What Creative Project: Manifestos
For your final creative homework project for the semester, I’m inspired by our final reading in emerge last week, specifically the “Creativity Minifesto” from page 136 and 137 from Part 3 of the text. This is also inspired by “Manifesto” by artist Julian Rosefeldt. (Learn more about this project and watch the videos here.)
When I think about what art manifestos have traditionally been, I think about the idea of a point of view. A manifesto, by definition, is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives, or views of its issuer. Typically written by young artists and largely motivated to articulate a difference or break with the past, art manifestos in art history have offered us a direct source to understanding the intentions behind work made by particular artists within the a particular context of a given place and time.
One thing to remember about a manifesto: This is not a place where you are trying to please anyone else. People will disagree with you. This is a work entirely composed of your own opinions. If you write something that is trying to be what you think I want to hear, you are entirely missing the point of the assignment and this class. This is an assignment for yourself. Its value is bound to how much you take to heart this concept.
As we have been considering over the course of the semester the many facets of what it means to live a creative life through a gospel worldview, this assignment is intended to provide an opportunity for you to articulate for yourself why you create, who you are as a creative, how you will sustain your creative practice, and what type of work you will bring into the world.
1.) Thoughtfully consider how to articulate your own creative manifesto as an expression of where you situate yourself as a creative as an individual. Consider and address the 4 units of the class (why, who, how, and what) and where you position yourself and your creative work.
2.) Your manifesto should address both your individual creative work and your individual spiritual beliefs and how they relate and inform each other. This is the core of what this class is all about.
3.) The creative manifesto project should include a written component and a visual or “creative” component. These can overlap or be distinct from each other. The particulars of how long or what forms the written and creative requirements take is up to you as the artist. There is no required length or word count. It is up to you to decide what to say, how to say it, and how to edit your thoughts to their most value and impact version. Consider the author of emerge’s creative manifesto from text as one example of this assignment.
4.) Bring your creative manifestos to class on finals week Monday December 6th at 1pm to receive credit for it. If you make something that is ephemeral like a performance or difficult to transport, please consider how to best document your project so that I can gain access, as a viewer, to its meaningfulness. This is a firm deadline. Grades are due quickly once the semester ends, so this is the latest day I can accept this project in order to have sufficient time to grade it.
a few examples of creative manifesto projects:
this first set of 4 images are by a student in a pervious class who made these to remind her of some of the big ideas of the course that she wants to remember and apply to her future career as a social worker
the next image is by another former student who composed a written manifesto (not shown here) and set up and took this self portrait as a visual depiction of his ideas
the next image is a poem I wrote last semester and revised this semester as my own version of this creative assignment (I consider this both as an image and a written text)
Don Perini’s creative manifesto from his book “Emerge”
documentation of the 13 channel video installation project by artist Julian Rosefeldt.
