Normativity

What is a normal artist?

The normative is defined in the dictionary as follows:

of or relating to a norm, especially an assumed norm regarded as the standard of correctness in behaviour, speech, writing, etc.

Artists are considered to exist out of the norm, perhaps your decision to study art has at some point been met with a resistance that goes against conventional ideas of a successful, even normal life path.

The normative, as we will come to learn, is entirely subjective and perhaps the purpose of this Think.Zone will be to define what is normal to you and how this can be implemented within your artistic practice, intellectual rationing and the way you decide you want to live your life.

This Think.Zone will revolve around conversation groups enabled by reading tasks, quick-fire art making sessions with crits and visiting exhibitions as a group. The outcome of this Think.Zone will be a personal re-examining of your individual values.

The normative is often not what we think it is.

We can not discuss the norm without discussing its opposite - the perverse, the eccentric, the unruly, the subversive, the disobedient. These notions in themselves can emerge in gimmicky and commodified lifestyle arenas which can be a highly comfortable yet unchallenged place for the artist to exist, this in turn becomes a norm.

Part of Decolonising Identities
This Think.Zone is held in English. Course credit is given based on attendance and participation.