Road Testing the Modern

This semester is influenced by the works of Ed Ruscha and the exhibit ED RUSCHA: Road Tested.

Under the supervision of our first artist, Justin Shull, we will examine how the architectural structure and space of the Modern influences our museum-going experience. Using what we learn from this case study, we will begin to address larger questions about how architecture influences our perception of the world and how our work relates to that of Ed Ruscha.

We will begin our section by touring the museum and studying and documenting its spaces using photography, sketchbooks, interviews, and observations. We will look at Ed Ruscha's photographs of gas stations, parking lots and palm trees in the American west and his paintings of landscapes superimposed with text and discuss his work in relation to ours. We will work as anthropologist-architect-artists to create drawings, models and collages that rethink the museum's architectural space.

*excerpts from Justin Shull's TAP 2011 Syllabus