Art and Architecture Joint Research Project

Description in Brief

This interdisciplinary project will design and construct a temporary and sustainable architectural space for students to engage with the community through their research. This space, a full-size built work designed and built by PSU Architecture students, will represent an integrated student experience involving: engagement with a local community, a client body consisting of the MFA Social Practice unit, and materials and techniques of fabrication through hands-on building activity.

Research Components

In the research aspects of this project, contemporary perceptions of both art and architecture activity will be explored through a guided curriculum process. This process will engage students directly with developing interactions between social practice and design-build creative disciplines, enable new forms of interaction between academic pursuit and the public at large, and test hypotheses concerning the contemporary values and expectations placed on art and architecture by all participants. This project represents new pedagogical initiatives in both architecture (design-build) and art (social practices).

Specific Goals related to the Project

The specific goal of the project is to research, develop, design and then construct a contemporary building that is used for public engagement, educational outreach, and student academic research.

Project Sponsors

• Center for Academic Excellence, Portland State University

Blogs Associated with this ARCH/ART Project

PSU Architecture Research Blog

PSU Social Practice Blog

 
For more information or to support this project please contact Alexa in the Art office: alexap@pdx.edu or 503 725 3334.

Community Maps Project

What: The Community Maps Project: a collaborative art project between Portland State University’s department of Fine Arts and a Portland Public Middle School

Where: Artists 4 the community gallery located at Albina Community Bank
10th and NW Glisan in the Pearl District

When: June 5, 2008, First Thursday in the Pearl
5:00pm –9:00pm

PSU art students will direct the creation of a huge sidewalk map during the June 5th art walk in the Pearl Art District. This will truly be a community effort, as hundreds of children and adults will participate in creating what will be billed as “the largest map of Portland ever drawn.”

Also on display will be the 10x 20ft collaborative art map made by PSU and the middle school children. Along with the individual displays of 3 college art students enrolled in the class called Community Engagement in Art.