teach.

The other was conducted in what many identify as an art space, Cobalt Studio in

Chicago. Having this second event in an art gallery ultimately was complicated because

of the notably pedagogical activities that were held in the space in lieu of showing a

collection of art objects.

At the University of Illinois, where I currently teach in the School of Art and

Design, I was given the opportunity to design and teach a graduate seminar based on my

personal research interests. Since my service on the faculty of U of I was concurrent with

my completion of this dissertation I thought it advantageous to teach a course that was

linked to what I was trying to get at in this research project. As it turned out, teaching that

course ended up clarifying for me what my intention was for this dissertation project. The

course that I offered in the spring of 2011 at U of I was called Contemporary art

practices as pedagogy and twelve students; ten graduates and two undergraduate seniors

took it. The structure of the course was typical of what you might see in other grad

schools. The students were required to do readings, make presentations, facilitate

discussion, and do some sort of culminating project. I took it as a personal challenge to

imbue the form of the course—meaning how the course moved along—with what I

thought was the core objective of my research and the course. At the beginning of the

course, before I actually knew what the course was “about”, I thought had it to do with a

very simple directive. I basically asked my students, “How do you make something that

is not art—like a class—art?” This was a question that was asked with my voice, but also

with every action I took in relation to the class: the discussions, the social gatherings

outside of class, the assignments, the readings, the syllabus, and even how we had snacks

in class.

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