he won't be back until the 22nd of February. Dave and I will have to try and keep the fire going and hope the basement doesn't flood. If the
basement does flood we have to set up the sub-pump which isn't a big deal except that the way it works is that it won't drain out all the water, just enough so that the water heater won't get wet. So there will still be a lake of water down there, fortunately Marc has cinderblocks and car wheels for stepping stones.

Grade School thrusters, Engage!

k.redford