MODEN:Sole Proprietor WS10-11

Wunderwirtschaft: SOLE PROPRIETOR

Projektmodul (MFA)
WS 2010-11
16 SWS, 18 /24 ECTS
Prof. Christine Hill
Venue: Marienstr. 5, Room 203
Dates: 10a.m. – 1p.m.
First plenum: Wednesday, Oktober 13, 2010
Language: English

=Description

"Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art." — Andy Warhol

Organizing and maintaining a professional creative career (studio art or otherwise) can draw many parallels to managing a small business. Scale of practice similarly so: there is an obvious difference between manning a 65+ person enterprise a la Olafur Eliasson Studio, and being exclusively responsible for all of one's endeavors: a sole proprietor. Often these are results of circumstance, but they can also be the result of a personal choice with regard to how one wants to design one's business. Keeping matters on a personal scale reflects a pride in having direct oversight of activity, in engaging with colleagues and clients on a one-to-one basis, and being solely responsible for all decisions. Similarly, the creative work space develops parallels with the small business in an aesthetic/visual manner. The site becomes a collection of transactions and materials, and any working surface is simultaneously an installation. How the space is arranged must be organizational relevant, aesthetically considered, highly functional and economically sound.

This course hinges on relating one's creative practice to that of a specific type of small business model. Participants will choose a "sole proprietor" from the exterior community (non-art, non-university) to engage with, be in dialogue with, learn from...and expand their own understanding of their work from this relationship.

We will focus on similar strategies being employed in the art system by a diverse range of practitioners (ie, Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Allison Smith, Vito Acconci, Andrea Zittel, J. Morgan Puett, ...) There will be considerable discussion of how we choose to design our practice, what existing forms we are hoping to emulate, and how to implement these in a post-university occupation.

There will be an excursion to Berlin to visit numerous sole proprietorships and discuss organizational practice with these owners. This trip will include a visit to Christine Hill's "Volksboutique" which has a new, functioning shop installation installed and running as of October 2010.

Project Goals

• Review of related artistic practice.
• Internalization of related glossary of terms (economics).
• Understanding of organizational undertakings in producing event-based art.
• Collaborative practice amongst project participants.
• Identification and research into comparative work in the artistic context.
• Grasp of installation and performative work methods.
• Meshing of artistic skills with service-providing skills.
• Comprehension of the entrepreneurial.
• Establishment of PR skills useful for soliciting project interest.

Assessment

• Brief thematic presentation (Referat).
• Active participation in class.
• Maintaining a Field Notebook.
• Individual consulation dates.
• Conception, realization and presentation of a substantial artistic project.
• Documentation.