Art and Politics - On Friendship and the Political Imaginary

A distance course taught online, introducing key themes and questions in respect of politics, affiliation and the ontology of friendship with particular reference to contemporary art practices, theories and institutions. This international distance course, delivered in English, is free to EU nationals. This course was originally developed in 2021 through the collaboration between Prof. Steven Henry Madoff (SVA New York) and Prof. Mick Wilson (HDK-Valand, Gothenburg.) Building upon the success of the 2021 course, the new 2022 course seeks to further develop the focused inquiry into friendship as a question across politics, philosophy and artistic and curatorial practices. Participants are expected to: (i) actively engage in the online workshops, lectures and seminars; (ii) engage in extensive shared reading; and (iii) and explore the implications of the course themes for their own practice and/or further studies. The course is structured in three phases: <br> 1\. terms, <br> 2\. sources, and <br> 3\. disagreements. Phase 1 terms: introductory series of lectures and seminars looking at some of the central terms and themes pertaining to the question of friendship and the figure of 'the friend' Phase 2 sources: month of extensive reading across a range of disciplinary sources, with weekly check-in meetings to support the reading process Phase 3 disagreements: intensive two-week group study workshop with daily seminars and invited guests where the group develops a shared framework of thinking collectively <br> Practicalities<br> There are 25 online lecture, seminar and workshop events. June meetings 6, 7, 13, 14, 15, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30 from 18:30-20:30 CET / Swedish Time July meetings 5, 12, 19, 26, from 18:00-19:00 CET / Swedish Time August meetings on 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, from 18:00-20:30 CET / Swedish Time You will require reliable internet access and headphones with mic. Presentations will typically be recorded and posted online for students to access during the course. Participation in the course means that your contributions to discussion in response to the formal presentations may be recorded for this purpose. The formal presentations can be attended live and also accessed via recordings published online, at whatever time suits your personal timetable needs. However, it is strongly recommended that you attend the ‘live’ online the discussion sessions, as these will not always be recorded and these offer the best opportunity to interact with the other participants on the course. <br> Further information<br> There will be an open information session on Zoom on Monday 21 February 18:00-18:30 (CET – Swedish Time) to discuss the content of this year’s course. To the session in Zoom. The updated reading lists for this year’s course will be published on Monday 11 April 2022 in Canvas.