PROJECTS

Connections, Conjunctions, Attachments
Sculpture/Interdisciplinary Workshop
Stephanie Syjuco

This interdisciplinary course will investigate the physical, psychological, and conceptual connections that hold artworks together. We will explore various ways of attaching dissimilar materials, i.e. bolts, wires, notches, stitches, glue, gravity, etc. and the physical and psychological impact of these material choices. We will also research how ideas are connected one to the next and how those connections form the basis of the way works function. All the definitions of connections, conjunctions, and attachments will be the subject of this class.

Weekly Assignments:
These are quick projects that will allow you to amass a vocabulary of connections that will become the basis of your working process. Be daring and imaginative. We will spend about an hour each week discussing these projects.

1. Document 10 connections, conjunctions, attachments that you encounter in your daily life. You can photograph, draw, describe, list, video these observations. Look out for the weird as well as the mundane. but continue to document what you find throughout the semester. (due 9-13) The archive you create will be due on December 6.
2. Bring in 10 junctures that were formed by using sticky substances; i.e. various glues, wax, bubble gum, spit, pitch. Don’t get too gross. (due 9-20)
3. Bring in 10 junctures that were formed with manufactured hardware; i.e. screws, bolts, turn buckles, brackets, nails. (due 10- 4)
4. Bring in 10 junctures that are formed by tying or lacing and sewing: i.e. thread, wire, rope, fiber, cloth strips etc. (due 10-11)
5. Make a chart of the most important people in your life and how they are connected to you and your ideas. Bring in objects that are connected to them. (due 10-18)
6. Do a small work with hidden attachments and one with very visible attachments. (due 11-1)
7. Do a small work with cruel attachments and one with fond attachments. (due 11-8)
8. Do a small work with 20 or more attachments and one with only one attachment. (due 11-15)
9. Tell a story that is about connections; i.e. how something happened just in time to allow you to go the next step, how you discovered places, things, met people, traveled, were transformed or not. (due 11-29)
10. Bring in archive of the connections you found during the semester and the three most amazing connections you encountered. (due 12-6)

Main Assignments:

1. Personal history connections (Due September 27 and 29)Create a place that evokes people or events that have shaped you. Think about how objects and places trigger whole memories and what forms of construction will help convey your thoughts. Be conscious of what time period you are referencing. How were things made then? What materials were used? What were the styles, colors, etc.? Was this a child’s place or an adult’s place? Was it private or public? How are the objects made? How do objects touch each other and how do they touch the place where they reside? Think about sound and smell as well as objects. Be specific.
2. Rube Goldberg (Due October 25 and 27)Construct a work that uses the Rube Goldberg idea of cause and effect, where each component is activated by the touch of another component in a sequence. You can use any material. Think about the kind of action/motion you create and how that may aid in the content of the work. Is it thundering or tinkling, crumbling or growing, fast or slow, gigantic or miniscule?. This work should change itself as time unfolds
3. Connected but not touching (Due November 17 and 22)Make a work whose components are connected but not touching. Think about a flock of birds, a school of fish, freeway traffic, a Busby Berkeley musical. Investigate esp, magnetic fields, remote control, proximity. How does the mind connect disparate objects into patterns?
4. The next iteration (Due December 13 and 15)The final project should build on one of the previous projects. Utilize your investigations over the semester to further develop your ideas. Take an idea that you are intrigued with and push it to the next step. What did you learn when this work was critiqued? What do you wish you had done with the piece the first time? You completely determine the criteria, scale, materials, concept, and connections. You must be able to discuss the relevance of the content to the choices you make and the significance of the way you choose to attach the components. What about this idea deserves further exploration?

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