Over six weeks, we’ll read and discuss a series of texts that provide a framework for understanding and contextualizing the landscape around us. We’ll read texts from the 20th Century philosophy canon – Foucault’s “Utopian Body” and Deleuze’s “Nomadology: The War Machine,” for example – as well as more contemporary texts from influential thinkers and artists such as Hito Steyerl and Timothy Morton. Informed by these readings, you will be prompted to create a series of visual and/or audio projects aimed at exploring or challenging your ideas about utopias or “other spaces.”

Questions we’ll ask in this class include: What do we mean by utopia? What do our conceptions of utopia say about ourselves and our society? How do we incorporate theory into an art practice?

By taking this course, you’ll gain a better understanding of a range of philosophical texts, develop strategies for incorporating philosophical concepts into your own artistic practice, and maybe even plant the seeds of a new creative project.

• Gain experience reading and discussing philosophical material
• Develop an art practice that incorporates theory
• Close listening
• Develop video and audio editing skills

Week 1 — Utopia, Eutopia, and the Body

Topic: The relationship between goodness and utopia.

Project: visual representations of utopia.

Week 2 — Nomadology

Topic: The state apparatus, the war machine, and people who move around.

Project: critical representations of utopia.

Week 3 — Wilderness

Topic: Wilderness, ecology, and early 20th century photography and sound recording.

Project: sonic representations of “counter spaces.”

Week 4 — The Desert

Topic: The desert, the American frontier, and the suburbs.

Project: The relationship between text and image.

Week 5 — Outer Space

Topic: Historical and contemporary representations of outer space as the extended frontier: a site for hope and ideology.

Project: Finalized projects

Week 6 — The Future

Topic: Utopia and the future

Project: Final project presentations

Nomadology by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (Semiotext(e) edition)

Daniel Tovar is an artist and educator living in Los Angeles. He is Liberal Arts faculty at SCI-Arc and a board member of Monte Vista Projects. His multi-disciplinary work—incorporating audio, video, and sculpture—has been exhibited and performed at Monte Vista Projects, Wonzimer Gallery, Coaxial Arts Foundation, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others.

Index scholarships are designed to benefit underrepresented groups, BIPOC members of our community, and those for whom the class price is not accessible. These need-based scholarships will go to the candidates who best demonstrate why they should be chosen for the free spot to our class based on the following criteria:

• Belong to groups that are traditionally underrepresented in the graphic design and creative industries
• Do not have jobs that would pay for these courses as professional development
• Cannot independently afford the class at list price
• Share our value of intentional community

The number of selected applicants chosen is subject to the discretion of Index and the instructor, but every course will select at least one. Apply for a scholarship here. Applications close March 24th.

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