SLOW DOWN: Flânerie and Documentary Storytelling

Instructor: Jennifer Lauren Smith | Tuition: $395 (Members) $465 (Non-Members) | Dates: Saturdays, April 12 - May 17 | Time: 10 AM- 12 PM ET | Class Size Max: 8

What does it mean to wander? How can we capture and format our “being in the world” as visual storytelling?

Structured as a combined studio and seminar forum, this 6-week course invites students to explore the physical experience of place. Open to artists of any medium and skill level, the class will examine the concept of embodied experience and work to coax narrative from the process of observing and capturing content. Through experimental exercises, students will step outside their comfort zones and hone in on image-making ideas that align with and expand their artistic practices.

Particularly suited for artists seeking to generate new ideas and/or deepen their engagement with existing themes, this course integrates research, readings, examples from contemporary art history, creative prompts, and slow, contemplative walking. Participants will explore various formats for sequential art practices, culminating in a final presentation of a completed work. Possible outcomes include collages, prints, photobook mockups, performative actions, or photo/moving-image slideshows.

Jennifer Lauren Smith is a sculptor working in time and lens-based mediums.  An observer and archivist, she gathers found material, documents, writes,  scans, and choreographs performers to manifest embellished memories,  developing narrative think-feel experiences formatted as videos, books,  performances, and prints. Deaf since childhood, she is drawn thematically to  ways sound can be a metaphorical tool in the exploration of landscape,  portraiture and place. She received her liberal arts degree from Reed College  and her MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth  University. Her work has been presented in galleries and film festivals  including Emerson Dorsch Gallery (Miami, FL), Pierogi Boiler (Brooklyn, NY),  Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA), Finger Lakes Film Festival (Ithaca, NY), The  Façade Film Festival (Plovdiv, Bulgaria), and Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten,  (Marl, Germany). She received the Toby Devon Lewis Scholarship and the John  Ringling Towers Grant, and participated in residencies at the Hermitage  Retreat and Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts.