This Fall, in collaboration with Liz Stringer, I’m coordinating an Art 251 (Special Topics Seminar) focused on creative opportunities and community-building at the Burns Piñon Ridge Reserve.

Updated September 28, 2022

—

This course is by application, and will be capped at sixteen people. The information below will help you decide if you want to participate.

Because we want to maximize working onsite, which is about 2.5 hours drive from UCI (near Joshua Tree), the course will have a non-standard schedule. We’ll be meeting:

  • On-campus: Wednesday, 9/28, 6:30-8:00PM in CAC 1021. Meet outside.
  • Onsite: Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, 10/14-10/16. Details TBD.
  • On-campus: Wednesday, 11/2, 6:30-8:00PM in CAC 1021.
  • On-campus: Wednesday, 11/30, 6:30-8:00PM in CAC 1021.
  • Onsite: At least five nights within 12/2-12/16. Details TBD.

Generally available for these dates? Great. What else do you need to know?

—

We’ll be determining, creating, and deploying some site improvements. We’ll determine what these should be during the first visit, create them during the quarter, and install them during the second visit.

We’ll also be determining, creating, and deploying some creative projects derived from your own practices, inflected by the high desert site and communities we’ve created across the quarter. These projects can be pursued individually or in groups. These could be installations, performances, short films, research-creation, or even happenings. Don’t consider yourself an artist? You’ll be encouraged to collaborate with some.

We’re planning to return onsite in early Winter 2023 to showcase these projects. With Illuminations support, we’ll be bussing people out to see what we’ve accomplished. While I can’t require Winter attendance, I’m assuming you’ll want to be there. Winter dates will also be determined as a group.

Lastly and least importantly, we’ll be reading one book: Henri Lefebvre’s The Production of Space. It’s readily downloadable, and available at the library—in the original French, if you prefer. There may be other (or different) readings, though, given our other commitments, this won’t be a particularly reading-intensive seminar.

—

We’re hoping to enroll at least two students from each of the four Claire Trevor School of the Arts departments: Art, Music, Dance, and Drama, as well as a selection of students from other programs. If there are more than sixteen applicants, we’ll make final selections based on balancing the disciplines and diversities of the group.

Concerned about costs? Don’t be. All travel and site improvement expenses will be covered. Accommodation will be provided onsite. We’ll also be providing modest funding for the creative projects.

Arts at Burns Piñon is an ongoing collaboration between CTSA Research and Innovation and UCI Nature, with support from the Claire Trevor Society, the Medici Circle, and the Beall Center for Art + Technology Ecology.

—

Ready to apply? Write a short email to estringe@uci.edu describing why this course will enhance your creative or scholarly practice.

—

Jesse Colin Jackson (he, him, or they, them)

Associate Professor, Department of Art 

Associate Dean, Research and Innovation, Claire Trevor School of the Arts 

Executive Director, Beall Center for Art + Technology

University of California, Irvine (on Acjachemen and Tongva territories)