Course Description

This course is meant to be a space for you to examine and deepen your relationship to the field and your own practice through readings, discussions, and presentations.  The readings are meant to expand your perspective on the field of jewelry and metalsmithing, to define its particularities and concerns in relation to the discourses of the contemporary art world.

Together we will explore a series of seminal theoretical texts, seeking ways to relate them to our own practice.  Through these texts we will encounter a series of themes and historical perspectives that are crucial to the field of jewelry, while also delving into fields and areas of inquiry, that have not commonly been related to our field, but perhaps should or could be.  Our aim is to get a historical and interdisciplinary perspective on where we are as artists/makers today, how we got here and where we could go from here. The course aims to bring up critical questions on why we make, whom we make for and the meaning of our practice beyond the studio and the jewelry and metals world.

This is a chance to practice your skills in connecting theory, reading and writing to your work and to build a vocabulary and ground of reference around your ideas, interests and intentions. It’s a chance to take part in an intense discourse around your field, which you might be asked to do many times in the future of your career.

The Wednesday meetings will adopt the form of a reading/talking circle. Your role in the group is important and the success of our conversations will be based on your participation and engagement. We will all take turns in presenting and leading the discussion and also examine what “research through practice” might mean for us, by exploring some ways of connecting theory and making. 

Nov 14, 2009

georgina starr dining alone


In 'Relational Aesthetics,' Nicolas Bourriaud writes about the microterritories that occur in present day art practices. "The subversive and critical function of contemporary art is now achieved in the invention of individual and collective vanishing lines, in those temporary and nomadic constructions whereby the artist models and disseminateds disconcerting situations (pg 31)." The artist Georgina Starr is mentioned for her exhibition in Paris where she handed out to solo diners a writing which described her anxiety felt by dining alone in a restaurant. I immediately wanted to read this description because this anxiety is felt by everyone at some point. I recall this coming up in an episode of Sex and the City where they discuss how anytime they have to deal with dining alone a book, journal or cellphone is there to give purpose to them eating by themselves. They had to hide behind an object to divert attention from the awkwardness of being alone. I think it is easy for anxiety to come into play here because our own imaginations take over and we are fearful of being seen as someone that was "stood up" or without friends. I have worked in the service industry for over 5 years and enjoy observing solo diners and guessing why they are there alone. I would rather get something to go then deal with the watchful eyes of the restaurant staff and other patrons that are dining together. Here is Starr's text:

georgina starr dining alone
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