7 - Contemporary Art Practices III

• The key objective of the course is to contextualise knowledge, skills, abilities and creative inclinations of the students, notwithstanding their chosen medium, with the practice being developed in the field of contemporary arts. Students will be shown the diverse contexts in which their knowledge can be used, and will be encouraged to search for ways, methods and contents which will be further developed through other related projects.
• Students will be encouraged to continue with further researches in the field.
• To open up a field of life outside the mundane and self-explanatory understanding of everyday life, world, the students themselves, and their future vocation.
• To place the student into an interdisciplinary working environment in which he would need to form creative working relationships and get involved as a fully equal member.
• At the same time, the course objective is to take the student out the university and study context into the outside, physical or virtual space.

Within the module, the students will be able to obtain the following general competences: * ability to apply knowledge in practice, ability to apply and connect specific types of knowledge in complex projects, development of communication abilities and competences, cooperative approach, working in groups, responsible approach towards a project, colleagues, and one's vocation.

General education in the fields of social sciences and humanities.
Various types of knowledge the student has acquired in his educational history.

The prerequisities: student's active participation in all phases and at all levels of the study process, which, apart from the active attendance at lectures and participation in practice work, presupposes the following: individual creation and development of ideas – independently and within the active, two-way mentor-student communication (exhange of ideas takes place on the personal level and via the internet) and a continual independent (research, creative and performative) work throughout the academic year.

Seminars: Individual research; Context as a starting point; Artistic video; the Author's book; Polimedia strategies; and other contents.

Practical creative work within an artistic contextual project: in cooperation with its partners, the School organises a few bigger artistic projects which provide the students with an opportunity to cooperate with experts in the field of culture. The students who would like to carry out their vocational practice outside the programme may do so provided they have sought advice and have received a confirmation from their main mentor as well as from the course director of the Contemporary Art Practice module.

General contents: * definition of general and specific context * good practice cases from previous experience * research of the chosen context, defining the possible starting points of the project, * objectives, methods, definition of needs for the project's implementation (eg. possible visiting mentors, invited participating experts, contacts with the local authorities, permits, financial plan and framework, plan for raising additional funds, plan for project promotion in the local community (or in the environment in which it will take place), conversations with neighbours, users of the public space) * creation of the project * implementation phase * final phase * preparation of the public presentation of the project, the - accompanying texts, printed materials, web announcements * public presentation – organisation and performance * arranging the project's documentation, authorial rights, the possible future of the project * closing of the public presentation, organisation of the return of works and equipment * arranging a web document which will remain as a definite information on the project.

Specific themes to be covered in cycles:

Contemporary art practices as instruments in wider social, environmental, and other contexts; as instruments of searching and expressing one's personal identity; searching and expressing space identity; as instruments of enquiry into history, culture, geopolitical contexts, and phenomena of contemporary society.
It may happen that the course will respond with a project to themes announced by bigger or smaller, institutional or independent, cultural and artistic organisations; that is, the course will aim to respond to current social themes.

Project management (a special study unit) Through case studies and a discussion, the student becomes acquainted with the techniques and tools that ensure an optimal development of an artistic-production project, from its idea to its realisation. The particular stages of analysis, planning, production and postproduction (distribution, promotion, evaluation) will be covered, so the student will be able to get an overview of the skills needed for managing human resources, time, finances, legal and other issues of art production.

The framework of contents in year three: * Contemporary art practice II B * work on the artistic contextual project B (4 ECTS, obligatory practice work) * interchangable content (Contemporary art practice 3) * interchangable content (Contemporary art practice 4)

Interchangable contents: * Art video * author's book * project management * participation of visiting professor(s) (Contemporary art practice module)

The students acquires an ability to face a complex creative assignment and to solve real life problems by using artistic research methods and procedures. At the same time, the student develops skills and competences in the use of knowledge within the creative art field. The student also acquires additional knowledge, such as ability to face performance deadlines, solve administration hindrances occurring in public projects, communication with spectators, and other related skills.

