USF Filipino American Arts 2009

PROJECT 2: THE SITE OF MEMORY
DUE: TU 4/7
CRITIQUE: TU 4/7, TH 4/9

“If writing (art-making) is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic. I suppose I could dispense with the last four if I were not so deadly serious about fidelity to the milieu out of which I write and in which my ancestors lived.”

“…the crucial distinction for me is not the difference between fact and fiction, but the distinction between fact and truth.”
-Toni Morrison, The Site of Memory

As you begin Project 2, please consider the various resources you’ve absorbed in the past few weeks: work, eras and ideas covered in class, guest artists Carlos Villa and Mike Arcega, the I Hotel visit/readings/video, and the words of Toni Morrison. You may or may not want to see how the upcoming eras and readings (Becker, Desai, Friis-Hansen) provoke new ideas for you, as well. How do you interpret this notion of a “Site of Memory”, literally or figuratively? Is this attached to a highly personal experience, or is this governed by broader notions of politics or community? How can creative production, your creative production, be a way of responding to and reflecting on subjective, imaginative notions of history and memory?

Project 2 is an opportunity for you to sift through these resources and inspirations and create work that may go in a wide array of directions: while it’s preferable that you anchor your piece to a theme that is Filipino-/Filipino-American in nature, you are in fact free to interpret this broadly as long as you can authentically connect your work back to this class.

Project 2 should incorporate at least one non-traditional art material, and can be in any visual arts medium: this is your opportunity to experiment with other forms, strategies and media, so long as it feels appropriate and relevant to your project. Please continue to push yourself beyond your comfort zone with whatever material you choose.

Project 2 should also be an opportunity for you to take what you learned in Project 1, and advance your technical, editorial and compositional skills further. Project 2 should look like the culmination of 2-3 weeks of deep work, regardless of materials chosen. Your work should look completely resolved by its due date. If you are confused about this project, please set up a meeting with me.