What is...the Self?

The second in the What is... series, What is...the Self? is a literature-based art workshop where students explore one of the most persistent and elusive questions: what is the self?

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Through guided reading, discussion, and creative work, participants engage with the text of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, using literature as a point of contact rather than a source of answers. These encounters are then translated onto life-sized self portraits crafted from mixed-media constructions built on plywood forms, where students work with paint, text, collage, and mark-making to explore the self as something experienced, layered, and continually unfolding rather than easily defined. 

Students will complete assigned readings independently between class meetings. Rather than illustrating the stories themselves, students will use their own encounters with the readings as the basis for constructing their life-sized self-portraits, allowing literature, reflection, and artistic process to converge into an exploration of the concept of the self.