• Auslander, Philip: V živo - uprizarjanje v mediatizirani kulturi, Ljubljana: Mestno gledališče ljubljansko, 2007 Catalogue
• Eseji o video produkciji v različnih kontekstih ali v razmerju do družbenih in umetniških praks, SCCA-Ljubljana. E-version
• Goldberg, Roselee: Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present, Thames & Hudson, 2001 Catalogue Catalogue E-version
• Heathfield, Adrian: Live Art and Performance, Routledge, New York, 2004 Catalogue E-version
• Jones, Amelia: Body Art uprizarjanje subjekta, Maska, Ljubljana, 2003 Catalogue
• STRATEGIJE predstavljanja 2 in 3. Ljubljana : SCCA, Zavod za sodobno (Svet umetnosti) Catalogue
• Geopolitika in umetnost = Geopolitics and art / Tečaj za kustose sodobne umetnosti, leto 1999. Ljubljana : Zavod za odprto družbo - Slovenija, Sorosov center za sodobne umetnosti, 1999 (Svet umetnosti) Catalogue
• Teorije razstavljanja = Theories of display / Tečaj za kustose sodobne umetnosti, šolsko leto 1997/98. Ljubljana : Zavod za odprto družbo - Slovenija, Sorosov center za sodobne umetnosti, 1998 (Svet umetnosti) Catalogue
• URBANARIA / urednik, editor Lilijana Stepančič. - Ljubljana : Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, 1994-1997 Catalogue E-version
• VIDEODOKUMENT : video umetnost v slovenskem prostoru 1969-1998. Eseji / urednica Barbara Borčić. - Ljubljana : Open Society Institute - Slovenia, 1999 Catalogue E-version
• VIDEODOKUMENT : video umetnost v slovenskem prostoru 1969-1998 = video art in Slovenia 1969-1998. Dokumentacija = Documentation / urednica, editor Barbara. - Ljubljana : Open Society Institute - Slovenia, 1999 Catalogue E-version

creative assignment 50%, theoretical assignment 20%, practice and group work 30%

RENE RUSJAN is the programme head and »Contemporary Art Practices« module leader in Digital Arts and Practices BA programme at the School of Arts of University of Nova Gorica. She was the co-founder of KD Galerija GT and Famul Stuart School of Applied Arts and was its programme head since 1994. She initiated and led numerous projects in collaboration of the school and other partner organizations, nationally and internationally.
She received a diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana. She works in the field of contemporary art, as an artist in her own projects as well as a co-author in various artistic collaborations. Her work is context-specific and interdisciplinary. Scope: visual, performing arts and intermedia, graphic design, set design, concepting and curating exhibitions and complex art projects; teaching activity in the fields of contemporary art, co-author of several study programmes.

SELECTED PROJECTS AND EXHIBITIONS 2012 – 2007
2012 - Faraway, So Close! (Distance Conversations_012) – intermedia work in progress
- The Same Wind, The Same Rain, Chiang Mai Art Centre, Thailand (residency and exhibition)
2011 - Videovečer / Videovečerja, Videosupper, Galerija Photon, Ljubljana
- Kdor sam do večera potuje skoz svet (Simon Gregorčič), theater set design (with Bostjan Potokar), author and director: Neda R. Bric, production SNG Nova Gorica theatre
2010 - Communication project at Postaja Topolove / Stazione di Topolo, Topolo, Italija
- VideoSupper with Rene Rusjan, Kulturni inkubator, Maribor
2009 - TheOneMinutes Trains, svetovni izbor, Rietvelt Arsenale Venice (v izbor prišla z video deloma Train Taveling – Egypt in Train Taveling – Tokyo), Arsenali Novissimi, spremna lokacija ob bienalu v Benetkah
2008 - WorldOneMinutes Video & Literature, svetovni izbor, Beijing Today Art Museum (v izbor prišla z video delom Wake Me Up if I Fall Asleep), premierna razstava v Pekingu, Kitajska, nato Šanghaj, Lisbona, Zagreb, Paramaribo, Bruselj, Sao Paulo, Istanbul, Amsterdam in Groningen
- Mother:Earth – mednarodna delavnica žensk iz arabskih in evropskih dežel, Wd8 Art Center, Walkensdorf, Avstrija
2007 - Zbudi me, če zaspim, video, One Minute_São Paolo, SCCA, Videospotting
- Connected, Wd8 Art Center, Walkensdorf, Avstrija (projekt: spletna umetnica Cym)
- Čitalnica SCCA 2007/ Reading Room SCCA 2007, SCCA-Ljubljana, Zavod za sodobno umetnost, Projektna soba
- Danes nimam časa za politiko. Danes nimam časa za umetnost . Danes.., Fotografski projekt; Politično (razstava po izboru članov Društva slovenskih kritikov), Velenje
- Pri meni na vrtu – Cikel Štirje letni časi, Vrt na Komenskega 8, DLUL, Ljubljana (samostojen projekt, vanj sem k sodelovanju povabila kolegice umetnice: Natašo Skušek, Aleksandro Gruden, Eleno Fajt, Cym, karierno sodobno umetnico Mileno Kosec, ter svoje študentke, Evo Nino Cajnko, Martino Černetić, Urško Debevc, Saro Lovrec, Matejo Abram in Bojano Križanec)
- Pogledi / Looks - Home '07, Ljubljana work-in-progress, ulična intervencija (skupaj z Boštjanom Potokarjem)
- North-South Postcard diary, Station Nord, Honefoss, Norveška
- U3 trienale slovenske umetnosti, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana (zbornik, z Boštjanom Potokarjem)