Photo Class at Parsons

PARSONS
Context, Artifact and Environment
Responding photographically to the natural world.
Professor Jason DeMarte
Context, Artifact and Environment is an immersion course into the natural
environment. Students will be responding photographically to the
area as well to specific found artifacts. The course is designed to
address the natural world from three distinct conceptual approaches.
These approaches; Context, Artifact and Environment will be examined
in three projects that students will complete while onsite. The objective
is to have students examine the world photographically and artistically
in a non-conventional way. This will expand notions of landscape and
how that can be reinterpreted through each approach.
The course will be structured with day trips to collect objects and make
images as well as using specific locations to stage images. During the
evening hours students will be exposed to relevant films and image
lectures as they relate to the subjects of each project. Students will also
use this time to work on editing and outputting images as well as
making new images in the studio. At the end of the class, students will
have completed a series of work. Additional time may also be given after
the class to complete printing.

This course will take place onsite at the Parsons Center, approximately
12 miles southeast of Traverse City, and about a 4 hour drive from Ypsilanti.
Students will stay in dorm rooms and have access to a professional
kitchen, classrooms, and art studios equipped with printing and lighting
equipment for completing work.
The Jean Noble Parsons Center for the Study of Art and Science is an interdisciplinary
educational center and natural area located in rural Benzie County,
Mich. The Center sits on 86 acres, consisting of mostly natural woodland and
marsh, with Parsons Lake in the center of the property. The Center is the
legacy of the late Jean Parsons, renowned sculptor and potter, and is run
jointly by the Departments of Art, Biology and Psychology at Eastern Michigan
University.
This 3 credit course may be taken as Arts 279, 379 or Arts 592
55373 ARTS 279 Photo: Cntxt Artfct & Envrnmt, section 002
55322 ARTS 379 Photo: Cntxt Artfct & Envrnmt, section 008
55324 ARTS 592 Photo: Cntxt Artfct & Envrnmt, section 009
For more information contact Professor DeMarte at:
jdemarte@emich.edu

Parson site:
http://ep.emich.edu/parsons/index.aspx