The Conceptual Project's purpose was to introduce new students into a different way of thinking. Conceptual art relies heavily on metaphors which can be interpreted in countless different ways. Everyone will interpret something differently, so the goal of of conceptual art is not necessarily to convey one idea, but to make the viewer feel something. Even so, the artist will have an idea in mind which requires a lot of depth and definition. In all of our classes we were given the task to truly think outside the box. We had to get away from literal interpretations and cliches and find meaning in symbols that spoke to us. In English class, we read about conceptual artists in the play Red. We also wrote our own poetry, mainly based off an assigned conceptual statement. We'd then go into our elective class and further elaborate the idea of our poetry. In Digital Media, we created accompanying videos with music, images, and text that all contributed to the conceptual statement. The images especially were a challenge, because they had to be an additional metaphors. In Design, we learned the main principals of design that lead up to a photography project based again on the conceptual statement.
For me, the best part of the Conceptual Project was finding the line between pretension and deep. I had a hard time identifying a meaning in some modern art, but in the end, I learned a lot about what's behind the paint, and how to see, not just look. This meant discovering our own interpretations of conceptual art, and finding metaphors that's weren't too literal or extreme. It required a fresh perspective of thinking that is hardly ever found in our regular classes. The poetry unit was specifically helpful to learn the basics of Adobe applications in Digital Media, and to learn to think in a new way in my English and Design classes.