Studio & Art History SIPs—Presentations

Kalamazoo College

Art Department

SENIOR PRESENTATIONS

Shoot for a time of twenty to twenty-five minutes for your presentation.

Studio SIPs

You will give a formal presentation about your own work on the day of your opening reception. The talk should cover the development of your work and its relationship to other art, including the art that may have influenced you or that you have found of particular interest.

· Some questions you might ask yourself:

· What experiences have formed your attitudes about art in general, and the sort of work you have chosen to do?

· What led to your use of the medium or media in your SIP and other work?

· How do you see your own work in relation to other contemporary art?

· What was most successful in your SIP; what didn't work as well?

These are the same kinds of issues that you will discuss in the written component of your SIP, which will be archived in the department along with some digital images of your work. Your talk is akin to an outline of your SIP document.

Research and/or Internship SIPs

You will give a talk and PowerPoint presentation during the new Art History Symposium. You give this talk so we all can benefit from your experiences.

Describe the tasks you had, and what it is like to work and do research in an institution that deals with art.

If you are presenting the results of some of your research, also deal with the processes—how did you find out what you did? If you did a studio SIP and an internship, please discuss both!

Requirements for all presentations

This may seem to include the obvious, but experience has shown us that it is a good idea to explain expectations!

• Do some research on art that relates to what you have done for your SIP—incorporate this into your presentation. Show us which ideas about art that you have learned in your four years are the most significant to you.

• At least a week ahead of time, talk to your SIP supervisor about your ideas for your presentation. Other art students will also be a good source of advice.

• Arrange for images that you will need. You may want to scan slides of your earlier work, as well as your SIP work to put into your PowerPoint presentation. You can scan slides of other art from our collection for this as well. If we do not have slides of what you want to show, you can scan them yourself in the FABLAB.

• Write out what you are going to say, as if it were a paper with a thesis. Organize your talk around a theme of some kind; simply showing your work and making some random comments will not allow you to pass this part of the SIP!

• Practice your presentation, both by showing the slides and giving the talk. You may even want to have a friend listen or talk into a tape recorder. (This would be a good idea even if you prevail upon someone else to listen.) It is important to be heard and understood and to hold the audience's interest. Think of issues that you want us to discuss that might relate to the reading we've been doing.

• Invite friends and family to your presentation if you like (we sometimes invite all the junior art majors, too) and introduce your guests to us.

• Think of the Senior Presentation as a serious event. The skills you practice here will be used in many situations throughout life.