==> Randall Szott in conversation with Ted Purves

from Stephanie S

Randall Szott, who is the mastermind behind the blog LeisureArts among other things (mentioned by Matthew Rana in a previous entry), will be speaking with Ted Purves this Friday at Timken. I won’t be able to make it but perhaps some of you can… Info copied from a general announcement from the CCA grad office below:

Randall Szott in conversation with Ted Purves this Friday, Feb. 6th, in Timken Hall from 2:30 – 4:00PM. The theme is Let’s Talk About Love: How to Succeed in Art Without Really Trying. Celine Dion will also be present, in spirit if not in person. There might even be a fog machine. Witnessing these two artists in conversation with each other will be a real treat, so spread the word and bring a friend.

Some info about our participants:

Randall Szott’s life is a series of three week cycles on land and
three at sea. He alternates between life in Oak Park, Illinois and
various locations along the coastline of the southeastern United
States on the largest US owned hopper dredge. He believes himself to
be the only cook in the merchant marine with an MA in
Interdisciplinary Art and an MFA in Art Critical Practices. If you
cornered him, he might say his “expertise” is an unholy combination of
leisure and aesthetics. In practice he knows just enough about
everything to annoy his friends and not enough about anything to
impress strangers. Or is it the other way around?

Lebenskünstler:
http://thedepartmentofaesthetics.wordpress.com/

The Department of Aesthetics:
http://thedepartmentofaesthetics.org/

Ted Purves, along with his collaborator Susanne Cockrell, create social art
projects that investigate the overlay of urban and rural systems upon the lives of specific
communities. They ask questions about the nature of people and place as seen through
social economy, history and local ecology. In addition to their collaborative practice, they are
both professors at California College of the Arts. Ted was the founder of CCA’s MFA Area for
Social Practice, and continues to be one of the lead professors for the central workshop within
that curriculum. Ted and Susanne have received a Creative Work Fund grant from the Elise and
Walter Haas Foundation, a Visual Arts grant from the Creative Capital Foundation, an investing
in Artists Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation, as well as support from the Oakland Office
of Cultural Affairs and California College of the Arts.

Fieldfaring:
http://fieldfaring.org