Look, Here, Now

April 1st - April 15th, 2024

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.” — Marcel Duchamp

In the 65 years since Duchamp made this pronouncement, the idea that an artwork is completed by the viewer has become near-universally accepted. In that time, however, the volume of artwork being produced, exhibited, and disseminated has grown exponentially. This acceleration has been driven, among other factors, by the attention-capture technologies and profit models that undergird how we observe and share works through online platforms. 

What can a viewer do for art — and what can art do for a viewer — in an era of attentional scarcity?

Look, Here, Now is a three-week seminar course that introduces students to a variety of attentional modalities as experienced through contemporary artworks.  Focusing on durational and performative pieces, each class explores artwork through a distinct sense receptor: vision, hearing and movement. We will examine works by William Forsyth, Pauline Oliveros, Janet Cardiff, and Irwin Wurm, among others, and activate a number of attentional exercises including deep listening and slow looking.

Taught by visual artist William Lamson.