Lecture at the Mutating Media symposium in October of 2008, held at favorite Gent spot (after Ingrid and Bram's pad of course): Vooruit. This symposium of a part of Almost Cinema 2008.

Fall 2008: I served on the Curriculum Committee in the department of art. Our main considerations were:

1) re-evaluation of major project for the BFA track; after consideration of all feedback from students and instructors, we decided to recommend to the department to break the class into a number of options: 1st, an "Art and Life" course, much in the style of the present "Art in the Twin Cities" course; as many of the BFAs do not go on to pursue careers in the arts, a fitting cap-stone course would be to assure that the know their local art world well and have experienced it aesthetically and critically. Another option would be an advanced studio; most BFAs do not get a lot of studio experience in our department (more than %50 are transfer students). An additional upper level studio would allow them valuable time to develop their voice

2) re-consideration of the Public Spaces position for grads: the last three graduate students have quit this position due to its unrealistic demands. A potential solution can be to make the BFA show juried, and therefore smaller.

3) re-consideration of the 2-year language requirement for BFAs. This question is to be investigated further

Fall 2008: COLA 1521/3521/4521: The Art of Collaboration

Professors or record: Ali Momeni,
Participating professors: Guerino Mazzola, Michael Sommers

A collaborative creative environment where over the course of a semester, students from different disciplines create a installation or performance that expresses their independent and collective talents and interests.

Find more information on the class blog.

Fall 2008: COLA 1001: The Art of Collaboration

Professors: Guerino Mazzola, Ali Momeni, Michael Sommers

This introductory course presents the characteristics and the challenges of collaboration through three representative approaches from the visual arts, music, and theater. The course unfolds around concrete problematic situations arising from the project of a collaborative and multimedia-enhanced project.

The class includes lectures by guest artists as well as exploration of the cultural landscape of the Twin Cities.

See the syllabus and class description or find more information on the class blog.

Fall 2008: ART 8400: Theoretical Constructions in Contemporary Art
First Year Graduate Seminar

Professors: Ali Momeni, Jenny Schmid

This course focuses on theories of contemporary art and how they have created a foundation for current art practices. In addition to reflecting on theory, this class seeks to collectively explore new paradigms in the ways that artists are working today- through the creation of collectives, the globalized community and artist-as-curator model. Can post-modernism shift to not just operate as a resistance against an historical Western paradigm, but rather formulate new approaches that are based in a globalized, less provincial and more dynamic way of thinking?

Here are links to the syllabus/course description, the class blog, and the assigned readings.

I will spend Oct. 3 to 16 in Ghent, Belgium, participating in the 2008 Almost Cinema Festival. The plan is to show two sculptural works, and give a with my man David Bithell.

Check out this article in the Minnesota Daily, showcasing MAW's activities as a student activities group. Here is the original link from MN Daily's site.

This article in the New York Times by Julie Bloom covers The UnConvention and MAW's participation in the event.

An article by Chris Clayton on MAW in the Seattle Business Monthly...